African Nationhood

Nanhua's victory over Germany's colonies in the Pacific and Oceania won praise from the British Empire cabinet.

The British cabinet then stepped up its efforts to send troops to attack German colonies in Africa.

After that, Nanhua fell into silence. Chairman Shi strictly ordered all troops to guard the border with German East Africa and not to attack Tanga in East Africa without permission.

This aroused doubts among the generals in the army. You were the one who was eager to formulate a plan to capture German East Africa.

How come you didn't move when the country declared war?
Everyone was silent until the military received a battle report that the British-Indian coalition forces were beaten by the East African colonial army in Tanga Port in November.

The battle of Tanga Port was shocking and made people dumbfounded.

……

In August, Paul von Lettow Vorbeck took the lead and led his men directly into the railway lines of British East Africa's Kenya to wreak havoc, disrupting the British's attempts to transport supplies and gather troops.

This operation was so smooth that British East Africa had no way to deal with him. He and his men escaped unscathed.

In September, Leto Vorbeck even planned to use German East African cruisers to seize the British East African port of Mombasa, but ultimately failed, but he still escaped unscathed.

The British colonial government in East Africa suffered from Vorbeck's repeated slaps in the face and naturally could not sit idly by, so they assembled their troops to launch a tentative offensive against German East Africa.

The troops with a total strength of 1500 troops advanced towards Longjido, but were repulsed by the 600 troops from the German East African colonies. The result once again boosted the morale of the Germans.

Now the British East Africa Company was in decline and no longer dared to mention war.

Fortunately, the expeditionary force composed of the British and Indian forces arrived at this time.

……

In November, British Brigadier General Arthur Aikent recruited a large force of 11 people from India.

Sometimes we have to admit that some people are born military idiots, and British Brigadier General Arthur Aykent is obviously such a person.

This wise man really took his self-deception to the extreme. After the British and Indian troops arrived in Mombasa, someone suggested that the troops go ashore to rest for a few days to eliminate the decrease in combat effectiveness caused by the voyage.

Brigadier General Aikent scoffed at this. He said that would alert the Germans, so he continued to hide until the landing.

However, he may not even know that his so-called secret operation has long been a secret known to everyone.

As early as when their troops were boarding ships in Bombay, anyone who could read would know where they were going by reading the words written on the slats of the baggage boxes at the port: "Force B of the Indian Expeditionary Force, Mombasa, East Africa." .

After the troops set sail, British newspapers and local Mombasa newspapers reported extensively that an expeditionary force assembled from India was about to arrive in Mombasa.

Is this overwhelming propaganda lest the enemy not know that they are planning to land in East Africa from Mombasa?
……

This is not to mention the extensive use of clear-coded radio communications between the expeditionary force’s escort formations and Mombasa.

German expatriates living in British East Africa could even write letters to their relatives and friends in German East Africa without any hindrance, telling them that the war was about to end.

After the fleet set sail from Mombasa, the fleet chose a route close to the African coast. The Germans could keep an eye on them from the shore to prevent them from missing.

The British army in this era was as naive as a fool.

Moreover, the Royal Navy escorting the force was as stupid as a donkey. Captain FW Caldfield of the cruiser "Fox" at the front of the formation, seeing that there was no shore defense facility in Tanga Port, drove the warship directly outside Tanga Port.

Send military envoys to discuss the surrender of the port with German Governor von Schoni.

Von Skoni wanted to negotiate a truce with the British to prevent Tanga Port from being devastated by artillery fire.

Calderfield told him that there was no need to talk. Seeing that the situation was not going well, von Schoni immediately disappeared. He left behind the German local commissioner Olacher and adopted delaying tactics, telling the British that he would ask higher authorities for instructions.

Caldfield did something even more stupid. He actually asked Olachel whether mines were laid in the port. Needless to say, Olachel's answer was in the affirmative.

In the end, Caldfield actually believed it and waited for the minesweeper behind to come over and clear the mines.

Seeing that it was so easy to fool the British, Olachel also found an excuse to turn around and sneak away.

He returned home, put on his military uniform, and joined the German defense forces in preparation for the fight against the British.

Caldfield waited and waited for Olachel to come back, feeling that he would not come back, so he returned to the warship angrily and ordered a tugboat to start the arduous mine clearing operation.

After the subsequent fleets arrived one after another, they had to stay in the open sea and wait for a long time.

The British cleared countless logs, oil tanks and sunken ships of all sizes from the seabed, and did dredging work that the Germans had not done for decades. The only thing they did not find was mines!
Despite this, Caldfield was convinced that Tanga Harbor posed unknown dangers and persuaded Brigadier General Aikent to land on the coast a mile away from the port.

The landing site turned out to be a mangrove swamp filled with leeches and water snakes, and occupied by malaria mosquitoes and tsetse flies.

……

After a long life on board, the Indian soldiers were exhausted.

Their lack of training was unsurprisingly revealed as they jumped into the muddy swamp.

They were careful about every mangrove bush, fearing that a "man-eating nigger" would pop out of it. Any noise would cause the entire battalion of soldiers to dive into the muddy water to avoid attack.

The first batch of soldiers waited until 10 o'clock in the evening to complete the landing. It took 48 British and Indian troops a full hours to complete the landing operation.

Such a long time made the German East African colonial troops who were waiting in ambush anxious.

Brigadier General Aikent issued the order to march towards Tanga, and a series of mistakes began.

……

In this battle, the British and Germans were outnumbered 8:1, and the German army was at an absolute disadvantage. However, seeing such poor command and actions of the British army, Vorbeck immediately doubled his confidence. The British and Indian troops marched towards Tanga through the large cocoa plantations on the coast without seeing any enemy troops along the way.

When they arrived near a hill, three British officers climbed up the hill to observe the enemy's situation, but were shot dead just as they climbed to the top.

The German bugle sounded, and the ambushing German army launched a surprise attack. The indigenous soldiers shouted and rushed towards the 13th Rajput Regiment. The Indian soldiers turned around and ran away, leaving behind the British officers who jumped and cursed.

As a result, 12 British officers of the regiment were shot dead by the Germans.

British officer Maynerz Hagen tried to stop the soldiers from fleeing. An Indian officer simply pulled out his saber and hacked him. He had no choice but to kill the rebel in self-defense.

The frontline commander, Brigadier General Tai, reported to Brigadier General Aikent, who was watching the battle on the warship, that he was fighting a fierce battle with 2500 purely German troops. In fact, he faced only 250 indigenous soldiers.

Because no reconnaissance had been conducted, the British had no idea of ​​the location or numbers of the German troops.

Brigadier General Aikent felt that as long as he devoted all his troops and launched a decisive attack, the Germans could be cleared out.

He ordered the North Lancashire Battalion and the Gorkha Battalion to take the lead, with the Indian Army behind, and resume their attack on Tanga.

Before the operation, he rejected the navy's suggestion to use naval guns to suppress the German front.

He explained that he did not want to destroy civilian property. In fact, he did not know where the Germans were, and at the same time he did not want to admit this embarrassing fact.

The Germans had set up a thin but solid line of defense in front of him, laying out barbed wire and machine gun fire points, and placing snipers on the baobab trees.

After a morning of hard work, many Indian soldiers had drank all the water in their kettles, were on the verge of heat stroke, and were close to collapse due to thirst.

The Indian Army's "Imperial Service Brigade" was the weakest link in the entire army. They struggled to move in the cornfields that were as tall as a person, and the German indigenous soldiers ambush them on the tall baobab trees and shoot them.

These Indian soldiers with no military qualifications were frightened out of their wits by the huge cloud of smoke ejected when the "1871 Mauser Rifle" fired black powder rifle bullets.

The native German soldiers therefore loudly laughed at these Indians as bugs!

But this is not the most terrifying enemy. There are also African killer bees living in the holes of those baobab trees. They are grumpy and aggressive.

Although it may not be particularly poisonous, this killer bee is very angry and will usually pursue its enemies over long distances.

Enraged by the fighting guns, they swarmed out of the hive and launched a fierce attack on the Indian soldiers.

The Indian army was "beaten" by African bees and fled towards the coast.

Although bees also attacked indigenous German soldiers, their main targets were the British and Indian troops.

A British engineer in the British and Indian Army was stung more than 300 times. Another was even worse. He fainted from the stings and then woke up from the stings.

The fleeing Indian soldiers rushed across the beach filled with munitions that had just been unloaded from the transport ship, threw away all their equipment, jumped into the sea and swam towards the transport ship with their arms raised high.

A British officer who organized the unloading on the beach lamented afterwards: "I have never believed that adults of any race could sink to such a shameless level."

In the eyes of the British soldiers, the bees were more like another trap for the cunning Germans.

The Times later wrote that bees were used as weapons by the cunning Germans, which was an inhumane and cruel act.

To this accusation, the Germans simply smiled and replied: "God bless us."

……

The British attack was not without progress. The North Lancashire and Gurkha battalions of the vanguard occupied Tanga's customs house and hospital.

But their progress brought them nothing but disaster.

Because Commodore Aikent, who was sitting on the warship and commanding remotely, saw that his men were so incompetent, he flew into a rage and ordered the navy to launch an immediate bombardment.

The naval shells directly hit Tanga Hospital, which was filled with wounded and dead British soldiers.

The retreating British troops were also shelled, causing further casualties.

What is even more annoying is that the Indian soldiers are so scared that they lose their normal thinking and they will shoot at anyone who appears from the direction of Tanga.

A North Lancashire soldier said afterwards: "We didn't care about the German artillery fire, but the Indian soldiers who were with us kept making damn misfires and attracting bee stings, which made everything messy."

In this battle, more than 800 British and Indian troops were killed, 500 were injured, and 250 were missing.

The German defenders at Vorbeck had only 15 white soldiers and 54 indigenous soldiers killed or wounded.

The British army discarded all the unloaded equipment on the beach, a large number of rifles, 16 machine guns and a large amount of food, blankets, motorcycles, etc., some of which the Germans used until the end of the war.

The Germans graciously allowed the British to evacuate the wounded. They said to Captain Meinerz Hagen, who was in charge of the retreat: "You British are really incomprehensible. You treat war like a game."

As if to verify their words, a group of North Lancashire soldiers jumped off the boat and swam and played in the sea while the retreat was underway.

The Germans were extremely nervous when they saw this scene, thinking that the British were going to abandon the ceasefire agreement and planned to land and raid them again.

……

What's more, some sailors of the Royal Navy even sneaked into Tanga Port in a traffic boat to buy some food when the fighting was at its fiercest.

After Brigadier General Aikent was recalled to the country, the British Secretary of War refused to meet him and directly reduced him to the rank of colonel and retired with half pay.

After this battle, the morale of the British army was greatly low, and they did not have enough troops to attack East Africa again. (End of chapter)