On the 28th January the post at Namarala was moved forward to Nanunya, the former being occupied by twenty rifles of the Pioneer Company under Lieutenant Wilson. On the following day the King’s African Rifles Mounted Infantry occupied Ankuabe without opposition, and Captain Dawes next day moved to that place, leaving thirty rifles under Lieutenant Norris to garrison Pumone. On the 30th January the Regimental Headquarters, with the Pioneer Company and I Company, marched up the road to Namarala, and on the following day established their camp at Nanunya. On the 3rd February the Headquarters of the Regiment, with which also was Colonel Rose and the Headquarters of “Pamforce,” A and B Companies and two guns of the Battery, moved forward to Ankuabe, leaving the rest of the Battery, the Pioneer Company, I Company and two Stokes guns to garrison Nanunya. The site chosen for the camp at Ankuabe was overlooked by a big bluff of rock, but its sides were so precipitous as to be unscaleable, and it therefore presented no menace to the security of the camp.
On the 4th February the Post at Pumone was withdrawn to the Maguida River, five miles south of Ankuabe; and though reports were received that the enemy were advancing, he failed to put in an appearance, the natives subsequently stating that he had been checked by an unfordable river, and that two of his white men had been badly mauled by lions.
On the 8th February an enemy patrol, consisting of two Europeans and forty Askari, came out of the bush on to the main road between Nanunya and Ankuabe at a point where a post manned by six men of the Gold Coast Regiment, under Lance-Corporal Etonga Etun, had been established. The men of this post opened fire upon the enemy, and led by Etonga Etun, charged him so hotly that the Germans and their Askari and carriers did not stop to find out the small numbers by which they were opposed, but dropping some of their loads, took refuge in precipitate flight. Among the articles picked up by Etonga Etun’s party were some belts of machine-gun ammunition and a couple of European loads containing among other things a number of official papers. Etonga Etun, who showed such dash on this occasion, was a native of Jaunde, and was originally enlisted during the 1914-16 campaign in the German Kameruns. In East Africa he won both the Distinguished Conduct Medal and the Military Medal.
An attempt was made from Ankuabe to cut off the retreat of this enemy patrol, but the latter made good its escape, dispersing into the bush in great haste when overtaken by the Mounted Infantry. The captured documents showed that the object of this party had been to harass the British lines of communication and especially to capture mails and ammunition.
During the next few days nothing of any interest occurred, but on the 17th February the 22nd D.M.B. arrived in camp, and on the 25th February the Gold Coast Regiment, less one hundred rifles of I Company and two Stokes guns, marched out of Ankuabe with half a section of the 22nd D.M.B., and camping for the night at Muapa, fourteen miles up the road, next day advanced on Meza.
The start was made at 6 a.m., fifty men under Lieutenant Bisshopp being left in charge of all the supply carriers in the camp at Muapa. Just before 7 a.m. an enemy patrol was met, which retired hurriedly, and nothing more happened until one o’clock, when the enemy, posted in some thick bush about three-quarters of a mile east of Meza, opened fire with a machine-gun upon the advancing troops. He retired after an engagement which lasted about half an hour, during which only one man of the Gold Coast Regiment was wounded; and at 2.30 p.m. Meza was occupied. Two camps which the Germans had established a little beyond Meza village were found to be deserted. The supply convoy came into camp at 5 p.m.
On the 27th February a post was established on the main road eight miles beyond Meza, and about 1200 carriers were sent back to Muapa to bring up supplies.
| SERGT. GRANDA DIKALE, D.C.M., M.M. | CORPL. SHUMBO LAMBE, D.C.M. | CORPL. ETONGA ETUN, M.M. |
| To face p. 230. | ||
During the first ten days of March nothing occurred, the troops being employed in patrolling the country around Meza, where on one or two occasions they came into contact with small parties of the enemy. The task of accumulating supplies was now chiefly engrossing the attention of the Headquarters staff of “Pamforce,” which, on the 11th March, established itself at Meza. Indeed, the question of transport was the hinge upon which at this junction everything turned. The advance was favoured by the fact that no definite break had yet occurred in the weather, though a good deal of rain had fallen since the camp was advanced to Ankuabe. Moreover, no difficulty with regard to water had as yet been encountered, though the quality of the supply obtained was not always very satisfactory. For the rest, however, the advancing force was tethered to its base at Mtuge by the sixty odd miles of road along which it had advanced; and though the highway had been improved and motor traffic established, the indifferent landing facilities at Port Amelia, the uncertain sea communication between that place and Bandari, and the fact that everything taken to the latter had to be man-handled from the dhows to the shore, caused endless vexatious delays. The deep, black “cotton” soil, moreover, was quickly reduced to a quagmire by even a moderate amount of rain; and eventually it had to be “corduroyed” with small tree-trunks along its entire length. Every advance, of course, added to the distances over which supplies had to be conveyed, and more than two months had been occupied in pushing some sixty-four miles up the main road to Meza, without it having once been found possible to bring the enemy to action.