Masai.
(From a drawing by General von Lettow-Vorbeck’s Adjutant.)
European Dinner-time.
(From a drawing by General von Lettow-Vorbeck’s Adjutant.)
CHAPTER IV
THE ENEMY’S ADVANCE IN THE AREA OF THE NORTHERN RAILWAY
AFTER the trains had left Lembeni I handed over the command of all the troops on the Northern Railway to Major Kraut. An independent administrative service was also organized for them. Our railway journey to Korogwe proved to us once more how closely the German population of the Northern Territories were knit to the Force, and how they appreciated its work. At every station the people had assembled, sometimes from great distances; every one of them knew that our departure from the Northern Territories was final, and that they would fall into the enemy’s hands. In spite of this, their spirit was gallant. A large part of the few remaining European provisions was brought to us. The widow of the former Line-Commandant Kroeber, who had recently been buried at Buiko, insisted on offering us the last bottles of the stock in her cellar.
Major Kraut and Captain Schoenfeld accompanied me to Buiko, from where we were able to view several portions of the ground which I thought might become of importance in our future operations. These gentlemen remained there in order to make more detailed personal reconnaissances. From Korogwe our cars rapidly took us to Handeni, the head of the light railway that had been laid from Mombo. On the way we caught up our mounted companies, and the exclamation of the Civil Administrator of Handeni: “Why, that’s the notorious poacher of Booyen,” showed me once more that there were among our mounted troops men accustomed to danger and sport, on whom I could rely in the troubles that were to come. Handeni was the first collecting station for the stores withdrawn from the north; Major von Stuemer, who had left his former post at Bukoba in order to take charge of this line of communication, which was for the moment the most important one, complained not a little of the way in which the troops marching through had interfered with the further dispatch of the stores. At Handeni, the seat of the Civil Administration, where the supply routes from Morogoro, Korogwe and Kondoa-Irangi met at the rail-head of the Mombo-Handeni line, the war had called into being a European settlement that had almost the appearance of a town. Lieutenant Horn, of the Navy, had built cottages in the Norwegian style, which were quite charming to look at, although at the moment the rain was rather against them. The interiors, consisting for the most part of three rooms, were comfortably arranged for the accommodation of Europeans. What was unpleasant was the enormous number of rats, which often ran about on one when trying to sleep at night. Captain von Kaltenborn, who had arrived in the second store-ship which put into Ssudi Bay, reported himself to me here, and was able to supplement the home news he had already transmitted in writing by verbal accounts.
Proceeding the next day by car, we caught up a number of our detachments on the march, and were able to remove at least some of the various causes of friction between them. Telephonic communication was rarely possible on account of earths caused by the heavy rain, and breakages caused by columns of carriers, wagons and giraffes. It was all the more important for me to traverse this area of breakdowns, which cut me off from the troops and prevented my receiving reports as quickly as possible. But that became increasingly difficult.