My Reminiscences of East Africa

by Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck

Of the events of the ensuing period it may be remarked that Bukoba was bombarded without result on the 18th July. In Mpororo a great chief went over to the English.

On the 12th September one of the Königsberg’s four-inch guns arrived at Muansa, where we had in process of time raised five new companies among the Wassukuma people.

It seemed as though the enemy were rather holding back at Bukoba, and moving troops from there to Kissenyi. On the 29th October the English attacked with some one hundred rifles, machine guns, a gun, and a trench mortar, but were repulsed, apparently with heavy casualties. Hostile attacks on the lower Kagera on the 4th and 5th December were also unsuccessful. Several detachments of the enemy invaded the Karagwe country. The command at Bukoba was taken over by Captain Gudovius, hitherto District Commissioner in Tangarei, who marched off from Tabora on the 21st December, and was followed by the newly-raised 7th Reserve Company as a reinforcement for Bukoba.

In Ruanda the energetic measures adopted by the President, Captain Wintgens, produced good results. On the 24th September he surprised the island of Ijvi in Lake Kivu, and captured the Belgian post stationed there, and its steel boat. Another steel boat had been captured by Lieutenant Wunderlich, of the Navy, who had moved to Lake Kivu with some men of the Moewe, where he had requisitioned a motor-boat. On the 4th October, Wintgens, with his Police Askari, some auxiliaries, and a few men of the Moewe, drove back several companies of Belgians north of Kissenyi, inflicting heavy casualties on them. After some minor engagements, Captain Wintgens then inflicted a partial defeat on the superior Belgian force of seventeen hundred men and six guns, north of Kissenyi, on the 20th and 30th November, and again on the 2nd December, 1914. Near Lake Tshahafi he drove out an English post. One Englishman and twenty Askari were killed; we had two Askari killed and one European severely wounded.

After that, in February, 1915, several minor actions were fought near Kissenyi and on the frontier. On the 28th May, Lieutenant Lang, commanding the small garrison of Kissenyi, beat off the Belgians, who had seven hundred men and two machine guns. The enemy sustained heavy losses; we had one European killed.

In June, 1915, it was said that over two thousand Belgian Askari, with nine guns, and five hundred English Askari were concentrated near Lake Kivu, the fact that the Belgian Commander-in-Chief, Tombeur, went to Lake Kivu makes this information appear probable. On the 21st June the Belgians attacked Kissenyi with nine hundred men, two machine guns and two guns, but were repulsed. On the 5th July they again attacked the place by night with four hundred men, and suffered severe losses. On the 3rd August Kissenyi was ineffectively bombarded by artillery and machine guns. In consequence of the crushing superiority of the enemy, the 26th Field Company was transferred from Muansa to Kissenyi.

Immediately after the arrival of this company at Kissenyi, on the 31st August, Captain Wintgens defeated the Belgian outposts, of whom ten Askari were killed. On September 2nd he took by storm a position held by one hundred and fifty Askari, with three guns and one machine gun. During the next few weeks minor actions were fought every day. On the 3rd October an attack on Kissenyi by two hundred and fifty Askari with a machine gun was repulsed, and fourteen casualties were observed among the enemy. After that, possibly in consequence of the action at Luwungi on the 27th September, considerable forces of the enemy were discovered to have marched off for the south.

On the 22nd October another Belgian detached post of three hundred Askari, with two guns and two machine guns, was surprised, when the enemy had ten Askari killed. On the 26th November the Ruanda Detachment, with one platoon of the 7th Company, which had arrived from Bukoba, in all three hundred and twenty rifles, four machine guns and one 1.45-inch gun, drove the enemy, numbering two hundred, out of a fortified position, when he lost two Europeans and seventy Askari killed, five Askari prisoners, and many wounded. We had one European and three Askari killed, four Europeans, five Askari and one auxiliary wounded. On the 21st December the enemy once more attacked Kissenyi with one thousand Askari, two machine guns and eight guns, including four modern 2.75-inch howitzers. He left behind twenty-one dead Askari, three were captured, wounded, and many wounded were carried away. Our force of three hundred and fifty rifles, four machine guns and two guns, had three Askari killed, one European and one Askari severely wounded.

On the 12th January, 1916, Captain Wintgens surprised a Belgian column north of Kissenyi, killing eleven Belgian Askari. On the 27th January Captain Klinghardt, with three companies, beat off an attack on the Kissenyi position made by two thousand Belgian Askari with hand grenades and twelve guns, inflicting severe casualties on them.

In the Russissi country there were also numerous engagements. Successful minor actions between German patrols and Congo troops had taken place on the 10th and 13th October, 1914, at Changugu, on the 21st and 22nd at Chiwitoke, and on the 24th at Kajagga.