It was realized by all, however, that a great compliment to the Regiment, and a tacit recognition of the fashion in which it had borne itself, were implied in this selection of it, out of all the available troops, to undertake yet one more campaign; and if there were some who thought that the men were being tried almost too severely, the rank and file accepted the new duties which were about to be imposed upon them with their usual philosophy and good temper.
CHAPTER XV
THE ADVANCE FROM PORT AMELIA TO MEZA
With the transfer of military operations from German to Portuguese territory the campaign against von Lettow-Vorbeck assumed a somewhat new aspect. Until now the German Commander-in-Chief had been operating in country that had long been subject to German rule, throughout which German mission stations and German administrative posts had been established, and where every corner and cranny of each district was familiarly known to Europeans or natives resident in the German camps. The enemy troops, moreover, had possessed bases both for military purposes and for the accumulation of supplies; and so long as this continued to be the case points existed here and there which it was important should be maintained as long as possible, and which the movements of von Lettow-Vorbeck’s forces were to some extent designed to defend. With the abandonment of Newala, the last of these permanent posts had been evacuated, and with it any prisoners of war he had taken and the German sick and wounded, who had hitherto been under the treatment of their own doctors, had been suffered to fall into the hands of the British. Thereafter von Lettow-Vorbeck occupied a position of complete independence and irresponsibility. He was situated very much as de Wet and his commando were situated during the concluding months of the South African War; and his troops had similarly been transformed from an army in the field into a mobile band of fugitive marauders, whose only objects were to avoid capture, to cause to their pursuers and to all connected with them the maximum amount of loss and trouble, and simultaneously to maintain themselves by seizing any supplies upon which, from time to time, they could contrive to lay their hands. The business of the British, on the other hand, was rendered more difficult than ever. The object to be aimed at was to wear down the enemy’s forces, to reduce them by gradual attrition, and for this purpose to bring them to action whenever and wherever this could be achieved. There were now, however, no important places, such as Newala, to be threatened by the British advance, and von Lettow-Vorbeck having got rid of all impedimenta, and having no preoccupation save that of maintaining himself in the field as long as possible, was able to place his opponents in a very embarrassing position. This he was now about to do, compelling “Pamforce,” as the Expeditionary Force dispatched to Port Amelia was officially designated, to extend its lines of communications from the coast into the interior for any distance that he might elect to fall back before it; diminishing by this means the strength of the striking force which it could actually bring against him, since lines of communications have to be garrisoned and guarded; multiplying with every additional mile the difficulties surrounding transport and supply; while he carefully husbanded his own forces, and contented himself with delaying and harassing the advance by means of small patrols whose occasional losses could not seriously diminish his military strength.
The estimate formed of the strength of von Lettow-Vorbeck’s troops at the moment when he evacuated Newala—viz. that they only amounted to about 800 to 1200 men—was certainly incorrect, and subsequent operations clearly showed that he had at his disposal not less than 2000 soldiers, 10 per cent. of whom perhaps were white men. These were now nearly as well armed and equipped as they had ever been; and in von Lettow-Vorbeck’s able hands they were capable of leading their opponents as tantalizing a dance through the jungle-covered plains and hills of tropical East Africa as de Wet had led the British troops across the veldt to the south some seventeen years earlier.
He in the first instance established his Headquarters at Nanguari, a place on the right bank of the Lujendi River, which is one of the principal right affluents of the Rovuma. The Portuguese camp, which von Lettow-Vorbeck had so successfully surprised, had been pitched at Ngomano, at the junction of the Lujendi with the Rovuma; and Nanguari, nearly a hundred miles up the former river, had for von Lettow-Vorbeck the advantage of being one of the most inaccessible places in the northern part of Portuguese East Africa. From Nanguari, he dispatched raiding parties, some of which threatened Port Amelia, while others penetrated down the coast as far as Nkufi and Lurio, at the mouth of the Luri River, where they gutted the shops and stores of their stocks of European provisions. It is possible that the report which was current with regard to von Lettow-Vorbeck’s intention to attack and sack Port Amelia may have been true, but if so, this project was abandoned when word reached him that British forces had landed at that port. He, however, placed some of his forces astride the road which runs westward inland from the shores of Pomba Bay, so as to frustrate any attempt that the British might make to convey troops to the south of him by sea, and so to slip them in behind him, as they had earlier attempted to do by landing a force at Lindi while he was still operating actively in the Kilwa area.
Major Shaw’s detachment of 250 men which, as we have seen, had been dispatched from Lindi to Port Amelia in the middle of December, had reached the latter place in time to save it from attack, if an attack upon it indeed formed part of von Lettow-Vorbeck’s plans. Major Shaw, however, was not provided with carriers, and none were forthcoming at Port Amelia. His force, therefore, was reduced to a condition of complete immobility, and he was forced to content himself with putting Port Amelia in a state of defence by forming an entrenched camp in its vicinity.
After the arrival of the Gold Coast Regiment at Mingoya, it was joined on the 18th December by Captain Harman, D.S.O., who had been absent for several months on sick leave, with whom were Captain Duck, D.S.O., and 150 details. On the following day, at 3 a.m., A Company marched to Arab House, and thence was ferried across the bay to Lindi. On the 23rd December Colonel Goodwin with the Regimental Headquarters and 620 men, including the Battery, with 4 Stokes guns and 100 personnel, marched to Arab House, where they were embarked in lighters. Captain Harman remained behind at Mingoya in charge of details. At 2 p.m. the Gold Coast Regiment was transhipped from the lighters on to H.M. transport Salamis, and immediately set off down the coast on their journey to Port Amelia, which is distant from Lindi a matter of 180 miles. They had been joined on board the Salamis by A Company, and by Colonel Rose and the Headquarters of “Pamforce.”
Shortly after midnight a slight shock was felt, and the Salamis came to a standstill with that peculiar sensation of finality which always conveys the impression to those on board a stranded ship that the vessel has of a sudden been welded indissolubly into a neighbouring continent. The Salamis thereafter behaved precisely as though this had actually occurred, and every effort to move her proved to be unavailing. There was nothing to be done, therefore, but to await the next high tide, which was due at about 9 a.m.; and at this hour, two whalers having arrived in the interval, fresh attempts to get her afloat were made. The Salamis obstinately declined, however, to budge an inch; and late in the afternoon H.M.S. Lunkwa, an armed merchantman commanded by Captain Murray, R.N., having meanwhile come upon the scene, it was decided to transfer the Gold Coast Regiment to her. This was accomplished by midnight, and the members of the little force spent a dismal Christmas Day steaming back up the coast to Lindi, mourning their separation from many of their stores and much of their private gear—a great deal of which, as it subsequently turned out, they were destined never to see again; and on their arrival they took up their quarters in the crowded detail camp.
On the 27th December 250 men of the Gold Coast Regiment, with 2 Stokes guns and the 50 rank and file and the carriers attached to them, under the command of Captain Duck, returned on board the Lunkwa, and once more set for Port Amelia. For lack of transport the remainder of the Regiment had perforce to be left behind at Lindi, but Colonel Rose and the Headquarters of “Pamforce” accompanied Captain Duck’s detachment.