On 2 November 1914, obscured by the greater events in Europe, a British convoy of a light cruiser and twelve merchantmen was lying off the German East African port of Tanga, preparatory to the landing of two brigades of the Indian army. It started the main phase of the East African campaign which lasted until after the Armistice in November 1918. The battle of Tanga was the bloody beginning of a long and bitterly fought campaign in tropical Africa conceived as part of a wider plan to conquer Germany's East African empire and ensure British maritime superiority in the Indian Ocean. The ensuing battle proved to be a fiasco for the British, and highlighted the lack of co-ordination between Britain's wartime ministries and the unreadiness of the Indian Army.

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