My view was that we would best protect our colony by threatening the enemy in his own territory. We could very effectively tackle him at a sensitive point, the Uganda Railway, and one might almost say that the numerous German settlers in the country traversed by our Northern Railway (Tanga-Moshi) were already deployed for this object. The Governor, however, did not agree with the proposal I had already previously put forward in case of war, namely, to concentrate our forces in the North near Kilima Njaro. But, in order to act at all, it was obviously necessary to collect our troops, who were scattered all over the country. As this could not be effected in the Kilima Njaro country, as I wished, the concentration took place on the heights of Pugu, a day’s march west of Dar-es-Salaam. At this place the Dar-es-Salaam Company met those from Kilimatinde, Tabora, Ujiji, Usambara and Kissendji, which came partly by march routes and partly by rail. The Police, who, in accordance with the scanty preparations already made, were to join the Protective Force immediately, were in part, at any rate, placed at my disposal, a number of old Askari were called up, and in this way four new companies (No.’s 15 to 18) were at once formed. The German Reservists were mobilized as required, and each company was brought up to an establishment of about 16 Europeans, 160 Askari and 2 machine guns.
In some cases difficulties occurred in calling the Europeans to the colours. By mistake, the crews of a few ships of the East African Line, lying in the harbour of Dar-es-Salaam, were informed, in response to their application, by the Officer in Command at the Railway Station, that there was no room for them in the Protective Force. Then, at the suggestion of the Governor’s representative, a declaration was submitted to them, according to which they were to engage in writing to remain neutral during the war. Later on the men saw that this constituted an offence against the law relating to liability for service, and their own sound feeling was opposed to it. They appealed to me, setting forth the circumstances; I had had no inkling of these proceedings, and fortunately, as the declaration had not yet fallen into the hands of the enemy, the intended decision could be reserved.
The number of carriers allotted to each company varied, and may have averaged about 250. The stores of arms, ammunition and other war-material, which were lying unprotected in the harbour of Dar-es-Salaam, were distributed among various places in the interior along the railway, where depots were established. The training of the troops was at once vigorously proceeded with, and even then we realized the value of rendering our head-dress unrecognizable by means of grass and leaves, a measure proposed by a practical Company Commander, Captain Tafel. The question of course was whether we, with our Askari, would be able to fight modern troops; it was denied by many an experienced hand. But from what I had seen during the revolt in South-West Africa, from 1904 to 1906, I believed that courage and military efficiency could be awakened in the East African native also, who belongs to that same great family, the Bantu, as the Herero. That certainly was a proof; but the matter was greatly simplified by the fact that there was no possible alternative.
All questions of organization, which are usually carefully prepared and considered in time of peace, had now to be dealt with and decided on the spur of the moment. One of them was the extraordinarily important one of establishing a service of subsistence and a complete system of supply from the rear. The main point was to consider, in the first place, the main roads, which were also important in a military sense. Which roads might these be? It was immediately found how disadvantageous was the absence of railway communication between the Central and Usambara Railways. In time of peace, communication had been effected by sea between Dar-es-Salaam and Tanga; this was now impossible. Obviously the importance of a military use of the lines had not been thought of. As a substitute, we had to develop a road between Morogoro and Korogwe, on the Northern Railway. The second road ran past the western side of the Masai Reservation, from Dodoma via Kondoa-Irangi, and Ufiome to Arusha, and the third from the rich district of Tabora, the capital of the Wanyamwesi country, to Muansa, on Lake Victoria, into the country of the Wassukume, who were recognized even by Consul King as the most important of our tribes. This road was also valuable because by it we could draw on the rice crops of Lake Victoria as well as on the abundant stocks of cattle. Other roads connected Kilossa with the rich territory of Mahenge, Iringa, and even Langenburg, which last provided us with a large part of our requirements in wheat flour.
The provisional organization of the supply system having been fixed in broad and general outline, it was not possible for the details of its development to be worked out at Headquarters. Someone had to be found whose past military career rendered him capable of working the system, not only from the administrative point of view, but also in accordance with the sometimes very urgent military requirements, and of adapting it to them. Major-General Wahle, a retired officer, who happened to have arrived on the 2nd August, on a visit to his son, and to see the Dar-es-Salaam Exhibition, at once placed himself at the disposal of the Force, and at my request took charge of the Lines of Communication. His task was particularly difficult, because where there were no railways, the bulk of the work had to be performed by native carriers. I have at my disposal no figures showing the total number of carriers employed for the service of the troops, and it is very difficult to arrive at it at all definitely. It included men who only carried the loads from one place to another before the permanent carriers took them over, but I am sure I do not exaggerate in saying that, on the whole, hundreds of thousands of carriers worked for the troops; and all of them had to be fed and medically looked after.
Of our many other difficulties one of a special nature may here be mentioned. The peace-time existence of the Europeans in tropical colonies had, even for reasons of health, accustomed them to a certain degree of comfort. When on safari (a journey) in East Africa, it is generally impossible to buy European food; but few Europeans had learnt to live on the vegetable products supplied by the natives or by Nature. Shelter is rarely to be had. Against mosquitos it is, however, imperative to protect oneself. So the white official or soldier seldom travelled with less than eleven carriers, who, besides his tent, camp-bed and clothing, also carried a considerable quantity of food. Such large numbers of carriers were, however, impossible for a force which was to be mobile. Another difficulty was that nearly every Askari had a boy. With these simple people, whose predilection for their ancient traditions and customs is further confirmed by Islam, and who are besides very proud and vain, it is particularly difficult to interfere with such Dusturis (customs). In individual cases it was not always easy for a Company Commander to find the happy mean.
In the tropical warfare which was before us medical care is one of the most important factors. Generally speaking, the native is in a great measure immune against malaria, and it does not often happen that an Askari gets really ill with it; some tribes, however, like the Wajagga, on Kilima Njaro, who inhabit elevated, non-malarial districts, and are therefore not immune from early youth, suffer severely from malaria as soon as they come down to the plains. From the evening until well into the morning mechanical protection against the malaria mosquito (anopheles), by means of a mosquito net, was strictly enforced for every European. For many months I slept on the ground, and even then the mosquito-net afforded me a high degree of protection; even so I had malaria ten times, for in the field it is not always possible to employ preventive measures to the extent that is desirable from a hygienic point of view. In our endeavour to attach a medical officer to every company we received most welcome assistance from the fact that there was a considerable number of them on Lake Tanganyika, and in the Southern territories on the Rovuma, who had come out to study and combat sleeping-sickness.
The work entailed by all this business of mobilization not only kept us going day and night, but also the native telephonist at Pugu, and it was extraordinary to see the skill with which the black man worked his instrument, both there and elsewhere. His great technical talent proved of the greatest value to us. Of difficulties there was, of course, an infinity. During the early days it happened that cattle coming from the country north of Tabora for the civilian population at Dar-es-Salaam met other cattle going in the opposite direction to feed the troops. To this day I feel something of a physical shock when I think of a collision at Pugu, between a train laden with the finest show cattle going at full speed, and another one, which nearly produced a serious reduction in the personnel required for working out our mobilization scheme.
Our place of concentration at Pugu is some twelve miles inland from Dar-es-Salaam. Our camp was situated on the slopes of the Pugu Mountains. The forest is extremely thick, and the country densely covered by plantations of natives and Europeans. In spite of its somewhat elevated position, Pugu is quite in the hot coastal area, and although in August we were still in the cold season, the temperature was still what we describe as “tropical;” it is that oppressive, somewhat damp heat, which makes long marches so exhausting for the European. At that time we had tents for the Europeans and a camp-bed with the inevitable mosquito net for everyone, so that in this respect there were no difficulties. In case of sickness we had established a provisional field hospital in the neighbouring Wichmann Plantations. Our horses did not suffer unduly. But one after another all our animals went down with tse-tse. In camp it was not possible to provide them, as we could at Dar-es-Salaam, with tse-tse proof stables, fitted with wire gauze similar to fly-proof windows.