World War I

G

Colonial Warfare

The forces in the German colonies of Africa and the Pacific, with the chief exception of those in German East Africa in late 1917 and 1918, generally fought on the defensive. They were in some cases swiftly overcome, and in others gradually, but by the end of the war in 1918 practically all had capitulated to the Allies.

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Africa

In 1914 the German colonies in Africa consisted of Togoland, the Cameroons (German, Kamerun), German South West Africa (Nambia), and German East Africa. An Anglo-French force took possession of Togoland in August 1914. In September of that year a British force invaded the Cameroons from Nigeria, and a French force invaded from French Equatorial Africa to the east and south of the Cameroons. After many campaigns in which the Germans several times defeated the Allied forces, German resistance was finally overcome in February 1916. German South West Africa was conquered, between September 1914 and July 1915, by troops from the Union of South Africa. The most important of the German possessions, German East Africa, displayed the strongest resistance to the attacks of the Allies. Early assaults by British and Indian troops (November 1914) were repulsed by the Germans under General Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck. In November 1915, British naval units gained control of Lake Tanganyika, and the following year the Allied forces (British, South Africans, and Portuguese) intended for the invasion of German East Africa were placed under the command of General Jan Christiaan Smuts. In 1916 the Allies captured the principal towns of German East Africa, including Tanga, Bagamoyo, Dar es Salaam, and Tabora, and Lettow-Vorbeck's troops then retreated into the south-east section of the colony. Late in 1917, however, the German forces took the offensive, invading Portuguese East Africa; and in November 1918 they began an invasion of Rhodesia. When the armistice was signed in Europe in 1918, the troops in German East Africa were still fighting, even though most of the colony was in the hands of the Allies. Lettow-Vorbeck surrendered three days after the European armistice was declared.

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The Pacific

In the Pacific a force from New Zealand captured the German-held portions of Samoa in August 1914 and in September, Australian forces occupied German possessions in the Bismarck Archipelago and New Guinea. Japanese forces took the fortress of Qingdao (Tsingtao), a German-held port in Shandong (Shan-tung) Province, China, in November 1914, and between August and November of that year took possession of the German-held Marshall Islands, the Mariana Islands, the Palau group of islands, and the Caroline Islands. After the war ended, Japan retained Qingdao until 1922, and received a mandate over the Marshall Islands, many of the Marianas (including Saipan), and over the Palau group and the Carolines.

H

The War at Sea

At the outset of war the main British fleet, the Grand Fleet, consisted of 20 dreadnoughts and numerous other ships, including battle cruisers, cruisers, and destroyers; and the Grand Fleet was based principally at Scapa Flow, in the Orkney Islands north of Scotland. A second British fleet, consisting of older ships, was used to guard the English Channel. The German fleet, the High Seas Fleet, consisting of 13 dreadnoughts, was based on the North Sea ports of Germany.

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Early Operations

During 1914 no major naval engagements between the belligerents took place in the Atlantic. In the Battle of Helogland Bight, the British raided the German naval base at Helgoland, an island off Germany in the North Sea, sinking three German ships. German submarines sunk several British naval units, including the superdreadnought Audacious (October 27); and a daring attempt by German submarines to raid Scapa Flow caused the British naval units stationed there to withdraw to bases on the west coast of Scotland.

In the South Pacific a squadron of German cruisers under the command of Admiral Maximilian von Spee did considerable damage to installations at the French island of Papeete and the British-held Fanning Island (September and October 1914); defeated a British squadron off the headland of Coronel, Chile (November 1) in the Battle of Coronel; and on December 8 was defeated with the loss of four out of its five ships in the Battle of Falkland Islands by a British squadron under Admiral Sir Frederick Sturdee. During 1914 and the early part of 1915 German cruisers did considerable damage to British shipping in the Indian Ocean and elsewhere until captured or otherwise put out of commission.

The year 1915 was notable for the submarine blockade Germany instituted around Great Britain. The sinking by German submarine action of the British passenger liner Lusitania on May 7 caused the loss of many American lives, leading to a controversy between the United States and Germany that almost precipitated war between the two nations. The firm stand taken by the United States forced Germany to modify its method of submarine warfare to the satisfaction of the American government. In March 1916, however, the German sinking in the English Channel by submarine of the French steamer Sussex, with the loss of American lives, led to another controversy between Germany and the United States, a virtual US ultimatum compelling Germany temporarily to cease its unrestricted submarine warfare.