The Gold Coast Regiment in the East African Campaign

by Sir Hugh Charles Clifford

B Company’s advance proceeded without incident until about eight miles had been covered and only four more separated the little force from the mission station on the other side of the dried-up bed of the Lukuledi River. At this point a small black boy, wearing a blue waist-skirt, was met sauntering quite unconcernedly down the centre of the road. Though he was only about twelve years of age, and quite alone, he manifested neither fear nor excitement at finding himself thus suddenly confronted by a body of armed men, and he answered the questions addressed to him with the grave maturity of demeanour that is so often to be observed in native children, and which sits so quaintly upon them. Captain Methven, and many of the men of the Company, had picked up a working knowledge of Swahili during their campaigning in East Africa, so communication with the child was easy enough, and from him it was learned that there were a good many Germans and Askari at the mission-station, but that they had packed up their gear and apparently meditated an early departure. He added that there was a small enemy post just across the dried-up bed of the Lukuledi River on the left of the advance. The small boy was passed back under escort to the Headquarters of the Gold Coast Regiment, and B Company resumed its march.

About two miles before the mission station at Lukuledi is reached, the road breasts a fairly steep ascent, the crest of which is perhaps a mile and a half from the mission buildings. From the summit of this rise the road dips in a long slope to the Lukuledi River—a stream some twenty or thirty feet in width, with low water-worn banks, and at this season of the year without a drop of moisture anywhere visible in the cracked, sun-baked mud which composes its bed. At the foot of the hill the road crosses this river-bed, and bending slightly to the right climbs the hill on the summit of which the mission station is situated. The surface of this hill is pitted near its base by a few shallow folds and hollows, and toward the left of the advance there were patches of shortish grass. For the rest, however, the vegetation had been burned off and the grass reduced to blackened stubble not more than an inch or two in length.

On the top of the hill some of the mission buildings were enclosed in a boma—a zariba or stockade constructed of impenetrable thorn bushes—which blocked the road. To the left rear of this stockade, as viewed from the front, the road once more emerged from it, and passing a substantial, two-storeyed dwelling-house built of red locally-burned bricks, that occupied a position on its left, it ran on two to three hundred yards to the church, which was built of the same material and was surmounted by a high spire. Behind the station, the country was covered by the same open bush, scattered trees, grass and occasional scrub already described. From the valley of the Lukuledi, which separated the Mission Hill from the hill whence the road led down to the river crossing, some fairly high trees rose to a sufficient height for their tops partially to obscure the depth of the depression in which they were rooted.

The summit of the hill leading down to the river crossing was very bare, the grass on each side having been completely burned away, and on arrival here Captain Methven felt convinced that his little force, which was now nearly two miles in advance of the rest of the Regiment, must be clearly visible from the mission station. Owing to the mass of the tree-tops rising from the river valley, it is doubtful, however, whether he was right in this conjecture; but as he advanced a solitary shot was twice fired from the bush upon his left. Believing himself to be under observation from the mission station, Captain Methven deployed his men on either side of the road in the sparse bush and grass, in order to provide them with such cover as was available, and he then began to descend the hill, the armoured cars moving forward with him, but of course remaining on the highway. Halfway down the hill the rearmost car suddenly developed engine trouble, and had to be left behind.

The section of B Company which was under Lieutenant Woods’ command led the advance, and on reaching the river crossing it found that, though an enemy post had been established on the far side of it and to his left, as had been accurately reported by the small boy, it had now been withdrawn. Woods therefore crossed the river, and proceeded up the road until the boma was reached. There was no sign of the enemy, and he accordingly went back down the road and reported to Captain Methven that he believed the station to be unoccupied, and that he had sent a small party forward to confirm this fact.

B Company was then deployed along the base of the Mission Hill, the section on the left wing being under the command of Lieutenant S. B. Smith, that next to it being under Lieutenant Baillie, while the centre, with which was the machine-gun, was astride the road, under Captain Methven and Colour-Sergeant Cuneen, with Lieutenant Woods’ section upon its right. The formation of the company was thus an irregular semicircular line, the men being in extended order; and it was thus that, at about 2.30 p.m., the advance up the hill was begun.

The few shallow folds and hollows in the surface of the hill near its base had been left behind, and B Company had advanced about a hundred yards into the wide belt of bare and fire-blackened earth which extended thence to the edge of the boma, when fire was suddenly opened upon it from machine-guns placed in the bush to the right and left of the mission station, while from behind the boma there came a tremendous burst of rifle-fire. The enemy had watched the approach of B Company, and had held his fire awaiting the psychological moment to attack. Now, when Captain Methven’s little force had reached a position where no cover was to be found for a hundred yards or more in any direction, the Germans suddenly subjected their opponents to a withering cross-fusillade. Shortly afterwards a party of the enemy, about 150 strong, was seen to emerge from behind the mission house to the right rear of their position, and to run at a double into some long grass with the evident intention of outflanking the left of the line formed by B Company.

The position in which Captain Methven’s little force found itself was desperate, no less; but, as usual, the courage, the discipline and the steadfastness of the men were beyond praise. Hugging the bare ground as closely as they might they returned the enemy’s fire; but save the boma, they had no target at which to aim, while the Germans were firing upon them, as the accuracy of their marksmanship proved, at ranges which had been carefully ascertained in advance.

Captain Methven brought his machine-gun into action, and Colour-Sergeant Cuneen, who was working it, was immediately killed. Sergeant-Major Mama Juma, who took his place, was instantly hit, and though it was now evident that the enemy had the position of this gun “taped,” as it is called, and that it was practically certain death for any one to touch it, the gun-team continued to try to serve it until every man among them had been killed or wounded. From end to end of the line the casualties were now very heavy, but retreat was even more dangerous than the continued occupation of this mercilessly exposed position; and B Company maintained its ground, and manfully tried to return the enemy’s fire. On the right, Lieutenant Woods was killed early in the action, but Sergeant Yessufu Mamprusi at once assumed command of the section, and continued to direct and steady his men. In the centre, where the casualties were very heavy, Colour-Sergeant Cuneen had been killed and the whole of the machine-gun team had been put out of action, while Captain Methven had been thrice wounded in the same leg—a leg which already bore the scar of a wound received some months earlier on the western front in France.

The foremost armoured car, contrary to orders, had come right up into the firing-line, thus presenting a target to the enemy which caused the men lying to the right and left of it to be subjected to a specially devastating fire. Both this car and its fellow, which had overcome its engine troubles, and had crept up the hill, had had their tyres shot to ribbons; the driver of the leading car had been wounded in the eye, through the window of his vehicle, and the machine-guns with which they were armed were quite unable effectively to retaliate upon the enemy.