HMS Manica

From the Bridge of Manica, July 19th 1915 – watercolour by Herbert Hillier of Manica's forward deck, showing one of her guns

On 16 April Manica reached Lemnos in the Aegean Sea, which was an Allied base for the Gallipoli campaign. She spent the next few days making test flights of her balloon.[7] She was assigned to the Second Squadron to support the Landing at Anzac Cove.[11] On various dates Manica directed the fire of Royal Navy battleships including HMS Queen Elizabeth, Triumph and Lord Nelson.[7]

Manica's balloon observers first directed Royal Navy gunnery on 19 April, when they directed the bombardment of an Ottoman Army encampment. On 24 April this was followed by shelling the Ottoman barracks at Kabatepe. On 27 April an observer in Manica's balloon sighted an Ottoman transport ship on the far side of the Gallipoli peninsula, and successfully directed Queen Elizabeth's 15-inch guns to hit and sink her.[7][12][13]

Thereafter, Manica's balloon directed naval bombardments of two field batteries on 28 April, the town of Çanakkale on 30 April and 25 June, a battery of what were described as "8-inch (200 mm) guns" on 2 May, four Ottoman batteries on 8 May and a house believed to be an Ottoman military headquarters on 12 May.[7][13]

On at least two occasions Ottoman aircraft including a Etrich Taube tried to bomb either Manica or her balloon. Neither attack succeeded.[7] Manica's defensive armament included anti-aircraft guns, which proved effective.[14]

In August 1915 Manica supported the Landing at Suvla Bay. On 12 August UB-8 fired a torpedo at her, but it passed under the ship and missed. On 14 August a U-boat fired two torpedoes at Manica, but this attack also failed.[7][11]

Mess-deck of Manica, with Hammocks Part Slung, April 11th 1915 – watercolour by Herbert Hillier

By November 1915 Manica had been withdrawn from the Gallipoli campaign and was being refitted.[7] On 19 February 1916 she left Cammell Laird's number four dry dock in Birkenhead. On 9 March she left Birkenhead for German East Africa to support the Allied East African campaign,[9] now carrying a seaplane as well as her balloon.[7]

Manica bunkered at Gibraltar and Port Said, passed through the Suez Canal and called at Mombasa in British East Africa before reaching Zanzibar on 15 April.[9] From 22 April 1916 Manica operated from Zanzibar along the coast of German East Africa, where observations by her balloon and seaplane directed Royal Navy bombardments of German positions ashore.

On 13 June the battleship HMS Vengeance and protected cruisers Challenger and Pioneer bombarded the town of Tanga near the border with British East Africa, as Manica's seaplane directed their guns. On 7 July the protected cruiser HMS Talbot and monitor Severn, again supported by Manica's observers, entered Manza Bay[9] and put troops ashore who occupied Tanga.[15]

On 13 July Manica deployed her seaplane and balloon to direct the guns of HMS Severn, which bombarded the town of Pangani. The Germans surrendered the town to British land and naval forces on 23 July. Manica did the same for bombardments of the town of Sadani by the monitor Mersey on 26 July and battleship Vengeance on 3 August.[9] The Navy reached each town at the same time as British and Empire land forces that were advancing south from British East Africa. Each town quickly surrendered.[16]

HMS Vengeance, flagship of the East African campaign

In August British forces attacked the coastal town of Bagamoyo. Manica's seaplane and balloon provided artillery observations for bombardments of the town by HMS Talbot on 1 August and Vengeance on 4 August.[9] Between 0330 and 0400[9] hrs on 15 August a flotilla that included Vengeance, Challenger, Severn, Mersey, the armed merchant cruiser Himalaya, Manica and the armed tug Helmuth anchored off Bagamoyo. An hour later troops including Royal Marines and Zanzibar Rifles went ashore.[17] During the morning Manica's seaplane suffered an engine fault and had to return to the ship.[7] But her balloon provided aerial observations[9] to direct naval artillery against German positions ashore, whose defences included one of the 105 mm naval guns that the German forces had salvaged from the cruiser SMS Königsberg.[18] On the morning 16 August, German artillery defending Bagamoyo fired at Manica, but no damage was recorded. On 18 August she deployed her seaplane to observe for Severn to bombard the shore.[9]

On 21 July Manica had deployed her seaplane and balloon to direct Mersey's guns in a bombardment of Dar es Salaam, the capital of German East Africa. The Navy resumed the attack on 21 August, when Manica's balloon and seaplane observed for Vengeance to bombard the city. On 3 September, British and Empire land forces reached the northern outskirts of the city, the Navy briefly bombarded German positions on the same front, and the German authorities surrendered.[19]

The Condor-class sloop HMS Rinaldo

After Dar es Salaam fell, British and Empire forces took the remaining coast of German East Africa with little or no resistance. The last German coastal resistance was in the swampy Rufiji delta,[20] where Manica and the Condor-class sloop Rinaldo bombarded a German encampment on 8 September.[9]

Manica remained in East Africa until March 1917. She left two crewmen buried in the war cemetery in Dar es Salaam. One was a fireman who was drowned on 6 August 1916[21] when he was returning to the ship in her liberty boat when he fell between the boat and the ship. The other was an RNAS air mechanic who died on 21 March 1917.[22] On 25 March Manica left Zanzibar. In May 1917 two of her complement died of heat stroke and one died of typhoid fever. All three were buried at sea.[7][23]