No. 1 Column, suffering somewhat from the disillusionment and disappointment which are the prevailing sentiments that bush-fighting commonly inspires in a pursuing force, accordingly worked its way laboriously back to the main road, where it learned that the rest of the column, which had encountered no resistance, was encamped about two and a half miles ahead of it.
The check at Ruangwa Chini is, in a measure, typical of military operations in the bush. By it the enemy had been able to reduce the advance achieved in the space of three days by a force, greatly its numerical superior, to a matter of seven or eight miles; and in accomplishing this he had exposed himself to no inconvenience and to negligible danger.
On the 7th October No. 1 Column resumed its interrupted march down the main road, which here runs west, with the river parallel to it upon the right. The Gold Coast Regiment, less two companies and the battery, furnished the advance guard. A distance of between eight and nine miles was traversed during the day, and a camp was taken up for the night near Kiperele Chini.
The 25th Cavalry were encamped, with one company of the Gold Coast Regiment, at a spot about a mile and a quarter further down the road.
On the 8th October No. 1 Column marched down the main road, and camped for the night at Mbemba, which is distant some ten miles from Kiperele Chini.
From this point the road which No. 1 Column had been following more or less continuously ever since it started pushing south from Narungombe, runs on, in a south-westerly direction, still adhering closely to one or another bank of the river. About ten miles from Mbemba it strikes the main Liwale-Massassi road, at a place named Mangano, and here the 25th Cavalry captured large quantities of stores belonging to the Germans. These stores, however, consisted exclusively of native food-stuffs such as mealies, the kind of millet locally called mantana, cassava and a little rice—bulky stuff which, since it could not be carried off, was burned to prevent it again falling into the enemy’s hands.
On the 9th October No. 1 Column left the main road and the banks of the Mbemkuru River, and turning off to the left along a narrow track, pushed forward in a south-south-easterly direction to Lihonja, distant from Mbemba a matter of some seven miles. Here the main Liwale-Massassi road was struck by the Column for the first time—a really first-class laterite highway, some twenty to twenty-five feet in width, running through grass country and open bush, with a surface consolidated by constant traffic. This road was now followed for a distance of about nine miles, and the Column camped for the night at a mission station named Mnero. This is a pretty little station, with mission buildings and church perched upon a low hill, and with at least a mile square of well-cultivated land lying around it. The church was subsequently used by the British as an advance hospital for their sick and wounded.
| GOLD COAST REGIMENT. | ||
| Men in marching order. | To face p. 160. |
During October 9th, as on the two preceding days, the advance of No. 1 Column had been accomplished without incident.