Transcriber’s Note
This version of the text cannot represent certain typographical effects.
Italics are delimited with the ‘_’ character as _italic_.
Errors, when reasonably attributable to the printer, have been
corrected. Please see the transcriber’s note at the end of this text for
details. Corrections made to the text are summarized there.
Full page illustrations are interpolated in mid-paragraph. To avoid
this, their placeholders ([Illustration: <caption>]) been moved to the
closest sensible paragraph break.
[Illustration:
H. Walker Barnett & Co.
LIEUT.-COL. R. A. DE B. ROSE, C.M.G., D.S.O.
Commanding the Gold Coast Regiment.
Frontispiece. ]
THE
GOLD COAST REGIMENT
IN THE EAST AFRICAN
CAMPAIGN
BY SIR HUGH CLIFFORD, K.C.M.G.
LONDON
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET, W.
1920
_All rights reserved_
TO
LIEUTENANT-COLONEL R. A. DE B. ROSE,
C.M.G., D.S.O.,
AND TO THE
OFFICERS, NON-COMMISSIONED OFFICERS
AND MEN
OF THE
GOLD COAST REGIMENT OF THE WEST
AFRICAN FRONTIER FORCE
THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED
IN ADMIRATION OF THEIR COURAGE, THEIR STEADFASTNESS AND THEIR
ACHIEVEMENTS, IN SYMPATHY WITH THEIR HEAVY LOSSES, AND IN
GRATITUDE FOR THE LUSTRE WHICH THEY SHED UPON THE
COLONY WHOSE NAME THEY BEAR
BY
THEIR SOMETIME GOVERNOR AND TITULAR
COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF
=HUGH CLIFFORD.=
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
I. THE VOYAGE TO AND ARRIVAL IN EAST AFRICA 1
II. THE ADVANCE ON THE DAR-ES-SALAAM—LAKE TANGANYIKA 10
RAILWAY
III. THE PASSAGE INTO THE ULUGURU MOUNTAINS—THE BATTLES AT 25
KIKIRUNGA HILL AND AT NKESSA
IV. IN THE KILWA AREA—GOLD COAST HILL 43
V. IN THE KILWA AREA—IN THE SOUTHERN VALLEY OF THE LOWER 61
RUFIJI
VI. IN THE KILWA AREA—MNASI AND RUMBO 78
VII. IN THE KILWA AREA—NARUNGOMBE 93
VIII. THE HALT AT NARUNGOMBE 107
IX. THE ADVANCES TO MBOMBOMYA AND BEKA 119
X. NAHUNGU AND MITONENO 134
XI. RUANGWA CHINI TO MNERO MISSION STATION 148
XII. LUKULEDI 161
XIII. EXPULSION OF VON LETTOW-VORBECK FROM GERMAN EAST 180
AFRICA
XIV. TRANSFER OF THE GOLD COAST REGIMENT TO PORTUGUESE EAST 197
AFRICA
XV. THE ADVANCE FROM PORT AMELIA TO MEZA 211
XVI. THE ENGAGEMENT AT MEDO 232
XVII. THE ADVANCE FROM MEDO TO KORONJE AND MSALU 250
XVIII. THE EXPULSION OF VON LETTOW-VORBECK FROM THE NYASSA 268
COMPANY’S TERRITORY AND THE RETURN OF THE GOLD COAST
REGIMENT TO WEST AFRICA
APPENDICES
I. THE MOUNTED INFANTRY OF THE GOLD COAST REGIMENT 279
II. HONOURS AND DECORATIONS EARNED IN EAST AFRICA 286
III. STRENGTH OF THE REGIMENT AND EXPEDITIONARY FORCE AT 290
VARIOUS PERIODS, AND DRAFTS DISPATCHED TO IT FROM
THE GOLD COAST
IV. LETTERS OF APPRECIATION FROM THE GENERAL OFFICER 292
COMMANDING PAMFORCE, AND FROM THE GOLD COAST
GOVERNMENT. RESOLUTION PASSED BY THE LEGISLATIVE
COUNCIL
INDEX 295
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
FACING PAGE
LIEUT.-COL. R. A. DE B. ROSE, C.M.G., D.S.O. _Frontispiece_
CAPT. J. F. P. BUTLER, V.C., D.S.O. 28
MAJOR G. SHAW, M.C., CAPT. E. G. WHEELER, M.C., MAJOR 92
H. READ
GROUP OF OFFICERS 140
MEN IN MARCHING ORDER 160
THREE NATIVE N.C.O.’S 230
2·95 BATTERY 196
SERGT. SANDOGO MOSHI, D.C.M. 288
MAPS
KIKIRUNGA HILL 27
GOLD COAST HILL 52
KIBATA AND NGARAMBI AREA 62
OPERATIONS AGAINST MEDO _facing_ 238
GENERAL MAP OF THE EAST AFRICAN CAMPAIGN _end of volume_
------------------------------------------------------------------------
THE GOLD COAST REGIMENT
IN THE
EAST AFRICAN CAMPAIGN
CHAPTER I
THE VOYAGE TO AND ARRIVAL IN EAST AFRICA
When during the latter days of July, 1914, the prospect of war with the
German Empire became imminent, the Gold Coast Regiment was rapidly
mobilized, and detachments took up pre-arranged strategical positions on
the borders of Togoland. On the declaration of war on the 4th August,
the invasion of this German colony was promptly undertaken; and the
Regiment, which had been joined at Lome, the capital of Togoland, by a
small party of Tirailleurs from Dahomey, pursued the retreating enemy up
the main line of railway to Kamina—the site of a very large and
important German wireless installation—where, on the 28th August, he was
forced to an unconditional surrender.
On the 18th September Major-General Dobell, who had been appointed to
command the British and French troops which were about to undertake the
invasion of the German Kameruns, arrived off Lome; and the bulk of the
Gold Coast Regiment, leaving two companies to occupy the conquered
territory in Togoland, and a small garrison in the Gold Coast and
Ashanti, joined this Expeditionary Force.
In the Kameruns stiff fighting was experienced, and it was not until the
11th April, 1916, that the Gold Coast Regiment returned to its
cantonments at Kumasi, after having been continuously upon active
service for a period of twenty months.
In Togoland and in the Kameruns alike the Regiment had won for itself a
high reputation for courage and endurance; and the fine spirit animating
all ranks was strikingly displayed by the enthusiasm with which the news
that the force was again required for active service overseas was
received, though at that time the men had enjoyed only a very few weeks’
rest in their cantonments at Kumasi. Nor was this due to the courage
born of ignorance, for the Regiment had learned from bitter experience
the dangers and difficulties of the type of fighting in which it was
about once more to take a part. The pursuit through bush and scrub, or
through wide expanses of high grass, of a stubborn and crafty enemy is a
task which, as many British regiments have learned in places spattered
all up and down the tropics, imposes a peculiar strain upon the nerves
and upon the endurance of the forces which engage in it. The enemy, who
alone knows his plans and his objectives, and whose movements are
designed to avoid rather than to seek contact with his pursuers, unless
he can attack or sustain attack in circumstances specially favourable to
himself, possesses throughout the immense advantage of the initiative.
If he elect to retreat, the pursuer must plod after him, whither he
knows not, through country which is not of his choice, and with the
character of which he has had no opportunity of rendering himself
familiar. If the enemy resolves to make a stand, it is almost invariably
in a position which he has selected on account of the advantages which
it affords to him; and when in due course he has been ejected from it,
the pursuit through the Unknown of an elusive and usually invisible
enemy begins _ab novo_, in circumstances which the apparent success has
done nothing material to improve. These facts combine to render a
campaign in the bush a heart-breaking and nerve-racking experience, even
when the enemy is an undisciplined native levy armed with more or less
primitive weapons. In the Kameruns, however, and to a much greater
degree in East Africa, the enemy was composed of well-trained native
soldiers, with a good stiffening of Europeans; he was armed with
machine-guns and magazine-rifles; he was supplied with native guides
intimately acquainted with every yard of the country; and he was led
with extraordinary skill and energy by German officers. It was
bush-fighting on a scale never hitherto experienced, with all the
advantages which such fighting confers upon the pursued, and the
corresponding disadvantages inherent to the pursuit, exaggerated to an
unprecedented degree. Yet the men of the Gold Coast Regiment, who in the
Kameruns had already had more than a taste of its quality, celebrated
the fact that they were once more to engage in such a campaign with war
dances and clamorous rejoicings.
By the evening of the 5th July, 1916, the Gold Coast Expeditionary Force
had assembled at the port of Sekondi. It consisted of four Double
Companies—A, B, G, and I—with a Pioneer Company, and a Battery of two
2·95 guns, and 12 machine guns, and a number of carriers. Its strength
was 36 British officers, 15 British non-commissioned officers, 11 native
clerks, 980 native rank and file, 177 specially trained carriers
attached to the battery and to the machine guns, 1 store-man, 204 other
carriers, and 4 officers of the Royal Army Medical Corps—in all 1428
men—under the Commanding Officer of the Gold Coast Regiment,
Lieutenant-Colonel R. A. de B. Rose, D.S.O.
The present writer, who at that time was Governor of the Gold Coast
Colony and its Dependencies—Ashanti and the Northern Territories—had
come round by sea from Accra to wish the Regiment God-speed. On the
evening of 5th July, Colonel Rose and all the officers who could be
spared from duty, were entertained by me at a banquet, given in the
Court House, at which all the leading officials and the most prominent
members of the European and African unofficial community of Sekondi were
present.
Officers and men, who at that time had been fighting almost continuously
since the 4th August, 1914, save for the brief rest which they had
recently enjoyed at Kumasi, presented on this occasion a very smart and
workmanlike appearance. They were thoroughly well-equipped and
thoroughly seasoned troops, with achievements already to their credit of
a kind that had filled the Colony to which they belonged with pride.
By midday on the 6th July the embarkation of this force with all its
stores and equipment, on board the transport _Æneas_, was completed. The
men were transported in lighters to the ship’s side, and thence were
slung inboard in batches of half-a-dozen or more in the sag of a canvas
sail—a rough and ready, but very effective, expedient, which delighted
the struggling groups of men as the sling bore them aloft and deposited
them, screaming with laughter, in inextricable knots upon the deck. At
about 2 p.m. the transport got under way, taking a southerly course at
right angles to the coast, which here runs east and west. The phenomenon
was witnessed by excited groups of natives from the beach at Sekondi,
for never within living memory had any ship bearing their countrymen
steered a course that was not parallel to the shore; and when the vessel
at last disappeared below the skyline something like consternation
prevailed. It was as though she, and all aboard her, had dropped
suddenly into the depths of some unknown abyss. Superstitious fears were
further stimulated by the fact that an eclipse of the sun occurred on
that day, and much discussion arose among the men as to whether the omen
should be regarded as of favourable or of evil portent.
The voyage round the southern extremity of the African continent, and up
the east coast to the neighbourhood of Mombassa, was uneventful. The
_Æneas_ called at the Cape and at Durban. At the latter place the whole
of the Regiment was allowed ashore, and was taken _en masse_ to see the
“movies,” a new experience which astonished and delighted them. They
were also paraded, inspected, and addressed by the Mayor—a stimulating
ordeal which, however, in the popular estimation took a second place
when compared with the miracles beheld at the cinematograph. Cold
weather was met with when rounding the Cape, but the men appeared to
feel it very little; and the force was in fine fettle when, on the 26th
July, the _Æneas_ arrived at Kilindini, the port of Mombassa, after a
journey that had occupied exactly three weeks.
Kilindini is a land-locked harbour, and the town, which is a somewhat
incongruous modern adjunct to ancient and picturesque Mombassa, consists
mainly of sheds, warehouses, and wharfs.
Disembarkation was effected by lighters, which were towed alongside a
jetty, and here a stroke of ill-luck greeted the Regiment at the outset
of its career in East Africa. For weeks not a drop of rain had fallen at
Kilindini, but now, when the disembarkation was in full swing, a sudden
tornado blew up from the sea, bringing a downpour by which officers and
men were speedily soaked to the skin. There was no alternative, however,
but to carry on, and drenched and rather woe-begone, the force was
presently landed. Two trains were awaiting the Regiment at a point
distant about a couple of hundred yards from the jetty; but the day
being a Sunday, the Sabbatarian principles of the local porters, which
may have owed their inspiration either to indolence or to piety, forbade
the natives of Kilindini to engage in servile work. In pouring rain,
therefore, the men set to, and in a creditably short time all the
baggage, stores, and equipment had been transferred from the lighters to
the railway waggons; and at 4 p.m. the first train started upon its
journey up-country. This train consisted of passenger carriages, but
that which followed it some six hours later was mainly made up of
covered trucks. The men, with the steam rising in clouds from their
brown knitted jerseys, were packed in batches of ten into the carriages
and trucks; and in this fashion the journey up the main line toward
Nairobi was begun.
While daylight lasted the way led mostly through open grass country
apparently very sparsely inhabited, which was succeeded later by what
looked like dense thorn-jungle, and the junction at Voi was reached by
the first train at about midnight. From this point the military
authorities had constructed a loop-line, which runs in a south-westerly
direction through the mountain range, of which on the north-west
Kilima-Njaro is the stupendous culmination, until it effects a junction
with the German railway from Tanga to Moschi at a point some twenty
miles south of the last-named place. At dawn, therefore, the men of the
Regiment, shivering for their skins, looked out upon wide expanses of
mountain scenery—a vast sweep of hillsides, rounded summits and
undulations, covered with short grass, and strewn with gigantic boulders
of rock. In the distance Kilima-Njaro was frequently visible, with its
crest covered by perpetual snow. The line ran from Voi to the junction
with the Tanga-Moschi railway at heights varying from 6000 to 9000 feet;
and the men of the Gold Coast Regiment, who are accustomed to regard 60°
F. as registering a temperature which is almost unbearably cold, and who
were still damp from the drenching they had received at Kilindini,
suffered seriously from the low temperature. The fact that nearly half
of them were accommodated in trucks, which though roofed had only half
walls, rendered the exposure all the more severe. A few halts were
allowed in order to enable the men to stretch their legs; but time did
not admit of much cooking being done, and for the most part the, to
them, unnatural foods of bully beef and biscuit, and draughts of
ice-cold water, were all that they had to restore the natural heat of
their bodies. It was an extremely trying experience for troops recruited
in the Tropics, and many cases of pneumonia subsequently resulted, not a
few of which proved fatal.
From the junction the trains bearing the Regiment proceeded eastward
down the captured German railway, in the direction of the sea and Tanga,
to Ngombezi, which is distant some forty miles from that terminus. Here
they arrived on the 29th July, having been joined on the preceding day
by Captain H. C. C. de la Poer, as special service officer. Captain de
la Poer had long been resident in East Africa, possessed much local
knowledge, and spoke Swahili fluently. Ngombezi is situated at a height
of some 2000 feet above sea-level; and on detraining, the Regiment went
into temporary camp, the officers and men bivouacking under shelters
fashioned from blankets and water-proof sheets.
On the 30th July the Regiment was inspected by General Edwards, the
Inspector-General of Communications. The service kit of the Force
consists of a green knitted forage cap, a khaki blouse, shorts and
putties of the same material, with the leather sandals which are known
in West Africa as _chuplies_. The men of the Regiment, all of whom at
this period were recruited from the people of the far interior which
lies to the northward of Ashanti, are for the most part sturdy,
thick-set fellows, with rather blunt but not pronouncedly negroid
features, which show traces in some instances of a slight admixture of
Arab blood. They are at once strong and active. They possess great pluck
and endurance and are very amenable to discipline; and their fidelity
to, and confidence in, their officers have become a by-word. For the
rest they are as tough and business-like looking a body of men as any
judge of good fighting material need desire to see.
General Edwards, at the end of his inspection, expressed himself very
much struck by the physique of the men, and by their smart and
soldierlike appearance. He emphasized the fact that no other unit which
he had inspected had arrived in the country so well and efficiently
equipped—a fact which caused great satisfaction on the “Home Front” in
the Gold Coast when his opinion was duly repeated to the Colonial
Government; and he forthwith wired to the Commander-in-Chief reporting
that the Regiment was fit to take the field immediately.
This was the first sprig of laurel won by the Corps after its arrival in
East Africa. It was destined in the course of the long campaign upon
which it was about to embark to garner others wherefrom to fashion the
substantial crown which it eventually brought back in triumph to the
Gold Coast.