The Diary of John Cloke, Royal Navy
On these three pages John Cloke, a sailor on board HMS Vengeance describes the Capture of Bagamoyo by landing parties from the Veageance and other ships of British Royal Navy at daybreak on 15 August 1916. See here for more on the Capture of Bagamoyo)

Notes on the Diaries
There are several interesting points that John Cloke raises in his diary that are worth noting.

Assault of Bagamoyo- Cloke confirms what other witnesses such as Sergeant Voigt and Rating Clegg reported, in that the assault on the German positions at Bagmoyo was very rapid and very successful. The Germans were taken by surprise and did not have time to put up much resistance or even finish their coffee!

Breech Block- Cloke tells us that the British sailors recovered the breech block not far from the gun itself but that they took the breech block down to the beach (presumably to be taken back onto one of the Royal Navy ships). He doesn't mention taking the gun to the beach. In photographs of this gun seen later in Zanzibar, it is still missing it's breech block so it would seem the two were never put back together.

Poisoned Coffee- Cloke says they found hot coffee with the gun- "There is no doubt they were taken by surprise, owing to us landing so early, as there was even hot coffee laid out, just in rear of gun. Some of the lads were in for drinking it, as it looked tempting enough, but were warned not to, as it might be poisoned."

This is an interesting fear. William Clegg, another British sailor at Bagamoyo says they went into action without breakfast and having rushed into action up the beach, they would certainly have been in the mood for a strong coffee. But they hesitated as they thought it might be poisoned.

The British newspapers had spread many stories of fictitious German atrocities such as bayoneting babies in Belgium, shooting drowning sailors at sea and training bees to attack in East Africa. Having read such reports themselves, these British sailors would have been on full alert for any more murderous German schemes and their paranoia played out here.

In retrospect it seems very unlikely that if the Germans had fled under machine gun fire, even discarding the all-important breech block in their haste, that they probably wouldn't have had time to be poisoning coffee in case their attackers drank it. Those vital minutes might have been better spent firing back at the British, disabling the gun more permanently or simply running further away!

The Death of Bock- Cloke describes how an officer from the Königsberg named Bock, offered a false surrender to draw the British in to a trap. Such an action was against the code of war but was also very risky as Bock and his men fatally found out. It is impossible to know for sure but Cloke's version of events may have been mistaken, encouraged by his already stated suspicion of German actions.

The German officer in question was not a Königsberg officer but a regular Schutztruppe officer, Hauptmann Wilhelm Bock von Wölfingen. He had been commissioned into the 117th Hessian Leib-Infantry Regiment in 1899 and transferred to the Schutztruppe in 1907. At the time of his death at Bagamoyo he was in command of the 3. Schützen Kompagnie of the Schutztruppe for German East Africa.

Shooting of German Defenders- After suspecting the Germans of foul play, Cloke describes how the British then dealt with the remaining German defenders- "they fairly wiped out the crowd of them". After suspecting one false surrender the British were in no mood to risk another it seems- "every man in that concealed trench was killed or wounded".

Shooting of Spies- Cloke also says "We found several spies ashore who suffered the usual penalty, five minutes court marshal and shot". Again it impossible to know how guilty these suspected spies were but given the German's surprise and hasty retreat it seems unlikely that they would have had time to organise a network of spies to spring up as soon as they departed. The British behaviour sounds unnervingly similar to German actions in occupied Belgium and France early in the war.

Overall it is interesting to see how on the one hand fuelled by stories of German foul play, Cloke and his comrades suspect poisoned coffee, false surrenders and spies around them, and other the other hand see nothing wrong with showing no quarter to the German defenders and then executing a number of local civilians without resorting to a fair trial.

John Cloke (1881-1953) was born and raised in the Cornish fishing village of Mevagissey and joined the merchant navy in 1899. After three years service, he returned to Cornwall to become a fisherman and raise a family. On 4 August 1914, he joined the Royal Naval Reserve and served on HMS Illustrious in the North Sea and as part of the Cape Squadron on board HMS Vengeance. Later while on service in England, he suffered a paralysis of the lower limbs, caused by myelitis, a disease of his spinal cord and on 11 October 1917, was discharged from the navy as "medically unfit for further service". He returned to his family in Cornwall and recovered enough to resume his fishing trade. He later ran the family home as a 'bed and breakfast' hotel and took tourists on boat trips around Mevagissey Bay.

John Cloke and other British sailors with German guns captured at Bagamoyo, 1916
Photo © Belinda Griffiths