The Gold Coast Regiment in the East African Campaign

by Sir Hugh Charles Clifford

At dawn on the 4th October No. 1 Column moved out of its camp at Mitoneno, and speedily found itself in action with the enemy. The Gold Coast Regiment, however, was in reserve on this day, and so did not take part in the action. The column fought its way forward for a distance of four miles, and when, fairly late in the afternoon, the Regiment arrived at the place where it was proposed that a perimeter camp should be formed for the night, B Company, under Captain Methven, was sent to hold a flat-crested hill upon the south, from which the camp was commanded. At dusk the enemy fired a few shells over the camp, but the night passed otherwise without incident.

At Ruangwa Chini, which is the name of the place in the neighbourhood of which No. 1 Column had been held up all day, the road at the spot near which the camp was being established runs east and west and roughly parallel to the river, which is distant from it a few hundred yards on the north—the right of the British advance. On the left the country was very difficult, the road being overlooked by a succession of red, laterite hills, for the most part bare of vegetation, though long rank grass sprouted wherever there was a foothold for its roots. The slopes of these hills were covered and strewn with outcrops and boulders of the same red rock, the colour of which is the deep, rich hue that in England is associated with the coombs and lanes of Devon. The principal feature was the high hill which, late in the afternoon, B Company of the Gold Coast Regiment was detailed to occupy in conjunction with the 129th Baluchis. This hill, of naked red rock, rose in an almost precipitous slope, from near the southern edge of the road, to a flat summit, barely fifty yards in breadth, but extending in a position parallel to the track for perhaps ten times that distance. Its southern and western slopes, which were both accessible to the enemy, were much less abruptly graded; but the approach from the east was again very steep. Near the western extremity of this hill the road curved about its foot in a south-westerly direction; and in the thickish bush, which lay between the road and the river on the right front of the British advance, the enemy had got a gun into position, whence it shelled the head of the column from a safe distance. Early in the day the Germans had contrived to shoot down a British aeroplane into the tree-tops in that locality; but the pilot and the observer both escaped without any serious injury, and were able to make their way back to No. 1 Column.

When that morning the British were advancing along the road from their camp at Mitoneno, the 129th Baluchis had scaled the eastern face of the flat-topped hill above described, and had worked along its summit to a point near to its western extremity. Here, however, they had come into contact with an enemy post, which had opened fire upon them with a machine-gun. The Baluchis had twice retired, but later in the day they had dug their way from the road to the base of the northern face of the hill, and thence had climbed the steep ascent to its summit, where they had dug themselves in in a line of rifle-pits drawn across the flat top at a point about halfway along its length.

Meanwhile Lieutenant Foster of the 27th Mountain Battery had climbed with his orderly up the eastern face of the hill, and from there was engaged in observing for his unit the German fire from the gun posted in the bush on the right front of the British advance. He presently became aware that a party of the enemy was working its way up the gentle slope on the southern side of the hill at a spot to the rear of the place where the Baluchis were dug in; and Lieutenant Foster and his orderly, taking cover behind a boulder, opened fire upon the enemy with revolver and rifle, and for a time actually succeeded in staying or delaying his advance.

This was the position of affairs when B Company, under Captain Methven, who had been ordered to dig himself in at a spot near the foot of the eastern extremity of the hill, in order to guard the left and left rear of the column, was instructed to quit his entrenchments and go to the assistance of the Baluchis on the summit. He and his men scaled the steep eastern face of the hill, which the Baluchis had climbed in the course of their first advance that morning, and were in time to relieve Lieutenant Foster and his orderly, who were still maintaining their plucky lone-hand fight. B Company then worked along the southern edge of the crest until it had lined up abreast of the Baluchis in their shallow rifle-pits, and thence pushed forward to the western extremity of the hill, from whence the enemy was already retiring down the slope leading to his main position. Here B Company dug itself in for the night, having effectually relieved the camp from the menace to which the occupation of this summit by the enemy had exposed it.

In the course of this operation B Company lost 1 private killed, 5 wounded, and 1 machine-gun carrier wounded.

On the 5th October, patrols sent out at dawn came almost immediately into touch with the enemy, who was estimated to have some five companies in position at Ruangwa Chini, about two miles to the west—namely, in the direction of the column’s advance. The 129th Baluchis, the 1st Battalion of the 3rd Regiment of the King’s African Rifles, and the 2nd Battalion of the 2nd Regiment of that corps were dispatched to attack the position, supported by the 27th Mountain Battery and the Kilwa Battery. This hilly and rocky laterite country was very difficult, however, and by 3.30 p.m. so little progress had been made that Colonel Orr decided to break off the attack, and to withdraw the units that had been engaged in it to the camp which the column had occupied on the preceding afternoon.

The Gold Coast Regiment was not engaged during the day, but one of its carriers was wounded by a stray bullet.

On the 6th October, No. 1 Column marched at dawn, working through the bush in a southerly direction for the purpose of outflanking the right of the enemy’s position, and of cutting off his retreat, should he attempt to make use of any of the paths leading toward the south. The troops in reserve remained in camp to hold the enemy in front, and to be ready to thrust forward if the flanking movement proved successful. The 27th Cavalry, meanwhile, had instructions to co-operate from the left bank of the Mbemkuru.

No. 1 Column was able to get into a position well to the rear of that which the enemy had occupied on the preceding day, but the Germans had retired from it during the night, leaving only a party of some forty men to watch and delay the movements of the British troops. On the approach of the latter this small band dispersed, and a part of it, which had apparently got “bushed,” consisting of one German and ten Askari, was captured.