Battle of Behobeho

Battle of Behobeho
Part of East African Campaign
Date 3–4 January 1917 Location Behobeho, German East Africa 7°38′S 37°53′E / 7.633°S 37.883°E / -7.633; 37.883 Result Inconclusive
Belligerents
German Empire German East Africa	British Empire
Commanders and leaders
Capt. Ernst Otto	Capt. Frederick Selous †

The Battle of Behobeho was fought during the East African Campaign of World War I.

The battle

After capturing the coastal capital of German East Africa, Dar es Salaam in September 1916, General Jan Smuts ordered his army's advance to halt due to a malaria pandemic that had devastated the soldiers. Shortly after the new year, the 25th Frontiersmen Battalion, led by famous hunter and explorer, Captain Frederick Selous, advanced into the interior of the colony,^[1] up the Rufiji River.

On the 3rd January a unit of British scouts ahead of the main battalion reported that a column of German soldiers was moving down the road. A skirmish ensued between the British and German soldiers. A German marksman reportedly killed Captain Frederick Selous during the battle when he raised his head while using binoculars to locate the enemy. It is said that because of Selous' fame the commander of the German forces in German East Africa at the time, Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck, sent a letter of condolence to the British after his death.

References

1. Henley, Jeff. . Archived from the original on 3 February 2012. Retrieved 17 September 2011.

• Chisholm, Hugh (1922). The Encyclopædia Britannica, The Twelfth Edition, Volume 2. New York: The Encyclopædia Britannica Company, LTD.