On the 9th December, therefore, the Regiment left Chemera and marched in a northerly direction to Mtumbei Chini, and thence on the 10th December to Kitambi at the foot of the mountains, in the heart of which the mission stations of Mtumbei Juu and Kibata are situated. It should be noted that the words “chini” and “juu,” which will be found so frequently to occur in place-names in East Africa, signify respectively “low” and “high.” Thus “Mtumbei Chini” means “Mtumbei on the Plain,” and “Mtumbei Juu” means “Mtumbei on the Hill.”
A mile from Kitambi a river was met, through which the advanced guard, under the command of Captain Harman, had to wade with the water up to their necks. The officer commanding the rear-guard reported that when he crossed it, the river was only knee-deep; while Captain A. J. R. O’Brien, R.A.M.C., who passed the same place next morning, found no river at all, but only a partially dried-up river-bed—rather an interesting instance of the eccentricities of tropical watercourses. They, indeed, can rarely be relied upon for very long together, either to furnish drinking-water or to refrain from impeding transport.
From Kitambi onward only mule-transport and head-carriers could be used, the path up which the Regiment was climbing being at once too narrow and too steep for the passage of motors. The precipitous track was difficult for the men, and still more difficult for the pack-animals; and though the distance from Kitambi to Mtumbei Juu mission station was only eight miles, the mule transport took three-and-twenty hours to make the journey, and in the course of the day three mules were lost by falling over precipices.
The position at Kibata mission station—which lies a few miles to the east and slightly to the north of Mtumbei Juu, and is separated from it by a fairly deep valley—was approximately as follows at the time when the Gold Coast Regiment arrived at the latter station. One battalion of the King’s African Rifles and the 129th Baluchis had occupied Kibata, which is situated upon a prominent hill surrounded by an amphitheatre of commanding mountains, and this force had forthwith become the object of very severe bombardment. The Germans had brought up one of the 4·1 naval guns, rescued by them from the Koenigsberg, and having placed it in a position on the other side of the mountains at some spot slightly to the north-west of Kibata, were shelling the mission station heavily. They evidently had an excellent observation point concealed somewhere on the surrounding mountains, for they were making very good practice; and the enemy had also established himself upon the slopes overlooking Kibata in a roughly semicircular position, with his left to the east and his right to the west of the mission station. A ridge, which runs parallel upon the east to the hill upon which the mission station stands had been occupied by the garrison; and it was from this point alone that they were able in any degree to retaliate upon the attacking force. For the rest, the King’s African Rifles and the Baluchis, who had no means of locating the position of the 4·1 gun, and who, even if they had done so, possessed no artillery with which to make an adequate reply to its fire, could only endure the punishment they were receiving with such patience as they might command. The position, in fact, was rapidly becoming untenable; and on the afternoon of the 13th December General Hannyngton made a careful examination of the ground from a height in the neighbourhood of Mtumbei Juu, and decided to attempt to turn the enemy’s right flank.
Between Mtumbei Juu and Kibata, at a point near the base of the valley which divides the hill upon which the mission station stands from that occupied by the Kibata mission buildings, a hill slopes upward in a long spur, trending in a northerly direction. Its surface, covered with grass and strewn with outcrops of rock, is broken by many minor crests, till the summit is reached at its most northerly extremity. Near the top a spur juts out to the east and south, shaped somewhat like the flapper of a seal, its slopes separated from the main hill by a semicircular valley. The crest, on which there are a few trees but no cover of any kind, to-day bears the name of Gold Coast Hill. The outlying spur is called Banda Hill. From a point near Mtumbei Juu mission station and almost directly to the north of it, a ridge of mountains runs first north and later with a curve to the east overlooking and commanding Gold Coast Hill. It was General Hannyngton’s hope that if the latter could be captured while this ridge still remained unoccupied, it would be possible thence to get round behind the enemy and so to outflank his right. The task of capturing this hill was assigned by him to the Gold Coast Regiment.
Accordingly, at 6 a.m. on the 14th December, B Company, under Captain Shaw, was sent forward along the mountain track which connects Mtumbei Juu with Kibata, to get into touch with the force at Kibata, which a day or two earlier had been reinforced by another battalion of the King’s African Rifles, and which was now under the command of General O’Grady. He reported that the road between the two missions was open, and at dusk the rest of the Battalion moved along the road for a distance of two to two and a half miles, and there camped for the night.
At dawn on the 15th December, the disposition of the Regiment was as follows:—
The main body lay encamped about two miles along the Mtumbei Juu-Kibata road, with an outpost line, consisting of 50 rifles and one machine-gun, of B Company, under Captain Kelton, thrown out about a mile to the east. Captain Wheeler, with half A Company and one machine-gun, was posted on a line immediately in front of the main body, with a picket on the main road, and another on Harman’s Kopje—a small hill to the north-west of the camp. The other half of A Company, under Captain Harman, with one machine-gun, was in occupation of a hill about 1000 yards north of Harman’s Kopje, with an outpost on a small hill to the left of a path which led to Kibata, and another picket some 600 yards along this path at its point of junction with a track leading west.
At 5 a.m. the Pioneer Company, under the command of Captain Poyntz, moved forward out of camp, and three-quarters of an hour later, Captain Biddulph, at the head of the advanced guard, passed the post which was being held by half A Company, under Captain Harman, and came under fire from the outlying spur on the right which bears the name of Banda Hill. Captain Biddulph was dangerously wounded, and Lieutenant Duncan was killed; and the vanguard then withdrew to the main body, while the Battery came into action from a hill to the north of Harman’s Kopje, loosing off a dozen rounds across the valley at Banda Hill, whence the enemy’s fire had come.
At about 8 a.m. Captain Poyntz continued his advance, and working round the small hills on the left of the main road, reached Gold Coast Hill, the summit of which was the main objective of the Force, at about 11 a.m. During this advance he encountered no further opposition, though he occupied Banda Hill and another eminence situated somewhat to the north-west of it, and left small detachments to hold each of these points.