Thus ended the month of June, 1917. The dry season might now be regarded as fairly established, and the country, covered by a luxuriant growth of elephant grass and of fresh green bush into which the recent rains had infused a new life, was already beginning to dry up. The cadre of officers was still far below strength, but it now numbered thirteen combatants, with two medical officers and three officers attached to the Sierra Leone Carrier Corps. The rank and file only totalled 771 men; but the little force now possessed 1264 sturdy West African carriers, 42 stretcher-bearers, and five interpreters, and was perhaps more really mobile than it had yet been since its arrival in East Africa. In all Colonel Shaw had under his command 2156 men; and after the comparative stagnation and the constant harassing patrol work of the past six months, the Regiment looked forward with eager anticipation to the resumption of more active campaigning.
CHAPTER VII
IN THE KILWA AREA—NARUNGOMBE
General Beves was now preparing to take the offensive, his plan being to divide his force into three columns which, working southward, but describing segments of a circle on the west and on the east, might perhaps get in behind the enemy and contrive to envelope him. As usual the difficulties of maintaining sufficient supplies of provisions, ammunition and water obtruded themselves from the outset; but the force was well equipped with motor transport, and it was hoped that, by cutting tracks eight feet wide through the bush, a passage might be made for these vehicles in the rear of the advancing columns.
In order to deceive the enemy as to the main line of his advance, Colonel Orr decided to make a feint along the road past Lingaula Ridge due south of the camp at Rumbo, and this duty he assigned to a company of the Gold Coast Regiment. Colonel Shaw selected B Company for the purpose; and when at 10 p.m. on the 4th July the Regiment left Rumbo with the No. 1 Column, B Company, under the command of Lieutenant Eglon, remained behind at Linguala[Linguala] Ridge.
There was an eclipse of the moon on the night selected for the start, and the darkness was intense, and it was not till noon on the 5th July that Beaumont’s Post was reached. No. 1 Column, which was commanded by Colonel Orr, consisted of the Gold Coast Regiment, the 33rd Punjabis, the 2nd Battalion of the 2nd Regiment of the King’s African Rifles, the famous Indian Mountain Battery from Derajat, which goes by the name of the “D. M. B.,” and the 8th South African Infantry, which joined the Gold Coast Regiment at Beaumont’s Post. No. 1 Column was to make the sweep southward on the left of the advance. No. 2 Column was composed of the 1st and 2nd Battalions of the 3rd Regiment of the King’s African Rifles, the 7th South African Infantry, and the 27th Mountain Battery, under the command of Colonel Grant. Its sweep was to be made on the right of the advance. A third column was operating still further to the left of No. 1 Column. This column consisted of the 3rd Battalion of the 3rd King’s African Rifles, and the 40th Pathans. On the day before the engagement at Narungombe it was reinforced by one and a half companies of the 8th South African Infantry from No. 1 Column. No. 3 Column was under the command of Colonel Taylor. The 129th Baluchis were in reserve at Makangaga.
No. 1 Column left Beaumont’s Post at 7 p.m. on the 5th July for Ukuli, and at midnight the men bivouacked in column of route. At dawn the march was resumed, and at 4 p.m. the Gold Coast Regiment took over the advanced guard from the King’s African Rifles, who had been heavily engaged all day, and had succeeded in dislodging the enemy from a prepared position.
As soon as this relief had been affected, the Pioneer Company advanced and engaged the enemy’s rear-guard, which it found some 300 yards up the road, and which it drove back to a distance of about a mile. Here the Pioneer Company bivouacked, remaining all night in its advanced position as outpost company, the rest of the Regiment rejoining No. 1 Column in camp. One man was killed and one wounded in the advance by the Pioneer Company.
On the 7th July, the Gold Coast Regiment marched as advanced guard to the column which was now heading in the direction of Ngomania. This place was occupied by the Regiment, after encountering slight resistance, and the rear-guard of the column came into camp there at about 3 p.m.
On this day, however, No. 2 Column had a serious engagement with the enemy in which many casualties were sustained on both sides.
On the 8th July, the Gold Coast Regiment, which had received orders to march to Mnindi, there to join up with No. 2 Column, left Ngomania at 4.30 a.m. It was accompanied by a section of the D.M.B., and the little force marched to Makangaga—the scene of Lieutenant Kinley’s exploit—where at 9 p.m. it bivouacked for the night.