Hostilities began on 13 Aug. 1914, when the British cruisers Astrcea and Pegasus made an attack on Dar-es-Salam and landed parties which destroyed the wireless station, the g-un boat Mot-we and the floating dock. At the same time a British steamer on Lake Nyasa captured the German steamer Von Wissmann with captain and crew. Some days later the Germans attacked Karongwa, a British port on that lake, bringing 400 men against a garrison of 50, but reinforcements arrived and the Ger mans were thrown back over the frontier. They next attacked Abercorn on Lake Tanganyika, but were beaten off by a detachment of Rhode sian police. Skirmishing continued along the southern border while the Germans prepared for their main stroke— the invasion of Brit ish East Africa. They seized a small frontier post at Tavcta and another at Vanga on the coast during the latter part of August. Mean while, the British were collecting all available streng.th to protect the Uganda Railway. White colonists, Arabs, Indians and Somalis were hurriedly recruited and deployed. Reinforce ments from India arrived at Nairobi on 3 Sept 1914 under Brig.-Gen. J. M. Stewart, who took supreme command. He came in the nick of time, for the Germans had set out to wreck the line at Matingu. A force of 600 Germans ad vanced along the Tsavo River, maldng for the bridge, but were driven back after a two-days' engagement. On 10 Sept. 1914 the Germans crossed the frontier close to the Victoria Ny anza and occupied the town of Kisi, but they were dislodged on the 12th and retired to ICa rungu, a British post on the lalce. Two British steamers forced them back over the border and sank two German dhows. A German force was moving along the seacoast under cover of the cruiser Konsgsberg to attack Mombasa. A small British force halted them at Gazi for several days until Indian troops arrived on 2 Oct 191,t and Momba,sa was saved.
,The German offensive slacicened during Oc tober; the defenders held the line and awaited the arrival of another expeditionary force from India, which reached the coast on 1 November, under Major-General Aitken. With two g.un boats this force anchored off Tanga, the Ger man. post, and demanded its surrender. The Germans temporized for a day while strength ening their position and collecting further troops. In the evening some British troops were landed, but their advance was stopped. More men were landed next day ‘1.4 November) and a general attack opened. hey reached Tanga, but were driven .back to their ships un der a fierce fire, losing nearly 800 men. Inland, an attempt to recapture a British fort held b the enemy north of Kilimanjaro also faile though the Germans evacuated the. fort on 1 November. A German force broke into Ug.anda on the 20th and compelled the garrison of Ky aka Fort to retire. Outpost sldrmishes con tinued through December, and in the middle of January 1915 a British garrison at Jassin, '20 miles inside German territory, was compelled to surrender after a desperate defense. The British withdrew from German territory, but Germans still remained op British ground. On
8 Jan. 1915 the British occupied the island of Mafia and on 28 February blocicaded the coast In June an expeditionary force under General Stewart was sent to attack the German base at the port of Bukoba, on the west of Victoria Nyanza. In less than a week the place was de stroyed with its boats and wireless installation and the enemy defeated with most of his artil lery and rifles captureci. In July the Kiinigs berg was destroyed in the Rufiji River, where she had lain for eight months. K_See WAR, EUROPRAN — NAVAL OPERATIONS). During the rest.of the year indecisive fighting raged on land and the great lalces.
During 1916 nearly the whole of German East Afnca was conquered under the command of General Smuts, who succeeded General Smith-Dorrien in February. The German strength was now estimated at 16,000, of whom 2,000 were whites and the others natives. They still held stretches of British territory and had established aglalulte entrenched camp at Taveta along the U a Railway and were drawing their supplies from their own rail-head at Moshi. General Smuts decided to recapture this territory before the rainy season. Starting from Mombasa one column advanced along the 'Uganda Railway, while another column made a flanking operation froin LonKido, northeast of Kilimanjaro, their objective being Krahe, an im portant post on the German railway to Moahi. A turning movement by a detached troop under General Van Deventer forced the Germans to evacuate Taveta 9 March. Four days later the British were over the border and had seized Moshi, where fhe two columns joined forces and pressed the enemy out of the Kilimanjaro region. The war was now carried into the ene my's country. One German station after an other fell into Britith lands until at last Tanga, the terminus on the coast, vras captured on 14 Nov. 1916. Dar-es-Salam, which had been strongly fortified and equipped with the naval guns taken from the Konsgsberg, surrendered on 4 Sept. 1916. While General Smuts was sweeping the colony from the north, the Portu guese and Belgians operated from their own territories, south and east. The Belgians cap tured Ujiji on 3 Augpst. Though the Germans had lost all their important positions their power of resistance was not broken. A strong remnant of their fighting forces was still at large. Throughout the year 1917 they con ducted a harassing guerrilla warfare in the south and southeast of the colony. The round ing-up process was extremely difficult for the British, as the Germans had well learned the art of bush-figliting. On 1 Dec. 1917 General Van Deventer reported that the German com mander, von Lettow-Vorbeck, had crossed the Rovuma into Portuguese East Africa and that the protectorate, now administered by Great Britain. was clear cf the enemy. In the sum mer of 1918, however, they were still skirmish ing in the neighDorhood of Lake Nyasa, and not until 25 Nov. 1918, two weeks after the armistice, did the final remnant of the German forces surrender.