CHAPTER IV
IN THE KILWA AREA—GOLD COAST HILL
The reason for the transfer of the Gold Coast Regiment, from the region lying to the north of the Rufiji to a scene of operations situated to the southward of that river, can be explained in a few words.
The enemy having been driven, in the course of the 1916 campaign, first across the Dar-es-Salaam-Lake Tanganyika railway, and thereafter through the hilly country to the south of that line to the southernmost fringe of the Uluguru Mountains, it was the object of the British command to confine him, if possible, to the lowlying valley of the Rufiji during the coming wet season. He, on the other hand, it was thought, would try to establish his winter quarters in some convenient spot on the southern side of the valley, and it was believed that two of the places which he had selected for this purpose were the mission stations of Kibata and Mtumbei Juu, which are charmingly situated among the group of mountains that rises from the plain within a mile or two of the sea-shore between the Rufiji and Matandu rivers. In order to frustrate any such intention, Brigadier-General Hannyngton had been dispatched some weeks earlier to conduct the operations in the area above described, and it was for the purpose of acting as a reserve to General Hannyngton’s Force that the Gold Coast Regiment was now being dispatched to Kilwa Kisiwani. Another factor in the situation was the great difficulty which the supply of the troops operating to the north of the Rufiji would present during the rainy season. It had become evident that their number must be reduced, and that even when this had been effected so far as safety allowed, the maintenance of the remainder, in a country which ere long would become water-logged, would be no easily solved problem.
The Regiment arrived at Kilwa Kisiwani on the 19th November, and disembarking during the afternoon, marched to Mpara, where it encamped. Here on the following day the Battalion was joined by the Depôt Company, which had hitherto remained at Korogwe, on the Tanga-Moschi Railway under Major Read; but owing to the difficulties of transport, its stores did not arrive with it. On the 24th November the Regiment marched up the coast, along a sandy track within sight of the sea, to a camp situated four miles to the west of Bliss Hill near Kilwa. Arrangements were made for forming a Depôt Company and store accommodation at Mpara as a regimental base, and G Company was broken up, the men composing it being posted to other companies.
On the 25th November the Regiment began its march along the road which leads in a westerly direction from Kilwa to Chemera, but owing to the late arrival of the transport-carriers and water-carts a start was not made until the afternoon. The Regiment halted for the night in the bush, six miles from their starting-point and a like distance from Nigeri-geri[Nigeri-geri], about six miles down the road; and on the following day it moved on to a camp about two and a half miles to the east of Mitole.
The line of march this day led across a villainous arid flat, covered with mean and dusty scrub and coarse rank grass, wilted and sun-dried. There was not an atom of shade to be found during the whole day’s march; the heat from on high was great, and was vied with in intensity by the heat refracted from the ground; and across this weary expanse officers and men plodded painfully, ankle-deep in the sandy surface of the road, and racked with unappeasable thirst. In spite of the assurance given to the Regiment that water would be procurable along the route, not a drop was to be obtained until the camp was reached late in the afternoon. The Gold Coast soldier is a toughish fellow, and as a rule is not greatly affected by extremes of heat. Like all Africans, however, he is blessed with very open pores, and an insufficient supply of drinking-water hits him peculiarly hard. On this day no less than forty men fell out, and sank exhausted on the line of march, and it would have gone hard with them had not some motor-drivers hurried to the rear and returned, after an absence of some hours, with a supply of water. Many of these exhausted men did not get into camp until the following day, and all of them, together with eight officers—for they, too, were “foot-slogging it” with their men—had forthwith to be sent to hospital as the result of this one day’s march.
None the less, on the 27th November, the Regiment shifted camp to a spot lying three miles to the west of Mitole; and on the following day it moved on to Chemera, where it relieved the 2nd Battalion of the 2nd Regiment of the King’s African Rifles. As soon as this had been effected, I Company with 2 officers, 1 British non-commissioned officer and 182 rank and file, marched off to Namaranje to occupy an outpost position at that place.
The strength of the Regiment at this time was already very considerably reduced, as the breaking up of G Company and the distribution of its personnel among the remaining Companies indicated. The field-state on November 28th—the day upon which the Regiment went into camp at Chemera—showed that only 19 British officers were present, as against the 36 who had started from Sekondi at the beginning of the preceding July, and that during the intervening period, the number of British non-commissioned officers had been reduced from 15 to 10, and that of the rank and file from 980 to 715. The principal battle casualties have been noted in the course of this narrative, but much greater havoc had been wrought to the personnel of the force by ill-health occasioned by exposure, over-exertion, bad food, and water insufficient in quantity and often vile in quality.
It was hoped that on its arrival at Chemera a period of rest would be enjoyed by the Regiment, but before it had been in camp a week word was received that a force composed of a battalion of the King’s African Rifles and the 129th Baluchis, which was in occupation of the mission station at Kibata, was being very hard pressed by the enemy, and ran some risk of being surrounded.