Zanzibar and the Battle of Tanga
A sad tale of neglect and death.
Much has been written about the 1st Battle of Tanga; how superior numbers of British and Indian Army troops were defeated by a smaller German force, resulting in hundreds of Allied dead and tons of military supplies abandoned on the beaches outside of Tanga Town.
The Zanzibar connection to the town of Tanga is well established. Tanga itself was once one of the string of coastal towns belonging to the Sultanate of Zanzibar. The ships of British invasion fleet and most of the English and Indian soldiers destined for the battle, marshalled themselves together, in the Zanzibar harbor. And, most significant for the island residents, the British military extensively recruited supporting workers, called ‘carriers’ from the among men of Zanzibar.
These local Zanzibari recruits were not enlisted in the army, but rater groped together, as civilians, in either what the British called a “Coolie Corps” or they mustered with the army “Supply Troop”. Estimates of the number of these local Carrier-men range from 800 to 2,000. They all agreed, for pay, to carry supplies and ammunition, for the soldiers.
The British generals insisted that the ‘carriers’ travel with invading soldiers, so that they would be on-hand, immediately available, to rapidly follow behind the British pursuit of the Germans, who would surely be fleeing after the massive Allied army landed at Tanga.
That pursuit never happened. The first British and Indian troops to land were stalled by the terrain and by heavy German fire. More allied troops kept landing, but they just piled up on the beach behind the others and became targets for the German guns. Finally, after night fell, the British fell back and the Generals began to prepare for a fresh assault for the next day.
Early that morning, the Generals reconsidered and ordered a full-scale retreat. The exhausted carrier-men, who had landed just after the battle started, and who had worked thru the night to unload and move over 400,000 rounds of ammunition, were ordered to be evacuated. They went back in an orderly manner, into the same lighter-boats and those lighters were then towed away from the beach area, so that the soldiers defending the front line could be evacuated next, into the steam ships.
That evacuation turned into a panic. Allied soldiers abandoned their weapons and fled back to the sea, pilling into any vessel they could reach. The panic then spread to the ships of the fleet, when rummers of anti-ship mines spread and when some ships came under fire from the few heavy guns the German possessed. The warships and troop ships quickly cast off all ropes and anchors and steamed at top speed back to Zanzibar.
Left bobbing in the sea were the hundreds of Zanzibar carrier-recruits.
These men had been loaded in Zanzibar onto large open boats, called “Lighters”. These vessels were usually used inside the Zanzibar harbor, to move freight. They had no means of propulsion themselves, no engine, no sails, just a large oar at the back for steering. They were pushed about the harbor by small craft or by tugs.
Supplies and scores of men were loaded onto each Lighter and then these overcrowded vessels were lashed to the sides of the British ships. Some were also rigged to be towed behind the Transport ships. This haphazard formation was deemed acceptable, for the short daytrip between Zanzibar and Tanga.
In the end it was not a short trip at all. Many of the Zanzibar recruits would spend days of horror in these boats. Many would perish, others just disappeared, never to return.
PLEASE ENJOY THESE SHORT SAMPLES OF
ZANZIBAR’S LONG HISTORY