The Gold Coast Regiment in the East African Campaign

by Sir Hugh Charles Clifford

On the 16th December the Regiment remained in camp reorganizing its shattered forces; on the 17th and 18th December it was held in reserve; and though during the 17th detachments were moved forward in support of the 40th Pathans, who had been retired from Gold Coast Hill to the kopjes near its foot, they did not come into action. On that day, too, Captain Kelton, with 75 rank and file of B Company, were sent back to Kitambi. On the 19th December the Regiment was withdrawn, and went into camp at the foot of Mtumbei Juu Mission Hill. On the 21st of December the Regiment took up positions upon a roughly semicircular ridge on the left of the road to Kibata and lying to the north-east of the mission, and here it remained for some days, occasionally using the Battery to support the 40th Pathans on Harman’s Kopje, and sending out patrols, some of which had slight brushes with the enemy. On the 24th Captain Kelton, Captain D’Amico, R.A.M.C., Lieutenant Percy, Colour-Sergeant Beattie, and 78 rank and file, with other details, rejoined the Regiment from Kitambi; and on this day intelligence was received that Military Crosses had been awarded to Captain Shaw and to Captain A. J. R. O’Brien of the West African Medical Staff, which they had earned at Kikirunga Hill.

On the 27th December Captain Kelton, with 80 rank and file, took over Harman’s Kopje from the 40th Pathans, and on the 29th December, a German camp having been located on the northern slope of Gold Coast Hill, the Battery opened fire upon it at 11 a.m., but found the target beyond its range. The enemy replied, and quickly found the position of the Battery, which Captain Foley at once removed to another prepared position. This movement had hardly been completed ere a shell burst within seven feet from the spot which had been vacated only a few moments earlier—a striking illustration of the excellence of the enemy’s observation and of the accuracy of his fire.

At 9 a.m. on this day Captain Wray arrived in camp with welcome reinforcements from Kumasi and a party of Volunteers from Accra in the Gold Coast. These reinforcements consisted of 160 men of D Company, who were all Fulanis, and 90 Jaundis, who had originally been recruited in the Kameruns, under Captain Wray and Lieutenant Downer, 150 men of the Gold Coast Volunteers under Captain Hellis, and 200 Sierra Leone carriers.

At 1.35 p.m. Captain Biddulph died from the wounds which he had received, when in command of the advanced guard, early in the morning of the 15th December.

On the 29th the reinforcements were paraded and allocated to the various companies; and on the following day General Hannyngton held a parade of details from all companies that could be spared from the firing-line, and decorated 3926 Regimental Sergeant-Major Manasara Kanjaga, 4388 Battery Sergeant-Major Bukari Moshi, and Sergeant Palpukah Grumah with Distinguished Conduct Medals which had been awarded to them for services rendered in the Kamerun Campaign.

The strength of the Regiment on the 31st December, 1916, after the reinforcements above mentioned had been received, amounted to 19 officers, 14 British non-commissioned officers, 10 clerks and dressers, 860 rank and file, 444 gun, ammunition, and transport carriers, 34 servants, and 48 stretcher-bearers, making a total of 1429 officers and men of all ranks.

During the first week of January, 1917, the Regiment continued to occupy the ridge to the north-west of the Mtumbei Juu mission station, and on the left of the road leading to Kibata, sending out frequent patrols, which collected some useful information, and came on more than one occasion into touch with the enemy. The latter, meanwhile, had sustained a fairly severe check at the hands of General O’Grady’s force, which, from the ridge occupied by it to the eastward of the Kibata mission station, had delivered a very successful night attack upon the extreme left of the enemy’s position.

On the 8th January, information having been received that large bodies of the enemy had left and were leaving the area by the road to Mwengei—a village over the hills directly to the north of Kibata—Colonel Rose decided to make a reconnaissance in force in order to try to reach this road, and to retake Gold Coast Hill. At an early hour of the day, therefore, he proceeded with 250 rifles from A and B Company, with the Battery and with the 24th Mountain Battery, along the high ridge overlooking Gold Coast Hill, of which mention has already been made, starting from the north-westerly extremity of the ridge which the Regiment had been holding. Owing, however, to the extremely difficult character of the country through which his way led, he was not able to reach a suitable place from which to begin operations until late in the afternoon.

At 6.30 on the following morning Major Goodwin began to push forward along the ridge which commanded Gold Coast Hill from the north-west. No opposition was met with, and a patrol which was sent out to reconnoitre Gold Coast Hill reported that it had been evacuated by the enemy. This was later confirmed by Lieutenant Downer, who had reached Gold Coast Hill by the old route from Harman’s Kopje, which the Regiment had followed on the 15th December.

Other patrols were sent forward and reached the Mwengei road, effecting a junction with the 2nd King’s African Rifles and the 129th Baluchis, who had been operating from Kibata. The fact of the enemy’s retreat was now established, the whole area being clear of hostile forces; but the day being far advanced, Colonel Rose camped for the night at One-Stick Hill, so named from a conspicuous white palm-tree on its crest, in a position of extraordinary strength which had been established by the Germans, and from which it was obvious most of the heavy howitzer, rifle, and machine-gun fire poured upon Gold Coast Hill on the 15th December had come.