CHAPTER V
BETWEEN THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL RAILWAYS
I ASK the reader to imagine himself in the position of a Commander, with insufficient means, exposed to attack by superior numbers, who has continually to ask himself: What must I do in order to retain freedom of movement and hope?
At the end of June, 1916, events in the other theatres of war began to exercise a decisive influence on our operations at Kondoa. The Belgians pushed in from near Lake Kivu and from Russisi, the English from the Kagera, west of Lake Victoria, and, since the middle of July, from Muansa also, and all these forces were converging on Tabora. Our troops stationed in the north-west were all combined under the command of General Wahle, who was at Tabora; and he gradually drew in his detachments from the frontiers towards that place.
Owing to the difficulties of communication Headquarters had but meagre information of these events. Hostile detachments were also pressing in from the south-west, from the country between Lakes Tanganyika and Nyassa. Before them, our company fighting in the neighbourhood of Bismarckburg fell back slowly in a north-easterly direction towards Tabora. The two companies left behind to secure the Langenburg district gradually retreated on Iringa, followed by General Northey, whose division was equipped with all the appliances of modern warfare.
On the Northern Railway, Major Kraut’s patrols, who started out from his fortified position at Lembeni, had occasionally scored pleasing successes. Several aeroplanes were brought down, or came to grief, the passengers being captured and the machines destroyed. When the heavy rains had ceased, the enemy commenced his advance from Kahe along the Northern Railway, as well as east of it through the Pare Mountains, and west of it along the Pangani. Hundreds of automobiles and large numbers of mounted troops were observed. In order to avoid the danger of being cut off by the greatly superior enemy, Major Kraut withdrew his main body by rail to Buiko, leaving small detachments in contact with the enemy. In this vicinity, as well as near Mombo, a few actions took place, in some of which our companies drove through the enemy, who tried to block the line, and fired on him from the train. Being in superior force, the enemy was always able, with little trouble, to execute outflanking movements with fresh troops, but their effectiveness was greatly reduced by the difficulty of the country. It seemed, therefore, as though the enemy frequently departed from this idea and adopted a sort of tactics of attrition instead. To-day he would attack with one portion of his force, then let that rest, and put in another the next day, and a different portion again on the third. In spite of all his obvious urging, and his favourable conditions of supply, his advance was fairly slow. Major Kraut’s troops never got into a really difficult situation; on the contrary, they were often able to catch the enemy under fire unawares, and to gain partial successes, which occasionally caused him very considerable losses, such as Captain Freiherr von Bodecker’s rearguard action near Handeni.
In view of this concentric advance from all directions, the question arose, what should be done with the main body of the Protective Force now before Kondoa? For an attack the situation was altogether too unfavourable. The problem, therefore, was, what should be the general direction of our retreat? I decided on the Mahenge country. By moving there we should avoid being surrounded, it was fertile, and suitable for guerilla warfare. From there also it would be possible to withdraw further to the south and to continue the war for a long time to come.
Another important consideration was the safeguarding of our stores deposited along the Central Railway, particularly in the vicinity of Morogoro. These were greatly endangered by the rapid advance of General Smuts, who was opposing Major Kraut, and had penetrated far to the south beyond Handeni. Although it was to be assumed that General Smuts would be delayed by the continually increasing length of his communications, he seemed to me to be the most dangerous and important of our opponents. I therefore decided to leave in front of the Kondoa force only a detachment at Burungi, under Captain Klinghardt, but to march my main body back to Dodoma, proceed thence by rail to Morogoro, and move up in support of Major Kraut. It turned out afterwards that the English were informed of this movement down to the smallest details, and that, for instance, they knew all about a railway accident that happened to one company during its progress. When our companies arrived at Morogoro and the Europeans there saw the splendid bearing of the Askari they lost the last traces of their depression; every man and woman had comprehended that our situation was indeed difficult, but also that there was nothing for it but to go on fighting, and that our Force was, from its whole quality and nature, capable of carrying on for a long time to come.
Early in July I reached Major Kraut, who was holding a fortified position on Kanga Mountain, north-east of Tuliani. I had expected the Askari to be depressed by their retreat, but found them in excellent spirits and full of confidence. In front of their position they had cleared the foreground for 50 to 100 yards and were fully convinced that they could beat off an attack.
I employed the time that elapsed before the arrival of the other detachments in reconnaissance, and soon formed a mental picture of the passes which led across the difficult rock and forest country westward of our line of communication.
Owing to the remarkably dense bush an attempt to send a strong detachment round the enemy’s camp to attack it in rear was unsuccessful. But the enemy did sustain casualties through numerous minor enterprises by our patrols, who fired at his transport columns and the automobiles working behind his front. In this way also a Staff car was once effectively fired on. The enemy’s patrols were also active and several of his distant patrols had got behind us. One of them, commanded by Lieutenant Wienholt, betrayed its presence by surprising a column of our carriers and burning the loads. Among other things these contained a quantity of trousers which had come out in the store-ship and were anxiously expected. Wienholt, therefore, aroused painful interest on the part of everyone. His patrol was discovered in camp in the dense bush and surprised. He himself got away, and trusting to the fact that it is not easy to find anyone in the African bush, wanted to work his way alone through our lines and back to the English. Our well-tried men, zan Rongew, Nieuwenhudgu and Trappel, who had effected the clever capture of the horses near Longido Mountain, succeeded in tracking and capturing him. On my return from a reconnaissance I met Wienholt in our camp at Tuliani enjoying a cheery meal with his captors. We could none of us help honestly admiring the excellent work of his patrol, whose route was accurately marked on the map that was captured in his possession. Wienholt was then taken to a prisoners’ camp in the interior, from which he escaped some months later while bathing. In 1917 he did excellent work on patrol round Kilwa and Livale, and also later on, in 1918, in Portuguese East Africa. I was greatly interested in his description of an attack by a leopard which, with great boldness, killed his companion in camp. I presume he has by now given friends and acquaintances the benefit of his vivid account, of which he unfortunately lost the original later on in a patrol encounter.