On the 23rd of June rations of meat and flour were cooked before the column marched at 4 a.m. We were in for a long trek, and were told to expect a fight at the end of it. Our objective was the bridge-head, and the hills commanding it, where the bush-road crossed the Lukigura River, and where the enemy had dug in. The eastern column was, in conjunction, to advance down the narrow native road, which runs through the bush from Handeni to Makindu at the northern end of the populated Nguru Mountains, while we were to circle away wide to the west and attack at the heart of the hill position. All night we trekked, excepting for one halt at midnight. It was slow, monotonous work for this column, which must have stretched to a sinuous length of miles; for it was necessary, on account of the density of bush and jungle growth, to feel the way along in single file, on a narrow native bush-path over which a native guide was leading us to our goal. Moving, then halting till the kink in the line straightened out, then on again, so dragged the night hours wearily on; and progress was made, though we travelled as sheep in a strange defile, led we knew not where. After midnight bitter cold set in and chilled our scanty shirt-clad bodies, and when dawn broke the red-hot sun was for once welcomed in Africa, as it warmed us to life again. But still, when the day dawned, the trekking column held onwards, and all through the day we marched, until 4.30 p.m.—and then to battle. I have never seen men more utterly tired and woebegone than our men at the time of their approach on Lukigura River. They had been marching twenty-four and a half hours, kit-laden and without substantial food; and yet, when they went into battle all fatigue was forgotten, or they were careless of further physical trial; and they fought like madmen—and as heroes.
It was for us a short, hot engagement, and the height and the village of Kwa-Direma were stormed at the point of the bayonet, and in our hands ere the fall of dusk. It transpired that the enemy had confined all their attention to the bush-road from Handeni, down which the eastern column was advancing, and they were taken completely by surprise when our attack pounced on them from the west, and inflicted complete defeat and heavy loss. Meantime the eastern column attacked below, on the road in the bush, east of Kwa-Direma, and carried the bridge-head over the Lukigura River, inflicting further punishment on the beaten enemy.
During the early part of the night our new positions on the hill-crest were shelled by the enemy’s naval guns. A few casualties resulted, but most of the shells were high and went over the hill to burst in the vacant bush below.
AN AFTER-BATTLE PAUSE
The next few days were spent in camp at Kwa-Direma. Here I made some sketches of the position and neighbourhood for G.H.Q., and spent some time in the bush, much of which was breast-high in tangled undergrowth and rank grass, but which nevertheless showed traces of where the enemy had scattered and hidden at the time of our attack.
Here, one morning, my porters captured a small antelope—Harvey’s Duiker, ♀—even at the door of my native-erected grass hut, where it had rushed in fear and bewilderment on being disturbed near by.
Here, also, I had some practice with a 1-in. Krupp gun which we had captured in the late engagement. Though completely out of date, it was a vicious and accurate little piece, and, as long as the captured ammunition lasts, it has been decided to have it added for service to the Machine-gun Section of which I am in charge. A day later, too, I took part in some tests of armoured-car armour plate, at the request of Major Sir John Willoughby. The armour plate withstood the blow of the Krupp gun shell at 100 yards range, and was merely dented. We then tested the German made-up iron-plate shield on the Krupp gun. Our service rifle failed to penetrate the plate, but a ·245 high-velocity sporting rifle of Sir John Willoughby’s put a neat hole clean through it.
Sunday, 2nd July.—And for once, as it rarely is on service, it has been a quiet day, and like a Christian “day of rest.” And being a Sunday it recalls our homes, from which we are longing very much for news. Mails reach us at very long intervals of a month or more, and for weeks we have been hoping for home news. The column has lain a week at Kwa-Direma, and we are said to be waiting here until supplies come up in quantity. We have had no full ration since getting here, and we are all feeling the effect of the shortage. From two natives, whom I persuaded two days ago to go to their home in the hills to forage for food for me, I have to-day purchased, in exchange for old clothing, some mealie-meal flour and thirteen fowls. Great the rejoicing, for this is, in these bad days, a windfall for myself and some of the men. One hen, a white-plumaged one, I kept a few days, and by then it had proved so friendly and tame that I decided to spare its life and keep it as a pet. Thereafter, here and on trek, it caused much amusement and comment. It lived with me a few months before it was stolen by someone whose hunger overcame his scruples, and each day, whether on trek or in camp, it laid me an egg. Very peculiarly this hen learned to come to roost wherever I lay, and, more curious still, it was never at a loss as to my whereabouts when released among the feet of hurrying soldiers in strange surroundings at the end of a trek. On trek she was generally tied down in a horse-bucket, and carried by my native servant.
The next few days passed uneventfully, except that much time was given over, on my part, to increasing the proficiency of the machine-gunners and to the training of mules, both old and new, to complete familiarity with their saddles and loads. Once during those days the camp was sniped at night, but in the darkness no damage was done.