Qualla: Battle of Tanga https://qualla.com/battle-of-tanga en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:26 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/k/z/5/g/battle-of-tanga-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Battle of Tanga https://qualla.com/battle-of-tanga Battle of Tanga: Introduction https://qualla.com/battle-of-tanga/ Photo credit Carl Arriens, Public domain. The bees did not take sides. They attacked everyone -- British, Indian, German, Askari -- with the same indiscriminate fury after the fighting disturbed their hives in the coconut plantations south of Tanga. But in the chaos that followed, it was the British Indian Expeditionary Force that broke. On November 3-5, 1914, roughly 8,000 troops under Major-General Arthur Aitken attempted to seize this port city in German East Africa. They were repelled by about 1,000 defenders under Lieutenant Colonel Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck. The British Official History of the War later called it 'one of the most notable failures in British military history.' The bees just made it unforgettable.

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Image: Carl Arriens | Public domain

]]> Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/z/5/g/battle-of-tanga-wp/kz5g-battle-of-tanga-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Battle of Tanga: A Warning Politely Delivered https://qualla.com/battle-of-tanga/ Photo credit Unknown author, CC BY-SA 3.0 de. Tanga sat only 80 kilometers from the border of British East Africa -- modern-day Kenya -- and served as the ocean terminal of the Usambara Railway, which ran inland to Neu Moshi at the foot of Mount Kilimanjaro. A pre-war agreement had guaranteed the port's neutrality, but the B...

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]]> Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/z/5/g/battle-of-tanga-wp/kz5g-battle-of-tanga-a-warning-politely-delivered.mp3 0:06 2 full Battle of Tanga: Into the Plantations https://qualla.com/battle-of-tanga/ Photo credit Walther Dobbertin, CC BY-SA 3.0 de. Aitken landed his troops in two groups -- one at the harbor, one on a beach three miles east of the city -- on November 3. The next day, he ordered them to advance. What followed was confusion layered on confusion. In the coconut and palm oil plantations south of town, well-conce...

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]]> Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/z/5/g/battle-of-tanga-wp/kz5g-battle-of-tanga-into-the-plantations.mp3 0:06 3 full Battle of Tanga: Rout by Bugle Call https://qualla.com/battle-of-tanga/ Photo credit Walther Dobbertin, CC BY-SA 3.0 de. By late afternoon on November 4, Lettow-Vorbeck committed his last reserves. The 13th and 4th Askari field companies -- the 4th having just arrived by train -- launched bayonet charges along the entire front, accompanied by bugle calls and what accounts describe as piercing triba...

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]]> Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/z/5/g/battle-of-tanga-wp/kz5g-battle-of-tanga-rout-by-bugle-call.mp3 0:06 4 full Battle of Tanga: What the Retreat Left Behind https://qualla.com/battle-of-tanga/ Photo credit Martin Frost, Public domain. The British withdrawal was so hasty that troops abandoned nearly all their equipment on the beaches and docks. Lettow-Vorbeck's men collected enough modern rifles to re-arm three Askari companies, along with 600,000 rounds of ammunition, sixteen machine guns, field telephones, an...

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]]> Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/z/5/g/battle-of-tanga-wp/kz5g-battle-of-tanga-what-the-retreat-left-behind.mp3 0:06 5 full