The final hour: The end of the First World War in Africa

Few people realise the First World War did not end on November 11, 1918. Discover how and why here.

On 11 November 1918, the guns fell silent on the Western Front – but did you know that in Africa the fighting continued for a short while after Armistice?

Africa and the First World War

A memorial in Mbala

Image: The red brick Mbala Memorial

Just as you’re heading down the M1 Road through Mbala, the provincial capital of Zambia’s Northern Province, you might notice a truncated red brick column in the middle of a roundabout.

Taking a closer look reveals a large, proud bronze plaque inscribed with the following description:

To the memory of 1467 men of Northern Rhodesia 
who served in the British Army as carriers in the Great War 
and were killed in action 
or died of wounds or sickness
and in especial remembrance 
of 433 who fell in Northern Rhodesia 
Here on the 25th November 1918 the German forces in East Africa surrendered

The Mbala War Memorial, also known as the Abercorn Memorial, stands at the spot where German General Paul Emil von Lettow-Voerbeck surrendered formally to British General William F.S. Edwards, putting the full stop on a Great War chapter that is all too often overlooked.

But why was there fighting in Africa during the First World War? Who was there and why did campaigns continue after November 11, 1918?

Why was there fighting in Africa during the First World War?

Image: Kashmir Mountain Battery at Nyango Oct 1917 (© IWM Q 15458)

At the time of the First World War, many of Europe’s leading powers, and the Great War’s key belligerents, held colonial possessions across Africa.

The British Empire’s presence across the continent is well known, controlling vast swathes of territory. Its ally, France, also held massive tracts of African land, as did Belgium.

Germany also controlled numerous territories which bordered others under the control of the Entente Powers.

By 1914, Germany controlled territory in present-day Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda, Namibia, Cameroon, Togo, and Ghana.

German authorities in its colonies had hoped to avoid war but surrounded as they were by the larger colonies of France & Great Britain, once war broke out in Europe, war in Africa became inevitable.

What’s interesting is that the first shots fired by a soldier under British command of the war were fired in Togoland (part of present-day Togo) rather than France or Belgium as is the common conception.

Troops from the Gold Coast Regiment from present-day Ghana were moving into Togoland on 7 August 1914. They encountered a German-led police patrol which opened fire on the British Forces.

Lance Corporal Alhaji Grunshi shouldered his rifle, returned fire, and thus became the first soldier under British command to fire a shot in anger during World War One.

Who fought in Africa’s Great War campaigns?

Image: Nigerian troops traverse the rocky banks of a swift-coursing river (© IWM Q 15426)

The campaigns in East, Southwest, West, and North Africa were fought by a mixture of units and nationalities. Under the British, assembled armies included UK soldiers, Indians, South Africans, Rhodesians, and even Australians and New Zealanders in some theatres.

However, hundreds of thousands of local African soldiers were also recruited – especially from 1916 onwards in East Africa by British authorities.

Regiments such as the King’s African Rifles, raised from British East Africa (today Kenya), Nyasaland (Malawai), Uganda, and British Somaliland (part of present day Somaliland, fought across the continent. By the end of the First World War, the King’s African Rifles was made up of over 35,000 men – 33,000 of which were African-born.

Another multi-national unit assembled under British command was the West African Frontier Force (WAFF). The WAFF was made up of soldiers drawn from the Gold Coast (present-day Ghana), Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and Gambia.

Germany’s military presence was comparatively very small. Throughout the campaign in East Africa, for example, the force under General Lettow-Voerbeck never amounted to more than 14,000 fighting men.

The core of Lettow-Vorbeck’s force was his locally raised troops, men who knew the terrain and conditions well.

Carriers’ & labourers' vital role in military operations

Image: Carriers and labourers were essential to military campaigning, especially in East Africa (© IWM Q 15528)

The campaigns of the militaries involved in the various African theatres on land were spread across huge areas, all with different geographical characteristics.

The sheer diversity of the landscape created numerous logistical challenges.

Mechanical transport of ammunition, food, water, and other important supplies was limited, especially as fighting took on a guerilla character as the war in Africa went on. Forces would push deeper inland where the already limited road and rail infrastructure became nonexistent.

This meant that much of what was needed by the combatant forces had to be carried on the backs of men.

It is believed some one million African men performed carrier and transportation duties in logistics units supporting the British Empire between 1914 and 1918 across Africa.

Carriers were present in every theatre in Africa, but it was the campaign in East Africa which stretched across vast distances of the interior where the Carriers were of utmost importance. It is believed that around six carriers would be required for every combat soldier Britain deployed in East Africa.

Image: Carriers and labourers also handled important tasks such as road clearing and maintenance (© IWM Q 15625)

These men were organised into units such as the Sierra Leone Carrier Corps and South Africa Native Labour Corps.

The work they did was arduous, difficult and could be extremely dangerous. Carriers were not soldiers, and so were unarmed.
 
However, despite not being expected to fight they were still vulnerable to enemy gunfire during an ambush or if compelled to carry supplies up to the fighting line. 

But sickness accounted for more deaths; dysentery, tuberculosis and especially malaria all took a hefty toll on the Carrier Corps, especially for those who were recruited in other parts of Africa and transported to unfamiliar climates.

Their contribution is all too often overlooked but was vital to the war effort.

Where did fighting take place in Africa in World War One?

Campaigns and clashes took place in locations throughout Africa.

As we touched on earlier, some of the earliest actions of the entire First World War took place there. In West Africa, the Togoland Campaign, took place between 9-26 August 1914, while the German Kameron took place in the following weeks and months lasting until March 1916.

North Africa saw a variety of campaigns, not least the fighting between British and Ottoman forces along the Suez Canal, in the Sinai, and into Palestine but fighting also taking place against local ethnic groups and organisations, such as the 1916 Anglo-Egyptian exhibition to Darfur, or the campaign against the Senussi stretching across the deserts of Egypt & Libya. 

Image: A column of troops heads off into the bush. This is just one example of the locations and terrain where campaigning occurred in Africa during the Great War (© IWM Q 15412)

These revolts against colonial rule were not limited to North Africa, as peoples across Africa sort to free themselves from European domination.

In German South West Africa, covering present-day Namibia, fighting began with a failed invasion launched from South Africa on 25 September 1914, although, following sustained campaigning, the South Africans forced the surrender of the German forces in Namibia by July 1915.

Imperial German forces also launched an invasion of Portuguese West Africa (present-day Angola) but were eventually repulsed by Portuguese and local forces by December 1915.

It was in East Africa however which became the principal African theatre of the war during the First World War. 

The East African Campaign

East Africa was probably the busiest African theatre of the First World War, at least in terms of direct combat.

Eschewing the major set-piece battles of the Western and Eastern Fronts, the war in East Africa was one of movement, attempted sweeping envelopments, long marches into the African interior, and guerrilla ambush warfare.

Image: General Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck, commander of the German forces in German East Africa (Wikimedia Commons)

Compared with the confined trench warfare of the Western Front the fighting in Africa could be ranged across vast areas, covering many different climates and terrains.

All told, the war in East Africa saw skirmishes and battles take place across much of modern-day Kenya, Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia, Rwanda, Burundi, and Tanzania.

Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck, the German commander of forces in German East Africa, launched his attacks in August 1914 on British positions around Mount Kilimanjaro and Lake Victoria. 

A response force organised by Major-General Arthur Aitken landed in the port of Tanga on 3 November.

The result was a defeat for the British and Indian forces arrayed to take Tanga who suffered 850 casualties. German forces by contrast lost some 150 and were able to capture hundreds of weapons and thousands of rounds of ammunition.

For Lettow-Vorbeck, these resources would prove invaluable. Cut off from his main supply routes via British control of the sea, the German commander and his African troops fought a guerilla war, targeting isolated forces, railways, roads, and other infrastructure using captured supplies and foodstuffs to sustain themselves.

Between 1914 and 1918, the British and their allies chased Lettow-Vorbeck’s small force through East Africa, struggling to pin the elusive German and his local forces down.

By 1916, the British Imperial forces under General Jan Smuts had captured Dar es Salaam, capital of German East Africa, and its important railway line, making troop and supply movement up the Indian Ocean seaboard easier, compelling Lettow-Vorbeck and his forces to retreat into the interior.

Surrender of German forces in East Africa

Even though a knockout blow was never landed on the German forces in East Africa, by the end of 1916, they had managed to be confined to southern German East Africa.

Early in 1917, the British high command and its French and Belgian allies made moves to push against Lettow-Vorbeck. Allied units stuck out from Kenya, Malawi, and parts of the Belgian Congo to track and trap Lettow-Vorbeck’s forces.

The Germans split their forces into three columns. Two managed to escape into Portuguese-held territory in Mozambique but one group, numbering 5,000 men, was forced to surrender.

Lettow-Vorbeck continued to evade his pursuers. In April 1918, the Germans fought and won a battle against the Portuguese at Nhamacurra, allowing the raiders to replenish their stocks of weapons and ammunition.

Throughout the rest of 1918, the Germans would continue to harass and engage British columns and raid towns and villages.

The last battle was fought on 12 November 1918 – notably after the Armistice was signed in France.

During an attack on a rubber factory in Kasama, Zambia, the German forces captured a British dispatch rider. The rider told his captors of the Armistice and the German surrender on the Western Front.

Even after receiving this message, Lettow-Vorbeck marched at the head of his men, some 1,500 remaining, at Abercorn (today Mbala), presenting his surrender to the British Forces.

The fighting in East Africa, and the wider First World War in Africa, was over.

Why did the fighting in East Africa continue after the Armistice was signed?

As we have tried to discuss here, the conditions in East Africa were completely different to the Western Front and other First World War combat theatres.

Lines of communication were lengthened as units faced many of the same problems regarding the spread of information as they did regarding the distribution of supplies.

Then there was Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck himself. The Allies had spent several years chasing him around East Africa. Tracking him down to deliver the news that the German government had surrendered was difficult.

Telegrams from Europe to East Africa could take a couple of hours to several days to arrive. A message was sent to British General Staff to East African commanders on November 10 asking for the quickest way the Germans could be reached.

Ultimately, Lettow-Vorbeck was appraised of the situation but only by semi-chance. Who knows how long he could have avoided surrender had he not attacked the rubber factory at Kasama?

Interestingly, Lettow-Vorbeck was never defeated in the field. He is said to have been shocked at the terms of unconditional surrender laid out in the Armistice.

Commemorative sites across the continent 

You will find burials of the First World War across Africa, due to the wide geographical spread of the fighting, as well as the fact countries like South Africa were also training and medical centres.

The CWGC African Memorials in Nairobi, Dar-es-Salaam and Mombasa were built to honour the service and contribution of African servicemen who died with Commonwealth forces during the First World War.

The memorials are bronze statues, depicting soldiers and carriers of the African forces, and as – at the time – no complete record of names was believed to exist, no names appear on these memorials. Since 2021 extensive work has been underway in an attempt to find the missing names of all those who served in this theatre of war, and to work with communities to commemorate their contribution more equally.

Excluding the approximate 100,000 commemorated by the three African Memorials at Dar-es-Salaam, Mombasa, and Nairobi. The largest concentration of Commonwealth War Graves commemorations related to the campaigns covered in this article commemorations across the continent are in:

• Tanzania – 4,800+
• South Africa – 4,300+
• Nigeria – 2,400+
• Kenya – 1,900+
• Zambia – 1,500+ (1,400 are commemorated anonymously by the Abercorn Memorial)
• Sierra Leone – 1,300+

Here is a small selection of the in several African nations that either saw fighting or contributed personnel to combat zones.

To find CWGC sites commemorating casualties of the First World War in Africa, please use our Find Cemeteries & War Memorials tool.

Dar Es Salaam War Cemetery

Dar es Salaam was the capital of German East Africa.

It saw one of the first recorded British action of the First World War when on 8 August 1914 HMS Astraea shelled the German wireless station and boarded and disabled two merchant ships - the "Konig" and the "Feldmarschall". The port was captured in 1916 and divisional headquarters was moved to Dar es Salaam. Later No.3 East African Stationary Hospital was stationed there.

Dar Es Salaam War Cemetery was established in 1960 after the original Dar es Salaam (Ocean Road) Cemetery had to be moved due to the construction of a new road. It contains 1,766 Commonwealth burials of the First World War, 60 of them unidentified. Also buried also over 100 burials of German, Belgium, and Portuguese servicemen.

The cemetery also contains the Dar Es Salaam Hindu Cremation Memorial which commemorates 14 Indian servicemen whose remains were cremated in accordance with their faith.

The Dar Es Salaam British and Indian Memorial which stands within Dar es Salaam War Cemetery, commemorates by name more than 1,500 officers and men who died in East Africa during and after January 1917 (the advance to the Rufiji River) who have no known grave.