On the 24th September, the Regiment left Ndessa at 2 p.m. and reached Kitandi, where it camped for the night after a three hours’ march. No trace of the enemy was seen during the day.
On the morrow the Regiment marched to Bweho Chini—the scene of the big fight which the Nigerians had had with von Lettow-Vorbeck’s main force on the 22nd September—where junction was effected with No. 1 Column. The rest of the Regiment, under Major Shaw, however, was not in camp, as it was holding an outpost some five miles away from Bweho on a track leading to Beka.
During these two days Lieutenants Bussell and Shaw, Sergeants Campbell and Payne and 71 rank and file joined the Regiment from the Depôt Company at Mpara, and Captain Benham, 14 rank and file, and 5 carriers were evacuated sick.
On the 26th September No. 1 Column marched at dawn, the Gold Coast Regiment acting as the advanced guard, with Major Shaw’s detachment, which consisted of A Company, working independently in advance of the column. The immediate objective was Nahungu, a place which lies on the main road and on the left bank of the Mbemkuru River, ten miles south-south-west of Bweho Chini. The enemy were known to have a prepared position of great strength at this place, which is a point where several tracks meet and where the main road on both sides is overlooked by hills.
Major Shaw gained touch with the enemy at 7.30 a.m., and from that time onward the Germans fought a series of rear-guard actions, their whole object on this day and during the operations which immediately followed being, as was afterwards made clear, to cover the retreat of their main body with their baggage, train of porters, and the numerous wounded whom they had borne away from the hard-fought field of Bweho Chini.
At 10.30 a.m., B Company, under Captain Methven, was sent to join up with A Company under Major Shaw, and the latter was instructed to try to push the enemy rear-guard back upon Nahungu. It was expected that the Nigerian Brigade would be at Naiku River, some six or seven miles north of Nahungu.
It presently became evident, however, that Nahungu was too far off for the column to be able to deliver an attack upon it that day; and the advance guard received instructions to select a site for a camp early in the afternoon. Accordingly, No. 1 Column camped at Beka, and the night passed without incident.
Since the 19th September the Gold Coast Regiment had sustained the following casualties: Captain Wray severely wounded, Lieutenant Percy wounded, 8 soldiers killed, 22 wounded, and 1 carrier killed and 3 wounded.
With the arrival at Beka the first phase of the push south which had been begun on the 19th September may be said to have come to an end, a new one opening on the 27th September with the projected attack upon the enemy stronghold at Nahungu. So far, the enemy’s right, against which No. 1 Column had been operating, had been driven from Mihambia, some thirteen miles south to the banks of the Mbemkuru River, a few miles north-west of which his main body had come into such disastrous collision with the Nigerian Brigade. He had now fallen back up the valley of the Mbemkuru for a further distance of fourteen miles to Nahungu, the general line of his retreat being in a south-westerly direction. Sixty miles to the east of Nahungu was the port of Lindi, whence a large force under General Beves was fighting its way, through very hilly and difficult country, along the road leading to von Lettow-Vorbeck’s headquarters at Massassi, the general line of this advance being parallel to the enemy’s line of retreat up the valley of the Mbemkuru River. Massassi itself lay only some five and sixty miles south of Nahungu, and if it could be captured before the end of the dry season, the expulsion of the Germans from their East African possessions would have been practically effected.