Lindi, a town of some 4,500 native inhabitants, is about sixty miles north of the Portuguese border, and about eighty-five miles south of Kilwa (Kivenje). Lindi, before it fell into our hands, had been the southern head-quarters of the Protectorate, and at the north end of the town there is a large, stone-built fort and extensive barrack buildings. Along the shore front, facing the sea, there are a number of large, colonial, commercial buildings and residences: otherwise the town, which extends inland from the sea, is comprised of palm-shaded streets of grass-roofed, mud-walled huts, with an odd whitewashed hut inset here and there—the barter-den of an Arab or Goanese trader. Lindi is low-lying and unhealthy, as is the Lukuledi Valley, south of the town, where the broad swamp estuary of the Lukuledi River flows into the bay. Moreover, the brackish-flavoured well water of the town was very bad, and added to the tremendous difficulty that was experienced in maintaining the health of white troops in this area. Behind Lindi the ground rises to a low hill-crest, the ridge of which runs north parallel to the coast line, and it was along this crest, overlooking the roads inland, that our present line terminated. In pre-war days sisal, palm oil, and rubber had been the chief products developed in this area by settlers, and large, carefully cultivated estates were plentiful in this neighbourhood.
VON LETTOW’S FORCES
At Lindi we were soon fully occupied preparing for active operations. The main force of the enemy—excepting the smaller force near Mahenge under Tafel, and opposed to General Northey—were now confined to a limited area in the south-east corner of the Colony, and were facing our forces at Lindi and Kilwa. This force, under General von Lettow-Vorbeck, was estimated to be 4,000 to 5,000 strong. Against these forces a new offensive began under the command of General Van Deventer, who at the end of May relieved General Hoskins; and from June onward was carried on relentlessly, while the enemy, with their backs to the wall, as it were, fought desperately.
Behind the Kitulo hill, which rose immediately west of Lindi, lay a broad flat swamp through which crossed the Mtupiti and Ngongo Rivers on their course to the Lukuledi estuary. Across this waste the enemy were holding a strong line, on a nine-mile front, in the rubber plantations and bush, with particularly strong fortifications at Schaafer’s Farm and Mingoyo village on this line.
On 10th June it was decided to attack, and on that day columns left Lindi to flank widely those positions on their north and south extremes. The force to the north, which marched inland from Lindi, was composed mainly of a battalion of King’s African Rifles and some artillery. The force operating south was comprised of another battalion of King’s African Rifles, our own battalion—the 25th Royal Fusiliers—and South African Field Artillery. Under cover of darkness the latter force was to proceed some miles inland up the wide river estuary, and effect a landing, if possible, in the centre lagoon of the three at the head of the estuary, where a trolley line from Mkwaya terminated at a small timber landing-stage. General O’Grady was in command in this area, and the operations were carried out under his direction, and personal supervision in the field.
On the evening of 10th June, toward sundown, scenes that were strange, and that must have astonished the native inhabitants, were afoot on the water-front at Lindi. Out in the sultry, windless channel, with their bows up-stream, lay the active-looking warships H.M.S. Hyacinth and H.M.S. Thistle, while between them and shore fleet motor-boats plied busily on ordered errand. Inshore wide-beamed lighters with steam tugs in attendance lay off the end of the shallow-draught pier, while a number of large open boats, linked together in twos and threes by their bow ropes and towed by motor-craft, lay outside in the current—all in readiness to take aboard their human freight. And then, into the town marched soldiers in fighting kit; a battalion of British infantry appearing from the north, while black troops and some artillery came down from the hills: all to come to a halt in a long column on the dust-thick road on the shore front near to the pier. As dusk approached, embarkation commenced, under naval and military direction, and under orders of strict silence—and gradually the boats filled while the line on the road melted away until none remained on shore!... All were aboard! and we drew off shore and lay to in the bay waiting for darkness—an ominous force, in their silence that was nigh to sullenness, but in reality filled with suppressed excitement over the novelty and promise of adventure.
We had not long to wait for darkness. Soon it crept down rapidly, as is its habit in Africa. Under naval direction the craft then cast loose one by one, and the dark forms on the water, each in the wake of the other, followed silently on their way up-stream. In the lead were the patrol launches armed with machine-guns, and some of the intermediate motor-boats were likewise prepared for emergency.
A NIGHT LANDING
Hour after hour we crept up the wide stream with black, threatening shores on either beam, and all remained quiet, and nothing stirred on land to break the stillness of the sultry night nor our pent-up expectancy. Our destination was eight miles up-stream. About half-way we passed through the narrow neck between Kombe and Kala islands, and a short time later our motor-boat, when hugging the east bank, had the misfortune to ground on a sand-bar and hold fast. While we lay there, phantom dark craft passed us, going up-stream and returning down. One heard a low, tense word or two spoken across the gloom, the muffled beat of the engines; and then the darkness swallowed everything. After some delay and much exertion with poles and oars, we got afloat again and proceeded, now more slowly, up-stream, keeping our course by following a tiny bright light, like a firefly, that showed now and again in the distance ahead, where the leaders were in the stream or had landed at an important bend in the channel.