Owing to unfavourable circumstances we had not succeeded in inflicting a decisive defeat on the enemy at Lukuledi, and the operation had only in part gained its objective, but the enemy’s losses must be regarded as serious. The impression made on him was even greater than I had supposed. At any rate, it was reported that he had evacuated Lukuledi and withdrawn to the north. Among our casualties were three company-commanders killed. I can still see Lieutenant Volkwein, severely wounded in the leg, limping through the bush at the head of his company. I had also spoken with Lieutenant Batzner and Lieutenant Kroeger shortly before they fell. Sergeant-Major Klein also fell, who had so often led his patrol on the Uganda railway. He was a capable machine gun leader. But our losses were not in vain. Our patrols pursued the enemy and fired on his camp near Ruponda and also his lines of communication. The impossibility of maintaining large bodies of troops in the neighbourhood of Ruponda—our supplies collected there had fallen into the enemy’s hands—forced me to give up all idea of pursuing the enemy.

At that time I thought it possible that the enemy’s withdrawal from Lukuledi might have been due to the movements of Captain Tafel’s force, which was marching from Mahenge to join us. We had lost touch with him since the beginning of October. He had received orders to retire gradually before the strong enemy columns which were advancing on Mahenge from the north (Ifakara), west and south-west (Likuju, Mponda), and to try to get into touch with the main force under my command. I thought it quite possible that he had already arrived in the district of Nangano, or west of that place, and that the enemy had turned about again out of anxiety for his lines of communication.

CHAPTER XII
THE LAST WEEKS IN GERMAN TERRITORY

ON 24th October, the Governor of Chiwata, which had become the centre of the Administration, arrived at my camp east of Lukuledi for a conference. I firmly stated my opinion that, in spite of all difficulties of supply which must shortly arise in German East Africa, the war could and must be carried on. One possibility that offered was to base the operations on Portuguese territory. This could only be done by evacuating German East Africa and invading Portuguese East Africa.

The question of supplies was becoming very serious; we had in our stores only about 500,000 kg. of supplies. That would last us about six weeks. But it had been found that these figures were deceptive. The piled-up sacks had to a great extent lost weight and the grain had been eaten by insects. The new harvest could not be expected until March at the earliest. If the operations were to be continued it was necessary from this point of view alone to move south. I was still reckoning with the possibility that Captain Tafel’s force might arrive in the neighbourhood of Massassi and Chiwata, in which case I should hand over to him the supplies at Chiwata, while I crossed the Makonda hills in the direction of Lindi with part of the Chiwata force and attacked the enemy’s main line of communication on the Lukuledi river. In whichever way the situation might develop, the Chiwata district was, on account of its fertility, of the greatest importance to us. Chiwata was, however, not protected and was further threatened by the fact that enemy operations were taking place in the north against Mnacho, and enemy mounted forces had been seen on the Lukuledi-Lindi road in the neighbourhood of Ndanda. Also enemy aircraft were paying our camp at Chiwata increasing attention.

These were my reasons for withdrawing from Lukuledi at the end of October with the main part of my forces. It could not be foreseen whether another opportunity would offer of making another attack from Chiwata on one of the enemy columns that would be passing before long. For the next few weeks the enemy’s pressure was again directed against Wahle. Quite fresh troops were appearing there, among them the Cape Corps of South African half-castes. This corps had been stationed along the Central railway and had been brought up to reinforce General Beves’ troops, apparently via Dar-es-Salaam and Lindi. Fortunately General Beves had not waited for this reinforcement before his defeat at Mahiwa.

General Wahle was retiring step by step up the Lukuledi river. I was, unfortunately, not able to send him any support, but even had to draw on his forces to have troops in hand ready for a favourable opportunity for an attack and to protect the supplies. In the almost daily bush-fighting of General Wahle’s force heavy losses were apparently inflicted on the enemy, and he was held severely in check. There was, however, no defeat and no considerable capture of booty, and meanwhile our supplies were getting lower and lower. On 6th November, I rode from Chiwata to Nangoo, near Ndanda, where, close behind Wahle’s force, I found a suitable point of attack for the Chiwata troops. On 7th November I rode back from Nangoo to Chiwata, making a détour south across the Makonde hills. On the same day enemy troops were again reported at Lukuledi, and on 9th November an affair of patrols took place at Chigugu, just west of Chiwata.

At this critical time, when the heads of the enemy columns were nearing Chiwata, it was urgently necessary for us to throw all our strength against one of these columns as soon as possible before the others could intervene. The first essential to make this blow effective was to bring the whole strength of our all too weak forces to bear simultaneously. This depended chiefly on the supply of ammunition. Our whole supply had dwindled to about 400,000 rounds, a very scanty allowance for our 25,000 rifles and 50 machine guns in a serious engagement, after which it would only be possible to continue the struggle if ammunition were captured. For this the nature of the ground was unfavourable. In the thick bush there was a tendency for each individual to fire many rounds and make few hits, so that the supply of cartridges was quickly used up without producing the decisive results we needed. What made a satisfactory solution of the ammunition question still more impossible was that the cartridges were for the most part the smoky ’71 type, whereas only about one-third of the troops were armed with ’71 rifles; the other two-thirds had modern German, English or Portuguese rifles, and for these the supply of cartridges was very small. What there were were required for our most important weapon, the machine gun. It was a difficult position. There was nothing else for it but to make the attack with only those troops who were armed with the ’71 rifle and to hold in reserve the rest, who had only twenty rounds of ammunition suitable for their modern rifles, the rest being the smoky ’71 type. The two forces would then be interchanged so that the first, armed with the ’71 rifles, could hand them over to the relieving force, taking the modern weapons in exchange. This meant that at the best only one-third of the available strength could be in action at the same time and even then would have to be very sparing with their ammunition.