German campaign in Angola

Last updated

German Campaign in Angola
Part of South West Africa Campaign of World War I
Embarque tropas para angola 1.jpg
Portuguese troops embarking for Angola
Date18 October 1914 – 9 July 1915
(8 months and 3 weeks)
Location
Result

Portuguese victory

  • Portuguese sovereignty in southern Angola restored
Belligerents

Flag of the German Empire.svg  Germany

Flag of Portugal.svg  Portugal

Commanders and leaders
Strength
2,000+ 12,000
Casualties and losses
16+ killed
30-60 wounded
810 killed
(mostly due to disease)
638 wounded
268 captured or missing
1 Portuguese civilian killed

The German campaign in Angola took place before the official declaration of war between Germany and Portugal in March 1916. German and Portuguese troops clashed several times on the border between German South West Africa and Portuguese Angola. The Germans won most of these clashes and were able to occupy the Humbe region of southern Angola until Portuguese control was restored a few days before the British campaign out of South Africa defeated the Germans.

Contents

Background

Portuguese troops embarking for Angola Embarque tropas para angola 2.jpg
Portuguese troops embarking for Angola

From 1911 until July 1914, the German and British governments had held negotiations about the possibility of annexing Portuguese Angola. [1] In such a case most of the colony would fall into the hands of the Germans. Angola-Bund, founded in 1912, was the German organization promoting the takeover.

Even before World War I started (September 1914), the Portuguese government had sent reinforcements to the southern border of Angola. After the war broke out, the border between German South West Africa and Angola remained open. The Germans hoped they would be able to supply food and possibly even arms through it. However, the Portuguese colonial government was rather hostile and attempted to thwart all possible trade. A few German nationals in Angola were interned.

Campaign

Fighting in southern Portuguese Angola took place before a formal state of war had been declared between Germany and Portugal (Germany declared war on Portugal on 9 March 1916) when clashes occurred between October 1914 and July 1915.

Due to the possibility of an attack from German Southwest Africa, Portuguese forces in southern Angola were reinforced by a military expedition led by Lieutenant-Colonel Alves Roçadas, which arrived at Moçâmedes on 1 October 1914.

Since mid-1914, there had been several incidents between Portuguese and German troops. The first serious one was the Naulila incident on 19 October, in which 3 German officers, heading a military column which had entered Angola without permission from the Portuguese authorities, were killed by Portuguese troops. [2] On 31 October, German troops armed with machine guns launched a surprise attack on the small Portuguese outpost at Cuangar, killing 2 officers, 1 sergeant, 5 soldiers and 1 civilian. [3] The attack became known as the "Cuangar Massacre".

On 18 December the largest clash of the campaign occurred. A German force of 2,000 men under the command of Major Victor Franke attacked Portuguese forces positioned at Naulila. After stubborn resistance, the Portuguese were forced to withdraw towards the Humbe region, with 69 soldiers dead, among them 3 officers, 76 wounded, among them 1 officer, and 79 prisoners, among them 3 officers, while the Germans had 12 soldiers dead and 30 wounded, among them 10 officers. [4] After the explosion of the munitions magazine at Forte Roçadas base, the Portuguese also left the Humbe, withdrawing farther north.

On 7 July 1915, Portuguese forces under the command of General Pereira d'Eça reoccupied the Humbe region. Two days later, German forces in South West Africa surrendered, ending the South West Africa Campaign.

Until September 1915, the Portuguese continued fighting in southern Angola against local groups who resisted colonial occupation, and who in part had received arms from the Germans. [5]

Notes

  1. The Anglo-German Negotiations over the Portuguese Colonies in Africa, 1911-14, J. D. Vincent-Smith, The Historical Journal, Vol. 17, No. 3 (Sep., 1974), pp. 620-629. JStor link
  2. Fraga, p.127
  3. Fraga, p.128
  4. Fraga, p.128
  5. René Pélissier, Les guerres grises: Résistance et revoltes en Angola (1845–1941), Montamets/Orgeval: Éditions Pélissier, 1977

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">History of Angola</span>


Angola was first settled by San hunter-gatherer societies before the northern domains came under the rule of Bantu states such as Kongo and Ndongo. In the 15th century, Portuguese colonists began trading, and a settlement was established at Luanda during the 16th century. Portugal annexed territories in the region which were ruled as a colony from 1655, and Angola was incorporated as an overseas province of Portugal in 1951. After the Angolan War of Independence, which ended in 1974 with an army mutiny and leftist coup in Lisbon, Angola achieved independence in 1975 through the Alvor Agreement. After independence, Angola entered a long period of civil war that lasted until 2002.

The British Expeditionary Force (BEF) was the six-divisions the British Army sent to the Western Front during the First World War. Planning for a British Expeditionary Force began with the 1906–1912 Haldane Reforms of the British Army carried out by the Secretary of State for War Richard Haldane following the Second Boer War (1899–1902).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">South West Africa campaign</span> Military campaign

The South West Africa campaign was the conquest and occupation of German South West Africa by forces from the Union of South Africa acting on behalf of the British imperial government at the beginning of the First World War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Portugal during World War I</span>

The Kingdom of Portugal had been allied with England since 1373, and thus the Rupublic of Portugal was an ally of the United Kingdom. However, Portugal remained neutral from the start of World War I in 1914 until early 1916. However, in that year and a half there were many hostile engagements between Germany and Portugal. Portugal wanted to meet British requests for aid and protect its colonies in Africa, causing clashes with German troops in the south of Portuguese Angola, which bordered German South West Africa, in 1914 and 1915.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Portuguese Colonial War</span> Successful fight of Portugals African possessions for independence, 1961-1974

The Portuguese Colonial War, also known in Portugal as the Overseas War or in the former colonies as the War of Liberation, and also known as the Angolan, Guinea-Bissau and Mozambican War of Independence, was a 13-year-long conflict fought between Portugal's military and the emerging nationalist movements in Portugal's African colonies between 1961 and 1974. The Portuguese regime at the time, the Estado Novo, was overthrown by a military coup in 1974, and the change in government brought the conflict to an end. The war was a decisive ideological struggle in Lusophone Africa, surrounding nations, and mainland Portugal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">African theatre of World War I</span> Theatre of operations during World War I

The African theatre of the First World War comprises campaigns in North Africa instigated by the German and Ottoman empires, local rebellions against European colonial rule and Allied campaigns against the German colonies of Kamerun, Togoland, German South West Africa, and German East Africa. The campaigns were fought by German Schutztruppe, local resistance movements and forces of the British Empire, France, Italy, Belgium, and Portugal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">East African campaign (World War I)</span> Series of battles in East Africa during World War I

The East African campaign in World War I was a series of battles and guerrilla actions, which started in German East Africa (GEA) and spread to portions of Mozambique, Rhodesia, British East Africa, the Uganda, and the Belgian Congo. The campaign all but ended in German East Africa in November 1917 when the Germans entered Mozambique and continued the campaign living off Portuguese supplies.

The Municipality of Bundas lies at the south-eastern corner of Moxico Province of Angola near the border with Zambia. Its principal town is Lumbala. Due to the destruction of the Angolan Civil War, it is one of the most remote municipalities in Angola and access remains a large problem despite significant progress, as many roads are still not cleared of land mines and many bridges remain destroyed, but easily accessed by a tar road from Luena and a gravel road from the Zambian border to N'inda and a tar road to Lumbala N'guimbo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Victor Franke</span> German military officer of South West Africa

Erich Victor Carl August Franke was a German military officer and the last commander of the Schutztruppe in German South West Africa. Franke was born in Zuckmantel, Austrian Silesia. He was Bezirksamtmann in several German South West Africa locations, especially Ovamboland and Kaokoveld. He was stationed at Outjo from 1899 until 1910. He was involved in several campaigns against native tribes who resisted German colonial rule. In the early phases of the Herero Genocide of 1904, he was dubbed "Hero of Omaruru", because of his victory over numerically superior Herero forces at Omaruru. He also had successful campaigns against the Herero at Okahandja and Windhoek.

Naulila is a town and commune in the municipality of Ombadja, province of Cunene, Angola.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">José Augusto Alves Roçadas</span> Portuguese politician

José Augusto Alves Roçadas was an officer of the Portuguese Army and a colonial administrator.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ganguela</span> Ethnic group in Angola

Ganguela or Nganguela is the name of a small ethnic group living in Angola, but since colonial times the term has been applied to a number of peoples East of the Bié Plateau. In addition to the Nganguela proper, this ethnographic category includes the Lwena (Luena), the Luvale, the Mbunda, the Lwimbi, the Camachi and others.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Battle of Naulila</span> Battle of the German campaign in Angola

Naulila was the scene of fighting between Portuguese Angola and German South West Africa during the early stages of World War I. On 19 October 1914, a German military column crossed the border and entered Angola without authorization from the Portuguese authorities. The column was intercepted by Portuguese forces and conducted to Fort Naulila. At Naulila, a dispute occurred between the Portuguese and the Germans which resulted in the death of three German officers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Humbe</span> Commune and town in Cunene, Angola

Humbe is a town and commune in the municipality of Ombadja, province of Cunene, Angola.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">João Teixeira Pinto</span> Portuguese military officer (1876–1917)

João Teixeira da Rocha Pinto was a Portuguese military officer who served throughout his career in the administration of Portuguese colonies of Africa. João Pinto bore the nickname The Devil's Chief. He gained distinction for his role in administering the military contingents of Portuguese Mozambique during the late years of World War I. He was killed in action in 1917.

Augusto Casimiro dos Santos was a Portuguese journalist, a poet and political commentator.

The Maziua raid was an armed clash between German and Portuguese colonial troops in Mozambique on 24 August 1914 during World War I. Though the two countries were officially at peace, German soldiers carried out a cross-border raid into Portuguese Mozambique for unclear reasons, and destroyed the outpost of Maziua. The Portuguese soldiers killed in the raid were the first Portuguese casualties of World War I.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ovambo Uprising</span> Ovambo rebellion against Portuguese colonial rule

The Ovambo Uprising was an uprising against Portuguese colonial rule in World War I. It lasted from about 18 December 1914 to 6 February 1917 with the death of its leader, King Mandume yaNdemufayo, by South African forces in Namibia. The war pitted Portuguese troops, commanded by General António Júlio da Costa Pereira de Eça, against an Ovambo army, composed mainly of fighters from the Oukwanyama clan.

Francisco Xavier da Cunha Aragão was a Cavalry officer of the Portuguese Army who reached the rank of lieutenant colonel.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Angola–Germany relations</span> Bilateral relations

Angola–Germany relations are the bilateral relations between Angola and Germany. Angola has an embassy in Berlin and Germany has an embassy in Luanda.

References