The Gold Coast Regiment in the East African Campaign

by Sir Hugh Charles Clifford

On the 17th July the Squadron covered a distance of thirty-three miles to Calipo, and on the morrow reached Pequerra, and pushed on thence to the banks of the Ligonha River, travelling on that day thirty-six miles between dawn and dusk.

The geography of the country was very imperfectly known, and the only available maps were grossly inaccurate. Moreover, whereas it had been anticipated that the Ligonha River would only be fordable in a few places, which the Squadron had been ordered to hold, it was found that the stream was quite shallow for a distance of at least twenty miles. This was discovered on the 19th July, on which day Metil was reached, the Squadron having marched one hundred and two miles to that place from Murrupula in fifty-seven hours—a very good performance for a newly raised body of Mounted Infantry.

From Metil one troop, under Lieutenant Poole, was sent eastward to Napue; a second, under Lieutenant Viney, went toward Muligudge, five miles south-east of Metil; and a third, under Lieutenant Saunders, back along the track towards Pequerra, twenty men and Lieutenant Broomfield remaining at Metil with Captain Parker. All these mounted patrols had orders to try to locate the enemy and to keep touch as far as possible with one another and with Captain Parker.

On the 23rd July news was received that Namirrue was invested by the enemy, and that though it was still holding out, Colonel Fitzgerald’s column, consisting of the 4th Battalion of the 4th and the 3rd Battalion of the 3rd King’s African Rifles, had had to retire when attempting to move to Captain Bustard’s relief. As Captain Parker was instructed to get as many of his men together as possible in order to scout in the direction of Namirrue, the troops under Lieutenants Poole and Viney were recalled, and on the 24th July, Captain Parker moved back to Pequerra, and thence proceeded through dense bush to the banks of the Ligonha. From here Lieutenant Viney with twelve troopers crossed the stream and went scouting in what was believed to be the direction of Namirrue. On the 26th July Lieutenant Broomfield with twenty men were sent to Lulete, Captain Parker and Lieutenant Saunders with twenty-eight men—all that remained at their disposal—moving up the left bank of the Ligonha. At 4 p.m. they came upon a track, surprised an enemy baggage-train, and captured nine porters, the baggage-guard making off. Lieutenant Saunders with a few rifles was left to watch the trail, and late that afternoon he had a brush with the enemy, and captured a German, an Askari, and about a dozen more porters, also killing one or two enemy soldiers.

On the 27th July Captain Parker set off for Pequerra with the prisoners, leaving Lieutenant Saunders with a few men to watch the track and to snipe and harass the enemy. Captain Parker fell in with a superior force of the enemy, lost all his prisoners and a good many of his men and horses, and was himself reported missing for three days. At the end of that time, however, he and the surviving remnant of his troop contrived to rejoin. Meanwhile Lieutenant Saunders also came into touch with the enemy, was wounded and had several of his men and nearly all his horses shot; while Lieutenant Viney, who was surprised and attacked just as he had off-saddled, was killed, his men, acting on his orders, dispersing into the bush. Immediately afterwards word was received that Captain Bustard at Namirrue had been compelled to surrender, and with him Lieutenant Drummond and what was left of No. 1 Troop of the Gold Coast Mounted Infantry.

This meant that the Gold Coast Mounted Infantry, which on the 5th July had numbered, including Lieutenant Drummond’s troop, about one hundred and sixty-five rank and file, was now reduced to sixty-five men; and Captain Parker returned to the depôt at Mnapo to train and equip further drafts, while Lieutenant Broomfield remained in the field in command of the handful of mounted men still effective as a fighting force.

Though the enemy had won successes at Nhamaccura and at Namirrue, in both of which places he had succeeded in cutting off small British forces, he was now being hunted by “Kartucol” from the south into the grip of six converging columns; and for the first time in the history of the whole campaign he was so completely cornered that in the neighbourhood of Chalana—a place some five-and-forty miles inland from the coast of Antonio Annes—he was compelled to concentrate all his troops, combining them into a single force.

It was while the meshes of the net appeared at last to be securely drawn around von Lettow-Vorbeck, that Lieutenant Broomfield and his little body of sixty men of the Gold Coast Mounted Infantry specially distinguished themselves. It was of great moment to General Edwards that he should be kept fully and frequently informed of the exact position and movements of the enemy, and this service was rendered to him by Lieutenant Broomfield. For a week the Gold Coast Mounted Infantry maintained close touch with the enemy’s main body. The country is here very thickly populated. The Germans, who were paying for all their supplies with cloth which they had looted from the Portuguese stores, had made themselves very popular with the local natives, who witnessed the wholesale destruction of the Portuguese bomas with ecstatic delight. The British, who they were assured were hired bravos engaged by the Portuguese to capture their deliverers, were proportionately unpopular, and the movements of Broomfield’s two troops were again and again betrayed by the natives to the enemy. Often he had to change his resting-place three and four times a day; he was engaged with the enemy almost as frequently; yet his active patrolling continued without interruption, and General Edwards was kept regularly informed as to every move which the enemy was making. It was, in its way, an outstanding little bit of work, carried out with great coolness, persistency and skill, and it by itself would abundantly have justified all the labour which had been expended in raising and training the Gold Coast Mounted Infantry.

At Numarroe—which lies much further to the west and must not be confused with Namirrue—von Lettow-Vorbeck surprised and captured at the end of August a small British detachment from what had formerly been one of General Northey’s columns; but at Liome on the 31st August and on the 1st September he came in for the worst hammering he had experienced in the whole course of the campaign, losing some fifty of his Europeans and several hundreds of his Askari killed, wounded and captured. On this occasion Lieutenant Drummond and a number of other captives were able to make their escape.

Thereafter, as is now well known, von Lettow-Vorbeck broke away north, succeeded in crossing the Lurio River, and thence treked through the Nyassa Company’s territory to Ngomano on the Rovuma, where at the end of November in the preceding year he had re-equipped and refitted at the expense of the Portuguese garrison. Crossing the Rovuma, he once more entered German East Africa, still hotly pursued by battalions of the indefatigable King’s African Rifles; but when after the signing of the Armistice he finally surrendered, he made his submission to a small police post in Northern Rhodesia.