My Reminiscences of East Africa

by Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck

Gradually, and without interference, the companies were transferred to the east bank. The supply question was beginning to become very serious. Fortunately Captain Koehl, who, in the neighbourhood of Medo and Namunu, had kept the very intelligent natives to the cultivation of the quickly ripening grain, reported that a good harvest could be relied on as early as the middle of February. But that was not for another month, so we should have to try by every possible means to hold out a bit longer at Chirumba. Welcome as the manna to the children of Israel, the fungi which shoot up at this season helped to keep us from starvation. I had already in Germany interested myself in mycology, and soon found fungi closely related to our German species of mushrooms and yellow boleta and others, in the African bush. I had often gathered basketfuls in a very short time, and even though an excessive diet of mushrooms is indigestible and not very sustaining, they were a considerable help.

In torrential rain we marched east. The usually dry ravines had become raging torrents. Trees, felled in such a way as to fall over the stream, formed bridges, a hand-rail being improvised from poles or bark lashed together. The mule I was riding on account of fever—I am apparently very sensitive to malaria, from which I suffered a great deal—as well as the few other riding animals that had not found their way into the cooking-pot swam across. When we arrived at the camping ground my men soon built me, on account of the damp, a raised shelter of branches over which both my tent-cloths were laid as a roof. Veterinary Surgeon Huber, who was responsible for the material welfare of the staff, and under him our capable black cook, old bearded Baba, at once got to work and, no matter how wet the wood, we were always able in a short time to sit down to our meal beside the camp-fire. Dr. Huber often managed even to have a grass roof erected for our protection.

On sunny days tobacco was eagerly dried and cut. The efficient Quartermaster-Lieutenant Besch, who was full of resource where the comfort of the men was concerned, had thought of this and had collected very good tobacco from the natives. But in spite of everything the deprivations were very great and the insidious whisperings of the enemy, that every native who deserted should be free to go home and there live in comfort on his own land, did not always fall on deaf ears. Even the faithful boy of one of our officers, whom he had served for years, had one morning disappeared; probably his Bibi (wife) had had enough of campaigning.

Captain Otto’s detachment marched from Uambala due east to Mahua, and there, on the Lurio river, found a district rich in supplies. Goering’s detachment, marching from Luambala across country to Mtende, found considerable supplies on the way. In this district the harvest was very much earlier than in German East Africa; the maize was beginning to ripen and could to a large extent already be eaten. Headquarters next moved from Chirumba to Mtende and, some days later, on to Nanungu. Wahle’s detachment, which had followed us from Chirumba to Mtende, was here cut off by several enemy companies which appeared unexpectedly on a height on their rear and interrupted the messenger service and the transport. General Wahle extricated himself by a détour from this uncomfortable position and advanced nearer to Headquarters at Nanungu.

At Nanungu we found abundant supplies and we thought it expedient, as before, to establish requisitioning stations and supply dumps in the district between Nanungu and Namunu and further south. There was good shooting, and the natives readily brought garden produce and honey to exchange for meat or, preferably, clothing. Very welcome was a delicate sweet, cherry-like Pori fruit, which ripened in millions in the neighbourhood of Nanungu. I preferred to have it made into jam. We also occasionally obtained other dainties, particularly pig-nuts, and the crowing of cocks proclaimed far and wide that there were fowls and eggs in the camps and among the natives.

The setting in of the rainy season did not quite coincide with the forecasts of the natives. There were some sharp downpours, but in the undulating country the water quickly ran off and collected in the main artery of that region, the Msalu river, which was soon swollen so as to form a strong obstacle. Over the Msalu river the post-service official, Hartmann, who had joined the force as a Sergeant-Major, had built a pontoon bridge which connected us with General Wahle’s force, which was still on the west bank. The floating supports of the bridge were boats made from bark. The necessity in this well-watered country of being able to cross the swollen rivers without difficulty had drawn my attention to this question. Hitherto our sole provision for such contingencies consisted of a few hollowed canoes. Their continued transport, however, was too difficult and their capacity too limited. A planter named Gerth, who had joined us as a volunteer, interested himself particularly in this matter and had himself instructed by the natives of the district in the building of boats from bark. The ensuing experiments soon produced good results, after which the building of these boats, which took barely two hours to put together, for crossing rivers was enthusiastically taken up by every company. Most of these boats were not used, but they gave us a feeling of security that, if necessary, even a full stream would not be impassable for our unwieldy caravans and baggage.

When we became better acquainted with the neighbourhood, we found fords over the Msalu which could be used even when the river was in flood. Our patrols, in charge of Sergeant Valett and others, left our fortified camp at Nanungu, crossed the river which formed the boundary of our camp on the west, and went to look for the enemy in his camps at Mtenda. One of these patrols, which was particularly strong and armed with two machine guns, succeeded in surprising an enemy column west of Mtenda. Our men, however, did not get away quickly enough to escape the enemy’s covering force and, attacked from all sides, found themselves in a difficult position. Both machine guns were lost and the Europeans working them fell. Gradually the Askari all returned to Nanungu, but the patrol leader, Sergeant-Major Musslin, who had got away from the rest during the march, had fallen into the enemy’s hands. Another patrol, with which Captain Müller crossed the Msalu to the north, quickly drove off an English outpost at Lusinje. In the neighbourhood of Lusinje, also the camp of the English, Lieutenant Wienholt, who, as has already been mentioned, escaped from arrest and became one of the best English patrol leaders, was captured. The natives were thoroughly exploited by the English patrols and acted as spies for the enemy in return for articles of clothing. The volunteer, Gerth, who has been mentioned in connection with boat-building, was attacked and killed by an English patrol while in the house of a native chief.

In the second half of March, 1918, our spirits were greatly raised by the news, received by our wireless, of the powerful German March offensive on the Western front. I laid a wager with the Staff Medical Officer, Staff-Surgeon Taute, that Amiens would soon fall. I used the period of rest that now set in for several weeks during the lull in our operations to have my foot attended to. It had been bitten by a sand-fly, and for the last six months had caused me inconvenience. These sand-flies, which infested many of the camps, bore their way into the flesh, round the edge of the toe-nails, causing painful inflammation. If care is not taken they attack the flesh round them and, according to medical opinion, the maiming of the feet frequent among the natives is very often to be traced to the sand-fly. I, too, was suffering from this inconvenience, and on the march the inflammation constantly recurred. Fortunately Staff-Surgeon Taute, using a local anæsthetic, was able to extract the nail.

I was also inconvenienced in another way. On a reconnoitring expedition a blade of the tall grass, which grows above a man’s height, had pierced my right eye. During the subsequent treatment it was feared that the use of the lens might be affected by atropia; the result was that I could not see properly with my right eye and was unable to read hand-writing or sketch-maps. This was very awkward, as my left eye had been so seriously injured by a shot wound received during the Hottentot rebellion in South-West Africa, that I could only see through it with the help of spectacles. Suitable spectacles could not, however, be obtained, and so I was compelled to carry out various enterprises without being able to see properly.

The patrols of Koehl’s detachment in the Medo-Nanungu district had meanwhile reached the coast, after taking Portuguese fortresses on, and far south of, the lower Lurio river, and carrying off a few guns and, what was more important, rifles, ammunition and considerable supplies. The natives showed themselves very friendly towards our men, whom they regarded as their deliverers from Portuguese oppression. Patrols from Otto’s detachment from Mahua had also reconnoitred as far as the region south of the Lurio. Lieutenant Methner, so experienced in the ways of the natives, and first referant of our government, praised the capacity and cleverness of the Portuguese natives and the intelligence and far-sightedness of their local chiefs.