The Gold Coast Regiment in the East African Campaign

by Sir Hugh Charles Clifford

On Wednesday, 13th September, patrols were sent out at dawn, and it was eventually established that the enemy had retired from the positions which he had held overnight. A company, under Captain Wheeler, was sent from Major Goodwin’s force on the right to rejoin the Regiment on the left of the line; and early in the morning the half of I Company, which had been with the guns of the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment, was relieved by the 29th Punjabis, and rejoined the other half of the Company, which was posted between the Pioneer Company on the extreme left and G Company.

The Regiment then advanced, the Pioneers entering the village which they had attacked the day before, without opposition, where they were later joined by I Company. G Company, which had to advance through very dense elephant grass, lost touch with the rest of the force, as can so easily happen in country of this description, and communication with it was not re-established until the afternoon.

From the village which the Pioneers had occupied, patrols were sent out to locate the river, and this accomplished, the Pioneers, leaving I Company in occupation of the village, crossed the stream, which was only a few feet in width, and advanced in the direction of Nkessa, holding both banks. At first only a few snipers were encountered, but eventually the enemy was found to be in occupation of a position, with his left resting on a village on the river’s bank, and his right thrown slightly forward. The enemy promptly attacked, and Captain Poyntz retired the Pioneers about 200 yards, and having dug himself in, held on to his rifle-pits for the rest of the day. At about 1.30 p.m. one section of A Company, which had been sent to reinforce the Pioneers, came up on their left on the southern side of the stream; and an hour and a half later I Company with two machine-guns and the Battery came into action and bombarded the villages held by the enemy on the left and right fronts.

At 4 p.m. an advance was ordered, and after an hour’s fighting, B Company and three sections of A Company reinforced the left of the Regiment, and, night coming on, were halted and dug themselves in. The thick elephant grass in which these operations were conducted rendered the exact location of the enemy’s position a matter of great difficulty during the whole of this day.

On the morning of the 14th September, the enemy was found to have once more evacuated his positions, and the Gold Coast Regiment, having been relieved by the King’s African Rifles, marched into Nkessa, where the brigade camp had already been formed.

The casualties sustained by the Regiment between the 11th and the 13th September numbered four killed and thirty-three wounded, including Captain Greene, Lieutenant Bray, Colour-Sergeant May, and Lieutenant Arnold. The last named died in Tulo hospital on the 16th September of the wounds which he had received on the 12th September. Lieutenant Isaacs, who had been sent forward to reconnoitre, stumbled into an enemy patrol, and was captured.

On the 19th September the Battalion moved to a spot on the banks of the Mgeta River, where a camp was formed. The Mgeta is a branch of the Ruwu, which falls into the sea at Bagamoyo, opposite to the southern extremity of the island of Zanzibar. Here the patrols and outposts of the Regiment were in frequent touch with the enemy, and a good many casualties were sustained; and on the 22nd September the Battalion returned to the brigade camp at Nkessa. On the 30th the Regiment moved to a new outpost camp, between the Mgeta and Nkessa; and while here a section of I Company, under Lieutenant Berry, was sent out to demolish a wooden bridge over the Mgeta. Just as the work was nearing completion, this small force was suddenly fired upon by an enemy patrol posted in thick bush, while many of the men were standing waist-deep in the stream, five soldiers being killed and four wounded.

The following day the Battalion, having been relieved by the 130th Baluchis, was moved to Tulo, whence a couple of days later it was sent back to Nkessa, an attack upon that place being anticipated. Here the outposts had frequent casual encounters with the enemy, and on the 16th October two different patrols found mines on the Kissaki road, which had been laid as a trap for troops advancing by that route. These were constructed by embedding a four-inch shell in the earth at the depth of a few feet, with a friction-tube attached to one end of a plank, the other end of which slanted upward to just below the surface of the road. This plank, at a spot about one-third of its total length, measuring from the shell, was supported upon a fulcrum in such a manner that, when any weight was imposed upon the portion near the surface, the lower end jacked up and caused the shell to explode.

On the 17th October the Battalion was once more moved to Tulo, where it remained until the 7th November, upon which date the Second Brigade broke camp and began a march to the coast at Dar-es-Salaam. The way led to the banks of the Ruwu River, of which the Mgeta[Mgeta] is a right affluent. and from Magogoni, the point at which the stream was struck, down its valley to Mafisa. The country traversed—a green and fertile valley, dipping gently toward the coast—was perhaps the most attractive area seen by the Regiment in the lowlands of East Africa during the course of the whole campaign. The rivers, of course, were shrunken to their lowest levels, and many of the tributary streams were dried up; but water was obtainable along the whole line of march, and in spite of the tropical heat, which increased in intensity as the coast was approached, the nine days occupied by the journey to Dar-es-Salaam were less trying than were most of the marches undertaken by the Regiment during this campaign.

At Mafisa the main road, which runs from Kidugato on the railway to Dar-es-Salaam, was struck; and here the valley of the Ruwu was quitted, the Brigade marching in an easterly direction, almost parallel to the railway, which was struck in its turn at Kisserawe on the 15th November. Although this line had now been for some time in the hands of the British, so much damage had been wrought to it that it was not yet open to traffic; and the Brigade, to which the Regiment was still attached, accordingly continued its march to Dar-es-Salaam by road. The last-named place was reached on the 17th November, and the Regiment forthwith embarked on the steam transport Ingoma, the men, with their baggage, stores, etc., and a number of carriers being conveyed from the landing stage to the ship’s side in lighters. All were got on board by 6.30 p.m., and a rather comfortless night was spent, the Ingoma being crowded to the gunwales with the men of the Regiment, their carriers and details belonging to other units. Very early in the morning of the 18th November the ship got under way, and set off on her two-hundred-mile journey down the coast to Kilwa Kisiwani.