The fighting in British East Africa (immediately north of
the German colony) may be said to have really begun toward
the end of September, 1914, when the Germans made a
determined attempt to capture Mombasa, the commercial
capital of British East Africa and the terminus of the
Uganda Railway.

Previous to this, somewhat half-hearted attempts had been
made by them to wreck the railway line at various points,
destroy the telegraph, and occupy Voi and Mombasa. The
Germans, who were in strong force, were, however, for
various reasons, unable to cut the railway or even to
destroy the bridge across the Tsava River, and they were
beaten back both at Voi and the post at Taveta.

The attack on Mombasa itself was repulsed at Gazi, some
twenty-five miles to the southwest. The German plan of
action was to move up the road from Vanga to Mombasa,
arriving at the latter place somewhere about the time the
Koenigsburg was expected to arrive and bombard it from the
sea. The Koenigsburg was, of course, prevented from doing
this by the proximity of British warships, and the land
attack was also frustrated.

The Germans were held at Nargerimi by a mere handful of
Arabs and King's African Rifles--about 300 men all
told--until the arrival of the Indian troops strengthened
our position and the enemy was beaten back to his original
lines.

The next big actions were the British attack on Tanga and
Jassin very early in November; this was the direct outcome
of the German attack on Mombasa. Tanga is a post of
considerable importance in German East Africa, and lies
midway between Zanzibar and Mombasa. It is the seaport of an
important railway line which connects it with Moshi, lying
among the foothills of Kilimanjaro (18,700 feet) and which
taps most of the intervening country.

The force dispatched for the attack on Tanga consisted of
4,000 Indian Imperial Service troops, 1,000 Indian regulars,
together with 1,000 white regulars. The force took no kit of
any kind except rations. It was disembarked from the
troopship near Tanga, and then moved against the position.

The day the British attacked, however, 1,000 Germans had
been rushed up from Moshi and then took up a position to the
right of the town. With them were great numbers of