Lagos Harbour (Apapa Port)

Under British colonial rule, Lagos developed into West Africa’s leading harbour. Engineering works at Apapa in the early twentieth century created deep‑water quays that made it the main maritime gateway of Nigeria.

In the First World War, the port served as a staging ground for the Allied campaign in Kamerun, supplying troops and materiel while the Nigerian Marine provided coastal patrols. Though never attacked, Lagos was vital to Allied logistics in the Gulf of Guinea.

By the Second World War, Lagos had become the busiest port in the region. Apapa’s expanded facilities supported convoy assembly, naval patrols, and the embarkation of Nigerian regiments bound for East Africa, North Africa, and Burma. The harbour gained particular prominence in January 1942, when captured Axis ships from Operation Postmaster were brought in under Royal Navy guard, underscoring Lagos’s role as a secure Allied base.

By 1945, Lagos had firmly established itself as the strategic hub of British West Africa, a position it retained as Nigeria’s principal port in the postwar era.

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Source

• Text: TracesofWar
• Photos: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
• LETT, B.G., Ian Fleming and SOE's Operation POSTMASTER, Pen & Sword Military, 2012.