My Reminiscences of East Africa

by Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck

In spite of this success at Unindi, the great superiority of the enemy and the danger from enveloping movements to our supplies in the rear, induced Captain von Lieberman to withdraw gradually south, fighting all the time. I thought the moment had come to make a rapid counter-march with the available companies at Lutende, and the mountain-battery come unexpectedly to the aid of Captain von Lieberman and perhaps seize a favourable opportunity to inflict a decisive defeat upon the enemy. We moved due north from Lutende by forced marches and crossed the Mbemkuru, now once more an insignificant stream, without difficulty, two days’ march below Nahungu. The only opposition we encountered was from swarms of wild bees which forced us to make a slight détour. North of Mbemkuru we continued our march north into the Ruawa hills.

I made use of the two days required to muster the force again to reconnoitre thoroughly the surrounding country, and on the 28th July, to my astonishment, I learned accidentally from some natives that a road through the mountains led almost in a straight line from our camp to Captain Lieberman’s camp at the Narungomba water-hole, about six hours’ march. A patrol of Europeans was sent at once to reconnoitre this road. In the morning of the 29th July I heard from my camp at Ruawa some explosions from the direction of Lieberman’s force. I did not think this could denote serious fighting, as the sounds ceased and, further, the patrol which I had sent to Lieberman’s force, and which had returned that morning, reported that everything was quiet there. I had, however, to change my mind when at noon van Rooyen, who was very reliable, returned from a hunting expedition and reported that he had certainly heard continuous machine-gun fire. The reader will, perhaps, wonder that I had not already begun the march to Lieberman’s camp, but it must be remembered that there was no water on the way, and my men were very exhausted, while some had only just reached Ruawa. By nightfall I was just three hours’ march nearer the scene of action, but it was not until the night was well advanced that my companies had all come up. A continuance of the march through the bush in pitch darkness was hopeless; it was bound to lead to a good deal of misunderstanding and would have meant a useless waste of the men’s strength, which had already been severely tried.

At 3 a.m. the march was continued and soon after a report came from the advance officer patrol that Captain von Lieberman had certainly defeated the enemy, but, owing to shortage of ammunition, had marched to Mihambia during the night. The rearguard had evacuated the springs and at the time of the report was following the rest. My order to hold the springs at all costs until my arrival at 6 a.m. to join in the battle had, therefore, been disregarded owing to pressure of circumstances. I now thought that the enemy, who was stronger than we, would have strongly entrenched the springs position, as was his habit, and that I should have to carry out any attack with thirsty troops. That seemed to offer little prospect of success. Later, when I learned the enemy’s real position, I inclined to the opposite view. In spite of his superiority the enemy had suffered a severe defeat. His 7th South African and 8th European regiments were almost broken up. Again and again his infantry had hurled themselves in deep waves against the front of our Askari regiments, and each time they had been driven back by counter-attacks. A forest fire had broken out and spread among his ranks. Finally the main body of his troops had broken away and fled in wild disorder through the bush. Machine guns, masses of rifles and hundreds of cases of ammunition had been left on the field. In this condition, my attack, even after the withdrawal of Lieberman’s force, would perhaps have sealed the doom of the enemy’s main body. It is much to be regretted that at that time large numbers of the troops did not show sufficient initiative to make good the shortage of German ammunition during the battle itself, by using the enemy rifles and cartridges which were lying about in quantities. We had been within reach of a most important success which was snatched from our grasp by accident. We must, however, be grateful for the feat of arms which the 7th Askari Company performed under the doubtless brilliant leadership of Captain von Lieberman, against overwhelming odds.

I did not get a clear report of this action, however, until later. For the moment I thought it right to march to Mihambia in order, by joining with Lieberman’s detachment, to secure unity of command, to supply it with sufficient ammunition to carry on and, if necessary, to raise its moral after the severe battle by a visible reinforcement. This last turned out to be unnecessary; when I arrived I found Lieberman’s detachment in excellent spirits, all the companies being proud to have dealt such a heavy blow to the superior enemy. For me the operation at Narungombe was a further proof how difficult it is in the unknown African bush and in face of the uncertainty of communication, even if other circumstances are favourable, to carry through an operation in which several columns are taking part, so as to secure the necessary unity of action on the battlefield. At Narungombe, where all the conditions were as favourable as could have been hoped, the decision was finally thwarted by slight mischances, and my belief was strengthened that if I wanted to use different bodies of troops in one operation it was necessary to secure the closest connection first.

The engagement at Narungombe brought the enemy at Kilwa to a standstill for a considerable time, and the fighting was confined to patrols, who inflicted losses on the enemy’s lines of communication, firing out of the bush on his detachments and motor transport and attacked at close quarters when a favourable opportunity offered. In order, for one thing, to put this patrol work on a broader basis, but also to counter the moving of enemy troops westward, and finally for reasons of supply, I deployed the force laterally on the line Mihambia-Ndessa. A large number of aircraft appeared over the fertile Ndessa district against whose bombs we were defenceless, and some severe wounds resulted; from this air-reconnaissance we could infer the enemy’s keen interest in the district and soon it was reported that he was moving still further west. Our patrols did such good work that from time to time whole companies of the enemy were put to flight with heavy losses. But the enemy continued his efforts to obtain information. He hardly took the trouble to hide his intention when sending flags of truce. I remember one occasion when the party bearing the white flag arrived at our camp out of the bush; they had, therefore, not only avoided the roads leading to it but had deliberately crossed them. The closer proximity of the enemy made it more difficult for us to get up our supplies, which were gradually running out. It was unavoidable that the position of our requisitioning and hunting-parties should become known to the enemy and that they should be surprised. The influence of the enemy on the natives was shown by the fact that south of Mihambia several villages had been suddenly deserted. I had long regarded this phenomenon as a sign of the enemy’s intention to advance in that direction. The state of our supplies made it impossible for us to maintain so strong a force in the Mihambia-Ndessa area. As in any case the evacuation of this area could not long be delayed, and as the enemy west of Lindi was at the same time developing increased activity in strong force on General Wahle’s front, I decided to join General Wahle with some of the companies from Ndessa and perhaps bring off the operation that had failed at Narungombe; a decisive success by an unexpected reinforcement. On the 3rd August General O’Grady’s forces had certainly suffered a serious defeat. An Indian regiment, which had advanced through the gap between two strongly fortified German outposts, was attacked by our reserves, held ready for such a contingency, and almost annihilated. In the pursuit much valuable material fell into our hands. The enemy, however, had renewed the attack a few days later, and in face of the enveloping movement of his strong detachments, General Wahle had fallen back on Narunyu and a mountain of equal height south of the Lukuledi river.

Captain Koehl, with six companies and a battery, remained behind at Ndessa; I crossed the river Mbemkuru below Nahungu with four companies and two mountain-guns, and then marched diagonally across the Muera plateau to the mission-station at Namupa. The prefect in charge entertained us, among other things, with muhogo (a species of corn with edible roots), prepared like fried potatoes, and supplemented the scanty provisions of our Europeans with bananas and other fruit out of his extensive gardens.

In the camp at Njangao the receipt of part of a German wireless message directed to me, expressing his Majesty’s acknowledgments on the occasion of the third anniversary of the outbreak of war, delighted us all.

We pitched our camp with the first company at Njengedi, on the main road between Njangao and Lindi, in the rear of Wahle’s division, in unpleasant, rainy weather. I immediately set out for Narunyu to inform General Wahle of our arrival. Here, in an almost impenetrable country broken by numerous ravines, at the bottom of which lay deep swamps, friend and foe faced one another in close proximity. Our men were working at dug-outs covered by branches cut from the trees. Only five of General Wahle’s seven companies were at Narunyu, the two others being on Ruho Mountain on the south bank of the Lukuledi river. In view of the danger of a surprise attack on our weak forces at Narunyu I ordered them to be reinforced by the companies on Ruho Mountain and marched two of those that had come with me to take their place. The enemy attack on Narunyu occurred the following day. Captain Lieberman’s Company from Ruho Mountain and the two companies I had brought with me all took part in the engagement. The third company had literally started their forced march to Karungu immediately after their arrival at Njengedi. I can still see the Askari coming up just before dawn and hear their shouts of delight at the thought of once more routing the enemy.

Our attempt to envelop the enemy’s right wing, however, only served to press it back; the bush was too thick for an offensive movement which had to be developed at short range under a continuous machine-gun and rifle fire. The darkness made it still more difficult to direct the operations, and there is no doubt that in the confusion of the two fronts in this broken country our detachments often fired on one another: it was almost impossible to recognize friend or foe. For instance, hearing loud sounds of shouting in front of me, in the complete darkness of the bush, I thought this came from our enveloping attack driving back the enemy. It was not discovered till some time afterwards that this was the enemy and soon we heard him working at his trenches. The exact location of his trenches gave us the advantage of being able to get the range for the 10·5 cm. gun of the Königsberg, which was with Wahle’s force. This was done with good results; at any rate the enemy evacuated his trenches on the following day and retired.

The complete victory desired had not been attained and, in view of the difficulties of the ground, could not be expected, as we had discovered our strength to the enemy in the fighting of the 18th, and lost the advantage of a surprise. Once more I had to content myself with delay. In this fertile country there was no difficulty about holding our ground from the point of view of supplies. The force has rarely been so well fed as in the Lindi area. Great fields of sweet-potatoes and muhogo stretched as far as the eye could see, and there was an abundant supply of sugar-cane. The numerous Arab plantations indicated the fertility and the ancient civilization of the country. We made ourselves at home, and though rifle bullets often whistled through our camp and aircraft dropped bombs on us, not much harm was done. On one occasion the dentist, who had set up his surgery in a European house and was giving us the attention we had long needed, was attending to a patient when a bomb fell into the room. It was discovered later, when the place was examined, that the planter kept his store of dynamite in this very room. Fortunately the bomb did not touch this or both patients and dentist would have been permanently freed from toothache.