CHAPTER V

BETWEEN THE NORTHERN AND CENTRAL RAILWAYS

I ASK the reader to imagine himself in the position of a Commander, with insufficient means, exposed to attack by superior numbers, who has continually to ask himself: What must I do in order to retain freedom of movement and hope?

At the end of June, 1916, events in the other theatres of war began to exercise a decisive influence on our operations at Kondoa. The Belgians pushed in from near Lake Kivu and from Russisi, the English from the Kagera, west of Lake Victoria, and, since the middle of July, from Muansa also, and all these forces were converging on Tabora. Our troops stationed in the north-west were all combined under the command of General Wahle, who was at Tabora; and he gradually drew in his detachments from the frontiers towards that place.

Owing to the difficulties of communication Headquarters had but meagre information of these events. Hostile detachments were also pressing in from the south-west, from the country between Lakes Tanganyika and Nyassa. Before them, our company fighting in the neighbourhood of Bismarckburg fell back slowly in a north-easterly direction towards Tabora. The two companies left behind to secure the Langenburg district gradually retreated on Iringa, followed by General Northey, whose division was equipped with all the appliances of modern warfare.

On the Northern Railway, Major Kraut’s patrols, who started out from his fortified position at Lembeni, had occasionally scored pleasing successes. Several aeroplanes were brought down, or came to grief, the passengers being captured and the machines destroyed. When the heavy rains had ceased, the enemy commenced his advance from Kahe along the Northern Railway, as well as east of it through the Pare Mountains, and west of it along the Pangani. Hundreds of automobiles and large numbers of mounted troops were observed. In order to avoid the danger of being cut off by the greatly superior enemy, Major Kraut withdrew his main body by rail to Buiko, leaving small detachments in contact with the enemy. In this vicinity, as well as near Mombo, a few actions took place, in some of which our companies drove through the enemy, who tried to block the line, and fired on him from the train. Being in superior force, the enemy was always able, with little trouble, to execute outflanking movements with fresh troops, but their effectiveness was greatly reduced by the difficulty of the country. It seemed, therefore, as though the enemy frequently departed from this idea and adopted a sort of tactics of attrition instead. To-day he would attack with one portion of his force, then let that rest, and put in another the next day, and a different portion again on the third. In spite of all his obvious urging, and his favourable conditions of supply, his advance was fairly slow. Major Kraut’s troops never got into a really difficult situation; on the contrary, they were often able to catch the enemy under fire unawares, and to gain partial successes, which occasionally caused him very considerable losses, such as Captain Freiherr von Bodecker’s rearguard action near Handeni.

In view of this concentric advance from all directions, the question arose, what should be done with the main body of the Protective Force now before Kondoa? For an attack the situation was altogether too unfavourable. The problem, therefore, was, what should be the general direction of our retreat? I decided on the Mahenge country. By moving there we should avoid being surrounded, it was fertile, and suitable for guerilla warfare. From there also it would be possible to withdraw further to the south and to continue the war for a long time to come.

Another important consideration was the safeguarding of our stores deposited along the Central Railway, particularly in the vicinity of Morogoro. These were greatly endangered by the rapid advance of General Smuts, who was opposing Major Kraut, and had penetrated far to the south beyond Handeni. Although it was to be assumed that General Smuts would be delayed by the continually increasing length of his communications, he seemed to me to be the most dangerous and important of our opponents. I therefore decided to leave in front of the Kondoa force only a detachment at Burungi, under Captain Klinghardt, but to march my main body back to Dodoma, proceed thence by rail to Morogoro, and move up in support of Major Kraut. It turned out afterwards that the English were informed of this movement down to the smallest details, and that, for instance, they knew all about a railway accident that happened to one company during its progress. When our companies arrived at Morogoro and the Europeans there saw the splendid bearing of the Askari they lost the last traces of their depression; every man and woman had comprehended that our situation was indeed difficult, but also that there was nothing for it but to go on fighting, and that our Force was, from its whole quality and nature, capable of carrying on for a long time to come.

Early in July I reached Major Kraut, who was holding a fortified position on Kanga Mountain, north-east of Tuliani. I had expected the Askari to be depressed by their retreat, but found them in excellent spirits and full of confidence. In front of their position they had cleared the foreground for 50 to 100 yards and were fully convinced that they could beat off an attack.

I employed the time that elapsed before the arrival of the other detachments in reconnaissance, and soon formed a mental picture of the passes which led across the difficult rock and forest country westward of our line of communication.

Owing to the remarkably dense bush an attempt to send a strong detachment round the enemy’s camp to attack it in rear was unsuccessful. But the enemy did sustain casualties through numerous minor enterprises by our patrols, who fired at his transport columns and the automobiles working behind his front. In this way also a Staff car was once effectively fired on. The enemy’s patrols were also active and several of his distant patrols had got behind us. One of them, commanded by Lieutenant Wienholt, betrayed its presence by surprising a column of our carriers and burning the loads. Among other things these contained a quantity of trousers which had come out in the store-ship and were anxiously expected. Wienholt, therefore, aroused painful interest on the part of everyone. His patrol was discovered in camp in the dense bush and surprised. He himself got away, and trusting to the fact that it is not easy to find anyone in the African bush, wanted to work his way alone through our lines and back to the English. Our well-tried men, zan Rongew, Nieuwenhudgu and Trappel, who had effected the clever capture of the horses near Longido Mountain, succeeded in tracking and capturing him. On my return from a reconnaissance I met Wienholt in our camp at Tuliani enjoying a cheery meal with his captors. We could none of us help honestly admiring the excellent work of his patrol, whose route was accurately marked on the map that was captured in his possession. Wienholt was then taken to a prisoners’ camp in the interior, from which he escaped some months later while bathing. In 1917 he did excellent work on patrol round Kilwa and Livale, and also later on, in 1918, in Portuguese East Africa. I was greatly interested in his description of an attack by a leopard which, with great boldness, killed his companion in camp. I presume he has by now given friends and acquaintances the benefit of his vivid account, of which he unfortunately lost the original later on in a patrol encounter.

Weeks now passed, during which the English annoyed us mainly by bombs from aircraft. They had evidently found out the exact site of our Headquarter camp at Tuliani. I remember one day when four aeroplanes, against which we could do nothing, circled over our camp for hours and dropped bombs. But we had learned to make ourselves invisible, and only the European employed in the telephone hut was so badly hurt that he lost his hand. An adjoining hut full of valuable documents was set alight by an incendiary bomb.

My cars were then still working, and from Tuliani I was often able quickly to reach Kraut’s Detachment in front by the good line-of-communication road. Lieutenant-Commander Schoenfeld had there made excellent arrangements for directing the fire of the 4-inch and 3·5-inch naval guns. From his observation posts on the heights of Kanga Mountain one had a good view of the English camps. Some weak German detachments had not followed Major Kraut from Usambara towards Tuliani, but had escaped along the Usambara Railway towards Tanga. There, and also near Korogwe, they had minor encounters with the enemy and gradually fell back towards the south, on the east side of Kraut’s Detachment. They were followed by more considerable portions of the enemy. Gradually the force at Tuliani became liable to be circumvented on the east, and to lose its communication with the Morogoro country, which was so important for the supply of stores, ammunition and food. At the same time General van Deventer, whose force had been augmented to a division, advanced from Kondoa to the south, and Captain Klinghardt retired before him, first to the south, and then towards Mpapua.

The closeness and difficulty of the country caused Captain Klinghardt to still further subdivide his already small force (five companies) in order to watch and block important passes. The enemy followed with a large number of automobiles, and occasionally one of them was successfully blown up by mines sunk in the roads. Owing to the unavoidable dissemination of Captain Klinghardt’s troops, and the difficulty of maintaining touch between them, one part often could not know what was happening to its neighbours. A large German mounted patrol was attempting to connect up from the east with a detachment believed to be at Meiameia, on the road from Dodoma to Kondoa-Irangi. All unconsciously it rode straight into a hostile camp and was captured almost without exception. The retirement of our troops from Kondoa, who had not merely to escape, but also to inflict damage on the enemy, was a very difficult manœuvre; the right moment to fall back, to halt again, to advance for a sudden counter-stroke, and then break off again quickly, and in sufficient time, is difficult to gauge. Reliable reports were lacking. Owing to the scarcity of means of communication the difficulties attending the retirement of several columns through unknown country grew infinitely great. The influence of the commander was often eliminated, and too much had to be left to chance. On the 31st July, 1916, the enemy reached the Central Railway at Dodoma. Captain Klinghardt slipped off to the east along the railway. In the actions which took place west of Mpapua several favourable opportunities were not recognized, and neighbouring detachments, whose assistance had been relied on, did not arrive in time. Such things easily give rise to a feeling of insecurity among the troops and weaken confidence and enterprise. The difficulties were accentuated in this case by the fact that Captain Klinghardt was taken ill with typhoid and became a casualty just at the critical moment. Captain Otto was sent from Tuliani to replace him, and succeeded in once more collecting the scattered parties and in establishing united control.

The 2nd Rifle Company also, which had been obliged to retire on Saranda by the Kondoa-Saranda road, and with which all touch had been lost, made a great circuit on the south side of the railway and rejoined Otto’s Detachment. Owing to the numerical superiority of the enemy, in the actions which now took place, Otto’s Detachment frequently found itself exposed to an attack on its front while being enveloped on both flanks. The enemy did not always succeed in timing these movements correctly. Thus, at Mpapua, the frontal attack got too close to our line and suffered severely; and the flank attack, even when directed on the rear of our positions, produced no decisive effect. The short range of visibility always enabled us either to avoid the danger, or, if the opportunity was favourable, to attack the troops outflanking us in detail. In any event, these outflanking tactics of the enemy, when followed, as in this case, in extraordinarily thick bush, and among numerous rocks, demanded great exertions and used up his strength. Every day Captain Otto fell back only a couple of miles further to the east, and in these operations the railway enabled him to change the position of his big gun at will. When Otto’s Detachment approached Kilossa it became necessary to move the main body at Tuliani also. Headquarters and a part of the force moved to Morogoro, Major Kraut, with several companies and a 4-inch gun, to Kilossa. At Tuliani Captain Schulz took command.

I now considered that columns pressing on from the north would soon reach the country west of Bagamoyo, and that at this place also troops would be landed. In order to reconnoitre personally, I travelled to Ruwa Station and thence by bicycle over the sandy, undulating road to Bagamoyo. One day’s march south of Bagamoyo I came on the camp of two Europeans: it was District Commissioner Michels, who wanted to remove his threatened District Headquarters from Bagamoyo towards the interior. The inhabitants were confiding and were living as in peace. So far the universal war had passed them by without a trace. As time pressed I had to turn back and Herr Michels’ fast Muscat donkey carried me back to Ruwa in a few hours. On the next day, from Kidugallo, I reconnoitred the supply depots established there and further to the north by cycle and then returned to Morogoro. Other reconnaissances, mostly also by cycle, took me to the mountains lying to westward in the direction of Kilossa, and along the roads leading round the Uluguru Mountains on the west and east. The passes leading from Morogoro up the northern slopes of the gigantic Uluguru group, and down again on the south side towards Kissaki, had to be examined on foot. Owing to the pressure exerted by General van Deventer on Kilossa, and the danger that Captain Schulz might also be circumvented at Tuliani, it was imperative not to miss the right moment for withdrawing Captain Schulz to Morogoro. But in order to retain the power of delivering counter-strokes we had to hold on to the Tuliani area as long as possible.

Captain Stemmermann’s Detachment, which had been pushed out a short day’s march due north of Tuliani, was attacked at Maomondo by a strong force of Europeans and Indians. The enemy was very skilful. A machine gun of the 6th Company, placed on a rocky slope, was seized by a few Indians, who had crept up to it from the front unobserved, and thrown down the steep slope, so that it could not be found again. The enemy, who had penetrated our lines, was thrown out again with heavy loss by a counter-attack by the 21st Company. At close quarters the English Major Buller, a son of the well-known General of the South African War days, put a bullet through the hat of the Company Commander, Lieutenant von Ruckteschell, but was then severely wounded by the latter. Major Buller was got away to the German hospital at Dar-es-Salaam and nursed back to health by the wife of his opponent, who was working there as a nurse. During the actions at Maternondo English horsemen had worked round farther to the west, and suddenly appeared in one of the mountain passes leading from the west to Tuliani. In the dense bush the 2nd Mounted Brigade, which had come from South Africa under General Brits, apparently sustained heavy casualties.

With the consent of Headquarters, Captain Schulz now withdrew to Derkawa, which is situated in dense bush on the Wami river, on the road from Tuliani to Morogoro. Here he occupied a fortified position on the south bank, where he was attacked on the 13th August by the enemy pursuing from Tuliani, with a force of at least one brigade of infantry, and General Brits’ Mounted Brigade, while simultaneously another brigade, which had marched up the right bank of the Wami, attacked him from the east. During the action continuous telephonic communication was maintained with Captain Schulz from Morogoro. The enemy’s losses were estimated at several hundred, and were afterwards confirmed by the English. The attacks were beaten off, but in the dense bush it was so difficult to obtain a clear idea of the situation that it did not seem possible to achieve a decisive success. Captain Schulz was chary of putting in the one formed company he had left. I approved his intention of falling back to Morogoro at the end of the action, as the general situation made it desirable for me to concentrate my forces. After Major Kraut’s arrival at Kilossa I also brought Captain Otto in to Morogoro, with part of his companies. Major Kraut had passed behind Otto’s Detachment through Kilossa and after some engagements at that place, he took up a position immediately to the south of it, on the road to Mahenge. Even after the enemy had moved into Kilossa telephonic communication with Kraut’s Detachment had continued to work for a few hours through the enemy.

From that time on direct communication with Major Kraut was interrupted. Signalling by helio did not work, and the wires which led from Kissaki, and later from the Rufiji, to Mahenge, and thence to Major Kraut, were not yet completed—in some cases not even begun. With General Wahle at Tabora we had also had no communication since the second half of July, that is, for over a month. Bagamoyo had fallen into the enemy’s hands; and every day we expected to hear of the fall of Dar-es-Salaam and to lose touch with that place.