Before long we received an important report from the advance guard. On the previous day Captain Müller had completely surprised the enemy at Kokosani by an encircling move. Marching on the factory buildings from the north in broad daylight, through a field of knee-high agaves and without any cover, he had succeeded in getting into the Portuguese entrenchments and, in several hours of very severe hand-to-hand fighting, defeating the three Portuguese companies holding them, with very heavy losses to the enemy. In the course of the action a number of rifles, as well as two field guns with their ammunition, were captured.
I myself went on a little ahead of our main body, and in the morning came across several extensive and well-arranged plantations. Next I followed the track of a field railway, which ran along the main road right through the fields, and after a short time joined up with a standard-gauge line. As was to appear later, the latter led from the river Namacurra northwards to the neighbourhood of Lugella. When Captain Müller struck this standard-gauge line the day before, he held up a train which had just come from Lugella. It is easy to realize the mutual amazement when there descended from the train several Portuguese non-commissioned officers whom Müller had captured at Lugella and released again.
When I reached the factory buildings, Captain Müller came limping up to me, pretty lame. He expressed his astonishment that I had brought my detachment direct to Kokosani by the main road and without opposition, for he thought that there must be quite two English companies somewhere in the neighbourhood. He had not yet been able to ascertain their whereabouts, but documents which Captain Müller had captured pointed conclusively to their presence in the district. Müller also told me that he had not yet found the considerable quantity of infantry cartridges. All his people were still busy trying to find them and anything similar.
When I considered the matter more closely, it seemed to me more probable that the ammunition stores we were hunting for would not be near the factory, but must be somewhere directly on the railway, and, indeed, at its southern terminus. That was the place for a large ammunition depot, for it must be the unloading point where the stuff was transferred to rail from ships on the Namacurra. We had to find out whether these deductions were sound. I went back immediately and met the leading files of our main body among the plantations. The leading companies were anything but pleased to have to retrace their steps in order to follow the standard-gauge railway southwards. After the long, tiring march a few complimentary remarks about my arrangements were comprehensible enough. Fortunately for me, I did not hear them.
It was in a rather bad humour that the men at the head of the column arrived in the neighbourhood of the railway-station. They did not seriously believe in the possibility of a fight. It was upon them suddenly, however, and several Askari were struck by hostile bullets at quite short range and fell. The rest of our main force, which was near at hand and ready for action, was brought up. When I arrived, the situation was not at all clear; the enemy was obviously entrenched and closer reconnaissance was in progress. An indecisive exchange of shots now developed. It began to rain and was unpleasantly cold, so that everyone felt thoroughly uncomfortable. I myself went to Lieutenant von Ruckteschell’s company, which was lying opposite to and about ninety yards from the corrugated-iron buildings of the station and directing a well-aimed rifle and machine-gun fire from some high ant-hills every time anything showed.
I considered that the situation at the moment was unfavourable to storming the station. We would have been compelled to rush at the enemy’s position through the thick bush, which was commanded by a most effective hostile fire. That offered but little prospect of success. A number of our men would probably not have joined in the rush at all, and those who did and got close to the enemy’s fortress would probably have been held up and found themselves unable to get on. We should, therefore, achieve nothing.
On the other hand, my reconnaissance had brought the idea to my mind that on targets, some of which were very visible, artillery fire would be effective, especially from two sides. It would frighten the enemy’s Askari and make them run away. That would be a favourable moment for good machine-gun fire. But the day was already too far advanced, and our gun was smashed, so that nothing definite could be ventured on for that day. The larger portion of the troops retired to our camp, and only three companies of Captain Poppe’s detachment remained in close contact with the enemy.
The next day, July 3rd, we got our gun into working order again, after strenuous efforts. As luck would have it, it was of the same model as the guns Captain Müller had captured, and so, by interchanging the individual serviceable parts of these three guns, we produced a field-piece fit for use. There was thus a prospect of putting to good use the two hundred rounds we had captured two days before. In the afternoon the gun was to be brought up to within a few hundred yards of the station, and open fire upon it. Another smaller, 4-cm., gun was ready in the foremost infantry line—and therefore about a hundred and twenty-five yards off—to start a cross fire. All our machine guns were held ready. In the morning I had been to the factory buildings again for a conference, and had told the civilian personnel there they need not get frightened if they heard the sound of firing in the afternoon. The white women and children had been very frightened by the fighting, and some of them had fled into the bush.
I had gone back to our camp, extremely tired, when the sound of fighting at the station suddenly made itself heard. We received a telephone report that loud yells and cries of “hurrah” could be heard coming from the station. By degrees the following facts were established: the enemy was apparently tired of the well-aimed, concentric fire which had been directed at them since the afternoon. They were now being subjected to artillery fire from two sides at once, and the moment there was the slightest movement machine guns opened on them. Their young troops could not stand it, and were very restless. Our companies recognized that this was their weak moment and used it immediately, showing splendid initiative. They leaped up with loud hurrahs, and the next minute were in the enemy’s position. The enemy began to run away. The English maintained that they had been infected by the example of the Portuguese. However that may be, they ran away and our companies immediately went after them as hard as they could. Our flying foes reached the river Namacurra, which ran immediately behind their position, quickly pulled off their boots and dashed into the water. Here most of the hostile troops were drowned, including their commander, Major Gore-Brown.
Between July 1st and 3rd the enemy had 5 Europeans and 100 Askari killed, 4 Europeans and about 100 Askari drowned, while 421 Askari were taken prisoner. Of the Europeans (5 English and 117 Portuguese) who also fell into our hands, 55 Portuguese escaped and 46 sick and wounded Portuguese were left behind in the hospital at Kokosani. We had 8 Askari and 1 machine-gun carrier killed, 3 Europeans, 11 Askari and 2 machine-gun carriers wounded. At first it was quite impossible to estimate, even approximately, what amount of ammunition and food we had captured at the station. Seven heavy, 3 light machine guns and 2 guns had fallen into our hands, but these 2 guns had been rendered useless.