The Tanganyika Rifles was the sole
regiment in the
Tanganyikan army, from 1961 to 1964.
With the independence of
Tanganyika in
December 1961, the two battalions of
The King's African Rifles which
had been raised in the colony were transferred to the newly
independent nation. These were the 6th (Tanganyika Territory)
Battalion (becoming the 1st Tanganyika Rifles) and the 26th
(Tanganyika Territory) Battalion (becoming the 2nd Tanganyika
Rifles).
Mutiny
Despite having become part of the Tanganyikan military, the bulk of
the officers of the regiment were still British, as had been the
case in the King's African Rifles. In January 1964, following
unrest in Zanzibar, the regiment
mutinied.
The 1st Battalion seized key points in
Dar es
Salaam
on the 19th, deposing their officers and sending
them to neighbouring Kenya; on the 20th, the 2nd Battalion, in
Tabora, joined the mutiny. The entire country's military had
now rebelled, with the
High
Commissioner briefly detained and most of the strategic points
in the capital held by the mutineers.
After
appeals from the President, Julius
Nyerere, the United
Kingdom
dispatched an aircraft carrier, HMS Centaur from Aden
, with a
force from the garrison there, to stand off Dar es Salaam.
On the
British government receiving the request in writing from Nyerere, a
company of Royal Marines from No.
45 Commando were landed by helicopter in Dar es Salaam on the
25th, assaulting and quickly capturing the barracks holding the 1st
Battalion; many of the mutineers quickly surrendered after a
guardroom was destroyed by an anti-tank missile.
After landings later that day, including a small number of
armoured car of the
16th/5th The Queen's Royal
Lancers most of the remaining mutineers had likewise
surrendered; the 2nd Battalion had not been engaged, but had
offered to surrender after hearing of the events in Dar es Salaam;
a party of Marines travelled there and secured the barracks the
next day.
Within twenty-four hours of the initial landings, and a week of the
mutiny, the men of the 1st battalion were dismissed and the
regiment effectively ceased to exist. The regiment was never
reformed; after the union of Tanganyika with Zanzibar later that
year, the previously existing army was formally disbanded, and the
Tanzania People's
Defence Force was formed in September 1964, firmly under local
civilian control. Many of the African officers of the 1st
Battalion, and the officers and men of the 2nd, were incorporated
into the new force.
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