CHAPTER VI
CONTINUOUS FIGHTING NEAR THE RUFIJI
IN order to oppose the troops of General Northey, who were advancing from the direction of New Langenburg, Captain Braunschweig had been dispatched from Dodoma at the end of June. He had taken up reinforcements from Kondoa and Dar-es-Salaam to the two German Askari companies that had slipped away from the New Langenburg country, and had concentrated his own troops, totalling five companies and one field howitzer, at Malangali. At that place his force had fought a brave action with a superior force of the enemy, but had been obliged to fall back towards Mahenge.
As the converging hostile columns were now approaching each other in the direction of Morogoro, it became necessary to consider our future plan of operations. The enemy expected us to stand and fight a final decisive engagement near Morogoro, on the northern slopes of the Uluguru Mountains. To me, this idea was never altogether intelligible. Being so very much the weaker party, it was surely madness to await at this place the junction of the hostile columns, of which each one individually was already superior to us in numbers, and then to fight with our back to the steep and rocky mountains, of which the passes were easy to close, and which deprived us of all freedom of movement in our rear. I thought it sounder so to conduct our operations that we should only have to deal with a part of the enemy. Knowing that the enemy, and General Brits in particular, had a liking for wide turning movements, I felt sure that one column would move off from Dakawa, where large hostile camps had been identified, or from Kilossa, in order to reach our rear by working round the west side of the Uluguru Mountains. This possibility was so obvious that I cycled out every day to the mountains west of Morogoro, so as to get the reports from the patrols in good time, and to supplement them by personal observation of the clouds of smoke and dust. The latter soon put it beyond doubt that a strong column was moving from near Dakawa towards the railway between Morogoro and Kilossa. Patrols identified enemy troops that had crossed the railway and were marching further south. The observers on the mountains reported the clouds of dust to be moving towards Mlali.
As I meant to let this movement run its full course and then attack the isolated detachment with the whole of my forces, I waited until I thought it was near Mlali. On the evening of the 23rd August, Captain Otto, who was encamped at Morogoro, was ordered to march off for Mlali during the night with three companies. He arrived there early on the 24th, just as English horsemen had taken possession of the depot. When I reached Otto’s Detachment the fight was in full swing. The country was, however, unsuitable for short decisive strokes, owing to the many steep hills which impeded movement. The other troops at Morogoro, except Captain Stemmermann’s Detachment, were ordered up by telephone. I myself went back again to Morogoro to talk things over. Stemmermann’s Detachment, to which, on account of the roads, the 4-inch Königsberg gun and the howitzer battery were attached, was ordered to fall back along the eastern slopes of the Uluguru Mountains, and to delay the enemy there. The passes over the mountains themselves were closed by weak patrols. When I arrived once more at Mlali in the afternoon, the fight was still undecided. At several points the enemy had been driven back, and several people thought they had seen him suffer considerably. But by nightfall we had got so entangled in the mountains, and every movement had become so difficult and took so much time, that we halted. We found the night very cold, lying out on the hills without the carriers’ loads. Luckily, however, this fertile region had so far hardly suffered at all from the war, and a fowl roasted on a spit soon appeased our hunger.
The next morning numerous explosions in the German depots, which had been surprised by the enemy, indicated that he had moved off and had destroyed the 4-inch shells stored there. We surmised that he was moving south-west, which eventually turned out to be the case. The enemy was probably making a turning movement so as to reach Kissaki before us. At the wealthy Administration Office at that place, 600 tons of food supplies and the military stores removed from Morogoro had been collected. Wild rumours exaggerated the actual facts, and stated that strong forces had already reached the roads leading to Kissaki before us. Although the wagon road stopped at Mlali, and the remainder of the route to Kissaki consisted only of paths broken by many ravines and obstacles, the possibility that the enemy might make a rapid march on Kissaki had to be taken very seriously, and we had no time to waste. In the evening we were most hospitably entertained by the Father at Mgeta Mission. The buildings are charmingly situated in the deep ravine of the Mgeta river, which in this part comes down very swiftly. The many lights on the slope of the hill made one think one was approaching some small watering-place in Germany. A few European women from Morogoro were also staying there, and bade farewell to the Force for the last time. With the exception of a few nurses all women had to stay behind.
The removal of our loads was carried out fairly satisfactorily. The Force profited by the fact that owing to the insistence of the energetic Captain Feilke, about a thousand native labourers, who had until a few days previously been working in the forestry department at Morogoro, were placed at its disposal. But the carrier question was beginning to be difficult. The natives saw that we were evacuating the country; a number of them, who had promised to come, stayed away, to the despair of the sensible Chiefs, who would gladly have helped us. As only small parties of the enemy appeared in the country round Mgeta, it began to seem probable that his principal forces were making a turning movement. Leaving a rearguard behind, which only followed us slowly, our main body was, during the ensuing days, moved nearer to Kissaki. One night an Askari appeared at my bedside, bearing himself in a smart military manner: it was the Effendi Yuma Mursal, of the 4th Field Company, who had been left behind sick at Morogoro. He reported that a force of the enemy, as strong as that at Kahe had been, had marched round the west side of the Uluguru Mountains from Morogoro, and that a number of German Askari had found the recent fighting too much for them. They had deserted, and were now plundering the plantations south-west of Morogoro.
A telephone line was laid from Kissaki to us, by means of which Captain Tafel kept us continually informed; up to date no enemy had been seen at Kissaki. But to the west of us, patrols reported the enemy to be marching to the south. I therefore moved to Kissaki, and had to destroy some of our stores, which were collected in small depots along our route. Unfortunately, in carrying this out, an efficient Ordnance N.C.O. was accidentally killed, as had happened before on a similar occasion at Morogoro. At Kissaki, several days passed before we came seriously into collision with the enemy. It was not advisable to occupy the Boma Fort itself; it consisted of a group of buildings surrounded by a massive high wall, and was situated in the middle of a completely cleared bit of country. The enemy could, therefore, only capture it by a costly attack; but he had no need to assault it at all; by means of artillery and bombs from aircraft, he could have made it intolerable for us to remain in the cramped Boma, and we ourselves should then have been forced to make a sortie over the open and to endure the fire which the enemy would have been able to pour into us in perfect security. Our defences were, therefore, placed a long way outside the Boma, covered from the view of aircraft, and so arranged that they could be occupied and evacuated unobserved.
It was not until I arrived at Kissaki myself that I obtained a proper idea of the abundance of stores and supplies available there. I learned that, contrary to my belief, practically nothing was stored further south at Behobeho or at Kungulio, on the Rufiji. At Kissaki there were large stocks, but notwithstanding the dense native population, it was impossible to get them away. The numerous inhabitants, to whom the war and the many Askari were something quite new, lost their heads and ran away into the bush. The Civil Administration, which enjoyed the complete confidence of the people, proved powerless against the overwhelming influences now bursting in upon them. Even presents of clothing, which were ordinarily so highly valued, failed to hold them. It seemed as if all the evil spirits had conspired together to deprive us of transport. Our column of several hundred pack-donkeys had been driven over the mountains from Morogoro. It arrived at Kissaki late and completely exhausted. Our ox-wagons, which had to go round the east side of the Uluguru Mountains on account of the state of the roads, seemed to be never going to arrive. The head of the Communications Service could not find any other means of carrying away the stocks which were essential to us for continuing the war. And yet it was obvious that we must continue to fall back further south, towards the Rufiji, before the superior numbers of the enemy.
One circumstance that brightened the gloom was that our great herds of cattle, which had been grazing east of Mpapua, had been brought away in good time. Several thousand head, mostly beautiful cattle, arrived at Kissaki, and would have formed a most welcome mobile reserve of supplies. But, unfortunately, our pleasure at this was diminished by the frequent occurrence of the tse-tse fly at some places; if the animals got stung by them they lost condition badly, and mostly died after a few weeks. The bulk of the cattle was, therefore, driven on into the healthy districts on the Rufiji. As for the rest, we simply worked with energy at getting away the stores to Behobeho and on to Kungulio, using the carriers belonging to the troops, all the people we could raise in the district, and our few wagons. In order to effect this, we had to gain time, and Captain Stemmermann, who was marching round the Uluguru Mountains by the eastern road, could only be allowed to fall back quite slowly before the hostile division which was pushing after him with all its might.