British campaigns in Africa and the Pacific, 1914-1918

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BRITISH CAMPAIGNS IN AFRICA
AND THE PACIFIC: 1914— 1918

WORKS BY EDMUND DANE

BRITISH CAMPAIGNS IN THE NEARER
EAST. VOL. I. THE DAYS OF ADVER-
SITY.

BRITISH CAMPAIGNS IN THE NEARER
EAST. VOL. II. THE TIDE OF
VICTORY.

BRITISH CAMPAIGNS IN AFRICA AND
THE PACIFIC: 1914-1918.

LONDON: HODDER AND STOUGHTON

BRITISH CAMPAIGNS

IN

AFRICA AND THE PACIFIC

191 4 — 1 9 1 8

EDMUND DANE

Author of " British Campaigns in the Nearer East,'" etc.

WITH MAPS AND PLANS

HODDER AND STOUGHTON

LONDON : NEW YORK : TORONTO

MCMXIX

PREFACE

The Campaigns in Africa have an interest of their own.
They present aspects of the Great War associated with
varied, and often strange, adventure. And as illustra-
tions of military resource and skill they well repay study.

In order that they may be the better understood, a
succinct account has been given of German colonial
policy and dealings. Some of the facts may appear
incredible. There is, however, not one that is not based
upon well-tested proof. German rule in Africa por-
tended a revival of chattel slavery upon a great scale,
and had the contemplated German Empire in Africa
been established, the desolating social phenomenon of
chattel slavery could not have been confined to the
so-called " Dark Continent." Happily, in the cam-
paigns in Africa the evil was rooted up. The effect of
these campaigns on the world's future will be deep.

Both the causes of military operations and the char-
acter of the terrain over which they take place have to
be presented clearly to the reader's mind before they
can be followed with ease. Often military events have
been dealt with as a kind of poetic history, or in the
dry technical manner which, save to those with expert
knowledge, is repellent. There is no reason why they
should not be narrated at once truthfully and lucidly.
That attempt, at any rate, has here been made. Finally,
the relations of these campaigns to each other and to
the Great War as a whole have been touched upon as
far as necessary.

London, May, 1919. E. D.

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I

PAGE

THE GERMANS IN SOUTH-WEST AFRICA ... 1

German declarations on Colonial policy — The Berlin-Congo
Conference, and the Brussels Anti-Slavery Conference,
1890 — Annexation of South-west Africa — Area and natural
features of the colony — Its native races — The Hottentots —
The Hereros — Their pastoral civilisation — The Ovambos —
Origin of German interest in South-west Africa — The
Rhenish Missions Society's pioneers — Missionary traders —
The Hottentot-Herero War — British Official Inquiry —
Petition of the Hereros for British Protectorate — British
Commissioner's recommendation — Reason for its refusal by
the Home Government — Walfish Bay — German Commercial
projects — Luderitz as prospector — German annexation of
Angra Pequena — Negotiations with native chiefs — Jordaan's
Boer Republic — German measures against it — Attempts to
drive out British traders — Robert Lewis — German adminis-
tration expelled from Damaraland — German Government
and the demand for armed intervention — Native attitude in
1890 — The real lines of German policy — Increase of German
garrison — Provocation of natives — The massacre at Horn-
krantz — German Land Settlement Syndicate — Confiscation
of Herero cattle — The German credit system — German
Courts of Justice — Spoliation of the natives — Fear of
Hottentot-Herero Confederacy — Seizure and execution of
Herero chiefs — Outbreak of the Hottentot War — Jacob
Marengo — The Herero Rebellion — Arrival of General von
Trotha — His campaign of extermination — Unrestrained
atrocities — Valour of the Hereros — German vengeance
towards survivors — Gross abuses of the lash and indiscrimi-
nate executions— Establishment of chattel slavery — German
difficulties in Hottentot campaign — Heroic end of Hendrik
Whitbooi — Von Trotha recalled — Extermination policy
given up — Miserable state of the country.

x CONTENTS

CHAPTER II

PAGE

GENERAL BOTHA'S CAMPAIGN : FIRST PHASE . . 24

Position on outbreak of war, 1914 — German views on South
African prospects — The forces of the South African Union
— Reasons for and against campaign in South-west Africa, —
Ambitions of German Colonial enterprise— Military char-
acter of German Government in South-west Africa — Its
heavy armament — Ultimate purpose and menace — The
strategical railways — Meaning of the terrorism towards
natives — Shades of opinion in South African Union —
Botha's policy — Its foundation — Decision in favour of war —
Botha's plan of campaign — Why original and bold — Main
attack from the Sea — German plan for counter-offensive —
The opening moves — Lukin's Expedition to Little Namaqua-
land — Union forces take Luderitzbucht — Preparations for
overland advance — Lukin's operations from Steinkopf —
Defection of Maritz — Effect on Lukin's Expedition — The
reverse at Sandfontein — Rising of Beyers and de Wet —
Influence of political events on the campaign — Descent at
Walfish Bay postponed and M'Kenzie's column diverted to
Luderitzbucht — M'Kenzie's advance to Tschaukab — Con-
quering the difficulties of the coastal desert — Fine work of
the engineers — Sir George Farrar's services and death by
accident — Check to German counter-offensive — Landing of
Skinner's Column at Walfish Bay — Capture of Swakopmund
— German use of Land-mines— Poisoning of water supplies —
Botha's warning to the enemy — Native service to Union forces
— Union overland operations re-organised — The new scheme
— Germans and Maritz attack and capture Nous and Brits-
town — Bouwer retakes Raman's Drift — The Kalahari Desert
Column — German attack upon Upington — Its defeat —
Surrender of Kemp — Fate of Maritz — German repulse at
Kakamas — Failure of their offensive.

CHAPTER III

GENERAL BOTHA'S CAMPAIGN : SECOND PHASE . 46

Botha takes active command — His visit to the camp at Tschaukab
— Arrival at Swakopmund — Disembarkation of Burgher
Brigades — Preparations for the main advance — The water
problem — Botha's consequent change of plan — Concealment
of the change — M'Kenzie's move on Garub — Gen.'Deventer's
advance from Upington — Takes Nakob, and Schuit's Drift —
Capture of German camp at Nabas — Berrange's advance
from Kuruman — Romantic character of the adventure —
Defeat of the Germans at Schaapkolk — -And at Hasuur —
Berrange's objective — Botha attacks German defences in
Swakop Valley — His tactics — Their complete success —

CONTENTS xi

PAGE

Progress of the overland operations — Col. Dirk van
Deventer's flank guard movement — His successes at
Davignab, Plattbeen, and Geitsaub — Junction with Ber-
range at Kiriis West — M'Kenzie's advance to Aus — Germans
pinched out of Kalkfontein — Importance of this result —
Convergence of Union forces from the South — Smuts takes
command — His move to Keetmanshoop— German retreat
to Gibeon — M'Kenzie's dash from Aus to Gibeon — The
action at that place — M'Kenzie's tactics — Botha anticipates
enemy concentration — His drive to Dorstriviermund —
German counter-move — Checked by Skinner at Trekkopjes —
Botha cuts the railway to Windhuk — Dash to Karibib —
German forces divided up — Plight of German administration
and surrender of Windhuk — Botha giants an Armistice —
Impossible German propositions — The Campaign resumed —
The German position — Botha's better estimate and revised
dispositions — Karibib as a new base — Plan of the Union
advance — The flanking operations — Germans refuse battle
— Record marching of Union forces — The drive to Otavi
— Germans fall back towards Tsumeb, their final position —
Demand for surrender agreed to — Declaration of local
armistice — Reason for the precaution — Myburgh captures
arsenal at Tsumeb — Last outlet closed by Brits at Namutoni
— Botha's terms — Their true meaning — End of German rule
in South-west Africa — Benefits of the new regime.

CHAPTER IV

THE STORY OF EAST AFRICA 71

Natural features and climate of East Africa — Its native com-
munities and kingdoms — Trade routes — First German pros-
pectors— Slave trade agitation begun — Charter granted to
German Colonisation Society — British Protectorate declared
over Zanzibar — Germany and the Sultanate of Witu —
British-German diplomatic duel — Hinterland parcelled out
into spheres of influence — British East African Chartered
Company — Germans demand port of Lamu — Attack on
German traders — Agreement of 1890 — British and German
antagonism in Uganda — German intrigues in the Soudan —
Germany's East African administration— The commercial
monopoly — Plantation labour difficulties — Formation of a
native standing army — Its relationship with native tribes —
Studied hostility — Measures for forcing natives into planta-
tion labour — Tyranny of German police — Abuses of convict
system— Native revolt in 1904— The Native War of 1905-6
— The " Magic Water " legend — Destruction of the
Wamwera nation — Treatment of native leaders.

xii CONTENTS

CHAPTER V

PAGE

EAST AFRICAN CAMPAIGN 1914 1916 ... 83

German readiness — Propaganda in the Eastern Soudan —
Supremacy on the Great Lakes — Von Lettow-Vorbeck — His
leadership — Plans for offensive — British attack on Dar-es-
Salem — Konigsberg's attack on Zanzibar — British cam-
paign dependent on the sea — German invasion of British
East Africa — Its initial success — Thrusts at Mombasa —
Landing of British reinforcements from India — The
counter-offensive — Attack on Tanga fails — British non-
success at Longido — The combat at Vanga — Arrival of
General Tighe — Von Wehle's operations against Kisumu
and Uganda — Invasion of Uganda repulsed — General
Stewart's expedition to Bukoba — The operations in
Nyassaland — Defeat of German Expeditionary force —
Invasion of Rhodesia — German raid on Kituta — The
British Tanganyika Naval Expedition — Its romantic over-
land adventures — Destruction of German flotilla — Siege of
Saisi — Episodes of the defence — Revolt of the Sultan of
Darfur — Col. Kelly's Expedition from El Obeid — His
remarkable march — Battle of Beringia — Occupation of
Darfur.

CHAPTER VI

THE CAMPAIGN OF GENERAL SMUTS : FIRST PHASE 102

The situation in February, 1916 — Strength of German forces —
The German positions round Taveta — Reorganisation of
the British Divisions — Tighe's plan of a converging attack —
Capture of German defences at Mbuyuni and Serengeti — The
water supply problem — Reinforcements from South Africa
— Dispositions of General Smuts for the battle of Kiliman-
jaro— Stewart's turning movement — Van Deventer breaks
through German line — Capture of Taveta — A rapid and
sweeping victory — German retreat upon Latema-Reata
pass — Struggle for the defile — Germans fall back upon
Kahe — Importance of the position — Again won by turning
movement — Action in the Pangani Valley — German retreat
to Lembeni — The rainy season — Smuts re-groups his forces
— His new plans — Van Deventer's seizure of Lokissale —
German intentions disclosed — Expedition of van Deventer
to Kandoa Irangi — Battle of Kandoa Irangi and defeat of
von Lettow-Vorbeck — Its influence on the Campaign —
Smuts advances south from Kahe — Germans squeezed out
of Usambara highlands — Action at Mikotscheni — Capture
of Handeni — Battle on the Lukigura river — Belgian troops
invade Ruanda — British attack and occupy Mwanza — End
of this phase of the campaign.

CONTENTS xiii

CHAPTER VII

PAG!;

EAST AFRICAN CAMPAIGN : THE CLOSING PHASES 125

Fighting value of German forces — Enemy concentration in Nguru
mountains — Van Deventer's dash from Kandoa Irangi —
Action at Tschenene — Railway from Tabora cut — Northey's
advance from Rhodesia — Belgians take Ujiji and Kilgoma —
Operations of Smuts in the Nguru mountains — Battle at
Matamondo — Germans fall back towards Morogoro — Battle
at Dakava — Enemy's preparations in the Uluguru mountains
— Review of the situation — Van Deventer's march to Kilossa
— Plans to entrap enemy in Uluguru area — Reasons for their
failure — British check at Kissaki — Exhaustion of the com-
batants— Germans fall back towards Mahenge — Capture of
Dar-es-Salem — Belgians take Tabora — Northey's advance —
Actions at New Iringa and on the Ruhuje — Germans attack
Lupembe — Surrender of German force at Itembule — End of
the second phase of General Smuts's campaign — Further
reorganisation of his force — Increase of black troops
— The new British dispositions — Von Lettow-Vorbeck's
counter-plan — Germans attack Malangali — Their defeat at
Lupembe — British operations at Kilwa — Battle at Kibata —
New plan for enclosing movement — Tactical disguises — Battle
at Dutumi — Crossing of Rufigi seized — Operations on the
Rufigi — Smuts relinquishes the command — German food
difficulties — Van Deventer succeeds Hoskins — Van Deventer's
strategy — Von Lettow-Vorbeck forced to fight — Battle at
Narongombe — Mahungo captured — Battle on the Lukulede
— Heavy German losses — Germans defeated at Mahenge
— Surrender of Tafel's Column — End of the Campaign.

CHAPTER VIII

THE CAMPAIGN IN TOGOLAND 156

German annexation of the Colony — Its native population —
German labour policy — Economic effects — Military weak-
ness of German position — Place of Togoland in German
Imperial Schemes — Proposal of Neutrality — Why rejected
— The Anglo-French invasion — German retirement inland
— Battle on the Chra — Position turned by the French —
German surrender at Kamina — End of the Campaign.

CHAPTER IX

THE CAMPAIGN IN THE CAMEROONS . . . .104

Features of the African Campaigns — Character of the Came-
roons— The German military scheme — The fortified frontier
— British attack from Nigeria — Its failure and the reasons —
The reverses at Gaura and Nsanakang — General Dobell'a

xiV CONTENTS

PAGE

plan of invasion from Duala — Effect of the French attack —
German precautions at Duala — The British naval operations
— Dobell's expedition to and capture of Duala and Bonaberi —
Germans forestalled — British operations against Jabassi and
Edea — Clearance of the Northern railway — German rebound
— Actions at Edea and Nkongsamba — German commander's
projects — The French advance — Battle at Dume — Allied
operations at a halt — General Dobell's view of the position —
The French plan for a combined movement against Jaunde —
British and French advance from Duala — Battle at Wum
Biagas — Failure of the project — French advance to Dume
and Lome — Resumption of the attack from Nigeria — Siege
and capture of Garua — Breach of the German military
barrier in the north — The siege of Mora — Second Allied
Conference at Duala — New plans— Nigerian forces link up
with those of Dobell — The final converging moves —
Resumed British move from Duala inland — Battle at Lesoga
— Siege and capture of Banyo — The final dash to Jaunde
— German retreat to Rio Muni — Surrender of Mora.

CHAPTER X

THE WAR IN THE PACIFIC AND THE SIEGE OF

KIAO-CHAU 188

German policy in the Far East — Aims of German diplomacy —
Basis and effects of German naval power — The British and
Japanese counter-moves — Growth of German interests in the
Pacific — Influence of Japanese and Australian naval prepara-
tions— The New Zealand Expedition to the Samoan Islands
— Australian conquest of the Bismarck Archipelago and
Kaiser Wilhelm Land — Japanese Pacific Expedition — The
Germans in Kiao-Chau — Character and strength of its fortifi-
cations— Germany's " lone hand " in the Far East —
Japan's declaration of War — Preparations for the siege of
Kiao-Chau — Landing of the Japanese advance forces —
The British contingent — General Kamio's first move —
Skill of Japanese operations — Capture of the outer defences
— The attack on the inner defences — A record bombard-
ment— The three parallels of approach — Last stage of the
attack — Surrender of the garrison.

MAPS AND PLANS

PAGE

German South-west Africa . . . . is

Map to Illustrate Operations on the Orange

River 33

Map to Illustrate the Advance of General

Botha from Swakopmund .... 53

The Southern Concentration of the South

African Union Forces 63

Map to Illustrate the Operations in German

East Africa .87

British Manoeuvres in the Battle of Taveta 107

The Operations in the Nguru Mountains . 131

Map to Illustrate the Campaign in the

Cameroons 173

The German Defences at Kiao-Chau . , 201

BRITISH CAMPAIGNS IN AFRICA
AND THE PACIFIC

CHAPTER I

THE^GERMANS IN SOUTH-WEST AFRICA

German declarations on Colonial policy — The Berlin Congo Conference,
and the Brussels Anti-Slavery Conference, 1890 — Annexation of
South-west Africa. — Area and natural features of the colony — Its
native races — The Hottentots — The Hereros — Their pastoral
civilisation — The Ovambos — Origin of German interest in South-
west Africa — The Rhenish Missions Society's pioneers — Missionary
traders — The Hottentot-Herero War — British Official Inquiry —
Petition of the Hereros for British Protectorate — British Com-
missioner's recommendation — Reason for its refusal by the Home
Government — Walfish Bay — German Commercial projects — Luder-
itz as prospector — German annexation of Angra Pequena— Negoti-
ations with native chiefs — Jordaan's Boer Republic — German
measures against it — Attempts to drive out British traders —
Robert Lewis — German administration expelled from Damaraland
— German Government and the demand for armed intervention —
Native attitude in 1890 — The real lines of German policy — Increase
of German garrison — Provocation of natives — The massacre at
Hornkrantz — German Land Settlement Syndicate — Confiscation
of Herero cattle — The German credit system — German Courts of
Justice — Spoliation of the natives — Fear of Hottentot-Horero
Confederacy — Seizure and execution of Herero chiefs — Outbreak
of the Hottentot War — Jacob Marengo — The Herero Rebellion —
Arrival of General von Trotha — His campaign of extermination —
Unrestrained atrocities — Valour of the Hereros — German ven-
geance towards survivors — Gross abuses of the lash and indis-
criminate executions — Establishment of chattel slavery — German
difficulties in Hottentot campaign — Heroic end of Hendrik Whit-
booi — Von Trotha recalled — Extermination policy given up —
Miserable state of the country.

Immersed up to that time in schemes of aggrandise-
ment on the continent of Europe, or in Turkey in Asia,
the rulers of the German Empire did not openly enter

1 B

THE GERMANS IN SOUTH-WEST AFRICA

the field of colonial undertakings until the year 1885.
Their departure was marked by the Berlin Congo
Conference. In November, 1884, on the invitation of
Prince Bismarck, representatives of the European
Powers met at Berlin to consider more especially the
future of Africa and the welfare of its native races.
The diplomatists were in session until February, 1885.
Besides dealing with certain boundaries, such as those
of the French possessions on the Lower Congo, until
then not definitely delimited, and the claims of Belgium
over the Congo hinterland, they solemnly resolved that
it was the " sacred duty " of the represented Powers to
preserve the native races of Africa ; watch over their
interests ; and cultivate their material and moral
advancement. To that resolution, of course, the Gov-
ernment of the German Empire was a subscribing
party.

Five years later — in July, 1890 — there took place at
Brussels a European Anti-Slavery Conference, and at
that Conference, in which German diplomacy had an
active part, the " emphatic desire of the conferring
Powers to protect the native races of Africa from slavery
and oppression," was registered with like solemnity.
Because these were the declared lines of German colonial
policy, and the declarations were presumably accepted
by the British Government on their face value, the
agreement was arrived at which in 1890 enabled the
Government at Berlin, without further overt protest
or opposition, to annex the territories afterwards
known as German South-west Africa and German East
Africa.

Then opened, notwithstanding the German Govern-
ment's solemn professions, probably the blackest in all
the black pages of human cruelty.

As denned by the Anglo-German Agreement, German
South-west Africa comprised that part of the South
African plateau lying to the west and north-west of the
Kalahari desert. Including 322,450 square miles of
territory ; extending from the Orange River in the south
to the Kunene River in the north, 900 miles, and at its

THE GERMANS IN SOUTH-WEST AFRICA

broadest part 500 miles from the coast inland,1 this vast
region, more than two and a half times as large as the
United Kingdom, is marked out by its geographical
features into three areas. The southern tract, Great
Namaqualand, is a highland country, crossed by parallel
ranges of mountains in height from 4,000 to 8,000 feet,
the culminating summit, Mount Omatako, 8,800 feet
above sea-level. Between the ranges lie fertile valleys.
The central area, Damaraland, is, save on the west, a
great rolling plain, affording excellent pasture. To the
north, and divided from Damaraland by a dry belt, is
Ovamboland, a sub-tropical country of rounded hills and
wide productive hollows. Not the least notable feature,
however, of South-west Africa is the zone lying between
the coast and the interior plateaux, and marked off from
the latter alike by their boundary mountains and by
its own lower level. On an average some seventy miles
in breadth, this coastal zone is a waterless and forbidding
desolation of stone, sand, and scrub. And the peculiarity
of the coast, as a whole, is the lack of natural harbours.
In all the 900 miles there are but two breaks in its dan-
gerous inhospitality — Walfish Bay, where a sheltered
anchorage is afforded by a sandbar ; and the indent
named by the Portuguese Angra Pequena.

With the Kalahari desert on one side of them, and the
arid coastal tract on the other, the inhabitants of South-
west Africa were among the last to come into contact
with Europeans. Apart from the tribelets of Bushmen
thinly dispersed over the coastal desert, and gaining a
scanty living by the chase, the natives were divided into
three national groups. Great Namaqualand was the
home of the Hottentots. Considered by ethnologists one
of the most peculiar of African peoples, for their traits
are more Mongolian than Negro, these mountaineers —
warriors, hunters, and herdsmen — were separated into
some twelve independent tribes, or cantons. Their
natural bravery was extreme. Though small of stature,
they were active and very hardy, not wanting in intelli-

1 This was oxclusive of the Caprivi enclave added later, and carrying
German South-west Africa inland to the Zambesi.

3 B 2

THE GERMANS IN SOUTH-WEST AFRICA

gence, and endowed with acute sight and hearing.
Probably at one time they inhabited the whole of the
south-west African plateau south of Ovamboland. Since,
however, they only numbered about 20,000 all told, this
occupation of a country larger than the Spanish peninsula
must have been very scattered. Hence when, about
two centuries ago, the Hereros, a people of the Bantu
race, migrating with their flocks and herds across the
continent in search of fresh pasturage, came upon Damara-
land, the feeble numbers of the Hottentots enabled the
immigrants to settle in that country. From the plain
the Hottentots were driven into the mountains, south
and north-west. This movement made the two peoples
hostile, and the hostility became traditional. The
lifting of Herero cattle was one of the most esteemed of
Hottentot activities.

Of a people in the pastoral stage of civilisation the
Hereros offered an unusually interesting example.
They were a group of clans under a paramount chief,
each clan holding its allotted pasturage as the common
property. Their herds and their flocks of sheep and
goats, providing them with milk, meat, and clothing,
were alike the basis of wealth, and of their customs
regarding tribal rights, marriage, and inheritance, for
as in all societies the customs were designed to safeguard
the standard of life. Skill as a herdsman, or shepherd,
was held the most valuable accomplishment. Bound
up with all their experiences of well-being, their cattle
were the objects of their veneration, and the increase of
their herds their utmost care. The heaven of the Herero
was a heaven of shepherds. As the country into which
they had immigrated was among the most favoured spots
in the whole continent of Africa for a pastoral life, its
climate temperate and healthy, they had thrived, and it
is estimated that at the date of the German annexation
the Hereros possessed 150,000 head of horned stock
besides their flocks. Like other peoples of the Bantu
race, they were tall and of fine physique, but they had
two traits which marked them off. Unattacked they
were peaceable, though naturally by no means unwarlike,

4

THE GERMANS IN SOUTH-WEST AFRICA

and their usages disclosed a high respect for their women-
kind. The Herero wife was not treated as a chattel.
The Herero, too, had a very defined notion of honour,
distinguishing in war between combatants and non-
combatants, and one of the tribal sayings was that he
was not a barbarian. Reliable computations put their
number at 80,000.

The most powerful, however, of the three native
groups were the Ovambos. In point of civilisation they
had reached the stage of agriculture, and had evolved a
feudal system. With the natives to the south their
relations seem only to have been slight and casual, a
fact sufficiently accounted for by the intervening belt
of arid territory. Whatever the cause, the Ovambos
remained the most isolated of African nations, and this
apparently on their part was a settled policy. They were
not negroes. The characteristics of the Ovambos were
their powerful physique ; their almost Gallic gaiety
shown in a love of music and dancing ; their suspicion
of strangers, and not least of Europeans ; and their
disinclination to adopt European usages, except as
regards arms and ammunition, of which, whenever the
chance offered, they were steady purchasers. They
were presumed, though the figure is no more than a guess,
to number 150,000 and were able therefore to muster
some 30,000 fighting men, and it was always uncertain to
what extent they might prove to be armed with weapons
of precision, the value of which they keenly appreciated.

The association of Germans with South-west Africa
began through the Rhenish Missions Society of Berlin,
and the work of its agents among the Hottentots.
Of that work the pioneer was a German missionary named
von Schemelen. Sent into Great Namaqualand from
Capetown in 1814 by a British society, he opened up a
correspondence with compatriots in Berlin. The result
was that about the year 1840 the Rhenish Missions Society
formally took Great Namaqualand within its field of
activity. Conversion of the natives, however, made slow
progress. For its outcome in converts the mission was
expensive. This lack of satisfactory consequences was

THE GERMANS IN SOUTH-WEST AFRICA

put down to the Colonial cattle traders from across the
Orange River, and their importations of arms and
liquors. To counteract the influence and at the same
time to lessen expenses, it was decided to turn every
German mission station into a trading post, and the
scheme from the financial point of view answered so
well that trading activity soon became the more impor-
tant. The next step was, in 1870, the flotation at Berlin
of a limited liability company to develop German trade
in Great Namaqualand and Damaraland. Each mission-
ary was to receive one-half the trading profits of his
post.

From 1864 to 1870 there was a Hottentot-Herero
war. Headed by the most powerful of them, the Whit-
boois, the Hottentot tribes had joined together and
subjected the Hereros to tribute, but the latter, advised
by two English traders named Green and Haybittel,
had signally defeated the Hottentot confederation and
thrown off the yoke. Seemingly in this struggle German
sympathy was with the Hottentots. The Hereros
looked to British protection.

Trade jealousies now began to enter into the matter,
and the effect of representations from the Cape Govern-
ment was that in 1876 a British Commissioner, Mr. W. C.
Palgrave, was sent out to inquire and report. In an
interview with the paramount chief and sub-chiefs of the
Hereros, Mr. Palgrave was handed a petition signed by
fifty-eight chiefs and headmen asking that Damaraland
might be placed under British authority. The immediate
motive was, no doubt, desire for tranquillity, for the war
with the Hottentots had then just ended. Palgrave's
recommendation, endorsed by the High Commissioner at
Capetown, was that the whole coast line of South-west
Africa should be annexed. The British Government
at home, however, declined to take that course, and the
reason was beyond question the German footing already
established in the country. After a delay of two years
the British Government compromised by the annexation,
in 1878, of Walfish Bay, considering, it would seem, that
by taking possession of the best harbour on the coast

6

THE GERMANS IN SOUTH-WEST AFRICA

the hinterland would be rendered valueless to any other
European Power.

But German projects were not thus to be thwarted. A
scheme was set on foot for enlarging the original limited
liability company into a much more ambitious affair,
and in 1882 the promoters sent out Adolphe Luderitz,
a Bremen merchant, who landed at Angra Pequena, and
began to look into commercial possibilities. That the
German Government was behind this scheme was evi-
denced in 1884 by the arrival at Angra Pequena of a body
of German scientific and commercial prospectors, charged
to inquire into mineral and agricultural resources. The
result was the annexation forthwith of the port of Angra
Pequena, renamed Luderitzbucht, and some 4,000,000
and more acres of territory said to have been bought
from the Hottentots. A kind of Chartered Company was
now set up under the administration of a Dr. Goering as
Government-controller. It is worth noting that on
hearing of these events the Hereros once more, and in that
same year 1884, petitioned to have their country taken
under British protection. For a second time, however,
the petition was refused by the British Colonial Office.

From the neighbourhood of Angra Pequena Goering
lost no time in pushing the limits of the Protectorate
northwards. Guided and introduced to the native chiefs
by a missionary, Carl Buttner, he promised them, in
return for trading facilities, the protection of the German
Government. Where an agreement of that kind was
entered into the country was presumed to have become
German.

And now occurred an episode which threatened to prove
awkward. William Jordaan, a Boer, had with a company
of associates trekked to Grootfontein in the belt of
country between Damaraland and Ovamboland, and in
that until then unclaimed district had set up what he
called the Republic of Upingtonia. From neighbour-
ing chiefs Jordaan had obtained a concession of the
territory and of its mineral rights. One of his concerns
was to keep on good terms with the Ovambos. In
1886 he was on a visit to Ovamboland. He was there

THE GERMANS IN SOUTH-WEST AFRICA

assassinated. The allegation, a German story, is that he
was murdered at the instigation of a Herero chief, but
it is, if a coincidence, peculiar that after his " removal "
his followers were forthwith informed by Goering that
their Republic could not be tolerated on German terri-
tory. Their settlement was broken up.

As understood by the native chiefs the palavers with
Goering were of a purely friendly character, but as inter-
preted by Goering and his underlings they gave an
implied authority to exclude from South-west Africa
every white not of German nationality. Since the trade
between the natives and Cape Colony was much larger
than that carried on with the Germans through their
missions, the attempts at exclusion led to friction. At
the instance of the Colonial traders the Government of
Cape Colony forwarded protests to the British Govern-
ment at home. The Government at home, however,
was swayed much more by the European situation than
by affairs at the Cape, and there then prevailed in high
quarters a belief that an understanding with Germany
was both feasible and desirable. This belief the Govern-
ment at Berlin did its utmost by smooth professions to
foster. It was, on the other hand, plain that were
German policy in South-west Africa to go unchecked and
a German trading monopoly to be established, the inter-
ests of the native population commercially would be
gravely compromised. No surprise therefore can be
felt that the native chiefs leaned to the side of the
Colonial traders, and became alarmed by their warnings.

The most popular and influential of the Cape traders
among the natives, and the man in consequence
most obnoxious to the German administration, was a
Robert Lewis, who now took a leading part in the opposi-
tion. Goering demanded his expulsion from Damara-
land. On the refusal of that demand, the German
Government-controller with his chief officials came to
see the chief Kamaherero at Okahandja, and claimed
enforcement of the order on the ground that the country
now belonged to the German Crown. Astonished by the
pretension, Kamaherero ordered them out of his territory

THE GERMANS IN SOUTH-WEST AFRICA

within twelve hours. Their lives, he told them, would be
forfeit if they declined to go. And having no force at
the back of them and " bluff " having failed, the " admin-
istration " had no choice save to comply. They sought
refuge at Walfish Bay, and from there sailed to Europe
with an appeal for armed intervention.

To begin with, the German Government vetoed, or
appeared to veto, the proposal. A Press outcry was
then raised. Needless to observe, both the seeming
veto and the newspaper agitation were calculated moves.
Not less calculated was the next step — the ostensible
climb down of the German Government in deference to
" public opinion " ; and yet the next — the sending out
to Luderitzbucht of twenty-one men, which trivial
force was intended to indicate Germany's docile and for-
bearing policy. By means such as these, joined to the
professions put forward at the Brussels Anti-Slavery
Conference, and, it may be added, a certain element of
backstairs diplomacy, the British Government was,
despite opinion in Cape Colony, induced to hand over the
native peoples of South-west Africa to the fate that
might await them at the hands of German colonial
enterprise.

We have now to see what that fate proved to be.

In 1890, when South-west Africa was formally annexed,
the situation with regard to the natives broadly was that
the Hottentots, as without doubt the Germans had
already found out, were a people who could not be
reduced to serfdom ; that the Hereros, considered pro-
British, were looked upon as hostile ; and that the
Ovambos were too strong to be disturbed without war
on an expensive scale. In the circumstances, what was
the principle which guided German policy ? On the
one hand there was the declared " sacred duty " of
furthering the natives' moral and material advance-
ment, and the alleged " emphatic desire " to protect
them against slavery and oppression. But, on the other,
there was the opinion reflected in the book, entitled
" German Colonial Policy," written by Dr. Paul
Rohrbach, at this date a high official in the German

THE GERMANS IN SOUTH-WEST AFRICA

Colonial Office. And the opinion of Dr. Rohrbach
was that German colonisation could, after all, mean
nothing else than that the natives must give up their
grazing lands in order that the white man might have
them for grazing his stock. That, of course, was,
without just compensation, robbery. Some, Dr.
Rohrbach anticipated, might question the dictum from a
moral law point of view. " The answer," he wrote, " is
that for nations of the kultur-position of the South-
African natives, the loss of their free national barbarism,
and their development into a class of labourers in the
service of and dependent upon white people is primarily
a law of existence in the highest degree." 1 Reduced
to plain terms, this jargon meant that the lot of the
natives was to be bondage. Presumably because the
" kultur-position " of the German riff-raff who were sent
out to South-west Africa was higher than that of the
Herero, who was as much above the average German
colonist as any natural nobleman is above any natural
cad, every rule of honest dealing was to be set aside.

Whether in South-west Africa German colonial enter-
prise was conducted on the lines of the German Govern-
ment's declarations or on those laid down by Rohrbach,
will appear in the sequel.

In 1892 the German garrison was increased from the
stage army of twenty-one to two hundred men, and from
that date the administration, set up at Windhuk in the
south-west of Damaraland, entered towards the Hereros
upon a policy of provocation. At the same time, attacks
by the Hottentots upon the Hereros were encouraged,
and were then made the pretext of complaints against
the Hottentots. The incursions of the chief Hendrik
Whitbooi, head of the Whitbooi tribe, into Damaraland
gave rise to protests from Windhuk, and so long as a
force of twenty-one men alone was at hand, the matter
was limited to protests. On the arrival, however, of
the draft which brought the German armed strength up
to two hundred men, it speedily became another story.
The landing of this contingent happened to coincide

1 P. Rohrbach : Deutsche Kolonial Wirtschaft, p. 286.
10

THE GERMANS IN SOUTH-WEST AFRICA

with the conclusion of a peace between Hendrik and the
Hereros. The latter fact made no difference. Hendrik
then had his chief location at the native town of Horn-
krantz, lying at the foot of the western mountains. Now
at peace, he apprehended no danger. But he had ad-
dressed to the British resident at Walfish Bay a letter
detailing the cruelties practised by the Germans at
Windhuk upon natives, and in particular the inhuman
floggings there inflicted. The details cited are unprint-
able, for the punishments, or rather tortures, were
carried out without regard to sex, and five of the victims
had failed to survive. It is clear that, informed as to
this correspondence, and suspecting its import, Captain
von Francois, the German governor at Windhuk, having
received his reinforcement, was resolved upon revenge.
He allowed time enough to go by to throw Hendrik off
his guard. Then, in April, 1893, with, to quote his own
statement, " the greatest secrecy," his force stole at
night across the hills into the valley, stealthily formed a
cordon round Hornkrantz, and just as day was breaking
closed in. They fired into the huts of the sleeping
inhabitants, killing men, women, and children alike
and slaughtering without distinction of sex or age all
who sought to escape. But though taken by surprise
Hendrik, with some sixty of his warriors, cut their way
through the cordon and retreated to the mountains,
from which they looked back on their homes, now given
up to the flames. They became outlaws. Hornkrantz
was wiped out. The natives of South-west Africa had
felt the first contact of the " mailed fist," or ought it
to be said of the " emphatic desire " to shield them from
oppression ?

Von Francois was recalled after this affair, but was so
far not recalled in disgrace that he received promotion
to the rank of major.

He was succeeded by von Leutwcin whose arrival had
been preceded by the formation in Germany of a South-
west Africa Land Settlement Syndicate, which disposed
of cattle ranches as yet in nubibus. To give effect to
this speculation the German governor, in virtue of his

11

THE GERMANS IN SOUTH-WEST AFRICA

supreme authority, set up as paramount chief of the
Hereros a native named Samuel Maherero. Samuel was
not in the direct line of succession, and both on that
account and because the sub-chiefs had had no voice
in his election as demanded by tribal custom, he was
never recognised by them or by the Herero people.
In the eyes of the Germans, however, Samuel Maherero
had an important qualification for his " office." He
was a drunkard, and so long as he was supplied with
rum could be relied upon to sign any document put before
him. And the administration at Windhuk lost no time
in requiring his signature to an " agreement " which
assigned to the Land Settlement Syndicate 4i millions
of acres in Damaraland extending from Windhuk east-
wards. It was further alleged, though no proof of the
statement has ever been found, that Samuel also signed
a concession which enabled the Germans to seize for
trespass any Herero cattle found straying to the south
of a boundary line drawn across the map of Damaraland
west to east for a distance of four hundred miles. Thus
by one compact, on the face of it a swindle, the Hereros
were deprived of part of their best pasturage, and by
another, which if ever entered into was yet more
flagitious, were open to have their most cherished pro-
perty stolen from them. Worst perhaps of all, they were
left to find out the existence of the latter " treaty "
by the impounding of several thousands of their horned
stock. This, of course, reduced many families among
them to penury, and naturally it caused excitement,
described by Governor von Leutwein as " war fever."
In some districts the seizures led to violence. The
Herero people as a whole, however, had decided to exer-
cise forbearance, and the main result was that, warned
by experience, they gave the alleged boundary line a
wide berth.

Such passive resistance was not to the German taste.
Needy adventurers, they wanted not only land and cattle
but labour, and all three, if possible, for nothing, and it
was evidently hoped that studied provocation of the
natives would supply the pretext for continued and con-

12

•GL0GRAPH1 A" I1 ° 55 MET SWEET LCWuH EC 4

13

THE GERMANS IN SOUTH-WEST AFRICA

tinuous confiscations. In face of the attitude of the
Hereros these measures threatened to become abortive,
or, in any event, too slow. Other measures, judged to be
more speedy, were therefore adopted. One of them was
the facility afforded to every newly-arrived and would-
be German ranchero to open a trading account with the
natives on the basis of bartering goods for cattle. Cut
off from trade with the Cape Colony, the natives had now
no means of obtaining articles they needed save from
these German traders, and on the traders' own terms.
On the one hand, the traders did not hesitate to demand
£20 for a coat, and £10 for a pair of trousers,1 ten times
over the price at which such articles had been supplied
by way of the Cape ; on the other, the traders fixed
the price of a cow at £1, half the amount given by Cape
Colony dealers. On these terms a German trader
reckoned to get a herd of thirty cattle for two pieces of
shoddy clothing. Coffee and tobacco were sold at
corresponding rates. To give these impositions a
business face, the natives were allowed credit, but that
device meant that the debtor might be seized and
condemned to labour in consideration of the debt, in a
word, be made a slave.

Here a reference is apposite to the German " Courts
of Justice." Their character is disclosed by the regula-
tion which enacted that the evidence of a white witness
could only be rebutted by the testimony of seven natives,
and by another laying down that natives must regard
every white man as a " superior being." In these
tribunals " justice " became worse than a farce ; it was
a tragedy. The tribunals were part of the machinery
of despoilment. It is hardly necessary to add that no
native ever appealed to them. The truth, as disgraceful
as incontrovertible, is that for the natives, after the
German incoming, law and justice in South-west Africa
ceased utterly to exist.

In the liquidation of their credits, besides the seizure
of " debtors," the Germans picked the best cattle out of

1 Report of the Union Administrator on the Natives of South-west
Africa and their Treatment by Germany, p. 47.

14

THE GERMANS IN SOUTH-WEST AFRICA

the Herero herds. Considering the pastoral usages and
traditions of the now unhappy Hereros, this was a bitter
injury. But the last word on a superior " kultur-
position " displaying its superiority has yet to be spoken.
About the burial places of their dead the Hereros planted
groves, which they held as sacred, and of these the most
venerated was that in which were interred their supreme
chiefs. The German administration cut it down, broke
up the land and turned the place into a vegetable garden.
In short, no measure likely to drive the Hereros to des-
peration was overlooked.

Meanwhile the relations of the administration at
Windhuk with the Hottentots were by no means easy.
After the affair at Hornkrantz the Hottentot attitude was,
as might be expected, one of distrust. But the mountain
tribes were comparatively poor, as the Hereros were,
taking the native standard, rich. And besides being
relatively poor, the Hottentots were manifestly a
tough proposition. As for the Ovambos, the Germans
left them for the time alone, not even taking the trouble
to let them know that the Kaiser und Konig had been
pleased to extend his All-highest protection to that part
of Africa. So far as can be gathered, indeed, the
Ovambos do not appear to have been aware that the
white man advanced any claims to their country. The
sleeping dogs were suffered to lie. Fear at Windhuk
was occupied with the likelihood of a confederation be-
tween the Hereros and the Hottentots, and the chance of
their common hatred of the white oppressor becoming
deeper than their old hostility. In 1896 there was a
disquieting symptom. Arising out of the credit system
disturbances occurred in the eastern districts of Damara-
land bordering on the desert, and in these the Kausa
Hottentots made common cause with the Hereros, of
the Ovambandjera sub-clan. A battle with the German
troops took place at Otyunda. Thanks to their superior
armament, the Germans prevailed. Then, in pursuit
of the policy of forbearance, Nikodemus, the Herero
supreme chief by tribal right, and Kahimema, chief of
the Ovambandjera clan, went to Okahandja to protest

THE GERMANS IN SOUTH-WEST AFRICA

against German dealings and arrange terms for their
people. They were seized, tried by court-martial,
and shot as rebels, being taken to the place of execution
in an ox-cart which, as it paraded through the town
surrounded by an armed escort, called forth native
waitings from every house.

As time went on the lot of the natives sank from bad to
worse, and feeling between them and the Germans
grew more bitter. Any spark would now start a flare.
The spark fell in October, 1903, at Warmbad in the
Bondelswartz area. The German official in charge
there was a Lieut. Jobst, who cited the aged chief of the
Bondelswartz Hottentots, Willem Christian, to appear
before him on a trivial charge. The chief declined to
comply. Thereupon Jobst with an escort went to the
native location. Christian resisted arrest, well knowing
the kind of treatment meted out to native prisoners.
Seeing him roughly handled, his men turned upon Jobst
and his party and slew the whole of them. When this
news reached Windhuk the administration there, though
Jobst had been the aggressor, prepared to exact a signal
revenge, and on their side the Southern Hottentots
made ready to defend themselves. Thus broke out the
Hottentot War. It dragged on for the next four years,
and cost the Germans thousands of casualties and many
millions sterling in outlay.

The administration at Windhuk relied not so much on
its numerically feeble garrison as on native auxiliaries,
chiefly the Whitboois, and the Bastards, a community
of half-breeds settled at Rehoboth. Hendrik Whitbooi
was known to be a leader of no mean military skill.
After the massacre at Hornkrantz, he had betaken himself
to his location at Naauwkloof, a mountain stronghold
difficult of access, and there for more than a year he
had set the Germans at defiance. Finally they moved
out in force to attack him, and after bombarding the
place tried to take it by storm. The assault failed with
heavy losses. A regular siege was then entered upon,
and for three weeks the Germans sat before the defences.
At the end of that time Hendrik and his garrison, starved

16

THE GERMANS IN SOUTH-WEST AFRICA

out, were compelled to surrender, though on terms.
The terms of the capitulation were that the chief should
accept a Protection Agreement. Having hastened to
offer the troublesome Hottentot an accommodation,
von Leutwein strove to use him as far as possible as a
tool. Towards the Bastards likewise Leutwein had
deemed it prudent to be conciliatory. He needed the
support of both to keep the Hereros in subjection.
The Hereros had possessions worth plundering, which was
the main point. But on their part the now revolted
Hottentots of the south threw up a leader in every respect
the equal of Hendrik, and in guerilla tactics much more
than equal to the German officers pitted against him.
This was Jacob Marengo, a man of mixed Herero and
Hottentot parentage. He was as distinguished for
chivalry as for personal daring.

Accordingly, in the opening engagements of the
Hottentot War von Leutwein found his Punitive Expe-
dition by no means the walkover he had thought it
would be. He and his auxiliaries got as good as they
gave, if not more. While engaged in this fatiguing
campaign among trackless mountains hunting an always
elusive foe, the German governor received news that the
Hereros had risen in arms.

Knowing that with regard to them it was a fight to the
death, von Leutwein had no choice save to patch up a
hasty peace with the Bondelswartz "rebels," and hurry
northwards. The Hereros, mustering some 8,000 fight-
ing men, of whom about 2,500 were armed with rifles,
more or less antiquated, had swept over the German
settlements, but while destroying buildings and driving
off cattle — more than half their herds had passed into
German hands through the operation of the credit
system — had, according to their custom, spared German
women and children, and, though they had but little
reason to love them, German missionaries. From
WTindhuk, meanwhile, frantic cables had been sent to
Germany calling for military aid. In answer to these
the division of troops which had been engaged in putting
down a similar native rising in German East Africa, under

17 c

THE GERMANS IN SOUTH-WEST AFRICA

the command of Lieut-General von Trotha, were ordered
forthwith to South-west Africa.

The days of modest contingents of twenty-one men
were long past. The world in general, and Africa in
particular, was now to know German might, and the
thoroughness of German protection. And on that
point it is, to say the least, remarkable that two native
risings in far distant parts of Africa should have so coin-
cided in time as, with notable advantage to the German
Imperial Exchequer, to allow of one overseas expedition
dealing with both. The coincidence can hardly have
been accidental, and as a fact the same policy of studied
provocation was followed in each instance. In each
instance, too, the campaign was carried on as a campaign
of extermination.

Until these forces under von Trotha landed, von Leut-
wein could do little. No sooner, however, had von Trotha
and his troops begun to arrive than characteristically
the Germans in the colony openly boasted that without
distinction between friendly and hostile the natives
were to be disarmed, their chiefs deposed, and their
customs abolished. The effect of these boastings was
to cause Hendrik Whitbooi to withdraw his allegiance,
throw in his lot with Marengo, and renew the Hottentot
War.

Concentrated at Windhuk, the forces of von Trotha
were, in June, 1904, launched against the Hereros. In
the face of modern rifles, machine-guns and artillery,
the natives were helpless. They had entered upon the
war with not more than twenty cartridges for each rifle,
and that ammunition spent, though from sheer despera-
tion they opposed the Germans in one pitched battle,
were, of course, heavily defeated. After this engagement
in which, besides killed, some two thousand and more
were taken prisoners, mostly left wounded on the battle-
field, they had no choice save to retreat east and north.
They separated into two bodies. The smaller with their
herds and flocks made an attempt to cross the Kalahari
Desert, notwithstanding that that desolation takes on
foot six weeks to traverse. The horrors of this journey,

18

THE GERMANS IN SOUTH-WEST AFRICA

however, were less than those of German rule. The
larger body, always driving their cattle and small stock
before them, sought refuge in the Waterberg mountains,
and in the wild bush country forming the inland and
desert confines of South-west Africa. They sued for
peace, but the request was peremptorily refused. In
place of peace, von Trotha issued to his troops the order
that the Hereros were to be wiped out wherever found,
old and young, male and female. This was in August 1904.
Pursuant to the order, the German troops proceeded
to hunt the fugitives out. Then began a succession
of atrocities which has rarely had a parallel. Droves of
little children clinging in terror to their mothers were
day after day driven from place to place. The feeble,
the old, and the exhausted, fallen out and left helpless
by the side of the track, indicated by the prints of many
feet, were by the Germans as they followed up butchered
in cold blood. Women unable to rise were disembowelled
where they lay. Often their infants, torn from their
arms, were tossed upon the bayonets of the brutal
soldiery before their eyes. In one instance at least, and
the fact has been attested on oath, this was done in the
presence of von Trotha and his Staff.1 The aged had
their brains dashed out with the butt ends of rifles.
Young girls were openly outraged, and then thrust
through. As for the cattle, they perished by thousands
from lack of fodder and water. What enraged the
Germans was to see lines of carcases lying along the
route of flight. They had hoped to despoil the Hereros
of the remainder of their stock at one stroke. But so
long as a beast could stand upon its hoofs the fugitives
drove it before them, and at the end of this appalling
man-hunt, and women and children hunt, which went
on, not for weeks only, but for months, out of all the
mighty herds of Damaraland there were left and fell
into the hands of the " conquerors " a miserable remnant
of some three thousand head.

1 See evidence of natives taken on oath at Windhuk by Union of
South Africa Administrator, Report on Natives of S.-W. Africa,
p. 63 et seq.

19 c 2

THE GERMANS IN SOUTH-WEST AFRICA

Regarding the valour of the Hereros, let it be added
that of the 80,000, or thereabouts, who formed at the
outbreak of the war their united community, all save
some 15,000 perished. Rather than accept slavery they
waged from first to last during nearly two whole years
a totally hopeless fight against impossible odds. No
civilised nation has ever been known to pay such a price
for freedom.

It might have been supposed that this signal bravery
would have extorted respect even from Germans. But
by far the deepest and most indelible stain upon
the German name is the treatment meted out, to begin
with, to the prisoners of war, and next to the wretched
remnant, who after weeks of starvation dribbled back
from the wastes of the Kalahari. They were partly
sent to Luderitzbucht and to Shark Island, and partly
distributed among the German ranchers. Of those
sent to Shark Island all save a few, underfed and worked
beyond their strength, or beyond any strength, died of
hunger and the lash. The young girls and female children
were prostituted by the German guards, who regularly
broke into the women's compounds at night ; the women,
yoked together in teams, were used to draw carts loaded
with sand or stone.

But, if anything, the fate of the remainder, assigned
to German ranchers, was yet worse. It was, it seems, ,
settlers themselves who, in the hope of loot, had fanned
the Herero rising by spreading the false report that
Leutwein had been defeated in the south and killed.
Their disappointment regarding the loot had enraged
them. The fault was not theirs ; it was that of the
Hereros. Every Herero as a pig-headed savage became
an object of revenge. During the war any adult male
Herero taken exhausted yet alive was hanged, and for
that purpose when rope ran short the Germans used
fencing wire. After the war every German rancher used
the sjambok to all intents as he pleased. The sjambok is
a whip cut from hippopotamus hide, square at the handle,
which is from a half to three-quarters of an inch across
each face. From about six inches above the handle end

20

THE GERMANS IN SOUTH-WEST AFRICA

the lash is twisted like a screw. Dried, this throng is as
hard and nearly as heavy as iron, but elastic and tough.
A blow from it tears into the flesh, leaving with every
stroke a long, jagged wound. Twenty or more strokes
applied to any human back leaves it a mass of wounds,
and the wounds even when healed cause scars which are
horrible. Not only was every German rancher free to
inflict this inhuman punishment at his caprice, but
every German sergeant in charge of a police post, whether
formally authorised or not, in practice, and on complaint
from a rancher, inflicted the like punishment without
trial or inquiry. Often the lashing, as much as any
human being could endure without perishing under the
shock, was renewed after a fortnight's interval. That
is to say, while the old scars were still tender they were
by the same process of torture ripped open afresh. And
lest it be inferred that this brutality was casual only,
let the fact be added that on the German police records
themselves " convictions " — followed by such floggings
and with few exceptions for utterly trivial offences, or
alleged offences — numbered between 4,000 and 5,000
a year with a total of nearly 47,000 lashes imposed.1
This was among a miserable native remnant of less than
15,000 of all ages and both sexes. With regard to the
women, their honour was considered by the Germans as
of no account, and the children of both sexes were bound
to an employer from the age of seven years for life, at
wages not only nominal, but as a rule never paid.

Such proved to be the translation into acts of the
German professions. German rule had made South-
west Africa a hell. Where there had once been prosperity
there was now a desolation amid which filthy vultures
from the mountains gorged unmolested upon the carrion.
Swept bare of its herds and flocks, and emptied of its
people, the land relapsed into a rank and weedy waste.

Part of the nemesis, however, was even more speedy.
The renewal of the Hottentot War was to all intents
coincident with the issue of von Troth a' s extermination

1 Official German Police Record from January 1, 1913, to March 31,
1914. Report on Natives of iS.-W. Africa, p. 119.

21

THE GERMANS IN SOUTH-WEST AFRICA

fiat. The Whitboois and the Bastards alike refused to
take part in the massacres, and the former joining
up with the other Hottentot tribes, harassed the Germans
in the Herero campaign by hanging in turn upon their
rear, and raiding their supplies. As soon as he was able,
von Trotha turned the main body of his forces upon these
new antagonists, but, like Leutwein, he soon found
guerilla warfare in a wild and difficult country no game
of skittles. The Hottentots knew all the ins and outs of
this tangled region. The Germans did not. The Hotten-
tots, skilfully led, and with few exceptions excellent
riflemen, appeared when and where they were least
looked for. Over and over again they ambushed
contingents of Germans in the hills. There were fatiguing
and fruitless pursuits, and expensive retreats. The
parallel ranges of mountains made attempts to surround
the native bands futile. The bands could always double
back across paths known only to themselves. Where
encounters took place they were to the last degree des-
perate. For a year this went on, and seemingly the
Germans were no nearer to any result. Their losses too
were decidedly the heavier. The natives never fought
save at an advantage. The German procedure was to
destroy food supplies, and to hunt women and children
out of caves. Here again they sought to strike terror by
extermination. The only effect was that the war became
one without quarter given or asked on both sides. With
every German contingent wiped out the guerillas ob-
tained more arms and ammunition, and they were
ceaselessly on the watch for such chances. The original
division of German troops, reduced by casualties and
fatigue to a skeleton, had to be heavily reinforced, and
again reinforced. For Hendrik, dead or alive, von
Trotha offered £1,000, to a native a fortune beyond
estimate. Not a soul was tempted by it.

Hendrik headed the revolt, Marengo acting as his
lieutenant, until October, 1906. Then, in the battle at
Ases, Hendrik fell. He was eighty years of age. Seeing
him fall the Germans charged in, every man eager to
obtain the coveted money. The Hottentots beat them

22

THE GERMANS IN SOUTH-WEST AFRICA

back. The attack was more than once repeated, but
every time was similarly repulsed. And this went on for
so long as it was necessary to the Hottentots to dig a
grave on the field and lay in it the remains of their
great leader — for great he was. Nor did they retreat
until darkness made it impossible for their mortal foes
to discover the spot.

The mantle of Hendrik fell upon Marengo, and he kept
up the fight to the bitter end. Von Trotha was recalled,
for this campaign had been costly in men and money
beyond the German Government's widest estimate.
It was only by slow degrees that the Hottentots' resis-
tance weakened. They had lost their cattle ; their
homes had been swept away ; they were reduced to
eating the flesh of dead and abandoned horses and mules.
A new German governor, von Lindquist had meanwhile
superseded Leutwein, and the policy of extermination
was dropped ; it had turned out to be a game not worth
the candle. Offers of accommodation were addressed
first to one tribe then to another, and one by one their
remnants accepted the terms. Marengo alone declined
to trust to German pledges. He would most probably
have been sorry for it if he had. Wisely he preferred
exile in Cape Colony.

In summary, that is the story of German rule. It is
often assumed that while the struggle of European
peoples for freedom is, even in misfortune, noble, there is
in the fate and sufferings of African peoples no interest.
But this fight of small and primitive nations clinging
against hope to an inborn love of liberty, and declining
to purchase peace at the price of degradation, is an epic
of bravery, and colour of skin can make no difference to
any generous human heart.

23

CHAPTER II

GENERAL BOTHA'S CAMPAIGN : FIRST PHASE

Position on outbreak of war, 1914 — German views on South African
prospects — The forces of the South African Union — Reasons for
and against campaign in South-west Africa — Ambitions of German
Colonial enterprise — Military character of German Government in
South-west Africa — Its heavy armament — Ultimate purpose and
menace — The strategical railways — Meaning of the terrorism
towards natives — Shades of opinion in South African Union —
Botha's policy — Its foundation — Decision in favour of war —
Botha's plan of campaign — Why original and bold — Main attack
from the Sea — German plan for counter-offensive — The opening
moves — Lukin's Expedition to Little Namaqualand — Union forces
take Luderitzbucht — Preparations for overland advance — Lukin's
operations from Steinkopf — Defection of Maritz — Effect on
Lukin's Expedition — The reverse at Sandfontein — Rising of
Beyers and de Wet — Influence of political events on the campaign
— Descent at Walfish Bay postponed and M'Kenzie's column
diverted to Luderitzbucht — M'Kenzie's advance to Tschaukab —
Conquering the difficulties of the coastal desert — Fine work of the
engineers — Sir George Farrar's services and death by accident —
Check to German counter-offensive — Landing of Skinner's Column
at Walfish Bay — Capture of Swakopmund — German use of Land-
mines— Poisoning of water supplies — Botha's warning to the
enemy — Native service to Union forces — Union overland opera-
tions re-organised — The new scheme — Germans and Maritz attack
and capture Nous and Britstown — Bouwer retakes Raman's
Drift — The Kalahari Desert Column — German attack upon Uping-
ton — Its defeat — Surrender of Kemp — Fate of Maritz — German
repulse at Kakamas — Failure of their offensive.

On the outbreak of war between Great Britain and
Germany in 1914 an attack upon German South-west
Africa by the forces of the South African Union does not
at Berlin appear to have been looked for, though incident-
ally for such an attack preparations had been made.
It was evidently German official belief that prevalent
opinion in the Union would prove to be against an active

24

GENERAL BOTHA'S CAMPAIGN : FIRST PHASE

part in the conflict, or that that opinion would be so
sharply and so evenly divided as to put prompt and
vigorous action beyond the probabilities.

There were several grounds for this view. In the
first place, the issue of the war at that date seemed for
the Allies to be at best uncertain, while by way of
contrast with allied doubt, German supporters and sym-
pathisers in South Africa made it known that the
German Government looked in Europe for a swift and
decisive success. In the event of success, the German
Government were ready not only to recognise the Union
as politically independent, but were also to enter into
relations with it on friendly and favourable terms, or
terms which would forthwith and finally ensure the
supremacy in its affairs of the settlers of Dutch descent.

In the second place, the military forces of the Union
were organised purely on a defensive footing. There
was a standing or permanent force on the distinctively
South African model ; that is to say, a force in the main
of mounted infantry with the usual equipment of light
artillery and field apparatus. The features of this force
were its mobility, and the skill of its riflemen. And in a
country of enormous spaces where, besides, the coloured
population outnumbered the white in the proportion of
eight to one, if not more, the maintenance of this armed
police was a necessity. But that it was a police and not
an army in the European sense of the word was clear
from the limitation of its numbers. They were not more
than were demanded by the strict duty of ensuring order
and public security. Under the Defence of the Union
Act, white citizens might enrol for annual training, those
of the rural areas in the mounted commandos, those of
the urban areas in the infantry and reserve artillery.
The enrolment, however, was voluntary, and the
statutory service undertaken did not extend beyond the
Union territories. The Reserve, in short, was a measure
against possible invasion. Service was on a voluntary
footing, because, in fact, compulsion was not called for.
In the rural areas and towns alike the common desire
was to serve, and the force was always up to establishment

25

GENERAL BOTHA'S CAMPAIGN : FIRST PHASE

strength. While the Defence Act gave the Government
the power, in case of shortage, to make it up by means of
the ballot, the authority was precautionary and formal,
and in view of the active and adventurous spirit of the
white population was not likely to be anything more.
But though in case of invasion the Union could put into
the field a powerful force of excellent and hardy soldiers —
for their numbers as fine a territorial army as could be
found in the world — to employ that army, or any part of
it, in offensive operations outside the Union was a depar-
ture upon which the South African Government could
not embark without formal permission of the Federal
Parliament, and it was evident that to secure the per-
mission they must have an overwhelming weight of
opinion behind them.

To the Germans that did not seem probable. And it
appeared to them, coming to the third point, the less
probable because the strategical difficulties of an attack
upon German South-west Africa were not slight. It
was not a question of distances alone, but of the character
of the country to be crossed — a wide belt singularly
unfavourable for military transport. Taking, then, to
begin with, the assumed neutrality of Cape-Dutch
feeling as between themselves and Great Britain, next the
political obstacles to be overcome, and finally the
manifest expense of such a campaign, the chances, in
German estimation, were that the Government of South
Africa would keep out of the struggle.

This formed, as it were, the Germans' jumping off
position, and they had made ready in a manner peculiarly
Prussian to exploit it. For the working of the German
possessions in Africa, as well as those in the Pacific to the
best profit, there was floated in 1890 the German Colonial
Company, a kind of South Sea undertaking with a very
large capital, and, on paper, very wide rights. Collec-
tively, these colonies were about twelve times the area of
the German Empire in Europe, and as they had been
very rapidly acquired and owed their existence in effect
to Germany's military prestige, large ambitions had been
based upon them. They were no more than a beginning.

26

GENERAL BOTHA'S CAMPAIGN : FIRST PHASE

One of the ambitions was the eventual predominance
of German influence in South Africa. In 1891 the Colo-
nial company had emphasised the importance of the
South-west African acquisition on that ground. After-
wards the aim was less openly advertised. Indeed, it
may be said to have been withdrawn from public view.
Nevertheless, as a goal it was always there. One of the
proofs is the administration set up in South-west Africa.
The organisation was military. The other proof is
found in the covert intrigue steadily carried on through-
out South Africa with the object of fostering hostility
to the British connection, and ostensibly of keeping
alive Cape-Dutch sentiment in favour of independence.
The more German organisation in South-west Africa
is studied the more saliently does the use of that territory
as a means to a larger end stand out. Even in 1914 the
white population, and all save a small percentage were
Germans, numbered less than 15,000 all told. But of that
total one-third were garrison and another third reservists.
Administratively, the colony involved a heavy annual
loss. To say nothing of the cost of the native campaigns,
the current expenses exceeded the receipts by nearly a
million sterling a year. Seemingly, however, this
deficit was willingly incurred. An expensive system of
railways had been laid down . From Tsumeb in the
north on the frontier of Ovamboland a main line ran
south until, after various sinuosities, it terminated at
Nababis in the extreme south-east corner of the Colony
on the frontier of the Union, and a few miles from the
Orange River. Branches from this trunk had been
constructed in the north from Karibab to Swakopmund,
the small and artificial port which the Germans had by
means of a jetty laid out just beyond the Walfish Bay
lagoon, and in the south from Seeheim in Great Namaqua-
land across the coastal desert to Luderitzbucht. In all
there were close upon 1,500 miles of track. Business
to justify this outlay there was not, nor near prospect of
it. The railways were military and strategical, designed
at once for getting up troops and supplies from the coast
to the interior, and for a massing of forces either against

27

GENERAL BOTHA'S CAMPAIGN : FIRST PHASE

the Ovambos on the north, or against Cape Colony on
the south-east. In addition, the accumulation of
military equipment and stores of all kinds went far
beyond the needs of such a white force as the German
administration could put into the field. Tsumeb in the
north, and Kalkfontein in the south were arsenals on
a scale larger than the largest demand of mere defence.
As in the instance of the railways a good many millions
sterling must have been spent in providing reserves of
arms and ammunition at those depots. It is a fair
estimate to say that the total reserves would have
equipped an army of 50,000 men for a campaign of many
months. The inference is, too, that the policy of terror-
ism and thinning out pursued towards the natives
was a studied policy — an insurance against any rising in
the event of the German forces being drawn off for opera-
tions beyond the borders. No German administrator
would have dared systematically to have carried out such
a policy from personal views and on his own initiative.
Every principle and practice of German officialdom
negatives the conclusion. In a word, German South-
west Africa, as a so-called colony, was armed to the teeth
for an ulterior purpose. And the heavy, and for the
time, wholly unprofitable, outlay in money clinches the
demonstration. Either the frugal and close-fisted Ger-
man Imperial Government was making ducks and drakes
of its resources, or it was engaged in what it was believed
would in the long run prove a handsomely paying specu-
lation. No sane man can doubt on which foot the boot
really was.

In all these calculations there was cunning. Yet
there was no depth of sagacity, and, as it proved,
little prevision. When war broke out opinion in the
Union soon revealed itself as of three shades. The
settlers of British descent were without disguise eager
for hostilities, and their feeling was shared by those of
Dutch descent who relished the prospect of active
service. The great majority, however, of the National
Party, loyal to the British imperial connection on a
footing of self-government, and content with it, were

28

GENERAL BOTHA'S CAMPAIGN : FIRST PHASE

prepared to follow the lead of General Botha. If he
decided for war they would accept war ; if against war
they would equally support him. A minority, not very
considerable, thought the opportunity favourable for
severing the tie with Great Britain. Swayed by that
feeling, they were disposed to take a favourable view
of German chances. The number who were actively
pro-German, favourable, that is, to German predominance
within and over the Union, were, however, a mere fraction
even of this minority.

It will be seen therefore that General Botha held the
decision in his own hands, and unfortunately for their
projects the Germans had reckoned without him. The
oversight was fatal. Not only were General Botha and
General J. C. Smuts men of military experience who
could not fail to see the meaning and intention of German
measures in South-west Africa ; they were statesmen
capable of taking and of acting upon long views. To
them, as to every reflecting man, it was clear that German
policy towards the natives involved a grave danger.
If among the coloured population it became a settled
conviction that from the white man there was to be
expected neither justice nor mercy, then, even though
it might be slow, there would gather, as the natives
learned more of European ideas and resources, a terrible
rebound. The natural disgust of the Union statesmen
at German cruelties was sharpened by the consciousness
of the short-sightedness of the policy. German cruelties
tended to bring the white population into dis-esteem.
On those lines the development of South Africa was
impossible. But the Cape statesmen also knew that
German professions regarding the independence of the
Union were hollow. The nominally independent Union
was meant to be a German dependency, and between a
German dependency and a British dependency the
choice was between military and commercial constraint
and freedom. Hesitation there could not be. Looking
towards South-west Africa and the cloud there gathered ;
knowing that it was at once a menace to freedom and
the common welfare ; and having now the control of

29

GENERAL BOTHA'S CAMPAIGN : FIRST PHASE

their own affairs and the power to undo past mistakes
of British imperial policy, the Union Government
speedily made up their minds that it was alike their
duty and their interest to rid the sub-continent of this
threatening portent.

Having so decided they lost no time in passing to
acts. The formal requisition to move came from the
British Government at home. At Windhuk the Germans
had set up a wireless installation powerful enough to
receive messages directly from and transmit them to
Berlin, and it was one of a chain of similar installations,
which, as a series, put the German Government into
immediate communication with its remotest possessions.
Designed as the chain was to facilitate the raids of Ger-
man commerce destroyers, and to harass Allied overseas
communications, it was important that it should be
broken, and the capture of the Windhuk installation
would go a long way to break it. The reply of the South
African Government to the requisition from London was
prompt and affirmative. There was some difference of
view in the Federal Parliament, but the overwhelming
weight of opinion both in the House and outside proved
to be with General Botha, and when the necessary
proportion of the Reservists were called up they
responded unhesitatingly. Put to the test, German
propaganda was found to have had little effect. The
Germans had earned for themselves too bad a name.

The South African Government, however, did more
than decide promptly. General Botha had thought out
a sound plan of campaign. According to all the avail-
able indications the Germans, in the event of hostilities,
expected the main attack from across the Orange River.
On the face of things, indeed, it did not seem probable
that an inroad would be attempted with large forces
from the coast across the desert belt. Such operations
were not, it was apparently thought, likely to be more
than a diversion. The water and transport problems
were deterrent. Besides, even assuming that the coast
desert could be crossed in force, there were the boundary
mountains to penetrate. On their slopes facing towards

30

GENERAL BOTHA'S CAMPAIGN : FIRST PHASE

the coast these are totally bare of vegetation, masses of
rock worn and broken by time into the wildest and most
fantastic outlines. To destroy or poison the water-
holes ; tear up the railway tracks section by section, and
finally, when pushed back, to fortify the passes, and put
down land mines seemed to afford easy means of checking
any such movements. And those means, on learning
that war was the order, the Germans in the Colony laid
themselves out to utilise. On their side, too, plans had
been elaborated, and it is clear long elaborated. Part
of their equipment consisted of large consignments of
land mines. They were of two kinds. One variety was
the contact mine, a great iron case filled with dynamite
exploded by a rod, the end of which was left just sticking
out above the ground surface, and hidden by stones or
sand. A pressure of the foot upon the end of the rod,
or a stroke of the foot against it instantly fired the mass
of explosive below. The second variety was electrical,
fired by a concealed watcher from an observation post.
Both were employed on a lavish scale.

Such were the preparations along the approaches
from the coast, and to round them off a German force,
when hostilities were declared, took possession of the
port and buildings at Walfish Bay. During June and
July, 1914, some thousands of men who had served with
the German forces in the colony and passed into the
reserve had been sent out again to bring up the garrison
to war strength. The main body of the troops were now
concentrated to the south, less, however, with the
intention of standing upon the defensive than of launch-
ing, when the moment came, a counter-offensive in
association with disaffected elements in the Union,
whose numbers and influence the German Government
had been led greatly to exaggerate. This proposed
counter movement was the substance of the German plan.
Safe on the side of the coast, they had apparently little
doubt in any event of being able to obstruct an advance
from south to north across Great Namaqualand.

Whether or not he surmised the nature of the German
plan, and the probability is that he did, General Botha's

31

GENERAL BOTHA'S CAMPAIGN : FIRST PHASE

scheme was calculated most effectively to circumvent it.
His main operations were to be conducted from the sea.
The difficulties were not light, but they could be over-
come. General Botha justly relied upon the hardihood
and endurance of his troops. The mounted men, the
burghers, were accustomed to ride long distances on
frugal fare and a minimum of water. The marching
powers of the infantry were phenomenal. Most, bur-
ghers and infantrymen alike, were veterans. The com-
bined toughness and mobility of the Union forces were
plainly points of the first importance, and they were
points which a skilful general like Botha would assuredly
turn to the fullest advantage. If, in face of an attack
of that character from the coast, the Germans changed
front, a formidable flanking movement could be thrown
against them from the landward side ; if they did not
change front, they would be taken from seaward in flank
and rear, and rounded up as they fell back. Either way
their discomfiture was only a matter of time. The
campaign was meant to be a campaign of manoeuvre,
and, when once fully in train, swift and decisive.

Just because this was General Botha's plan the opening
moves on his side gave no evidence of it. Like a skilful
player he began with what appeared to be a gambit, and
seemingly fell in with the German scheme. The first of
the Union forces, five regiments of the South African
Mounted Rifles, the Witwatersrand Rifles, and three
batteries of the Transvaal Horse Artillery, under the
command of Brigadier-General Lukin, sailed from
Capetown on September 2. They landed at Port
Nolloth in Little Namaqualand. From Port Nolloth
through the hills, which here south of the Orange River
come close to the coast, there is a light railway. It runs
inland some fifty miles or so to Steinkopf, and then turns
south to O'okiep, a copper mining centre. At Steinkopf
Lukin was to establish his base, since he was then within
striking distance, a matter of forty-five miles, from
Raman's Drift, one of the main crossings of the Orange
River. The country between is difficult, very hilly and
rough, and almost wholly devoid of water. On its face

32

GENERAL BOTHA'S CAMPAIGN : FIRST PHASE

this move was intended to check any German incursion
into Union territory from Nababis. But it served inci-
dentally to divert attention from the next step — the
seizure of Luderitzbucht, and the more so because at
Upington, 100 miles east of Nababis, preparations were
afoot for an advance by a column of Union Mounted
Infantry to co-operate with Lukin. A fortnight after
Lukin's force had embarked there sailed from Capetown
in four transports an Expedition of Union regulars, two
regiments of infantry, a section of the Cape Garrison
Artillery, a battery of the Citizen Artillery, and a
squadron of the Imperial Light Horse. The destination
of these troops, who were commanded by Col. Beves, was
Luderitzbucht, and the flotilla, escorted by H.M.S.
Astrcea, arrived off that place on September 18. Some
opposition was looked for, or at all events an unopposed
landing could not be assumed, and the intention was to
throw part of the troops ashore from the open sea so
that they might, while an attack from the bay was
going on, advance sufficiently inland across the sand
dunes to cut the railway and isolate the German gar-
rison. This intended procedure, however, was frustrated
by a gale which made the landing of troops and stores
outside the bay impossible. The only men who got
ashore, though at great risk owing to the heavy swell,
were several boatloads of scouts. In view of the weather,
and the danger of standing close in to such a shore,
Astrcea headed the transports into the bay. The
anticipated resistance was not met with. Instead the
scouts were found already to be in possession of the
town. On the news that an attempt was being made to
land troops outside of and to the south of the bay,
assuming that the attempt might succeed, and knowing
that retention of the town, even were it possible, was
less important than control of the railway, with the
power to destroy it, the German commandant had
ordered an immediate evacuation, and had retired along
the railway to Kolmanskuppe, some ten miles inland.
The desolate little port of Luderitzbucht was formally
surrendered by its burgomaster without a shot being

34

GENERAL BOTHA'S CAMPAIGN : FIRST PHASE

tired. At first the civilian inhabitants were left at
liberty within the boundaries. Some of them, however,
took advantage of this freedom to convey information
to the Germans at Kolmanskuppe of the strength and
composition of Col. Beves' force. When that was found
out they were all rounded up and deported to Capetown.

In the meanwhile, having established his base at
Steinkopf, Lukin had thrown forward his advance guard,
two regiments of the Mounted Rifles, to Raman's Drift,
and the force had, after a sharp combat, captured that
crossing. In this lower reach the Orange River is broad,
and in the flood season swift. The drifts are ferries,
worked by boats for passengers, and by pontoons for
goods and cattle. Raman's Drift, and Shuit's Drift, a
hundred miles or thereabouts farther up stream and close
to Nababis formed the chief crossings between Great
and Little Namaqualand, and the scheme of operations
at this stage of the campaign was that while Lukin's
men moved against the one, the Mounted Column from
Upington, under the command of Lieut. -Col. Maritz,
was to seize, or at all events to blockade, the other.
Maritz was an officer of the Union Regulars, and there
had been no reason to suspect his fidelity. No sooner,
however, had he established contact with the enemy
than he transferred his commando to the German
service. In this district of Cape Colony men who held
extremist views formed a local majority. They were a
majority among Maritz's force. Whether he initiated
the sedition, or was influenced by the malcontents under
his command, is somewhat uncertain, and his later con-
duct would suggest that he was half-hearted.

Be that as it may, the immediate effect was totally to
upset Lukin's enterprise. From Raman's Drift the two
advance regiments of Mounted Rifles pressed upon the
retreating Germans as far as Sandfontein, where the
enemy had established a camp, which with its equip-
ment was taken. Sandfontein is distant from Raman's
Drift twenty-five miles, and it is so named because of
the well or water-hole at that spot. It was found, how-
ever, that the Germans, besides wrecking the pumps, had

35 D 2

GENERAL BOTHA'S CAMPAIGN : FIRST PHASE

poisoned the water. This was the first instance in the
campaign of what proved to be their settled practice.
To hold Sandfontein in any strength was in the circum-
stances out of the question. The country round about
was scoured by patrols, and no signs of the enemy met
with anywhere. Concluding, perhaps somewhat too
hastily, but not unnaturally, that the hostile evacuation
was deliberate, and ascribing it to pressure of the con-
verging force from Upington, the commandant of the
advance guard, leaving only a patrol at Sandfontein,
fell back to the Drift.

The Drift was regained on September 24. On the
following day the squadron holding Sandfontein was
attacked by a German force of some 1,500 men, headed
by Col. von Heydebreck. That officer, commanding-in-
chief the German troops in South-west Africa, and hand-
ling in person the present main concentration, had, on
finding himself reassured from the side of Upington,
decided to sweep the other Union troops from the north
of the Orange River, and in doing so to defeat them if
possible in detail. When news of the attack upon
Sandfontein reached the Union camp at the Drift a
relief — another squadron of Mounted Rifles, and a half-
battery of Transvaal Horse Artillery — was at once sent
out under the command of Lieut.-Col. Grant. This was
what Heydebreck had expected. On the approach of
the relief his troops, under orders, dispersed. Grant
advanced to Sandfontein without encountering any
resistance, or indeed without meeting with the enemy
anywhere. The ruse seems to have convinced him that
the attack had been merely an attempted surprise. But
just as his men had dismounted after their long and
thirsty ride, the Germans, hidden in the hills, swarmed
down upon the post. This time they did not come to
close quarters. In view of the marksmanship of the
Union riflemen it did not pay. They opened upon the
camp with shell fire. Very soon Grant realised that he
had been surrounded. His two guns gallantly entered
upon the unequal duel. They kept up the fight for
several hours, and though in that time they put various

36

GENERAL BOTHA'S CAMPAIGN : FIRST PHASE

enemy pieces out of action, were themselves at the finish
knocked out.

The only hope now lay in getting up a second relief
from the Drift to break through the beleaguerment.
But after the movements which had already taken place —
first the advance to Raman's Drift from Steinkopf, then
the ride to Sandfontein and back — the only part of the
force still fit to face another ride of twenty-five miles
with a stiff battle at the end of it were two squadrons of
the 4th South Africans. Even they and their mounts
were fagged. Fagged as they were, however, they set
out, and though outnumbered by five to one, essayed to
break through. The feat, it is hardly necessary to say,
proved impossible. From within the cordon Grant,
notwithstanding that he had been wounded by a shell,
led the co-operation. Fearing that he might escape, the
Germans now closed in. He beat them off. Since the
sound of battle with the relief force had died away, it
was clear that the relief effort had failed. Repulsed in
his assault, the enemy renewed his bombardment, and
the fight dragged on. Of the total force holding
the post when the combat began, less than 400 men,
more than half, were by this time casualties. Further
effort at relief could not be looked for. Finally,
late in the day, Grant sent out a flag of truce and
surrendered.

This was to all intents the first brush in the campaign,
and the Germans had scored the honours. But far too
much was made of the episode at the time. Nothing
more than one of the ups and downs which have to be
expected in any armed struggle, it was magnified into a
grave disaster. In a country lending itself to surprise
and ruse, it would be astonishing if every ruse proved
abortive. The real importance of the check, almost
negligible from a military standpoint, lay in its political
consequences. Combined with the defection of Maritz,
a much more serious matter, it stirred into activity the
extremist elements whose ordinary antagonism to Botha
and the Nationalist majority had been further embittered
by the Union Government's policy. Their armed rising

37

GENERAL BOTHA'S CAMPAIGN : FIRST PHASE

in the Transvaal and the Orange River State was
headed by Beyers and De Wet. Neither desired to see
the South African Union under German rule. What
they opposed was the war. Most of all, however, they
were swayed by party feeling. Very wisely, in the
Union Government's dealing with the rising, that fact
was recognised. Severity would have poisoned political
difference. The forbearance of General Botha and his
colleagues under provocation went far to heal it.

But besides detaining General Botha at Capetown
during the next four months these events had the effect
of prolonging the campaign in South-west Africa by at
least that length of time. The intended descent upon
Walfish Bay while the Germans were busy upon the
Orange River was judged now to be premature, and the
force of two brigades of infantry with artillery support
placed under the command of the veteran General Sir
Duncan M'Kenzie for that purpose, and embarked at
Capetown immediately after the departure of Beves's
column, were diverted to Luderitz Bay, where therefore
there was a very strong concentration of Union troops.
And the concentration served a useful purpose. It was
evident that, in association with Maritz, the Germans
meant to launch a counter-offensive into Little Namaqua-
land, and had they acted promptly, and while the politi-
cal trouble within the Union was as its height, it is not
unlikely that a good deal of mischief might have resulted.
The powerful force at Luderitz Bay acted as a deterrent.
The Germans hesitated to commit themselves finally to
an expedition into Cape Colony while their own bases
and line of communications lay open to be attacked and
cut. After the affair at Sandfontein they had retaken
Raman's Drift, but they were not yet certain that the
Union effort to move a large body of men across the
coastal desert would end in failure. On his side Botha
played up to this hesitancy. He now wanted time, well
aware that if the German counter-move did not syn-
chronise with the Beyers-De Wet rising, it could do
little harm.

Hence it was that M'Kenzie at Luderitz Bay soon

38

GENERAL BOTHA'S CAMPAIGN : FIRST PHASE

began to show signs of activity. He thrust the German
garrison in the first place out of Kolmanskuppe, and
pushed on to Rothkuppe, more than twenty miles inland.
And there for the time he sat down. But the leisure
was eyewash. Behind him a body of labour, skilfully
controlled by that able engineer, Sir George Farrar, was
hard at it relaying the ripped up railway track. This
done, and it took little more than a fortnight, M'Kenzie
made another bound forward. The second move was
to Tschaukab, forty miles inland. There again there
was a halt. But also once more the reconstruction of
the track, and the protection of it against sand drifts,
was taken in hand. The feat of moving in force across
a region where there is neither food nor water looked the
more impracticable because it was now the height of the
southern summer, and the season of sandstorms. One
of the natural curses of this coastal tract are the hot
winds laden with fine dust blown off the dunes. The air
becomes like a fog, and the particles penetrate into every-
thing, food and drink alike, and insinuate themselves
into clothing, until life seems a cross between a perpetual
itch and a perpetual choke. Nothing but the irrepressible
cheerfulness of men of British race under adversity
enabled the troops to put up with the conditions. Of
course conditions were not like that always, though the
sandblasts were frequent enough.

There was the expectation also that sooner or later
a real brush would occur with the enemy. Hitherto he
had proved distinctly illusive. Skirmishes up the line
towards Garub, another twenty miles' trek, were always
going on for the purpose of spoiling his wrecking tactics.
Once when the Union force pushed right on to Garub
the foe put up a genuine fight. After that, about mid-
December, he moved his advanced base from Garub, no
longer safe enough, to Aus. Garub lies at the foot of
the outer or seaward slope of the mountains amid a
landscape almost Dantesque in its wild singularity.
Aus is on the other side of the heights, and in habitable
country. Between the two points runs a pass, and the
railway is carried through it. The Germans had elected

39

GENERAL BOTHA'S CAMPAIGN : FIRST PHASE

to fight at Garub because they wanted time to fortify
the pass and sow it with land mines.

But M'Kenzie, as soon as the track to Garub was in
working order, moved his advanced base there, and
resumed his prevention-is-better-than-cure procedure,
giving enemy mine-buriers a nimble life. The Germans
thought much of the difficulties of this pass, and they
spared no pains to obstruct it. It was here where their
treatment of the natives began to tell against them.
At the foot of the hills the British force came into contact
with the Hottentots, and as the Hottentots were sworn
foes of everything German they soon let it be known
that there were ways round. Thus when the time came
the Germans at Aus could be dropped upon, as it were,
out of the clouds, and all their labour rendered futile.
M'Kenzie at any rate had now manoeuvred his forces
across the whole breadth of the desert, and he had the
railway behind him both secure and operating well.
And it was clear that the Germans did not like the
development one bit. At the beginning of December,
reinforced by Maritz, they had indulged in an incursion
over the Cape border and had taken the village and
police post of Nous. But they had in that quarter
shown caution. The thrust from the coast disconcerted
them.

Unfortunately, at this juncture M'Kenzie's Column
sustained an irreparable loss. Sir George Farrar, whose
energy was indomitable, and who was up and down the
line in all weathers and always on the spot where repara-
tion was in progress, travelling, as was his wont in a
motor trolley, came into collision during a sandstorm
with a light engine. It was one of the risks he had
habitually run, and as habitually escaped by a hairs-
breadth. This time it cost him his life. Happily for
the welfare of the force whose very existence depended
upon his resolution and skill, for he almost more than
any man had made this seemingly impossible advance
possible, the work he had undertaken to do was then
nearly complete.

To the men of M'Kenzie's force the war appeared

40

GENERAL BOTHA'S CAMPAIGN : FIRST PHASE

slow. It was not quite the kind of campaigning they had
anticipated, and not knowing the real meaning of their
movement, their patience was tried. Nevertheless,
things were moving. The time had now, at the end of
December, arrived when the main movement of the
campaign on the side of the Union was to be set on foot.
On December 21, under the command of Col. Skinner,
there were embarked at Capetown the 3rd and 4th
Brigades of Union Infantry, the 1st Imperial Light
Horse, Grobelaar's (mounted) Scouts, a brigade of Heavy
Artillery, and machine-gun details. The force steamed
to Walfish Bay. Seeing the flotilla of transports enter
the lagoon, the small German contingent holding the
town retired. Opposition would have been futile.
Beyond the exchange of a few shots with the last of the
retreating enemy, the landing, which took place on
Christmas Day, was uneventful.

The next fortnight was taken up with the unloading of
ammunition and transport, the landing and housing of
stores, the construction of water condensing plant —
before retiring the Germans had destroyed the town sup-
ply apparatus — and the other work of laying out a base
camp. On January 13, however, Skinner threw out a
reconnaissance in force towards Swakopmund. Since
that place was the terminus of the railway line to Karibib,
the chances seemed to be that the enemy would try for
a time to hold it, and the Union commander desired to
measure the exact strength of the opposition. The road
to Swakopmund, about twenty miles, skirted the bay.
The mounted men had to ride across the dunes, the sand
in many places so loose that the horses sank up to their
knees. But no evidence of opposition was forthcoming.
Not until the troopers were close upon Swakopmund, and
negotiating the last ridge of dunes overlooking the place,
did anything exciting occur. Then, at the seaward
and lower end of the ridge, four land mines went off
in quick succession. The explosions threw up vast
clouds of dust, and for the moment nobody could tell
exactly what had happened, or how many men had been
lost. But when the dust cloud cleared the loss was

41

GENERAL BOTHA'S CAMPAIGN : FIRST PHASE

found to be two troopers and their horses. The mines,
it was afterwards ascertained, were electrical, and had
been fired from an observation post. The loose sand had,
however, rendered them to a great extent harmless, and
it must vastly have astonished those of the enemy still
in Swakopmund to see this body of horsemen, who
should have been annihilated, dashing towards the town
at a gallop. The German detachment deemed it prudent
to dash out at the other end, and hustle at their best
speed inland. They had relied for defence, not only on
the land mines, but on the poisoning of the water
supply. Discovery of this latter fact caused General
Botha, when he learned of it, to send to Col. Franke,
who had succeeded von Heydebreck in the command of
the German forces in the colony, a warning that if such
a violation of the usages of civilised warfare continued
Franke would be held personally answerable. Franke's
reply was that water-holes were never poisoned without
a notice being left to that effect. If left, the notices
had somehow got lost, or been stolen. None were ever
found. Heydebreck had lost his life by the explosion
of a new type of bomb while witnessing experiments
with it.

It may have been to allay alarm at Windhuk of this
threatening approach that the local newspapers came
out with startling accounts of how whole troops of the
Union attackers had been blown to pieces. Blood-
curdling details of the havoc supported by circumstantial
personal narratives adorned their columns, and possibly
enough, since there was not a word about the poisoning
of the wells, Germans, both in the capital and in scattered
ranch houses about the country, read these accounts with
satisfaction. Before long they were to find out that,
like so many other German stories of the war, the
" battle " was only a masterpiece of lurid fiction.

In calculating upon their various devices the Germans
had left out of account the native population. Following
upon the outbreak of war the natives had deserted from
farms and ranches almost en masse. They betook them-
selves to the hills, or wandered in bands about the

42

GENERAL BOTHA'S CAMPAIGN : FIRST PHASE

country. Wherever the Germans poisoned a well or
laid a mine or contrived a trap, hostile eyes were upon
them, and if their contrivances were not secretly made
harmless, and their wires cut, the Union troops, as soon
as they appeared, never failed to receive warning. As
scouts and guides with their unrivalled knowledge of
the country, the natives were invaluable. And they
were heart and soul with the invasion, for to them it
meant deliverance. The whereabouts and movements
of German forces, the camp conversations on German
plans and orders, the safe though little-known ways
over heights and through the wide and almost roadless
wilderness, were all reported. Thanks to German
inhumanity, the Union forces had at their disposal,
without the trouble of organising it and without cost,
an Intelligence Service at once first class and absolutely
sure. It enabled the Union forces to undertake with
boldness and confidence movements which otherwise
could only have been essayed with caution, and time and
again to bring off surprises. Nearly every native had
at least a smattering of the lingua franca of South
Africa, the Dutch Taal. There is no doubt this state of
things acted upon the Germans as a discouragement, but
confident in the successful issue of the war as a whole,
though they might be beaten in South-west Africa,
they promised themselves an ample revenge.

As already pointed out, it was an essential feature of
General Botha's plan that the attack from the coast
should be supported by an attack from overland. The
overland attack, consequent upon the defection of Maritz,
and the repercussion of his desertion on the fortunes of
Lukin's Column, had been reshaped, and amplified.
The Union forces operating from overland were entrusted
until General Smuts was free for active service to the
command of General van Deventer, and the strategy
designed was, while holding the enemy in the centre, to
envelop him on both wings. This was the traditional
South African manoeuvre, and, being suited to the coun-
try, and to the mobility of the Union columns, it could
not in skilful hands miss success. So little, however,

43

GENERAL BOTHA'S CAMPAIGN : FIRST PHASE

did the Germans and their auxiliaries under Maritz
suspect what was impending, that from Nous, which
they had held from the beginning of December, they
advanced to attack Britstown. At Nous the Union
commando, though five hundred strong, had declined
action, and abandoned the position. Most were politi-
cally opposed to the war, and serving without zeal. The
Germans and Maritz expected the same thing to occur
at Britstown. In part it did. Some of the Britstown
commando dispersed as soon as the enemy opened fire.
But the remainder stood firm to the orders of their
commandant, Major Breedt, and with him fell back upon
Kakamas. It was not until January 23 that the Germans
and Maritz moved to attack Upington. The delay of
more than a month, however, had made all the difference.
In the meantime General van De venter had taken charge,
and already Col. Bouwer, who had been put in command
of the Column at Steinkopf, had recaptured Raman's
Drift. Deventer was now at Upington. That place,
which is a hundred miles within the Union boundary,
on the Orange River, and an important jumping-off
position, was one of the four prospective starting points
of the overland converging movement. On the right
wing, Col. Berrange was, with a flying column of two
thousand men, to set out from Kuruman in Southern
Bechuanaland ; cross the Kalahari Desert, and strike
the boundary of South-west Africa near Rietfontein.
On the left wing, Bouwer was to strike up from Raman's
Drift. In the centre, from Upington and Kenhardt,
the main forces were to move upon Schuit's Drift and
Vellor's Drift. In the meantime, the terminus of the
Cape Railway at Prieska was being pushed rapidly
forward so that it might in due course be linked up with
the German system at Kalkfontein.

Undoubtedly it would very seriously disconcert these
arrangements if the enemy could seize Upington. In
that case, the intended movements of the Union troops
on the wings would have been left in the air. General
van Deventer, however, was not the man to allow
arrangements thus to be thrown out of gear. It does

44

GENERAL BOTHA'S CAMPAIGN : FIRST PHASE

not appear to have been known either to the Germans
or to Maritz that Deventer had at Upington a strong
backing of artillery. They attacked up the Orange
River in force, but with at most only two batteries of
guns ; these, however, were considered ample to overawe
the looked-for resistance. On approaching the town,
a German parlementaire was sent forward with a demand
for surrender. Of course, the demand was refused.
Then the German guns unlimbered, and opened fire.
To their surprise, they found themselves in the gun duel
outweighted. It was decided, therefore, forthwith
to rush the town by assault and to capture the Union
guns, a valuable spoil. But the Union gunners shot the
attack to pieces, and when the on-rush had been thrown
into confusion, Deventer, who had his mounted force
on the leash, launched a counter-attack. The enemy's
repulse speedily became a rout, and the battle a mad,
galloping flight and pursuit, kept up for a distance of
fifteen miles until those of the enemy who had not been
cut down had been raced to a standstill. Having
completed a long ride just before the battle, they and
their mounts were done. Now surrounded, there was
nothing for them except surrender. Kemp, the associate
of Maritz, with forty-four other ex-Union officers, and
563 men laid down their arms. Maritz himself, fearing
to face the consequences of his treachery, desperately
cut his way out, and with the wreck of the rout, scattered
into small parties, dribbled back into German territory,
or, following the western confines of the Kalahari to the
north, sought refuge in Portuguese Angola. There,
later, Maritz was discovered and arrested.

Since this severe reverse had disclosed what was
impending, the Germans, in another attempt to queer
Deventer's plans, delivered an attack on February 3 upon
Kakamas. They were repulsed again. The failure
marked the end of their offensive.

45

CHAPTER III.

GENERAL BOTHA'S CAMPAIGN : SECOND PHASE

Botha takes active command — His visit to the camp at Tschaukab —
Arrival at Swakopmund — Disembarkation of Burgher Brigades —
Preparations for the main advance — The water problem — Botha's
consequent change of plan — Concealment of the change — M'Ken-
zie's move on Garub — Gen. Deventer's advance from Upington —
Takes Nakob, and Schuit's Drift — Capture of German camp at
Nabas — Berrange's advance from Kuruman — Romantic character
of the adventure) — Defeat of the Germans at Schaapkolk — And at
Hasuur — Berrange's objective — Botha attacks German defences
in Swakop Valley — His tactics — Their complete success — Progress
of the overland operations — Col. Dirk van Deventer's flank guard
movement — His successes at Davignab, Plattbeen, and Geitsaub —
Junction with Berrange at Kiriis West — M'Kenzie's advance to
Aus — Germans pinched out of Kalkfontein — Importance of this
result — Convergence of Union forces from the South — Smuts takes
command — His move to Keetmanshoop — German retreat to
Gibeon — M'Kenzie's dash from Aus to Gibeon — The action at
that place — M'Kenzie's tactics — Botha anticipates enemy con-
centration— His drive to Dorstriviermund — German counter-
move — Checked by Skinner at Trekkopjes — Botha cuts the railway
to Windhuk — Dash to Karibib — German forces divided up —
Flight of German administration and surrender of Windhuk —
Botha grants an Armistice — Impossible German propositions —
The Campaign resumed — The German position — Botha's better
estimate and revised dispositions — Karibib as a new base — Plan
of the Union advance — The flanking operations — Germans refuse
battle — Record marching of Union forces — The drive to Otavi
— Germans fall back towards Tsumeb, their final position — Demand
for surrender agreed to — Declaration of local armistice — Reason
for the precaution — Myburgh captures arsenal at Tsumeb — Last
outlet closed by Brits at Namutoni — Botha's terms — Their true
meaning — End of German rule in South-west Africa — Benefits of
the new regime.

At the beginning of February General Botha assumed
the active command, and the circumstance may be
regarded as opening the second phase of the campaign.

46

GENERAL BOTHA'S CAMPAIGN : SECOND PHASE

Up to this time, though — in the seizure of Swakopmund
and in M'Kenzie's advance to Garub — the foundations
for swift developments had been laid, and securely laid,
the struggle had proved indecisive. It had now been pro-
tracted for five months ; that period should have sufficed,
had no complications arisen, to bring the operations to
an end. There had been complications, and they had
incidentally helped the enemy to maintain an active
defence. The German counter-attack, however, as
already seen, had failed, and the rising of the extremists
within the Union had been a fiasco. If, so far, little
headway had been made by the Union forces operating
against South-west Africa from overland, from the coast
the gains had been important. M'Kenzie's enterprise,
to begin with and on appearances the least promising
of any, had been steadily successful. No untoward
incident had interrupted it. Skinner also was firmly
in possession of Swakopmund, and his arrangements
both there and at Walfish Bay had been rapidly advanced.
Everything was ready for pushing these undertakings
home.

Coincidently with General Botha's departure from
Capetown there were embarked there strong commandos
of mounted men under the command of Brigadier-
Generals Myburgh and Brits and Manie Botha, all
experienced and skilful leaders ; a brigade of infantry
entrusted to the command of Brigadier-General Beves ;
a force of field artillery, and a complement of heavy
guns. All these troops with their equipment were
destined for and in due course landed at Walfish Bay.

On his way to that base General Botha went ashore
at Luderitz Bay, and journeying inland, inspecting the
work done on the railway line, visited the camp at
Tschaukab. For nearly two months, the hottest and in
this region the dustiest time of the year, the troops there
had waited for the word to advance. In honour of
the general's visit they were drawn up in parade order.
Despite all they had gone through their health had
continued good, and their fine discipline was now reflected
in their bearing. It extorted from the Commander-in-

47

GENERAL BOTHA'S CAMPAIGN : SECOND PHASE

Chief a tribute of admiration. Warmly in sympathy
with his men, and knowing, as all able generals do, the
value of the moral factor, he expressed his keen appre-
ciation of the work they had done. The British Empire, he
told them, was grateful for it. They had waited and with
patience for the day of advance. They would not have
to wait much longer. Their loyalty and their steadiness
had gone far already, and he knew would go farther,
towards carrying through the task to which the Union
of South Africa had set its hand, and with the determina-
tion that the task would be achieved. One purpose of his
visit was to discuss the situation with General M'Kenzie.
" I hope," he concluded, " you will soon have the order
to go forward. I wish you all possible success. God
blessfyou."

Three days later (February 11) Botha reached Swakop-
mund. The place had been transformed into a centre
of activity. For months existence at this remote little
port had been utterly dull and uneventful. The German
contingent holding it had watched day by day and week
by week, and until the arrival of the first flotilla of
transports nothing had happened. Now encampments
and horse-lines covered the surrounding sand dunes,
and artillery rumbled through the mean streets. There
was an incessant coming and going. Everybody was
busy, for it was not intended that time should be lost.

As its German name indicated. Swakopmund is at
the mouth of the Swakop river, which comes down from
the interior through a break in the mountains. Some
twenty miles up country from the town the Swakop
is joined by a tributary, the Kham, and it was along the
valley of the Kham that the railway had been laid to
Karibib, a hundred miles inland. Both streams flowed
across the desert coastal tract. Ordinarily, and always
in the dry season, their beds were mere tracks of stones
and scrub. Indeed, like all the streams flowing from the
mountains into this arid zone, their waters disappeared
into the thirsty soil many miles from the coast. Only
now and then at irregular intervals of years were the
streams sufficiently in flood to traverse the whole

48

GENERAL BOTHA'S CAMPAIGN : SECOND PHASE

expanse, and that phenomenon always indicated excep-
tionally heavy rains on the plateaux. It was now the
southern autumn and the beginning of the wet season.

The more immediate geographical objective of Botha's
intended advance was the railway junction at Karibib,
since the capture of that point would sever the main
German communications with the important northern
districts of the colony. But the problem of reaching
Karibib was, like the problem of reaching Garub, one
chiefly of water supply. Thousands of men and
thousands of horses need in the aggregate and from day
to day a respectable total of gallons — the contents, in
fact, of a fair-sized reservoir, and to move the contents
of such a reservoir daily over miles of rough country,
much more to keep up with a movement which would be
of no effect if not rapid, was no trifling enigma. This
was the proposition which had first of all to be solved,
and upon a workable basis, for hitches in such a matter
could not be risked. To have a strong force on the spot
was all very well. But it was only the A B C of the
situation. How to lift the force across the desert was
the rest of the alphabet. And of course, knowing this,
the Germans had neglected nothing to obstruct the
lifting. They had sown the valley of the Kham with
mines and barred it with entanglements. Every day's
delay, they were well aware, would add to the embarrass-
ments of the invasion. If the advance could be pro-
longed for weeks, and it very well might be, the water
trouble would become more than acute ; it might wreck
the enterprise.

But within a week of Botha's arrival the Swakop
river came down from the mountains in flood, and it was
one of the rare and phenomenal floods which carried the
waters on and into the sea. Now when that takes place,
even though the flood speedily runs off and the stream
sinks on the surface to a trickle, or becomes apparently
dry, there is always for a long time afterwards water
to be found by boring in the river bed. General Botha
seized upon this phenomenon at once. It simplified
the problem enormously. Giving the Kham valley and

49 e

GENERAL BOTHA'S CAMPAIGN : SECOND PHASE

its mines and entanglements a miss, he could, without
undue anxiety as to water, throw his main force inland
along the bed of the Swakop. And the advance, in
part relieved of the necessity of transporting water daily
from the coast, could be swift, with all the chance, while
the enemy was occupied in watching the valley of the
Kham, of seizing the pass opening up the road to Windhuk.
Meanwhile, all the appearances had to be kept up of
an intention to advance along the Kham valley, assisted
by threats from other quarters. M'Kenzie received
orders to move his main camp to Garub, and by February
19 had completed the move. Botha thereupon pushed
out from Swakopmund and occupied Goanekontes, at
the confluence of the Swakop and Kham rivers, and away
to the south-east Deventer also suddenly became active.
Following a rapid march from Upington, he attacked and
drove the Germans out of Nakob (February 26), and
crossed the frontier to the north of the Orange River.
While a flying column on his left, detached for the pur-
pose, was sent along the Orange River to seize Schuit's
Drift and Vellor's Drift, he himself struck straight for
Nabas. Nabas was a fortified post on the main road,
or track, from Upington to Kalkfontein, and the
Germans had here laid out an entrenched camp, the
advanced base of their counter-offensive. They now
defended the position obstinately. At all costs the dash
of the Union forces upon Kalkfontein had to be delayed.
For a good half-day the enemy held out. Deventer,
however, steadily closed in, and at the opportune
moment, for which he had proved himself to possess a
sure eye, rushed the entrenchments by storm. This had
been, so far, one of the stiffest fights of the campaign.
The severity of the German reverse was disclosed by their
disinclination from that time to come to close quarters.
Deventer now had them on the move, and meant to keep
them moving.

On March 6 Berrange set out from Kuruman with his
desert column. His force was made up of the 5th South
African Mounted Rifles, the Kalahari Horse, Cullman's
Horse, and the Bechuanaland Rifles. This advance was

50

GENERAL BOTHA'S CAMPAIGN : SECOND PHASE

one of the most romantic and adventurous movements in
the war. Berrange had for hundreds of miles to cross
an utterly lonely wilderness, lifeless, and save for the few
and extremely dispersed wells, or water-holes, totally
arid. Disappearing into its solitudes, he and his men
were for a fortnight lost to sight. He was to follow
westward the bed of the Kuruman river, the depression
which meanders through the waste, and, except at the
rare intervals of unusual rainfall in Bechuanaland,
dry. They had therefore to carry their water supply
with them, and use it with severe economy. But by the
end of the fortnight the Column had struck the Molopo
river, which flows north to south along the western
confines of the desert, and close to the foot of the Great
Namaqualand hills. Just at the other side of the
Molopo was the frontier of South-west Africa — the
20th degree of east longitude. Among the foothills, and
upon the boundary line is Rietfontein, a Union police
post, in pre-war days reckoned the loneliest and most
isolated in the service, and close to it, on the western side
of the boundary, a German post, Schaapkolk. The
Germans had taken Rietfontein, but on the appearance
of Berrange's formidable force, the garrison, evacuating
the position, joined up with the Schaapkolk contingent.
Together the two attempted a resistance. Berrange,
however, made very short work of this opposition ;
knocked the German blockhouse and other defences to
pieces, and captured the surviving defenders. From
Schaapkolk he struck north-west to Hasuur, another
German fortified post, and took it. His column was
intended to cross the mountains to Keetmanshoop, and
by that manoeuvre to turn the anticipated hostile resis-
tance in the formidable natural position between the
Great and Little Karas ranges. There is between Hasuur
and Keetmanshoop, which lies in the central valley of
Great Namaqualand, and on the line of railway, a " nek "
or pass, the highest summits of the Great Karas to the
south of the track, and other mountains of less though
still of considerable elevation to the north. In the
pass, at Keriis West, the Germans had built a blockhouse,

51 E 2

GENERAL BOTHA'S CAMPAIGN : SECOND PHASE

originally to check native movements during the Hotten-
tot war, but the post was now useful as barring the way
into the central valley.

It is hardly probable that the Germans had looked for
this daring threat to their main communications from so
remote a quarter as Kuruman, but whether they did or
no, their troubles now began to follow in quick succession.
In view of the circumstances already related regarding
the flood water along the Swakop, Botha might, had his
transport been complete enough, have entered upon his
advance in February. But, of course, the natural
phenomenon had not been taken into account, and he
had to wait until the equipment machinery duly revolved.
In more senses than one the delay, nearly one month, was
unfortunate. It gave the enemy time to move up rein-
forcements, and to set about obstructing the Swakop
valley. As soon, therefore, as transport could be relied
upon, the Commander-in-Chief attacked. Obstructing
entrance to the Swakop valley, the enemy had fortified
positions at Pforte, Jackals water, and Riet. These
posts were distant from each other rather less than ten
miles, and as points of support formed in effect one line
of defence. Delivered on March 20, the attack was in
three columns, the infantry in the centre, mounted men
on either wing. On the left the commando of Col.
Alberts, intended to turn the position at Pforte, scored a
swift success. The attention of the enemy was concen-
trated chiefly upon the attack in the centre, evidently
convinced that it was the real thing. Alberts' men,
covering their movement by the hollows between the
ridges, got well in before their approach was detected,
and the Germans here, finding themselves outflanked,
no longer stood their ground. The burghers forthwith
charged home, rode them down as they fled, and rounded
up more than two hundred prisoners. What seems
especially to have demoralised the resistance was the
South African practice of firing from the saddle at a
gallop. To the Germans, dexterity of that kind was a
novelty, and its deadly effect at short range took them by
surprise.

52

GENERAL BOTHA'S CAMPAIGN : SECOND PHASE

53

GENERAL BOTHA'S CAMPAIGN : SECOND PHASE

In the centre, where their strength was massed, they
had held firm, but at Riet the turning movement proved
as successful as at Pforte, though from the longer
detour it was not so prompt. The same tactics of unob-
served approach were followed. Instead of attempting
to assault the position at Riet directly, the mounted
column rode round towards the rear. The Germans
evacuated their defences. The retreat on both wings
leading immediately to a retirement in the centre, from
now on the battle became a pursuit. The enemy were
shepherded back along the loop railway in the direction
of Karibib. This was really the first pitched action in the
campaign. All the advantage of position lay with the
Germans. They had selected it, and the choice showed
skill. In tactics, however, they had been entirely
out-matched. At one blow Botha had cleared them out
of the Swakop valley, and in that direction he afterwards
met with no serious opposition.

While he was making ready for the next bound, the
overland operations entered upon another stage — the
linking up of Deventer's and Berrange's forces. On the
eastern spurs of the Great Karas mountains the Germans
still held several fortified positions, notably at Plattbeen,
where they had also an entrenched camp, and at Geitsaub,
both places on and commanding the track from Uping-
ton to Kectmanshoop. It was the probability, if not
something more, that with these posts yet in the enemy's
hands, he might thrust a strong force between Berrange
and Deventer, isolating the former, and by a threat in
flank holding up the further advance of the latter,
General Deventer therefore decided to clear this inter-
lying tract of country. With that object he detached his
brother, Col. Dirk van Deventer, at the head of the 4th
Mounted Brigade, to open up the Upington-Keetmans-
hoop road which joins close under the pass with the road
from Rietfontein, the route Berrange was understood
to be following. In this movement Col. Dirk van
Deventer met with considerable opposition, a proof of
its timeliness and sagacity. The Germans resisted in
the first instance at Davignab. Worsting them in this

54

GENERAL BOTHA'S CAMPAIGN : SECOND PHASE

combat, he moved on to Plattbeen, covering the forty-
miles of mountain country between the two points in
two days. He came in sight of the Plattbeen camp on
March 24. Despite this sudden appearance, the Germans
had prepared to hold out. But time was important,
and Col. D. van Deventer, not disposed to waste it,
assaulted and carried the camp by storm. Geitsaub,
another forty miles farther up in the hills, and a stiff
climb, was an even tougher and riskier job. Here, on
April 2, the enemy sought finally to bar the passage,
and had they been successful Col. Dirk van Deventer
would have been stranded with his men in the mountains,
with 160 miles of wild upland track between them and
Nabas. He was, however, a skilful hand at enveloping
and invisible approach tactics, and he compelled the
Germans to evacuate their defences without on his own
side suffering a casualty. He joined Berrange" at
Kiriis West on April 14.

The movement from east to west was coincident with
another on the part of M'Kenzie's Column from west to
east. Receiving the order definitely to begin his advance,
M'Kenzie struck his camp at Garub on March 28.
By a detour across the mountains his advance guard
had reached and turned the surprised Germans out of
Aus on March 30. This dash, a notable feat of endu-
rance, cleared the way to Aus for the main force. The
effect of the two movements from east and west respec-
tively was now speedily disclosed by the German abandon-
ment of Kalkfontein. Undoubtedly had their line of
retreat to the north not been menaced from both sides, all
the likelihood was that at Kalkfontein, their military
centre in the south of the colony, they would have put
up a determined defence, and the more so because of
the natural difficulties of the country. The position of
Kalkfontein had been chosen on account of its strength.
It commanded a pass narrow and rugged enough to
enable a very small force to defy many times their
own number. If, however, the way to the north was not
open and secure, such a defence would be worse than ill-
advised. And this was the reason for the preparations

55

GENERAL BOTHA'S CAMPAIGN : SECOND PHASE

begun so long before both at Luderitz Bay and at
Kuruman. For had the enemy been able with a small
force to hold up a direct advance from the south, then
he could have massed his main strength against the
movement from Swakopmund, and with every chance in
his favour of rendering it abortive. As matters now
were, however, his force was divided, and neither part
strong enough for its purpose. The southern troops
besides were in jeopardy, and before they could effect
a junction with the northern Botha from Swakopmund
would have driven his thrust home.

Even at this time, therefore, it was plain that the
Germans had been out-manceuvred. Their southern
forces were in full movement towards the north, saving
what equipment they could, destroying or leaving behind
them the remainder. General van Deventer, moving
up from Nabas on April 5, entered Kalkfontein without
opposition, and his advance guard penetrated to Kanus,
fifteen miles farther up the pass, without finding any
signs of the enemy. On his part, Bouwer, coming from
Raman's Drift through Warmbad with the 17th Mounted
Rifles and Hartigan's Horse, also closed to the front at
Kalkfontein, and on April 11 General Smuts arrived to
take over the command of the united Columns. Without
further delay Smuts pushed on to Keetmanshoop, the
administrative capital of Great Namaqualand. This
southern sector of the campaign had become in fact a
contest in pace. On the one hand, with Smuts in pursuit
the Germans were hustling towards Gibeon ; on the
other, M'Kenzie was hurrying across country from Aus
towards the same point. If the enemy reached and
passed Gibeon first, then he would have made good his
escape ; if not, he would have to fight his way out.
M'Kenzie had the greater distance to cover, and also,
it may be added, by far the more difficult road. But
here the marching powers and endurance of his troops
told. In two days he had (April 17) reached Bethany,
sixty miles ; in another two days he was at Beersheba,
another sixty miles. The last stage, to Gibeon, was
seventy miles. Unfortunately, M'Kenzie could not at

56

GENERAL BOTHA'S CAMPAIGN : SECOND PHASE

once set out upon it, for he had far outstripped his
transport. The roads in South-west Africa are for
wheeled transport not ideal, to put it mildly, and he had
to wait four days until the supply columns closed up.
All the same, he was at Gibeon by the evening of the
25th. The Germans retiring from the south had not
yet passed. They had, in fact, reached Gibeon almost
at the same time. During the night after his arrival
M'Kenzie sent out a strong detachment with orders to
cut the railway line. But the German commander
had plainly looked for some such attempt, and he had a
much stronger force under arms. And his men, brought
to bay, fought desperately. This struggle in the dark-
ness, fitfully lit at intervals by star shells, was bitter.
On the Union side, the losses were considerable, and seeing
that the South African detachment were outnumbered,
and were in action at the end of a week of forced marches,
the circumstance is not surprising. What is surprising is,
not that their attempt did not come off, but that they,
as a body, came out of this combat able to make good
their retirement. There could be no more striking-
testimony to their valour.

Nor can the attempt to cut the railway forthwith
be adjudged a mistake. It was a measure which no
active general would in the circumstances neglect. The
effort was sound campaigning. Besides, as a result of
this night fighting, in which a good proportion of his
force had been involved, the enemy was next day in no
condition to continue his flight. He had to entrench.
At dawn M'Kenzie attacked. His tactics, backed by
a brisk and effective bombardment, were an envelopment,
and his men, who after so many months of waiting had at
last got to grips and were not to be denied, worked round
the hostile defences on both flanks. When the South
Africans were seen to be closing in the Germans made for
the loophole still open. They left behind some of their
artillery, and much more of their ammunition and mate-
rial, and they retired in very broken order. In short,
they were nothing like so effective a force as before.
Nevertheless, in the mass they got away. As to thai,

57

GENERAL BOTHA'S CAMPAIGN : SECOND PHASE

it should be said that these German troops, the largest
body of those in South-west Africa, out-numbered
M'Kenzie's Column considerably. It was the business
of that commander to hold them, if possible, until
General Smuts came up ; it was not his business —
unaided it was impracticable — to round them up.
Failing that, he did what was decidedly the next best
thing ; he seriously damaged them.

At Gibeon the retreating enemy troops were
200 miles from Windhuk, and nearly 350 miles from
Karibib, and it was plainly important that General
Botha should move his forces across the coastal belt
before the Germans could effect a concentration.
Accordingly, on the same day that the action at
Gibeon was fought (April 26), the Commander-in-Chief
entered upon his advance up the Swakop valley.
Suspecting by this time probably that a move of that
kind might take place, the German commander in the
north thought to check it by a counter-thrust down the
Kham valley which would cut Botha's communications.
Botha, however, had foreseen the likelihood of just that
counter-move. While, therefore, he set out himself
with his mounted commandos along the Swakop valley,
he sent Skinner with the infantry along the valley of
the Kham. A few miles beyond Trekkopjes Skinner
fell in with the German column marching in the opposite
direction. There was an obstinate battle. The enemy
did his utmost to break through. Could he have
inflicted a reverse on Skinner's brigade the movement of
Botha would have been brought to a halt. Prudently
falling back upon Trekkopjes, a position of some strength,
Skinner refused to be dislodged from it, and the Germans
finally realised that they were only wasting time and
losing men. Their retreat was hastened by an attack
on the part of a detachment of Naval armoured cars.

To state the position briefly, the Germans had staked
their chance upon this move and had lost. While they
were engaged in it, Botha was going rapidly forward,
his four brigades of burghers disposed in widely-spreading
parallel columns ; himself and his Staff, with a small

58

GENERAL BOTHA'S CAMPAIGN : SECOND PHASE

bodyguard, in the centre. It was a formation suited
to swift manoeuvre. The drive was pushed on to
Dorstriviermund, nearly 100 miles inland, and at
the western foot of the " nek " through which the
Swakop finds its way seaward. From Dorstriviermund,
Myburgh and Manie Botha were dispatched across the
pass north-east to cut the railway between Karibib and
Windhuk. Their enterprise succeeded. In two days
they were back again. Botha then (May 5) moved
upon Karibib. It was a drive of forty miles over very
difficult country, and country too without a water supply
of any kind. No certainty existed besides that Karibib
might not be held in force. The best assurance against
such a contingency was speed. Botha set out before
daybreak. By noon his advance guard were within
sight of the junction. In the early afternoon he had
himself arrived. The garrison laid down their arms.

The German force in the Kham valley, with Skinner
in front of them and Botha in the rear, had now no
alternative save to retreat by a wide detour to the north
upon Omaruru. Skinner with the infantry marched
up unopposed along the railway line, following the bed of
the Kham, and Karibib became the jumping off place
for a movement upon Windhuk.

From Karibib to Windhuk, the distance, following the
railway track, is 150 miles. The burgher commandos,
a battery of artillery, and a machine-gun section were
sent on in advance. Having ascertained in a conversa-
tion over the telephone with the burgomaster that
Windhuk would be surrendered on demand — Dr. Seitz,
the German governor of the Colony had removed
himself and his administration to Grootfontein, and was
housed in a railway train — General Botha and his Staff
set out for the capital in motor cars. Notwithstanding
the primitive track — road it could scarcely be called —
the journey, despite stoppages in the bush, was com-
pleted in three days, the General and his assistants
sleeping in the cars at night. On May 11, the date of
their arrival, the surrender formally took place. The
British ensign replaced the German flag over the Rathaus,

59

GENERAL BOTHA'S CAMPAIGN : SECOND PHASE

and the town was placed under the control of Colonel
Mentz, a Union Staff officer. Botha, addressing his
burghers from the steps of the Rathaus, thanked them
for their zeal.

The German Government of the Colony, which but a
few months before had still ruled this great territory with
an iron hand, was now fugitive, and its forces, broken
and scattered, were partly in the north, partly in retreat
somewhere across country to the east. If there was no
violent effort just at this juncture to intercept them, the
explanation is that the effort would have been wasted.
To Botha, at all events, it was perfectly well known that
to pin them against the frontier of Ovamboland meant
the end of the campaign. That frontier was a barrier
they dared not cross. In the circumstances, he antici-
pated propositions for surrender, and his expectation was
fulfilled. A jjarlementaire from the German Commander-
in-Chief came in next day. General Botha, in reply,
agreed to discuss terms at Karibib, and returning to that
place concluded a forty-eight hours' armistice as from
midday on May 20.

Coming down from Grootfontein to Giftkop, between
Omaruru and Karibib, by rail, Dr. Seitz and Col. Franke
there presented their proposals, already formulated.
They suggested, first, that hostilities in South-west
Africa should be suspended until the close of the war as
a whole ; secondly, that the forces on each side, remain-
ing under arms, should until the close of the war occupy
respectively the territories each held at the proclamation
of the armistice ; thirdly, that the question of the future
of South-west Africa should be left open without pre-
judice to any settlement arrived at in the general peace.

There was a certain cunning in these propositions, but
to a statesman like Botha their ineptitude must have
appeared gross. To begin with the suggested suspension
of hostilities on such conditions meant keeping in South-
west Africa and totally inactive a large force of Union
troops. The procedure involved, not only a very heavy
public outlay, but could not fail to cause grave dis-
satisfaction in the Union Army. Further, it would

60

GENERAL BOTHA'S CAMPAIGN : SECOND PHASE

assuredly give rise, on the grounds alike of expense and
inconclusiveness, to serious discontent and criticism
within the Union. Nothing could be more exactly
calculated to stir up again the feeling which had found
expression in the Beyers and de Wet rising. Once more
to have a large Union force locked up and idle in South-
west Africa, and for an indefinite period, would most
materially assist the German defence in East Africa.
Lastly, there were very good grounds for suspecting — and
the suspicion was soon afterwards confirmed — that the
Germans had in the colony a large accumulation of
arms, ammunition, and other warlike stores, which
Seitz and Franke were naturally anxious to save from
seizure. Those resources were the mainspring of German
policy. With that inflammable material lying about a
suspension of hostilities could never be a sure thing. It
was not possible to say what use might not covertly
be made of these materials in association with further
Union disturbances. To imagine that a man of Botha's
ability and experience could not see through the move
and grasp its implications was presumption pushed to the
limit of absurdity. Botha handed back the document to
the disgruntled German negotiators with the laconic
intimation that at the end of the forty-eight hours'
suspension the war would go on.

It seems to have been imagined by Seitz and Franke
that Botha would be the more inclined to give ear to
their proposals because the last stage of the campaign
in the northern area of the colony would, for him, be
difficult, and might prove prolonged. He was faced
with the prospect of operations hundreds of miles away
from his base at Walfish Bay, and still more remote from
his bases in the south. And those hundreds of miles
were hundreds of miles of wilderness. On the other
hand, the Germans had held in reserve at Tsumeb a
well-equipped base for this very contingency. Their
troops were making for it, and they could confront a
renewal of the struggle with a concentration of their
remaining strength. All this, no doubt, inspired the
confidence disclosed in their suggested terms. But

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GENERAL BOTHA'S CAMPAIGN : SECOND PHASE

Botha had formed a much truer estimate of the position.
The railway from Kalkfontein to Aus and from Aus
to Luderitz Bay was in working order, and the line from
Swakopmund to Karibib was rapidly being restored. In
short, the difficulties incidental to the coastal zone,
difficulties the Germans had all along counted upon as
their best ally, had been mastered, and since the difficul-
ties had been mastered it had become perfectly feasible
to transfer troops from the south to the north of the
colony by sea. With an adequate fleet of transports
at hand, it could, in fact, be done more easily than the
Germans could struggle across country on foot. The
Union base for this last stage of the operations could be
moved up from Swakopmund to Karibib, and if these
movements and transfers would take some little time,
it would at least take the enemy as long to pull himself
together. The risk was that, if enterprising, he might,
hurrying his preparations, rebound first. As it happened,
however, all the enterprise was on the side of the Union
commander. In that matter he had weighed up the
men he was dealing with. Since the death of von
Haydebreck they had displayed no trace of military
genius. Their present intentions were transparent.
Botha, and his judgment turned out to be exact, was
reasonably sure that he could get in first.

He shaped his measures accordingly. The movement
of troops by sea and the transfer of his base were at
once taken in hand. Up to the middle of June he was
occupied with these rearrangements, and though on the
alert, went about the business with an easy mind. As
he had foreseen, the enemy during that interval gave
him no trouble. The preparations for it completed, he
launched on June 18 upon his final drive.

The plan of it was an advance by the infantry, and
two mounted brigades, supported by the field guns along
the railway towards Grootfontein, by way of Kalkveld
and Omaruru, combined with an enclosing sweep by the
remaining burgher brigades, the brigade of Brits on the
left, the brigade of Myburgh on the right. The burghers
had to cover long distances on light fare and little water,

62

GENERAL BOTHA'S CAMPAIGN : SECOND PHASE

but to such hardships they were inured, and their zest
was unfailing. After the South African fashion, they
moved at night, well covered by bands of scouts, and
chose the hot hours of the day to off-saddle and rest
themselves and their horses. By this means they reduced
water consumption. It was well known that so far as
the natives were concerned they were traversing a
friendly country, and their own instinct for discovering
water-holes was aided by these volunteer intelligence
men. Movement in the circumstances was rapid.

The Germans meanwhile had concentrated at Kalk-
veld, but on learning of the outflanking movement by
Myburgh's brigade — they do not appear to have been
aware of that of Brits— fell back upon Otjiwarongo.
To cover the 200 miles between Kalkveld and Grootfon-
tein in the confusion following upon a defeat, and with the
practical certainty of the railway being cut somewhere in
the rear, was not to be adventured. Catching up with
them thus became once more a test of the marching
powers of the Union infantry. In this race the enemy
had a long start, fifty miles at a moderate estimate. But
the march of Botha's main body stands out as a record,
paralleled only by M'Kenzie's dash from Aus. In two
days his force had covered the fifty miles to Omaruru.
The place was undefended, and without delay the march
was resumed to Kalkveld. Here opposition had been ex-
pected, and the position which the Germans had occupied,
but on the approach of the Union columns had abandoned,
was capable of a strong defence. The next, and third,
stage to Otjiwarongo was sixty miles, and that place is
150 miles from Karibib, the starting point. Leaving
Kalkveld, General Botha and his force entered upon the
dry tract, the Waterberg mountains on their right hand.
The General was incurring a risk, but he knew his men,
he had weighed the probabilities well, and he pushed
boldly on. Including a halt at the former place, he
covered the 100 miles between Omaruru and Otjiwarongo
in six days. As he advanced the Germans retired. This
determination destroyed their moral. Abandoned equip-
ment marked their flight. At Otjiwarongo Botha made a

64

GENERAL BOTHA'S CAMPAIGN : SECOND PHASE

brief halt, and then, on June 27, set out for Otavi, another
eighty miles. The enemy had fallen back there, and to
all appearances meant to accept battle. The march
therefore was slowed somewhat, but the pace still
averaged twenty miles a day.

Hereabouts the country is rough, ridged by spurs from
* i he mountains, and for the most part bare of vegetation.
The advance had to be covered by careful scouting.
Otavi is a copper-mining centre, the Germans having
reopened and developed the ancient native mines. Amid
the stony ridges and workings it was not unreasonable
to expect something like a respectable, if not a stiff,
defence. The approaches to Otavi, when on June 30 the
Union advance guard arrived within sight of the place,
were found indeed to have been elaborately mined, and
there was a certain amount of open order and desultory
fighting at long range. But it did not prove to be the
preliminary of a battle. It was nothing more than a
cover for a further enemy retirement. Instead of deploy-
ing for action the German troops, massed at Otavi, were
hastily withdrawn along the branch railway line to
Tsumeb. On their arrival Botha's main body marched
into Otavi unopposed. As for the land mines, the
engineers, sent on ahead, had made short work of them.

Beyond Tsumeb Botha knew the Germans could not
retreat. They had there reached the end of their
tether, and must either fight or surrender. Accordingly,
assuming, as he was in the meantime bound to do, that
they meant to fight, he drew out his dispositions for
action. But he sent forward a demand for capitulation,
giving Seitz and Franke twenty-four hours in which to
make up their minds. Just as the allotted interval had
expired a German despatch bearer, hurried and breath-
less, came in under the white flag. The capitulation,
this time on Botha's own terms, was agreed to. Pending
a final and formal signature of the conditions, a local
armistice was declared, for the Union Commander-in-
Chief had no idea of interfering with the enveloping
movements of his lieutenants. It was a wise precaution,
and as it turned out a very necessary one. But for

65 F

GENERAL BOTHA'S CAMPAIGN : SECOND PHASE

such a limitation the Germans would have been free to
scatter, dispersing themselves over the country with
their arms, and leaving themselves free to give indefinite
future trouble. General Botha, however, had no inten-
tion of letting himself be put off with an illusory sur-
render. He had made up his mind to clear the German
forces out of the colony, and not only the German forces,
but the German equipment. This military menace had
to be dug up by the roots.

And the precaution was necessary, because the enemy,
given the opportunity, had resolved to destroy the
stores at Tsumeb. The opportunity was not given.
Myburgh, moving through Waterberg and then striking
north across the railway between Otavi and Grootfon-
tein, dashed over the open country straight for Tsumeb.
At Gaub, a German flank guard tried to arrest him. He
brushed aside the opposition. The defeated enemy
galloped for Tsumeb, Myburgh' s burghers hot on their
heels. Just outside the town the leaders of the pursuit
were met by a flag of truce. The war, they were told,
was over, and Tsumeb was to remain for the present in
German hands. Myburgh's men were inclined to doubt
the story, and asked for some proof. While they were
debating a German battery opened upon them without
warning. That was proof certainly, but proof to the
contrary, and very unmistakable. Taking the whole
proceeding to be a ruse, as in fact it was, and enraged by
such an abuse of the white flag, they leapt to their
saddles, and charged into the town at full speed. The
fight in the streets was short and sharp. The defence
was overpowered, and those of the Germans who had
not escaped surrendered.

When General Myburgh arrived he was assured that
the firing by the artillery had been a complete mistake,
arising from the misinterpretation of an order to the
contrary. Profuse apologies were forthcoming. The
episode was regrettable, but the armistice had really
been entered into, and hostilities were in fact over.
Myburgh was requested in accordance with the terms of
the armistice to withdraw himself and his men from the

66

GENERAL BOTHA'S CAMPAIGN : SECOND PHASE

town. But naturally he wondered why, if this tale was
true, he had received no intimation of any kind from his
own headquarters. The omission, and the kind of
omission General Botha was not likely to commit, raised
doubts. As a test of good faith he asked if the Germans
could put him through on the telephone to General
Botha, and if so, were they willing to do so ? They were
now cornered, and without giving themselves away
could not refuse. In conversation with his chief, the
Brigadier soon learned the truth, and the meaning of it.
He announced to the German local authorities, who were,
of course, in his power, that he remained in Tsumeb, and
in charge of everybody and everything in it.

Investigation speedily disclosed the reason for all this
shuffling. On visiting the arsenal Myburgh was aston-
ished alike at its extent and at its contents. There was
in it complete equipment for more than twenty thousand
men ; a great stock of modern rifles, millions of rounds of
small arms ammunition, and material and stores of
every kind ; an enormous haul.

The occupation of Tsumeb by Myburgh closed one
back door ; the occupation of Namutoni by Brits on
July 6 closed the other. Namutoni is a remote place on
the Ovamboland boundary. When surrender became
imminent much of the German transport and a large
stock of munitions had been removed there in order, as
it was supposed, to be out of harm's way. Brits, of
whom little had been heard, appeared before the posi-
tion, completely to the surprise of the German garrison.
In face of the strength of the Union brigade resistance
was out of the question. The German commandant and
his contingent, some 200 strong, capitulated.

Considering the German record in South-west Africa,
though the full villainy of it had not then come to light,
the terms accorded to the defeated enemy by General
Botha have been pronounced magnanimous. The officers
of the surrendered force were permitted to keep their
arms, were released on parole, and were allowed to
select their places of abode, subject to the condition
that those places were duly notified ; the non-commis-

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GENERAL BOTHA'S CAMPAIGN : SECOND PHASE

sioned officers and men retained their rifles, but without
ammunition, and were to be interned within South-west
Africa, the place or places of internment to be named by
the Union Government ; the reservist German settlers
were given leave to return to their farms, and kept their
rifles and an allowed quantity of ammunition for self-
defence. All the guns, stores and transport of the enemy
force were surrendered.

With reference to these terms it has to be remembered
that in South Africa to deprive a white man of his rifle
is reckoned the last depth of degradation. The conces-
sion as to arms did not arise from any sentimental regard
for these men as combatants. As combatants they had
shown that they merited none. Respect for the usages
of civilised warfare they had never displayed ; they had
resorted to any device, however discreditable. In the
conduct of the campaign one of their least forgivable
traits had been their treatment of prisoners. The Union
soldiers who had surrendered — they had been few —
were in every instance brave men, and it might have been
supposed that their valour would have extorted respect.
It had merely inspired vindictiveness, and barbarous
usage. As combatants, therefore, the Germans had no
claims to consideration. But contemptible as they had
shown themselves, they were still men of the white race,
and to have imposed upon them the degradation of
complete individual as opposed to collective disarma-
ment would have lowered the prestige of the white race.
The natives would have been offered the spectacle of
white men treating white men as other than white.
True, the Germans had not allowed such a scruple to
influence them. But it was not for General Botha to
follow an example of that kind, even had he been so
disposed. More than anything else this meanness on
the part of the Germans regarding prisoners had fired
resentment against them and against everything German
all through South Africa. For on this matter the feeling
among the white minority in South Africa is very
strong. To the native, naturally military, a white man
disarmed is an object to be despised.

68

GENERAL BOTHA'S CAMPAIGN : SECOND PHASE

It is indeed a very open question whether the terms
of the capitulation, coldly judicious, did not express a
deeper dis-esteem than the extreme of apparent severity.
The latter would have indicated some element of vin-
dictiveness. There was none. The Germans were not
worth it. Vindictiveness springs partly from fear,
partly from a sense of inferiority. Fear, present or
prospective, this surrendered crowd did not inspire, and
whatever sense of inferiority there was had shown itself
on their side. General Botha dealt with them simply
for what they were — negligible. They had owed such
temporary importance as they had had to the system of
their government. That system had been abolished,
root and branch.

And so far as the German settlers were concerned, to
have sent them back to their farms and ranches without
rifles would, in view of the native resentment against
them, have been to incur a grave risk, and have made
the problem of policing the country trebly onerous.
But self-defence in this case meant self-defence. It was
precisely on that point where the change brought about
was so radical. Before the war the native complaint,
and it was a well-founded complaint, was that every
individual German was himself the Government, for in
fact, in regard to the natives, every individual German
did exactly as he liked. Appeal to courts, or to officials,
by coloured people, was not merely useless ; it was worse
than useless. The native lived under daily exposure to
violence and robbery, and the official machinery, so far
from restraining, abetted those practices. In short, the
German administration was in practice an anarchy. It
was hardly to be expected that the German settlers
should adapt themselves to the change forthwith,
looking at their character. They did not. Consistently
with their character, they repaid the concession made to
them as white men — misunderstanding it, and taking it
as made to them as Germans — by going along in most
instances in the old ways of bullying and brutality ;
treating the natives persuaded to reaccept their service
as legitimate objects of revenge. And threats were

69

GENERAL BOTHA'S CAMPAIGN : SECOND PHASE

added of worse to follow, for it was asserted that in the
long run Germany was certain to win the war. Here,
however, the change in authority made itself felt. The
worst curse of South-west Africa, a despotic, irresponsible,
and cruel police, had been replaced by a police humane
and even-handed, and was speedily supplemented by fair
tribunals. When assaulted or cheated, the native could
without fear appeal for justice, and get it. The prosecu-
tions and convictions of German settlers on these com-
plaints were numerous, and the German element came to
consider when fines had to be paid, or in flagitious cases,
sentences of imprisonment to be served, or native labour
withdrawn, that they were now the oppressed. But on
the new Administration at Windhuk these murmurs
made no impression. The days of every German a law
to himself were over. The able administrator appointed
by the Union Government, Mr. E. M. Gorges, was deter-
mined to settle the country, and put down anarchy, and
he did. German and native alike learned the meaning
of the Pax Britannica. It puzzled the native mind to
find that the Germans were not cleared out, and were
allowed to retain their private possessions. The civilised
code which respects the private property of public
enemies was to the native a refinement too subtle to be
grasped, as indeed it seemingly was to the common German
mind. The native knew that the German settlers were
a nuisance, and his detestation of the nuisance was not
the lightest problem of the new Government. It was a
problem only to be solved by time and patience. Ovam-
boland, which the Germans had not dared to enter, was
with the full concurrence of the native chiefs entrusted
to a British resident, on the same footing as Basutoland.

70

CHAPTER IV

THE STORY OF EAST AFRICA

Natural features and climate of East Africa — Its native communities
and kingdoms — Trade routes — First German prospectors — Slave
trade agitation begun — Charter granted to German Colonisation
Society — British Protectorate declared over Zanzibar — Germany
and the Sultanate of Witu — British-German diplomatic duel —
Hinterland parcelled out into spheres of influence — British East
African Chartered Company — Germans demand port of Lamu —
Attack on German traders — Agreement of 1890 — British and Ger-
man antagonism in Uganda — German intrigues in the Soudan —
Germany's East African administration — The commercial monopoly
— Plantation labour difficulties — Formation of a native standing
army — Its relationship with native tribes — Studied hostility —
Measures for forcing natives into plantation labour — Tyranny of
German police — Abuses of convict system — Native revolt in 1904
—The Native War of 1905-6 — The " Magic Water " legend-
Destruction of the Wamwera nation — Treatment of native leaders.

From the story of South-west Africa that of German
East Africa is different in all respects save one — the
effect of German administration. Unlike the native
peoples in the isolated south-west of the Continent,
those of East Africa had been in contact with Europeans
almost continuously since the seventeenth century.
Certainly that was the case with the Swahilis of the
coastal area. They had had relationships with the
Arabs, however, from a much earlier date, and along the
coast as well as in districts inland bordering on the Great
Lakes, then unknown to geographers in Europe, the
Mohammedan faith had won a firm footing. These
were the more civilised areas ; their civilisation of a
distinctively oriental type. The reason why there
had been a greater advance in the arts of life at once

71

THE STORY OF EAST AFRICA

along the coast and in the extreme interior is found in
the natural features of this wide region. From a coastal
belt comparatively low in elevation, hot, and, owing to
its humidity, enervating, so far as the heat is not tem-
pered by the sea wind, the land rises in the interior into
a succession of plateaux divided from each other by the
depressions along which flow eastward the main rivers.
The surfaces of the uplands, however, are not flat. They
present the prospect of ranges or rugged knots of hills
and broad valleys clothed, where the ground has not
been cleared by native cultivation, with a dense vegeta-
tion, or with tropical woods. In the uncultivated ex-
panses bare of trees the covering is a tropical grass
growing to a height of six feet. Still farther inland the
plateaux give place to the mighty mountain chain, which,
extending in an irregular arc for more than a thousand
miles from north to south, forms the barrier imprisoning
the waters of the inland seas.

Had the rivers flowing eastward been navigable for
any distance from the Indian Ocean, it is more than
probable that East Africa would long ago have become
the seat of a populous native Power, but the greater
rivers, the Congo and the Nile, flow north and west, and
those to the east, falling from the highlands, are mostly
obstructed by shallows, and rapids, as well as by marked
changes of depth according to the seasons. The moun-
tains, forming the backbone of the country, or rather
dividing it into two distinct areas, include, as is well
known, the loftiest peaks in Africa, the crowning summit,
Kilimanjaro, 19,321 feet high. Even in the highlands
east of the mountains the climate is comparatively
healthy, and the nights generally cool. But west of the
mountains it is yet more so, for the level is there still
higher, vegetation more like that of the temperate zone,
and the open country park-like. And, the chain of
great lakes aiding inter-communication, the remoteness
of this part of Africa had led to the formation of a group
of native kingdoms. Beginning with Darfur in the north,
they included Uganda, Bukoba, Ruanda, and Urundi,
most under Mohammedan rulers. These States cor-

72

THE STORY OF EAST AFRICA

responded with the Sultanates along the seaboard, the
more important of the latter that of Zanzibar — which
embraced the adjacent coastal zone on the mainland —
and that of Witu. The interlying inland country east
of the mountains and marked off from the coastal zone
by a secondary chain of heights was occupied by numer-
ous native communities. All broadly were in that tribal
stage of development in which custom is strong. Primi-
tive life had passed into a simple agriculture. Every
family tilled its own small farm or shamba, and, assisted
by the produce of its cattle in a climate where the natural
wants of man are few and the soil bountiful, enjoyed a
rude but sufficient independence. Though some of these
tribal confederations, notably the Mazai in the north
and the Yaos in the south, were warlike, most, where
undisturbed, were peaceable. The chief cause of unrest
was the movement of tribes of the Bantu race, pushed
towards the equator by the white immigration into South
Africa.

Between the native kingdoms on the coast and those
bordering upon the Great Lakes trade had long been
carried on by way of several established routes. There
was the route from Mombasa through Nairobi to Kisumu
on the Victoria Nyanza ; the route from Tanga through
Moshi to Mwanza at the southern end of the same sea ;
the route from Dar-es-Salem to Ujiji on Lake Tangan-
yika, and that from Lindi to Lake Nyassa. The most
frequented of these was the road inland from Mombasa.
When Europeans began to be interested in this region
of Africa they naturally penetrated from the coast along
the trade routes, and one of the earliest and most con-
siderable settlements was that of some 300 farmers of
British and Dutch descent, who, moving from South
Africa, took up land around Kilimanjaro, where the soil,
of volcanic origin, is of exceptional fertility. But, as
this was long antecedent to the rubber boom, European
settlers were few, and for the most part traders or pros-
pectors. The native population of the region between
the Lakes and the coast was estimated at some eight
millions.

73

THE STORY OF EAST AFRICA

Such in outline was the state of things when, about
1880, the first German prospectors entered the country.
They came, however, not as individuals, but as the
pioneers of a Society for the Promotion of German
Colonisation, then recently set on foot. The moving
spirits in this enterprise were Dr. Karl Peters, Count
Pfeil, Count Behr-Bandelin, Ernst von Weber, and
Dr. Fredrich Lange. They formed the nucleus of an
association which sprang from meetings and discussions
in a brasserie at Berlin, where geography and German
expansion were discussed in an atmosphere heavily
laden with tobacco smoke. Recognition and support of
their views was given by the Taglische Rundschau.
Having with that backing launched their society, they
invited membership and subscriptions. The latter
totalled 250,000 marks, and the society resolved forth-
with to found a German colony. Most of the subscribers
looked for a high return. Openings were being sought
for German trade, and East Africa, it was thought,
offered a field.

There was a commerce between Great Britain and
Mombasa and Zanzibar, and between those places and
India, as well as the ancient trade with Arabia. German
enterprise sought to share it. Realising, however, that
on the footing of the " open door " a development of
that kind would be slow, German prospectors proceeded
on a quasi-monopolistic basis to enter into agreements
with inland chiefs. Embarking at Trieste in the autumn
of 1884, Peters, Count Pfeil, Dr. Juhlke, and a trader
named Otto, who knew the ground, arrived in November
at Zanzibar. To all appearances they were merely
globe-trotters without importance. They passed over
to the mainland, and during the next three months were
lost to view. But in February, 1885, Dr. Fredrich
Lange received a telegram written in a private code
telling him that the adventurers had under a treaty with
the local chief acquired the Usambara plateau. It was a
success beyond expectation. But in quick succession
came the news that Peters and his associates had by
like means secured the districts of Nguru, Ukami and

74

THE STORY OF EAST AFRICA

Usequha, and in the summer of 1885 Peters returned to
Berlin carrying in his pocket " rights " to more than 80,000
square miles of territory — an area larger than Great
Britain. On their part the German Government lost no
time in recognising so meritorious an enterprise. In the
course of a few weeks the Society for the Promotion of
German Colonisation received an Imperial charter of
incorporation. Peters was appointed the first adminis-
trator of the colony.

But the annexations, owing to the trade obstruction
set up, soon led to difficulties and complaints. In associa-
tion with these differences the slave traffic between the
coastal Sultanates and Arabia began to be heard of in
Europe as a question of political interest. The traffic was
old. Indeed, as the ownership of slaves was not looked
upon either in these Mohammedan States or in Arabia as
in any sense an immoral practice, and as slaves among the
Arabs are with very rare exceptions well treated, the
trade had gone on for centuries. But the horrors of
slave catching and slave driving on the way down to the
coast now formed the theme of indignant protest in
German newspapers, and the outcry was echoed in
the British Press. Then, ostensibly to check the
slave trade, though, it may be shrewdly inferred, for
the safeguarding incidentally of British commercial
interests, a British Protectorate was proclaimed over
Zanzibar. What more immediately prompted this step
was the discovery that the German Society had obtained
on lease from Sayed Khalifa, the local potentate, an
important concession of land south of the Umba river.
The reply of the German Government to the British
move was the proclamation of a German Protectorate
over the Sultanate of Witu. As Witu was independent,
and the Germans had neither interest nor footing there,
the proclamation for the time meant nothing. But it
added to the political complication. The outcome was
a brisk correspondence between London and Berlin, and
the upshot of this, in 1886, a Convention, which, defining
the possessions of the Sultan of Zanzibar as the islands
along the coast, and a tract of the adjacent mainland

75

THE STORY OF EAST AFRICA

ten miles from the sea, divided the hinterland into
British and German spheres of influence.

In 1887 the rival association which had been formed by
British and Indian traders was incorporated by Royal
Charter as the Imperial British East Africa Company.
The following year the German Government, whose
nationals had had so far to trade through Zanzibar, or
other ports in the British sphere, demanded from the
Sultan of Witu a concession of Lamu, the chief port in
his territory. The concession was refused. By this
incident the question of East Africa was reopened.
Certain German traders had meanwhile established
themselves in Witu. Following upon the Lamu demand,
feeling against them was strong, and in 1890, with a
somewhat curious opportuneness, ten of them were
attacked and killed. To the Government at Berlin the
affair was diplomatically useful, for it brought matters
to a head just when the business of determining Euro-
pean possessions in other parts of Africa was under
consideration. In consequence, East Africa was com-
prised in the delimitation agreement and German East
Africa definitely divided off from British East Africa.

Thus German authority over a vast tract of country
was internationally recognised. The limits inland
were understood to be the line of the Great Lakes, but
they were vague, and one of the first steps of the German
administration was an attempt to extend them. The
German administrator, Dr. Karl Peters, afterwards
unenviably notorious, made his way in 1890 to Uganda,
and opened negotiations with the king for a political
treaty in the interests of Germany. Before the treaty
was concluded, however, the British East Africa Com-
pany occupied Uganda, and it was held by a force of
Soudanese troops. To follow the secret working of the
matter is not easy, yet there is little reason to doubt
that in repayment of this rebuff — Germany at that time
had no armed forces at her disposal in East Africa — the
new possession served as a base for anti-British intrigues,
and for fomenting and covertly supplying with arms
the movement in the Eastern Soudan headed by the

76

THE STORY OF EAST AFRICA

Mahdi. In 1897, the Soudanese forces in Uganda
mutinied, and the Mahdist movement, until finally put
down in 1898 by the late Lord Kitchener's Expedition
to Khartoum, was formidable.

The German administration of East Africa was
planned on rather elaborate lines. There were fourteen
principal and six subordinate departments. The de-
limited territory had a coast line of more than 400
miles, including the ports of Dar-es-Salem, Tanga, and
Lindi, and the whole of it was to be governed directly
from Dar-es-Salem with the exception of the Mohamme-
dan States of Bukoba, Ruanda, and Urundi. In each of
them a German Resident was appointed. Another
exception was the territory of the Mazai, whom the
German authorities thought it better not for the present
to disturb. The lines on which the possession was
governed were, first, a German commercial monopoly,
which of course meant a marked swelling of profits, and,
secondly, the exploitation of the natives as labourers in
the interests of whites, and those whites German. To
check other white immigration, a deposit of £30 per head
was exacted, and any white man, not a German, visiting
the colony was required to report himself to the German
police once a month, and obtain renewal of permission
to remain. Trade overseas was confined to the German
East African Line, a concern subsidised by the Imperial
Government.

The obstacle in the way of development, as the German
administration and Germans at home understood the
term, was the difficulty of finding enough plantation
labour. The country was divided up among communi-
ties of peasant cultivators, to whom the idea of labour
for wages was entirely novel, and difficulty in carrying-
out so sweeping a change as that determined upon would
in the like circumstances present itself anywhere.
Instead, however, of taking that view, German official-
dom, both in Berlin and on the spot, looked, or professed
to look, upon the native usages and economy as an
obstinate adherence to African barbarism. At first it
was necessary to proceed with caution. As the white

77

THE STORY OF EAST AFRICA

population were a mere handful, and never at any time
more than 5,000, the first measure was the establishment
of a native police, armed and trained under German
instructors on military lines. For this purpose the
directly governed part of the possession was mapped out
into twenty-four administrative centres, and the peace-
able areas entrusted to district officers, each with a
police contingent. There remained the tracts, chiefly
those on the southern border, those contiguous to the
Mazai steppe, and the remote region to the north-west
beyond the mountains, which it was judged preferable
to govern on a purely military footing. A native
standing army was therefore recruited in addition to the
black police, and trained in the same manner.

These measures formed the core of German policy.
In the north-west there were wild tribes lower in the
scale of civilisation than the mass of the natives. The
German administration enlisted them for its new force.
The pay offered was, for a native, high — twenty to thirty
German rupees a month, and to a native brigand wealth.
This professional army, for such it was, and the police
force was really part of it, did not, according to German
official representations, exceed, police included, 5,000 men.
In the course of time, however, it was steadily increased,
the military charges being covered by a subvention
from the German Government at home, until the strength
of the force became more than three times that total.

Now a standing black army of that strength and
character was an unpleasant portent, and it was the more
unpleasant, not to say dangerous, because the men who
entered the German service became de-tribalised. It
was one of the conditions. To be de-tribalised, however,
was among the natives of East Africa, as it always is in
the tribal stage of society, to be an outcast, or pariah.
By the natives at large, consequently, the German police
and German soldiery were on that ground despised.
But they were, according to native standards, highly
paid, and were encouraged by the Germans to regard
themselves, in view of their military instruction, as a
superior caste. There was thus set up between them

78

THE STORY OF EAST AFRICA

and the native population at large a chronic antagonism.
The effect of it on the one hand was, completely dividing
them off from the tribal communities, to make them
willing and slavish tools of their employers and masters,
and ready executants of the German orders, whatever
the orders might prove to be. The effect on the other
hand was to turn them, as social outcasts, into keen
informers, and nosers-out of offences. To give edge to
this system the German administration, once its police
and army had been established, promulgated an elaborate
code of regulations containing numerous and to the
natives strange prohibitions, each, however, a subject
for severe punishment, and this code was applied red-hot
to a population whose only idea of law was common
custom. Further, there was imposed a hut- or house-
tax of three rupees a year, and in the case of male adult
natives not having a house of their own, a poll tax of
the like amount. That these measures were deliberate,
and by making the lot of the native cultivator miserable,
intended to force him into the plantation labour market,
is proved by their being most steadily and severely
applied to the Yaos, and others of the native tribes who
were physically finest, and most intelligent, and therefore
the best labour material. The amount of the taxation
may not appear large, but to a native who had never
had need of money, and to raise it had either to sell his
produce for just what the Germans chose to offer, or to
work in earning it for just what the Germans chose to
pay, it was a serious impost.

All these things were, needless to observe, causes of
discontent, and the more so because as time went on
there grew up not only the same abuse of the sjambok
as in South-west Africa, and the like cruel repetition of
the torture at intervals of a fortnight, but the practice
on the part of the native police, since these floggings
were inflicted at the discretion of the police, of taking
bribes from terrified " delinquents," and of levying
blackmail upon the villages. Nevertheless, in spite of
this pressure, the labour difficulty showed no signs of
being solved. In the mass the native population were

79

THE STORY OF EAST AFRICA

set against the change, and their opposition was softened
neither by German methods of administration nor by
the practices of German planters. As this, in official
opinion, kept back the development of the colony,
which was slow, and as the officials on the spot knew
that their jobs depended upon pushing that develop-
ment, other devices were resorted to. The criminal
code was so amended that on relatively trivial charges
natives could be condemned to long terms of penal
servitude. By this means there was obtained a small
army of so-called convicts, who were set to labour upon
public undertakings, more especially at the ports.
Dar-es-Salem and Tanga expanded into wide, straight
streets and showy buildings, but the commonest of all
sights were the gangs of prisoners working in the open
in chains, and that too in the most trying climate in
Africa. The mortality among these unhappy men was
of course heavy, but by the same means the supply
could always be kept up. Again licensed recruiters
were appointed, and accompanied by the police went
round the villages enrolling men in labour contracts.
How far these contracts were under the conditions really
voluntary may be considered doubtful. Another pro-
ceeding was the opening of " labour markets." Planters
reported to the German district officer the number of
hands they wanted. The district officer set about the
collection, ostensibly by arrangement with the native
chiefs of his area. When rounded up, the " recruits " were
gathered at some convenient centre, and the planters came
and picked them out. Though nominally free labour,
all this was obviously but separated by a tissue-paper
partition from chattel slavery. The Mazai would never
accept work on plantations under any circumstances.

The tendency of the German measures, it was seen by
all impartial observers, could only in the end mean the
creation of a wretched proletariat, morally degraded as
well as materially impoverished. And the tendency had
its dangers, for the increasing burden of oppressions led
in 1904 to an armed rising in the southern and south-
western area of the colony, so serious than von Trotha

80

THE STORY OF EAST AFRICA

had to be sent out to put it down. And he did put it
down, or was supposed to have done so, on the exter-
mination principle, amid incidents on all fours with
those in the campaign against the Hereros. The legend
had been spread that the " Wadachi," or Germans, were
as strong as the Russians, Japanese and British put
together, for the natives were not altogether uninformed
as to outside affairs. It was thought advisable to afford
a concrete example of " Wadachi " might. Von Trot ha
turned the formerly populous south-western region of
the colony into a solitude. And after this the German
screw was tightened. The " lesson," it was thought,
would suffice. The judgment proved an error. In 1905
the Wamwera and Wangoni in the south-eastern and
southern parts of the colony rose in arms. Driven to
desperation, they had, in their extremity, found two
capable and intrepid leaders. Seliman Mamba, head
of the Wamwera, was, as his name suggests, a Mussulman,
and his followers, racially related to the Swahili, were
partly of that faith. The Germans, very ill-advisedly
for themselves, had by this time formed the opinion
that Mohammedanism and the labour trouble were
linked together, and, though its upholders in Turkey, had
shown themselves hostile to that faith. Their action
blew the smouldering discontent into a flame. Shabruma,
the leader of the Wangoni, was, like his tribe, of Bantu
origin. His tactics were those of guerilla warfare, and
he carried them out with great skill.

The storm broke to all intents without warning.
Before the German authorities could act, plantations,
posts, and stations in this part of the country were
swept over and destroyed. And the war, which lasted
for more than a year, proved a very desperate business.
The Wamwera fought with extraordinary valour, time
and again, in one bitter battle after another, charging
up to the machine-guns within spear's length, and
stabbing the gunners. Nothing, in fact, but the mechan-
ical superiority of their arms saved the Germans and
their native auxiliaries. The reason, it was said, for
this desperation was the propagation among the revolted

81 g

THE STORY OF EAST AFRICA

natives of the legend that according to a divine revela-
tion every man who drank of the hot springs at Kimem-
bara would become endowed with strength and courage
enough to drive the Germans into the sea, and at the
same time invulnerable to their bullets. On that
account they called themselves the Majimaji, or " Magic-
water men." To accept this version of the matter,
German government had little to do with the revolt.
But German government, or misgovernment, was in
truth the substance of it. And the proof is that even
after Seliman Mamba had at length fallen into the hands
of his foes, the Wamwera refused to accept defeat.
Those who survived betook themselves in a body to the
bush. There the greater number perished of disease
and starvation. Not until months afterwards did the
last remnant, urged by the pangs of famine, come out
in small parties into the open country. They were then
living skeletons, coated with dirt, suffering from skin
affections of a virulent type, and from inflamed eyes.
The treatment meted out to them was penal servitude.
Seliman was executed, but before his execution, though
so enfeebled by hardship and sickness that he could
barely drag his chains, he was daily driven to labour
in a chain gang. Such was German gallantry towards
a brave man. Shabruma and his following proved to be
more elusive. Finding refuge in the southern moun-
tains, they descended upon German posts, and in various
instances wiped them out. The Germans found them-
selves committed to a prolonged and costly campaign,
the more difficult because the natives were in sympathy
with the insurgents.

The facts just outlined will be found in many ways to
throw light upon the campaigning in East Africa, which
followed upon the outbreak of war in 1914, and they go
to show why the continent was swept by war from Darfur
in the north to Rhodesia and Nyassaland in the south,
and to simplify what might otherwise appear a compli-
cated narrative.

82

CHAPTER V

EAST AFRICAN CAMPAIGN 1914-1916

German readiness — Propaganda in the Eastern Soudan — Supremacy on
the Great Lakes — Von Lettow-Vorbeck — His leadership — Plans
for offensive — British attack on Dar-es-Salem — Konigsberg's attack
on Zanzibar — British campaign dependent on the sea — German
invasion of British East Africa — Its initial success — Thrusts at
Mombasa — Landing of British reinforcements from India — The
counter-offensive — Attack on Tanga fails — British non-success at
Longido — The combat at Vanga — Arrival of General Tighe — Von
Wehle's operations against Kisumu and Uganda — Invasion of
Uganda repulsed — General Stewart's expedition to Bukoba — The
operations in Nyassaland — Defeat of German Expeditionary force
— Invasion of Rhodesia — German raid on Kituta — The British
Tanganyika Naval Expedition — Its romantic overland adventures
— Destruction of German flotilla — Siege of Saisi — Episodes of the
defence — Revolt of the Sultan of Darfur — Col. Kelly's Expedition
from El Obeid — His remarkable march — Battle of Beringia —
Occupation of Darfur.

When war was declared in August, 1914, the Germans
in East Africa were ready. Though construction had
been kept back by native troubles, by administrative
complications, and by engineering difficulties, the thou-
sand miles of central railway from Dar-es-Salem to Ujiji
had just been completed and opened for traffic, and,
whether by design or by accident, there were in the
colony a number of German officers who had come out
to assist in the celebration of the event. They were,
needless to say, extremely useful in increasing the
native levies, and as a reserve. The German planters
and settlers fit for active service, some 3,000 in number,
were of course called out. Of guns, machine-guns,
rifles, ammunition, and military stores of all kinds there

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had been a steady accumulation, for the chances of
replenishment from oversea were at best uncertain.
But besides the forces actually in the territory, the
German administration had not ceased to carry on a
propaganda among the Arabs of the Eastern Soudan,
and confidently, and as it proved correctly, reckoned
upon raising an appreciable total of auxiliaries in that
quarter. In contrast with their attitude towards the
Mohammedans along the coast, the Germans in these
remote inland districts gave themselves out as firm
friends of Islam, had provided for distribution a stock
of green flags decorated with a crescent and a star,
and neglected no means to turn fanaticism to profit.
Appreciating, too, the importance of the Great Lakes
as a line of communication, they had been careful to
ensure for themselves a superiority in armed vessels.
On the Lakes means for shipbuilding and ship repairing
had been set up. Materials and parts of war craft,
shipped from Germany and transported up from the
coast at great labour and expense, were " assembled "
on these lake-side slips. The result was that, Lake
Nyassa excepted, Germany had command of these
inland waters.

Not the least, however, of the German advantages
was the fact that Colonel von Lettow-Vorbeck, comman-
dant of the forces in East Africa, was a military leader
at once intrepid and resourceful. He had grasped the
supreme value of sound administrative work in cam-
paigning, and most of all in campaigning extended over
so enormous an area, and he had very clearly realised the
conditions under which the coming struggle must be
fought. The one mistake into which he fell, a mistake
common to all Germans at this date, was anticipation
of a rapid German success in Europe. Calculating upon
that and knowing that the British, his chief antagonists,
were ill-prepared, his plan was an offensive against
contiguous British possessions, so that when the war as
a whole had been concluded there would be the accom-
plished fact of a German occupation of these regions.
The plan, as it proved, was a mistake. It made an

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inroad upon his resources he could not, as was later
discovered, afford.

Acting upon this plan, he disposed the troops under
his command into three bodies : The first and strongest,
under Major Kraut, was to operate across the northern
frontier against British East Africa, occupy Mombasa,
and Nairobi, and seize the Mombasa-Kisumu railway.
The second, under General von Wehle, and with bases
at Mwanza and Bukoba, was to attack northwards along
both shores of the Victoria Nyanza, but, as its main
purpose, to invade and occupy Uganda. The third,
entrusted to Count von Falkenstein, was to operate to
the south against Nyassaland and Northern Rhodesia,
and seizing the frontier posts, to cut off communication
between South Africa and the Lake region. Contrasted
fortune attended these enterprises. The operations
against British East Africa, to begin with, met with a
measure of success. On the other hand, the offensive by
von Wehle turned out a failure, and that of von Falken-
stein suffered an even more complete check.

In August, 1914, the British had on the East African
station only two light cruisers, Astrcea and Pegasus,
and some guard ships. The cruisers, and this was the
first hostile act in the campaign, on August 8 bombarded
Dar-es-Salem and sank a floating dock and the survey
ship Mowe. Later, as already noted, Astrcea was told off
to escort transports from Capetown, and it was probably
knowledge of that fact which caused the German cruiser
Konigsberg, swifter and more powerful than either of the
two British ships of the cruiser class, to appear at
Zanzibar. Pegasus, at the moment undergoing refit-
ment, was disabled by Konigsberg' 's attack and the guard
ships Cupid and Khalifa sent to the bottom. Owing
partly to these losses, a blockade of the coast was not
established until February, 1915, nearly six months after
the outbreak of war. This delay, had they been ready
to take advantage of it, was a great point in the Germans'
favour. Not, however, until later was blockade running
seriously attempted, and the loophole left during the
first six months cannot be said materially to have

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affected the course of the land struggle. What would
have affected it, and decisively, would have been a
German command of the coast such as would have
prevented the landing of British reinforcements. In
British East Africa the total of troops when war broke
out was so slender that they barely sufficed for a defen-
sive, and from the landward side the nearest British
bases were El Obeid in the north, and Buluwayo in the
south. Practically, then, the British campaign de-
pended upon the sea. The Germans, however, were
never able thus to command the coast, and apart from
that command their preparations and efforts were in
truth a gamble turning upon their fortunes in Europe.

In these circumstances the initial success which
attended the German operations across the northern
border is readily explained. Within the first fortnight
the troops of Kraut had occupied Taveta, a frontier
town on the Tanga trade route, and a road centre which
gave them an excellent jumping-off position, either for
operations against Mombasa, or for attacks upon the
railway, the latter not more than eighty miles away.
And Mombasa was the main point at which their move-
ment was directed, because, failing command of the
coast, the alternative was to seize its harbours, and
particularly a place like Mombasa, having railway
communication with the interior. The risk of the ad-
venture lay in a counter-attack across the pass between
Kilimanjaro and Mount Longido, for a countermove of
that kind, if it reached Moschi, would cut Kraut's
communications, and get astride his line of retreat. To
prevent such a development, the Germans laid out on
Longido a strongly fortified position. Incidentally, it
also served them as a base for raids, and, menacing
Nairobi, was likely to check dispatch of reinforcements
from that place to the British defending the Mombasa
road.

There was skill in these German dispositions. And they
were aided by a converging movement upon Mombasa
from Tanga along the coast. The attack from landward,
too, was to have been supported from the sea by Konigs-

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EAST AFRICAN CAMPAIGN 1914-1916

berg. The scheme, however, was upset by the arrival
at Mombasa of a contingent of troops from India under
the command of Brigadier-General J. M. Stewart. The
disembarkation took place only in the nick of time. Had
it been delayed even for a day or two the chances were
that Mombasa would have fallen into the enemy's hands.
As it was, the Germans having occupied the small port
of Vanga, half-way between Tanga and Mombasa, and
pushed on, were held up merely by the gallant defence
of a British fortified camp and blockhouse which com-
manded the route, and as it happened the only route,
since at this point the road crossed a swamp. At the
head of a company of 130 Arabs, hastily recruited, Lieut.
Wavell, placed in charge of this post, held out against
all the efforts to rush the position. He was relieved
eventually by a column made up of the Jind Infantry
and the King's African Rifles. The enemy was com-
pelled to retreat, and it proved to be the end of his
Mombasa project. With the door at Mombasa open
the British held the means of, in time, turning the
balance.

Meanwhile, on the British side the decision had been
formed to pass to the offensive, and a plan had been
adopted for squeezing the Germans out of their positions
along the frontier by on the one flank attacking them at
Longido, and on the other turning them by a landing
in their right rear at Tanga. If successful, this latter
operation would enable a move to be made inland along
the railway to Wilhelmstal, and force evacuation of the
Usambara plateau, a dominating rise it was desirable to
seize.

In accordance with the decision, there was sent from
India a further reinforcement of G,000 troops under the
command of Major-General Aitken. Tanga was their
destination, and the transports arrived off that port on
November 2. The British information was that the
town was not defended. Likely enough, when that
intelligence was gleaned the town was not, but either
the enemy had got wind of the intended descent, or
suspected it. At any rate, he had thrown a strong

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garrison into the place. Further, he had very carefully
barricaded the streets and loopholed the houses, and
the woods and cane bush by which Tanga was surrounded
had been elaborately set with traps and entanglements.
On the arrival of the ships, General Aitken sent ashore
a summons to the German commandant to surrender.
The demand was refused. As it soon became evident
that the place was held in strength, the direct attempt to
land was not persisted in. In face of the enemy's guns
the attempt would have been impracticable. Not
willing to give the project up, however, General Aitken
two days later threw part of his force ashore at the
south end of the bay. To reach the town the troops
had to struggle through the bush. The infantry resist-
ance met with was not serious, but the enemy batteries
were turned upon the advance, their fire guided by a
variety of ingenious devices. The cane bush grows to
a height of eight feet or more, so that to detect move-
ment through it by direct observation was not easy.
But the enemy had set traps which, when disturbed,
signalled the range to his gunners. In spite of this, the
attacking troops fought their way forward to and into
Tanga. There the fighting became a succession of
furious street combats, and the storming of barricades
and houses. Possibly enough, if at this point the rest
of the Expeditionary Force had been thrown ashore at
the port, the place might have been won, but on the
transports the situation seems to have been thought less
favourable than it was. Hence the attacking column,
instead of the support they had looked for, received the
order to withdraw. Their losses, of course, were
further increased during the retirement and they were
sufficiently serious — nearly 800 officers and men.

Though it did not in any way shake the moral of the
force, this was an unpleasant check, rendered none the
less unpleasant by the lack of success which had also
attended the Longido enterprise. The cause in that
instance was a breakdown in the water transport. The
troops fought well, but after hours of hard fighting in the
tropics men parched with thirst which no means are

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found of relieving are in almost the most intolerable
position it is possible to imagine. The defences won
had to be evacuated. There was little use in retaining
conquered positions when they could only be held at
the risk of perishing from lack of water.

But though the grand scheme for a converging offen-
sive had fallen through, another effort was made to
relieve Mombasa from menace, for until that was done
no important advance towards the interior could be
undertaken. Accordingly, the enemy was attacked at
Vanga and driven out, and the town garrisoned by a
force of Indian infantry under the command of Col.
Ragbir Singh. Unwilling to sit down under this reverse,
the Germans attempted a recapture, and with a powerful
column. The defence was brilliant. The garrison fought
until they had fired their last shot. Their gallant com-
mander had fallen beating off an assault. Happily, just
at this critical juncture, the distant boom of guns and
roll of rifle-fire announced that relief had arrived. The
German forces were pressed back over the frontier.
Substantially this was the situation when, in April,
1915, the command was transferred to Brigadier-General
Tighe. The Germans still held Taveta. Beyond that,
however, their plan had come to nothing.

It is here advisable to glance at operations in other
parts of this vast theatre of hostilities. They include
some of the most romantic episodes and adventures
of the war.

In September, 1914, part of the force under the
command of von Wehle had seized Karungu, a small
port on the Victoria Nyanza just across the British
East Africa boundary. The purpose of von Wehle's
advance was occupation of the port and railway terminus
at Kisumu, and the isolation of Uganda. Apparently
it had been assumed, first, that the British, concerned
for the defence of Mombasa, would have few troops
at this inland end of the railway, and, secondly, that a
German invasion and occupation of Uganda would prove
fairly easy. Both assumptions turned out to be wrong.
With the arrival of reinforcements from India the

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British, instead of weakening their force at Kisumu,
had strengthened it, and they reacted promptly. Two
squadrons of the East African Mounted Rifles were
sent from Kisumu to Karungu on the steamer Winifred.
But the German attack on the latter place was sup-
ported by the German armed steamer Mwanza, and
Winifred, chased off by her, was compelled to return.
A mounted column, however, was sent south to Karungu
overland, and the Germans fell back. The real reason
for withdrawal was the resistance met with on the Uganda
boundary from the native troops of the Protectorate.
The resistance was stiff, so stiff that von Wehle could
make no headway. In January, in fact, he found
himself placed on the defensive. Not only had his
invasion of Uganda been beaten off with a considerable
loss on his side, but Mwanza had been attacked and
disabled, and east of the Victoria Nyanza the British
column from Karungu had crossed the German frontier
and captured Shirati.

That, however, was by no means the worst. Sent
up country with his brigade, General Stewart had
made Karungu his headquarters, and in order once for
all to cripple the German operations against Uganda,
lost no time in organising an expedition across the
Lake to Bukoba. Stewart's force, which included
British as well as Indian troops and a detachment of
Driscoll's Frontiersmen, who had joined as mounted
scouts, was to co-operate with a Uganda column moving
upon Bukoba down the Kagera river. The enterprise
proved entirely successful. While a demonstration was
made from the water front a battalion of Lancashires,
previously thrown ashore at daybreak some miles to
the south, attacked from inland, entered the town and
speedily mastered it. The munitions and military
stores found were large. So far as time allowed these
were seized and shipped. The remainder were des-
troyed, and to the Germans the loss was more serious
than that of men. The destruction of their base at
Bukoba meant that Uganda was henceforth safe from
their attentions.

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This stroke formed a shrewd reprisal for German
proceedings in the south. On the outbreak of war
each side there had striven to get its blow in first. In
Nyassaland reserves of the King's African Rifles were
called out, men on leave summoned back to quarters,
volunteers enrolled, and a staff formed of officers and
civilian officials in the colony. The mobilisation at
Livingstone, the capital, and the organisation of the
whole force into double companies, were completed in
little more than a week. Placed under the command
of Captain Barton, D.S.O., of the Northampton Regi-
ment, the troops were embarked on the Lake Nyassa
flotilla, and by August 22 had reached and were
concentrated at Karonga, some thirty miles south of
the boundary, equipped and ready for the field. With-
out command of the lake, such a move would, of course,
have been impossible. On these waters the Germans
had placed an armed steamer, Hermann von Wissmann.
To ascertain her whereabouts, Commander E. L.
Rhoades, in the British armed steamer Gwendolen,
was sent to reconnoitre the German port of Sphinxhaven.
Rhoades found Hermann von Wissmann on the stocks.
Running in at dawn, he and his men boldly attacked
and took possession of the dockyard, made prisoners of
Wissmann's crew, and finding it impossible to tow her
off, removed her guns and dismantled her machinery.
This lively little affair took place on August 13, and it
was the opening.

On land, however, the Germans were out first. Their
concentration at New Langenburg, north of Lake
Nyassa, was estimated at 700 rifles, with eight maxims
and a battery of light field guns. Part of this force
on August 20 crossed the Songwe river — the boundary
— and seized Kapora, which they laid out as an advanced
post. Barton, leaving a detachment at Karonga under
the command of Lieut. P. D. Bishop, King's African
Rifles, at once moved out to attack. En route a double
company of the enemy were found barring the road
at the crossing of the Lufira river. After a show of
resistance they fell back, and the meaning of the

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manoeuvre was soon revealed by distant gunfire from
the direction of Karonga. During the night, while
Barton and his troops were on the way towards the
Rufira, the main enemy column, following the shore
of the lake, had made a dash towards Karonga, hoping
to find that place but feebly held, and by its capture
to isolate and at one stroke finish off the Nyassaland
Protectorate force. The opposition on the Rufira was
a ruse to keep Barton occupied there meanwhile.
Karonga had been reached at about seven in the morning,
but fortunately Bishop put up a stout defence, and the
attack had lasted for four hours and was still in progress
when Captain A. H. Griffiths, sent back to its relief
with a double company of the K.A.R. and a maxim,
appeared on the scene. Thus entrapped, the Germans
and their auxiliaries hastily retired, losing in the pursuit
two of their machine-guns. They were not yet, how-
ever, out of their difficulties. Barton, with the remainder
of his force, moving across country to intercept them,
fell upon them as they were passing the Kasoa river.
For this fresh onset they were unprepared, and, com-
pletely defeated and broken up by it, abandoned two
field guns, numerous rifles, 10,000 rounds of ammunition,
and a quantity of stores and explosives. In short, the
incursion into Nyassaland had been a fiasco. The
adventure was never renewed.

On the border of Rhodesia between Lake Nyassa
and Lake Tanganyika, the British forces consisted of
no more than the ordinary police patrols holding the
frontier posts of Abercorn and Fife. The main body
of the Rhodesian police had been moved up to occupy
Schukmannburg in the Caprivi strip of German South-
west Africa. To safeguard the border, a mobile column
was sent from Livingstone to Kasama in Rhodesia, and
placed under the command of Lieut.-Col. Stennett.
At the same time, a call was issued for European volun-
teers, who assembled at Kasama from all parts, many
having trekked long distances across the veld in ox-
carts. A battalion of Belgian native infantry oppor-
tunely came in from the Congo Free State, but as these

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defences on a frontier extending over 200 miles were
slender, the 2nd Mobile Column of Rhodesian Mounted
Police, sent into the Caprivi strip, was recalled. Under
their commander, Major J. J. O'Sullevan, this column,
to reach the border in time, executed, though it was
the wet season, a march of 430 miles within twenty
days. Their arrival enabled a fortified position to be
established at Saisi, barring the route to Kasama.

It very soon became evident that these precautions
were not uncalled for. Repulsed in Nyassaland,
von Falkenstein, leading an expedition from Bismarck-
burg, on September 6 laid siege to Abercorn. The
latter place was twenty miles within the British boundary,
and Bismarckburg, a port on Lake Tanganyika, about
the same distance from the line on the German side.
Stennett's column at the time was ninety-nine miles
away. Put on their mettle, the men covered the
road in seventy-six hours, and Stennett appeared before
Abercorn on the morning of September 9. With the
Karonga experience still fresh in mind, the enemy did
not await an engagement. He was attacked in falling
back by the Rhodesian police, and chased over the
frontier.

In face of these repulses, the Germans now turned to
account the command they had of Lake Tanganyika.
Besides unarmed craft, their Tanganyika flotilla, with
which at this time the Allies had nothing to compete,
consisted of a lake cruiser of 500 tons, Graf von Gotzen,
armed with one 4-inch and two smaller guns, and two
gunboats, Kingani and Hedwig von Wissmann, each
carrying one bow gun. The second stroke from Bis-
marckburg was therefore " amphibious " and directed
against the stores of the African Lakes Corporation at
Kituta, a port at the extreme south end of the Lake.
Convoyed by the flotilla, and in two transports, the
German troops landed at Kituta (November 17), sank
a small steamer lying in the port, and sacked and
burned the stores. From Kituta the attack was moved,
also by water, to Kasakalawe, where a large quantity
of telegraph material was captured. While the looting

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was still going on an attack was delivered by Rhodesian
police and Belgian troops, but the Germans, aided by
the fire of their armed ships, were enabled to re-embark.
As Tanganyika is a body of water 600 miles in length,
and divides the Congo Free State from German East
Africa, it was plain that so long as the Germans retained
command of it they could not only transfer forces
with great facility from north to south or vice versa,
but that substantial aid from the Congo Free State
in the East African campaign was barred out. And
this was a matter of moment, because if two Allied
forces could operate one to the east and one to the
west of the main mountain chain, there was much more
hope of some decision. Indeed, on any other lines
the campaign could never be conclusive. A request,
therefore, was sent to the British Admiralty in London
for the dispatch of two motor launches of a speed and
armament outclassing those of the German gunboats.
The craft had to be forwarded to Capetown, railed
from there by way of Buluwayo and Livingstone to
Elizabethville in the Congo Free State, a distance of
2,300 miles ; from Elizabethville hauled by tractors
across 150 miles of mountainous country, transferred
again to a short section of railway ; floated 400 miles
down the Lualaba river, partly on barrels and lighters,
and through shoals and rapids ; and finally railed to
the Belgian port of Albertville.

This extraordinary adventure, accomplished by Com-
mander G. Spicer Simson, R.N., and a small body of
naval men, occupied five months.

The country over which the launches had to be
" towed " from Elizabethville was held there to be
totally impassable. There were passes to be climbed
6,000 feet above sea-level. Commander Simson was
assured by advisers on the spot when his vessels and
the tractor engines arrived that he would never do it.
He was convinced that he could, and determined that
he would. Critics voted him crazy. But he had not
come to Elizabethville in order to leave his plant to
rot there, and most assuredly he was not going to take

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it back again. Amid local official pity he set out.
There were times when on the so-called road, amid
the remotest solitudes of Africa, he and his expedition
appeared to be stuck. The gradients were some of
them deterrent, and they were almost worse downhill
than uphill. But the resolution not to be beaten,
and the prospect of a brush with the Germans on Tan-
ganyika, kept everybody's moral high, so high that
when water ran short, as on the loftiest part of the
track, an arid wilderness of mountains, it did, they
halved their scanty allowance of drinking water so that
the tractors might not lack steam. At length from the
heights the far off line of the inland sea broke upon their
view, flashing in the tropical sunlight. They were
dusty and unwashed ; thirsty with an unholy and
uncivilised thirst ; scarecrows hardly to be recognised,
but this was the promise of the end.

And in due course Mimi and Toutoa, as the boats
had been called, were launched. They had not been
three days afloat when Kingani was fallen in with.
The German did not decline the fight. His surprise
came when one of the pair, keeping well out of range
of his gun, but still within the range of her own piece,
lured him on, while the other manoeuvred astern where
he had no armament, and with her first shell smashed
his gun shield, and killed both the captain and two
of the gun crew. The rest of the tale is brief. Two
or three more shots which penetrated astern, and the
crew of Kingani ran up the white flag. They were made
prisoners, and their vessel taken in tow. She was
sinking, but Simson managed to bring her into port
in time, and, repaired, she was added to the new British
flotilla. For some time after this Hedwig von Wissmann
kept out of the way, but finally was caught in the
open. The same tactics were followed, and the only
difference was that, a shell happening to burst in the
German's engine-room, he foundered. All the survivors
were picked up. Graf von Gotzen then adopted the
classic German manoeuvre of remaining in harbour —
Kilgoma, on the German shore. Enticements to battle

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proving futile, she was attacked by aeroplane. At the
finish the Germans themselves, fearing a " cutting out "
enterprise, scuttled her. From that time Tanganyika
became for them a closed book. All the members of
this naval expedition, sixteen in number, were decorated
for distinguished service. Never had the honour been
better earned.

For some time after the raids upon Kituta and
Kasakalawe events in Northern Rhodesia were limited
to the attack and defence of small posts and scrimmages
along the boundary, but while the Germans still had
command of the Lakes, part of von Wehle's force with a
reinforcement of Arab auxiliaries was transported south
to Bismarckburg, joined there by a contingent of
Falkenstein's troops from New Langenburg, and under
the command of von Wehle, crossed the frontier and
laid siege to Saisi. Relatively, this invasion was
formidable. The Column comprised eight double com-
panies of German native infantry under European
officers, 400 European mounted riflemen, and a corps
of Arabs, and it was well equipped with field artillery
and machine-guns. The advance upon Saisi, indeed,
could not be seriously opposed, and everything de-
pended upon the defence of that position. Fortunately,
in the interval the defences had been strengthened
and extended. Saisi at this time (July, 1915) was held
by Major O'Sullevan's Column of Rhodesian Mounted
Police, 470 all told. Some Belgian native troops were
also hastily thrown into the place. Outnumbering the
garrison five times over, the enemy drew a cordon round
the position, and opened a hot bombardment, firing
in more than 200 high explosive shells. This, com-
bined with successive attempts to rush the defences at
different points, chiefly in night attacks, went on for
six days and nights. The danger, however, lay not
so much in the German superiority in numbers and
artillery as in the shortage of supplies. So sudden had
been the irruption that no chance of sending in extra
stores had been allowed. The scanty rations had
therefore to be doled out with the utmost parsimony.

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And to lack of food was added shortage of water. For
its supply the camp depended partly upon wells,
partly upon a neighbouring small river. One of the
first steps of the besiegers, however, had been, by
employment of their superiority of force, to seize the
wells, and driving in the outposts of the defence on that
side, to picket the stream. All that could be done was
for men of the garrison to sally out by night, singly or
in twos and threes, and surprising or evading the
pickets, to fill the water bottles brought with them. It
was risky work. Nevertheless by this means the garrison
managed to carry on. In the meantime, efforts at
relief had been made by Belgian native troops, but had
failed to break through, and on the seventh day von
Wehle sent in a demand for surrender. It was em-
phatically refused. For four days longer the besiegers
hung on, and O'Sullevan and his men having eaten their
last carefully-husbanded biscuit, were face to face with
the prospect of being starved out, when, after indica-
tions and sounds of activity during the darkness, it was
found at daybreak that the Germans had decamped
and were on their way back to the frontier. They
themselves, it turned out, owing to the movement of
the relief forces round the outside of their lines, had
had their supplies cut off, and were in no better case
than the besieged. Their movement had been an
expensive failure, and they did not repeat it. For
his services in this affair Major O'Sullevan was made
a Companion of the D.S.O. Some idea of the labour
involved in moving up supplies and stores to this remote
region may be gathered from the fact that 20,000
native carriers had constantly to be employed.

Could von Lettow-Vorbeck have achieved, as he had
intended, the conquest and occupation of Uganda, he
would have been directly in touch with the Eastern
Soudan. Failing that, he had to depend upon com-
munication across the Victoria Nyanza, which line he
knew was precarious. All the same, while it remained
open, and notwithstanding the repulse of the German
invasion of Uganda, he took full advantage of it. The

98

EAST AFRICAN CAMPAIGN 1914-1916

effect speedily appeared in the attitude of Ali Dinar,
Sultan of Darfur. Ali Dinar had in 1898 been a prisoner
of the Mahdi, but escaping south after the battle of
Omdurman, and professing loyalty to the restored
British authority, had been confirmed on the throne
of Darfur subject to the payment of a nominal tribute.
His kingdom, covering 150,000 square miles, had a
population of about a million, and he had a native
standing army of, roundly, 10,000 men, for the most
part well armed. He was therefore a somewhat for-
midable potentate, and it was the more difficult to deal
with him in the event of his disaffection because his
capital, El Fasher, lies 950 miles to the south-west
of Khartoum, which is itself 500 miles from the nearest
point on the seaboard (Suakim) and more than 1,000
miles south of Cairo. From Khartoum a railway has
in recent years been laid to El Obeid, the capital of
Kardofan (435 miles), but to reach El Fasher from El
Obeid 400 miles of country had to be crossed on foot,
and in that distance there were two desert, and, save
for far-spaced oases, waterless belts, each 100 miles
wide.

Great, however, as were the obstacles presented by
these distances and conditions, they had to be faced,
since, seduced by German propagandists, and imbued
with the belief both that Germany was the Greatest
Power and the British Empire at the point of down-
fall, Ali Dinar had early in 1915 formally and openly
renounced his allegiance. This meant at once a very
serious movement in the Eastern Soudan, and a grave
threat to Uganda.

Accordingly, a British Column of some 2,000 men
was concentrated at Hahud in Kordofan, under the
command of Lieut.-Col. P. V. Kelly, 3rd Hussars, but
serving attached in the Egyptian army. The main
body of the force consisted of the 13th and 14th
Soudanese Infantry, the 4th Egyptian Infantry, and
a battalion of Arab riflemen. As a cavalry arm there
were five companies of the Camel Corps and two com-
panies of Mounted Infantry, as well as two batteries of

99 h 2

EAST AFRICAN CAMPAIGN 1914-1916

light guns, and a mule battery of maxims. Darfur
was invaded. The opposition immediately met with
was limited to encounters with the hostile cavalry,
who attempted to harass the transit. After a march
of two months, time being taken up by the necessity
of assuring communications, the British Column reached
Abiad. Scouts had brought in word that in the mean-
time the Sultan, calling in his provincial garrisons, had
massed his forces in the capital. For the British it
was one of those situations in which failure could not
be risked. A reverse at such a distance from railhead
meant annihilation. The practical problem was the
crossing of the sixty-eight miles of dry country between
Abiad and Meleit, the position from which the final
dash forward to El Fasher was to be made. The
problem was solved by a skilful manoeuvre. Col.
Kelly sent his camelry and mounted troops forward
to a point forty miles in advance, so that, his mobile
troops clearing the country, the rest of his Column
might negotiate this expanse by a rapid and uninter-
rupted march. Not only was that done, but it was
found out later that by the rounding up of enemy
observers and patrols, information of the advance upon
Meleit did not reach El Fasher until the British Column
had arrived.

The Sultan's best chance was thus lost. Neverthe-
less, Ali Dinar at once moved out to give battle, and
his presence was disclosed by the large parties of his
horsemen and camelry, who, as soon as the British
force struck camp at Meleit, hung on to it. The Sultan's
army was found drawn up behind the village of Beringia,
in a strong position, his left extending forward in a
semi-circle, his right wing " refused," and its flank
covered by a steep depression. The centre and left
were entrenched. These were capable dispositions,
and the task before Col. Kelly's force looked no easy
thing. The infantry were formed into a square, and
advanced in that order. Covering and screening the
advance, part of the British camelry penetrated into
Beringia, and some of them pushed through it, to a

100

EAST AFRICAN CAMPAIGN 1914-1916

ridge on the farther side. Here they came under a
concentrated hostile fire, and were compelled to retreat.
On the part of the enemy this seems to have been taken
as the beginning of a British defeat, for leaving their
trenches they forthwith dashed out in pursuit. The
British screen of mounted men then drew off, but dis-
closed the square. Ali Dinar's army charged down upon
it, attempting to enclose on three sides. And the assault
was desperate, for despite the fire of the machine-guns
and the withering volleys of the riflemen, some of the
enemy fell within ten yards. Nor was one repulse
enough. The attack was rallied, and after a brisk
fusillade again thrown forward. This time, however,
the ranks were seen to waver. Instantly the order was
given for counter-attack. With great steadiness the
troops formed into line and, the maxims keeping
pace with them, swept forward with notable dash.
The Sultan's army was driven in disorder from the field.
Just outside El Fasher there was another action — a
hostile night assault, but the back of the resistance had
been broken, and the capital was occupied without
further fighting. Ali Dinar, now a fugitive, fled to the
south-west. For some time he kept up a desultory
opposition, but finally, at Guiba, was surprised in his
camp at dawn. His body was found about a mile
from the camp. While striving to escape he had been
shot through the head.

101

CHAPTER VI

THE CAMPAIGN OF GENERAL SMUTS : FIRST PHASE

The situation in February, 1916 — Strength of German forces — The
German positions round Taveta — Reorganisation of the British
Divisions — Tighe's plan of a converging attack — Capture of
German defences at Mbuyuni and Serengeti — The water supply
problem — Reinforcements from South Airica — Dispositions of
General Smuts for the battle of Kilimanjaro — Stewart's turning
movement — Van Deventer breaks through German line — Capture
of Taveta — A rapid and sweeping victor y — German retreat upon
Latoma-Reata pass — Struggle for the defile — Germans iall back
upon Kahe — Importance of the position — Again won by turning
movement — Action in the Pangani Valley — German retreat to
Lembeni — The rainy season — Smuts re-groups his forces — His
new plans — Van Deventers seizure of Lokissale — German inten-
tions disclosed — Expedition of van Deventer to Kandoa Irangi —
Battle of Kandoa Irangi and defeat of von Lettow-Vorbeck — Its
influence on the Campaign — Smuts advances south from Kahe —
Germans squeezed out of Usambara highlands — Action at Mikots-
cheni — Capture of Handeni — Battle on the Lukigura river — Belgian
troops invade Ruanda — British attack and occupy Mwanza —
End of this phase of the campaign.

General Smuts, at the request of the British Govern-
ment at home, assumed command of the British forces
in East Africa on February 12, 1916, and embarking
at Capetown on the same day, reached the scene of
operations in British East Africa on February 19.
During the eighteen months which had now gone by
since the outbreak of the war, the situation had materi-
ally changed. Though the Germans still remained in
possession, so far undisputed, of the whole of their
territory, the change had been against them. Their
offensive enterprises north-west and south-west had
alike failed, and the inroad thus made into their resources
had brought no corresponding profit. They had lost,

102

THE CAMPAIGN OF GENERAL SMUTS

too, and this was even more important, the line of
communication along the Great Lakes. Definitely
von Lettow-Vorbeek, who had expected the war by this
time to be over, found himself placed upon the defensive,
and with the prospect, not only of an inroad from the
north, but of an attack across Tanganyika from the
Congo Free State, and an incursion, the preparations
for which were already in hand, from Rhodesia. His
forces had from casualties and sickness suffered serious
diminution, these losses amounting roughly to a third
of the total, but he had yet in the field some 14,000
native and 2,000 European troops, and he had, it was
reliably estimated, 60 guns and 80 machine-guns.
Since, also, the native element of his army were, in
fact, professional soldiers, they were by no means to
be despised. He could rely besides implicitly upon
their fidelity, for being detribalised, if the Germans
were beaten in the war these men must lose their all.

It was all round a serious situation. At the same
time, if von Lettow-Vorbeek could hold off the main
British attack from the north, there was the chance by
guerilla tactics of wearing out the others. And the
outlook on the north was from the German standpoint
not altogether gloomy. For eighteen months the
German forces had not only held Taveta, and defied
every effort to oust them, but they had established
and at this date occupied round that place a crescent
of strong and strongly fortified positions. Taveta
lies just below the south-eastern spur of Kilimanjaro,
and upon the little river Lumi, which rising high up
on the great mountain, falls in the first place into a
mountain lake or tarn called Chala, and then flows
southwards through Taveta until lost in Lake Yipe
some ten miles below the town. And through Taveta,
east to west, crossing the Lumi, run both the high road
and the branch railway from Voi (on the line to Mom-
basa), to Moschi. It was clear that so long as the
Germans held Taveta no British advance to the south
could take place. Taveta was the key position.

Why the Germans had held the place so long will be the

103

THE CAMPAIGN OF GENERAL SMUTS

more readily understood when it is added that they
had fortified themselves on the high ground round Lake
Chala, had seized, fortified, and connected up with the
Chala position a bold bluff called the Salaita, some
twenty miles to the east of Taveta and covering the
town on that side ; a position on and commanding the
Voi-Moschi railway, Serengeti, where they had con-
structed a fortified camp ; and a strong advanced post
at Mbuyuni, another four miles along the railway
to the east, and seventeen miles from Taveta. And
with this arc of positions they appeared secure, for
Lake Yipe, surrounded by high hills, being in the way,
an attack upon Taveta from the south was not practic-
able. From the west Taveta is overlooked by the
outlying foothills of Kilimanjaro. Between two of
these, Latema on the north, and Reata on the south,
there is a pass over which the road and railway to
Moschi are alike carried. The pass likewise had been
fortified, but to assail the Taveta position on that side
it was necessary to undertake a long detour across the
main mountain range. Thus posted, the Germans
during these eighteen months had not remained passive.
They had used their lines round Taveta as a base for
frequent raids and incursions, and near the coast, to
arrest any invasion in that quarter, had maintained a
considerable force on the river Umba.

On his side also, General Tighe had not been inactive.
He had reorganised the forces under his command into
two divisions. The 1st, under Major-General Stewart
(promoted for his services at Bukoba), was told off to
operate against the Longido position, held by the
Germans in order to bar a turning movement.
Stewart's base was the railhead of the branch line to
Lake Magadi. The 2nd Division, under Brigadier-
General Malleson, was to operate against Mbuyuni and
the Serengeti camp. Malleson carried the advanced
work on January 22, and captured the camp two days
later. The next intended stage was the seizure of
Salaita. For that purpose a strong concentration at
Mbuyuni was essential, but before it could be carried

104

FIRST PHASE

out the problem of water supply had to be taken in hand.
The country to the east of Taveta is arid. Of the
100,000 gallons needed day by day for troops and
transport, 40,000 had been obtained by laying a pipe-
line across the dry belt. The other 60,000 gallons a
day had to be brought up by rail, or by road in storage
tanks. With all these difficulties the engineers, under
the direction of Lieut.-Col. Collins, R.E., had success-
fully grappled, notwithstanding the German efforts to
destroy the reservoir which fed the pipe-line.

As for the general scheme of operations, assuming
the attack upon Salaita to prosper, the proposal of
General Tighe was an advance upon Taveta from the
Salaita hill in conjunction with Stewart's turning
movement across the mountains. It was hoped to
drive the enemy from Taveta upon Kahe to the south-
west, at which point the 2nd Division was to join up
with the 1st. The Germans ought by these combined
operations to be pushed coastwards towards Wilhelmstal.

Such was the position of the affairs when General
Smuts reached the front. He had been preceded by
an important reinforcement of South African troops,
both mounted and foot, and his South African Staff
included Generals Van Deventer and Beves, whose
conspicuous services in South-west Africa have already
been described. This accession of strength, of course,
made a most substantial difference.

From the general plan of his predecessor General
Smuts, on reviewing the situation, did not dissent, but
in order to bring in the South African troops he modified
it. Opposed to him there were, according to reliable
intelligence, 6,000 enemy riflemen with 16 field pieces
and 37 machine-guns. His decision was this : —

The 1st Division (Stewart) was to begin its movement
from Longido, with the Moschi road as its immediate
objective, on March 5.

On March 7, allowing Stewart two clear days' start,
the South Africans (Van Deventer) were, setting out
from Mbuyuni and Serengeti in the evening, to make
a night march round and to the north of the German

105

THE CAMPAIGN OF GENERAL SMUTS

lines, and attacking east of Lake Chala, were from that
point to strike to the west of Taveta across the Taveta-
Moschi road. By this manoeuvre a direct attack through
the thick bush between Salaita and Taveta could be
avoided. The South Africans of Van Deventer's force were
the 1st Mounted Brigade and the 3rd Infantry Brigade.

The 2nd Division (Tighe) was on the morning of March
8 to advance against Salaita, entrench on a line facing
the ridge, and make preparations for an assault, sup-
ported by the massed artillery of the whole British force.
By the time this demonstration was in progress,
Van Deventer in all probability would have debouched
to the west of Taveta.

Reserve (Beves) consisting of the 2nd South African
Infantry Brigade, with two batteries of guns (one
battery heavies) was to move up between Van Deventer
and the 2nd Division, and taking up a position astride
the Lumi, reinforce either as required.

By the 7th, Stewart's movement was well under way,
and he had covered the worst part of the road. Also
by six on the morning of the 8th, Van Deventer's force
had reached the Lumi. His mounted men rode round
by the north of the lake, while his infantry pushed east
of it. Not expecting an onset here, the enemy, too
thin successfully to resist, fell back upon Taveta. The
attack cut off a German contingent on the extreme
left of their line, and these troops, making for Taveta
along the Lumi, encountered the British Reserve. In
a sharp bush battle they were beaten off. Pushing on,
Van Deventer threw his Mounted Brigade astride the
Taveta-Moschi road. The result was the enemy's
speedy evacuation of Taveta. But this movement was
apparently, when heard of there, countermanded from
the German headquarters, and a large body of the
retreating troops were turned back. They found
themselves anticipated. Part of Van Deventer's
mounted brigade had already ridden in, and the outcome
was that the re'reat had to be renewed but with the
South Africans in hot pursuit. The Germans fell back
towards the Latema-Reata pass.

106

THE CAMPAIGN OF GENERAL SMUTS

In the meanwhile, Tighe had brought off his demon-
stration before Salaita, and the artillery had opened
upon the position. In due course, the infantry advanced
to the assault, but all they found to assault were empty
trenches. Hearing of the operation at Chala and of its
result, the enemy had decamped. The retirement had
been expected, and a body of mounted men had been
moved up from Taveta to bar the Salaita-Taveta road.
To avoid them, the enemy from Salaita struck across
country to the south-west. It was plain from these
events that the Germans had been thrown into con-
fusion. Not only had the whole of their carefully
elaborated line from Salaita to Chala fallen down like
a house of cards, but their force had been cut into two
parts. And what mattered most of all, they were on
the move. This striking triumph too had been gained
by Smuts with trifling casualties. Von Lettow-Vorbeck
must have realised that he had to deal with an opponent
who was his match in resources.

But he was not disposed yet to yield the honours.
To check a British advance from Taveta was vital.
If it could not be checked the campaign was as good as
lost. A rally therefore took place on the Latema-
Reata pass, and evidently orders had been issued to
hold there at all costs. Uncertain as to the line of retire-
ment the main body of the enemy had taken, General
Smuts decided to throw out feelers, and Malleson, with a
mixed force of South African, British, and Indian troops,
was ordered to push up the pass, and if possible seize it.

The first phase of the battle had been a succession of
sweeping and admirably co-ordinated movements ;
this second phase was by contrast obstinate and deadly.
Since to advance directly up the pass exposed to machine-
gun and rifle fire from both sides was out of the question,
Malleson determined upon the capture of the Latema
ridge, the higher of the two and dominating the road
and railway both on the ascent and descent. The sides
of this ridge are steep, and clothed with dense bush.
Amid the growth the enemy had posted machine-
gunners, and a battery of pom-poms was brought into

108

FIRST PHASE

action. The result was that Malleson's men could make
but little headway. The attack was now stiffened
from the Reserve, and Tighe, who had in the meantime
marched into Taveta with his Division, took on the
command, Malleson having fallen out ill. Tighe's
Rhodesians and King's African Rifles were added to
the reinforcement at the same time. The former pressed
gallantly up the ridge, and gained the summit. Most,
however, could not maintain their footing.

General Tighe, the battle having lasted all day, now
resorted to the manoeuvre of a night attack, or rather
an attack by moonlight. The idea was for two battalions
of South African infantry to advance in file covered by
the clumps of bush along each side of the main road.
This operation was led by Lieut.-Col. Byron, 5th South
African Infantry. It was met with a sweeping fire.
Byron fought his way up to the summit of the pass,
but by that time many of his battalion having lost
themselves, he had with him only twenty men. It
was the intention when the summit had been reached
for the force to wheel outward and push up on to the
spurs. Lieut.-Col. Freeth, 7th South African Infantry,
with one party of his own men went up the slope of the
Latema ridge ; Major Thompson, of the same corps,
up the Reata slope. The climb in each case was preci-
pitous. Freeth got to the top, and joined there the
Rhodesians and Africans who had held on. But though
the summit of the pass had been gained further pro-
gress was impossible, for the enemy's main position
was found to have been dug across it, and was defended
by a fierce crossfire. At one in the morning, after
moonset, the 130th Baluchis were ordered forward in
support. While moving up they met Byron coming
down. He told them he had directed a retirement.
The Indian troops therefore dug in.

Looking at these events, though the total British
losses in the action had not exceeded 270 men, a fact
attributed to the high and rank growth and the cover
afforded by it, General Smuts, convinced that evacuation
of the pass would be an assured result of Stewart's

109

THE CAMPAIGN OF GENERAL SMUTS

movement, decided upon a withdrawal, and it was
being carried out when the patrols sent to call in the
parties who had climbed the ridges found them in
undisputed possession. The enemy, whose losses,
judging by the abandoned and unburied dead found
on the ground, had been severe, was in full retreat.
He had seemingly already heard that the column from
Longido was menacing his rear. Stewart had found
his road barred by the destruction of bridges, but had
discovered another way out farther to the west, and
to the Germans' surprise and discomfiture had debouched
on to the road from Moschi. The Germans had conse-
quently to fall back upon Kahe.

General Smuts was now about to begin his drive
towards the south. As a preliminary Van Deventer
pushed on to Moschi, and apart from brushes of his
vanguard with parties of enemy riflemen, he entered
the place unopposed. Moschi, the centre of the British-
Dutch settlement round Kilimanjaro, is a town of some
importance, and about thirty miles within the German
boundary. Since it was both the terminus of the
railway from Tanga via Wilhelmstal, and the meeting
point of several main roads, it was a jumping-off position
of the highest value. At New Moschi, on the road to
the west, Stewart's Column joined up.

While his advance parties were reconnoitring the
positions taken up by von Lettow-Vorbeck's forces at
Kahe and along the Pangani (or Ruwu) river, the
British commander, with Moschi as his new base, at
once got to work upon preparations for his movement.
The chase, if it was to be effective, must be a long-
winded chase. Risk of breakdown could not be taken.
The road from Taveta to Moschi had to be repaired and
improved : transport overhauled and reorganised ;
supplies brought forward. Time was of consequence,
because it was of no slight moment to drive the enemy
across the Pangani before the coming of the rains.
Unless that were done, the task of dislodging him would
be difficult.

The key of the Pangani position was Kahe. Between

110

FIRST PHASE

Kilimanjaro and the Usambara plateau on the coast
there is, running north to south, a long rib of rising land
which at its highest point — the Pare Mountains — is
more than 2,000 feet above sea-level. To the east of
it lies the Umba valley and the dry country of Taveta ;
to the west, the Pangani valley. The main road from
Moschi to Tanga had been constructed along the west-
ward slope of this rib, and below the road in the valley,
following an almost parallel track, ran the railway.
Kahe, on the main road at the upper end of the Pangani
valley, occupied a hump jutting out from the ridge, and
terminating in a bold, and apparently isolated, summit.
The place was a natural fortress, and the enemy had
turned it to the best account. To attack it in the
ordinary way would have been a costly and uncertain
operation. In the attack, however, General Smuts
followed his characteristic South African tactics. There
was a frontal advance from Moschi initiated on the
18th under the command of General Sheppard with
the mounted troops of the 1st Division, supported by
mountain guns and some field pieces. The advance
was sharply resisted, and three battalions of the 2nd
South African Brigade were detailed to stiffen it. On
the 18th and 19th this action went on, and to all
appearances the attack made very little impression.
But on March 20, the enemy being thus busily occupied,
and probably pluming himself on his defence, Van
Deventer moved out of Moschi with the 1st South
African Mounted Brigade, the 4th South African Horse,
and two batteries of guns ; struck south-west, wheeled
to the east ; crossed the river ; and while the enemy
was busy with a night attack upon Sheppard's camp
got astride the railway and the road. Then, moving
up the valley, he boldly made for Kahe hill, driving in
the rear and flank guards opposed to him. By this
time, however, the enemy had taken the alarm, and
Kahe had been hastily evacuated. Thus by skilful
manoeuvring the Germans had in rapid succession been
squeezed out of two important and naturally strong
positions.

Ill

THE CAMPAIGN OF GENERAL SMUTS

Here appeared a counter-stratagem on the part of the
German general which more than once turned up in
the course of the campaign. It might have been
supposed that his force would have fallen back towards
the east across the rise, or moved along it towards
the south. Either of those moves, however, would
have entrapped them. What they in fact did was to
strike to the west, slipping out through the gap be-
tween Van Deventer's force and that of Sheppard.
To cover this movement and give their main body a
better start, they sent back a contingent ostensibly to
retake Kahe, as though its abandonment had been a
mistake.

Farther down the Pangani valley they took up a strong
position between the Soko Nassai and Defu rivers,
two of the Pangani's tributaries. Those streams
covered the enemy's flanks. Along the front of his
line there was a clearing in the bush varying in breadth
from 600 to 1,200 yards. To attack him at close
quarters this space had to be crossed. But as his forces
were hidden in the high thick undergrowth on the
farther side, the crossing was a ticklish proposition.
Moving out on March 21 to clear the valley, Sheppard
was brought up against this obstruction. His plan
was to turn the right of the German line. It was
found, however, that the bush there was too dense to
traverse, and with the exception of two companies of
the 129th Baluchis who crossed the Soko Nassai, the
troops told off for this part of the work never got into
the fight at all. In the circumstances a frontal attack
was essayed. The effort was gallantly made, and it
was well supported by the artillery, but it failed. Proofs
were afterwards forthcoming that the enemy's losses
had been severe, but those on the British side were
288, more than in the fight for the Latema-Reata pass.
That night Sheppard's men dug in. At dawn it was
intended to renew the assault, and patrols stole forward
to reconnoitre. They found the German lines and
trenches deserted. In the night von Lettow-Vorbeck
had crossed the Pangani moving towards Lembeni.

112

FIRST PHASE

Of two 4.1 -inch naval guns he had used in the battle, one
mounted on a railway truck manoeuvred up and down the
line, and the other in a fixed position, the latter had
been left behind. It was evident from this action that
European tactics were little suited to operations in a
country where the wild growth is six to ten feet in
height. At the same time, the important work of
driving the enemy across the Pangani had been rapidly
accomplished, and the price paid cannot be considered
high. A chain of British posts was established along
the river, and the preparations pushed on for continuing
the campaign.

April and May are in this part of Africa the rainy
months, and in this season of 1916 the rains happened
to be above the average heavy. They are heaviest in
any season in the mountain area round Kilimanjaro.
For nearly six weeks, once the weather broke, the down-
pour continued day after day, the fall within twenty-four
hours sometimes equalling four inches. When that
occurs the country is flooded out ; roads waist deep in
water ; the rivers and streams roaring and impassable
torrents.

Under these conditions nothing could be done. All
the same, General Smuts wasted no time. His force
was increased by the 2nd South African Mounted Bri-
gade, and he now took advantage of the rainy interval
to reorganise. As he has himself stated, he was in
command of a most heterogeneous army, got together
from all quarters, contingent by contingent, and speaking
a Babel of languages. By comparison, the enemy
troops, though fewer in number, presented a unity alike
in composition and in training. To tighten up the
structure of the British field force was not merely
advisable ; it was essential. In the meantime, too,
there had arrived from Capetown Generals Brits, Manie
Botha, and Berrange. With those experienced officers
also at his disposition, the Commander-in-Chief was able to
form a striking force of three divisions, consisting in
part of South Africans, mounted and foot, in part of native
regiments recruited in British East Africa. These

118 I

THE CAMPAIGN OF GENERAL SMUTS

troops were the most acclimatised. None others, it was
clear, could long stand the strain of swift campaigning
in such a region. Accordingly, the British and Indian
units were held in reserve. They had already gone
through more than a year of the war, some a year and
a half. The climate of East Africa exacts a heavier toll
than battles. As re-shaped, the new divisions of
manoeuvre were : —

1st Division (Major-General A. R. Hoskins) comprising
the 1st East African Brigade (Sheppard) and the 2nd
East African Brigade (Brigadier-General J. A. Hannyng-
ton).

2nd Division (Van Deventer) comprising the 1st
South African Mounted Brigade (Manie Botha), and the
3rd South African Infantry Brigade (Berrange).

3rd Division (Brits) comprising the 2nd South African
Mounted Brigade (Brigadier-General B. Enslin), and
the 2nd South African Infantry Brigade (Beves).

The main body of the enemy had by this time fallen
back south upon and were passing the wet season in the
Pare Mountains, and that fact had a certain influence
on the decision of General Smuts as to the strategy to be
followed. The German recruiting ground lay west of
the main mountain range, for in other parts of the
colony the natives were at best passively hostile, and
von Lettow-Vorbeck drew the larger part of his supplies
from the same inland area, through Tabora, a place
west of the mountains and on the Dar-es-Salem — Ujiji
railway. If, then, the German commander, while
keeping open his communications with Tabora, could
retain his hold on the Pare Mountains and the Usambara
plateau, a most difficult triangle of country, he had a
chance of carrying on the campaign in a manner calcu-
lated at once to conserve his own resources and to waste
those of the attack. Further, if to cripple him the
British detached any considerable force to seize Tabora,
moving it up to Kisumu, and across the Victoria Nyanza,
to avoid the mountain barrier, he had the reply of a
threat against Mombasa.

General Smuts inferred that the retreat of the hostile

114

FIRST PHASE

main body upon the Pare range had been made with
these ideas in view. Weighing, therefore, and rejecting
possible alternatives, he decided first to strike at the
Tabora line of communication directly across country
from Moschi. That move on his part, he had no doubt,
would have the effect of detaching a strong contingent
from the German main force, and, assuming that it had,
he could then, with very slight risk, thrust south along
the lower course of the Pangani, cut in between the two
enemy bodies, and either isolate those on the Usambara
heights or squeeze them out. It was a simple, bold,
and practicable plan, and at the earliest moment
after the rains, and on the first indication that the
country was again becoming traversable, he put it into
execution.

Before the wet season Arusha, seventy miles west of
Moschi, had fallen into his hands, and Van Deventer
with the 2nd Division was now there. The Germans
had at the beginning of April a force at Lokissale, thirty-
five miles south-west of Arusha. Their position com-
manding the road into the centre of the colony from
Arusha was a mountain nearly 7,000 feet high, and it was
important, because on it were the only springs of water
in the area. The road from Arusha here runs with the
mountains on one side, and the Masai tableland on the
other, and it is a lonely upland region. Likely enough,
the Germans at Lokissale did not think they would be
disturbed until after the rains, but on the evening of
April 3, Van Deventer, with three regiments of his
mounted men, dashed out of Arusha, and, after a night
ride, was next morning before the enemy stronghold.
Covered by the mists, he surrounded it. The Germans
and their auxiliaries resisted with determination, for the
position was vital. All that day and the next they held
out. On the 6th, however, the whole force, 17 white
and 404 askari combatants, with their commander,
Kaempf, laid down their arms. Their stores, ammuni-
tion, pack animals and machine-guns fell into Van
Deventer's hands, and a body of native porters and camp
followers were obtained at the same time.

115 I 2

THE CAMPAIGN OF GENERAL SMUTS

But not less valuable than the captures was the infor-
mation gleaned from Kaempf's papers. It was learned
that von Lettow-Vorbeck, in order to close this route,
was taking steps to reinforce his garrisons at Ufiome,
Kandoa Irangi, and other places on the western edge of
the Masai steppe, and that meanwhile these garrisons
had received orders, which were also the orders of
Kaempf, to hold out, if attacked, as long as possible.
This information at once confirmed the British Com-
mander-in-Chief's inference, and his instant resolution
was to seize Ufiome, Umbulu, and Kandoa Irangi before
the enemy could reinforce. On April 7, accordingly,
Van Deventer pushed on to the first of these three places.
The enemy, 20 whites and 200 askaris, were found
occupying a ridge. They were defeated and driven
west into the mountains. All the supplies at Ufiome,
and they were large, were secured. In the interim the
infantry of Van Deventer's Division had been following
up, and a contingent took over the captured position.
Some slight delay now arose owing to the exhaustion
of the horses, but the move was as soon as possible
resumed, and on April 11 Umbulu was taken. At
Kandoa Irangi, one of the most important road centres
in the colony, the Germans had a powerful wireless
installation. On the approach of Van Deventer's
mounted men, on April 17, the garrison, a considerable
force, came out into the open and advanced four miles
to the north. The fight went on for two days. By the
end of that time Van Deventer had so manoeuvred as to
thrust part of his force between the defence lines and the
town, and having edged the garrison out of it and beaten
them, he took it without further opposition. The cap-
tures here included 800 head of cattle.

How remarkable a feat this dash was may be inferred
from the fact that Kandoa Irangi is distant from Arusha
120 miles, and the daring of the move may be gathered
from the further fact that, owing to the rains, Van
Deventer and his men were for several weeks entirely
cut off from communication with Moschi, and had to
live on supplies collected on the spot, supplemented by

116

FIRST PHASE

such provisions as could be carried across the country
from Arusha by native porters.

On the campaign, however, the move had an influence
beyond estimate. No sooner had the news of it reached
him than von Lettow-Vorbeck, realising what it implied,
hurried from Usambara at the head of 4,000 men. He
had already, in the defeat and dispersal of his garrisons,
had his total strength lessened by some 2,000 combatants.
Rain or no rain therefore, partly by road, partly by
railway, he pressed on, collecting another 1,000 men en
route. From Kilimatinde, the nearest point on the central
railway, Kandoa Irangi is distant about eighty miles.
That final lap was covered by rapid marches, and on
May 7 he arrived. Whether he still hoped to find
Kandoa Irangi holding out is uncertain, but what is
quite certain is that he had resolved to attack before
Van Deventer's Division could be reinforced, and inflict
a crushing defeat upon it. Owing to sickness and
fatigue, the South African commander could not now
muster more than 3,000 effectives fit for duty. In the
circumstances, and looking at his isolated position, he
stood upon the defensive. Von Lettow-Vorbeck gave his
own troops, twenty-five double companies, two days' rest.
Then he attacked, and the attack was desperate. Four
times the askaris, urged on by their German officers,
stormed up to the South African trenches, and four
times they were beaten off. The enemy's bravery was
almost fanatical. But against the shooting of the de-
fending force it was of no avail. While by no means
indifferent shots, for their German instructors had taken
every pains to make them efficient, the askaris were not
a match for troops who, as marksmen, have no superiors
in the world. Their losses, which were heavy, included
von Kornatsky, a battalion commander, killed, and
another battalion commander, von Bock, wounded.
Nothing could better indicate the character of this
struggle. The battle continued all day and far into the
night. In the early hours of the morning, and well
before daybreak, von Lettow-Vorbeck and his shattered
force withdrew. His next move was to try to starve

117

THE CAMPAIGN OF GENERAL SMUTS

Van Deventer out by ranging, before the heaviest rains
came on, over the surrounding country, one of the most
fertile and healthy parts of East Africa. That procedure,
however, did not succeed, and before long he had serious
events elsewhere to claim his attention.

The moment he had news of the enemy's defeat at
Kandoa Irangi, General Smuts hurried forward the
movement which on his side was to form its sequel.
There was the possibility that von Lettow-Vorbeck might,
to save time, march back to Handeni, across the Masai
steppe by the old caravan route, and if the intended
British movement down the Pangani were thus fore-
stalled it would find itself confronted by the reunited
German main body. To cross the steppe to Handeni
is, for infantry, a twelve days' march. It was imperative,
therefore, that the British divisions at Kahe should move
out on the earliest date on which transport became
feasible. The rains continued to fall until nearly the
middle of May, but as usual towards the end of the wet
season, they became lighter, and by degrees the sun re-
asserted its power. From Kahe to Handeni is, roughly,
the same distance as from Kandoa Irangi, but the British
forces had by far the more difficult stretch of country
to negotiate. Besides, there were still in the Pare and
Usambara area enough enemy troops to put up a serious
delaying opposition. Everything, then, turned upon
the length of time at the start.

The advance began on May 18. The main column
(Sheppard and Beves) followed the road from Kahe
southwards. With it was most of the artillery and the
transport. Slightly to the rear of its leading formation
marched, on the parallel route along the railway, a
smaller flanking column (Hannyngton). A second
flanking column (Col. T. O. Fitzgerald) set out from
Mbuyuni, and crossing the ridge south of Kilimanjaro
by the Ngulu pass, joined the main column at the Pare
Mountains. The main column thus went forward
covered on both flanks, a disposition which contributed
to rapid movement. General Smuts was himself in
command, Hoskins assisting.

118

FIRST PHASE

The enemy had taken up a position at Lembeni,
chosen because at that point the railway runs close under
the hills. But General Smuts had no intention of wasting
time and men in a frontal attack upon fortified lines,
much less upon lines affording every advantage to the
defence and none to the assault. He was aware that
even should Fitzgerald's movement not have the effect
of compelling an evacuation, the movement of Ilannyng-
ton, who had turned off and was moving down the
Pangani west of the railway, assuredly would. And
the calculation proved exact. The enemy, finding that
his retreat was threatened, abandoned Lembeni without
waiting for the firing of a shot. To cut him off from the
TJsambara plateau, Hannyngton was sent across the
hills with orders to double back through the Gonja
Gap, a broad defile dividing off the Pare Mountains
from the plateau. This move entirely succeeded.
Hannyngton reached the Gap — it was a fine marching
feat — and seized the bridge over the Mkomasi river,
barring hostile retirement in that direction.

The Gap closed, the German force, headed off the
TJsambara plateau, had no choice save to go on falling
back down the Pangani valley, and their next stand was
at Mikotscheni, a position very like that at Lembeni.
On this occasion they waited for a fight, and the frontal
assault they had expected was duly delivered by the
2nd Rhodesians. Is it necessary to add that it was not
the real thing ? The real thing was a movement by
Sheppard's Brigade. Turning to the left a slight way
up the Gonja Gap, the Brigade swarmed up on to and
carried the bluff overlooking and commanding the
enemy's lines. To have retired now would have been
disastrous, and rather shrewdly the German commander
fought on, though outflanked, until past nightfall. Then
as quietly as possible, he moved once more. The move
was to Mombo station, connected with Handeni by a
trolley line. Along this line the enemy marched to
Mkalamo, where they entrenched.

So far they had been unmercifully hustled, for the
distance from Lembeni to Handeni is a good hundred

119

THE CAMPAIGN OF GENERAL SMUTS

miles, and it had had to be covered in little more than a
week, the fight at Mikotscheni included. In fact, in ten
days the British force had advanced 130 miles, and that,
too, in face of opposition and over a country which,
with the exception of the route along the Pangani, was
roadless. In bridge building and bridge repairing the
engineers surpassed themselves.

Handeni, when reconnoitred, was found to be strongly
fortified. Upon that position, after a sharp action in
which they had been driven from their entrenchments
at Mkalami by the 1st East African Brigade and had
suffered serious loss, the enemy force had concentrated.
In the meantime, having occupied Wilhelmstal and
secured that place, Hannyngton had marched south
through Mombo. His arrival made it practicable to
detach Sheppard's Brigade for a characteristic manoeuvre.
On the east side, that is, between the plateau and the
coastal belt, the Masai steppe is fringed by mountains
just as it is on the west. The light railway from Mombo
to Handeni ran along the inner, or highland side of the
hills, and the Handeni position was close to and com-
manded a gorge through which flows seaward the
Msangasi river. The Handeni position itself was a bold,
and nearly isolated bluff, over 2,000 feet high. Its
slopes had been scored into tiers of trenches. Here,
therefore, the enemy not only obstructed the way south,
but was safe against any attempt to turn him by a move-
ment along and from the coast. But that was not the
British commander's intention. What he did was to
send Sheppard to the west. Crossing the Msangasi
higher up, Sheppard struck south, and next day was at
Pongwe, on the German line of retreat. A strong detach-
ment with quick-firing guns were found holding the
place. Sheppard attacked, drove them out, and scat-
tered them through the bush, where one of their pom-
poms, left behind, was picked up. This done, he
doubled back towards Handeni. The hostile force
there had, however, already evacuated the stronghold.
They had split up, some retreating through the gorge,
some across the hills, the rest westward over the plateau.

120

FIRST PHASE

As it was certain that they meant to reassemble
farther to the south, Fitzgerald with the 5th South
Africans was sent in pursuit by way of Pongwe. He
was to occupy Kangata, eight miles beyond that place.
And at Kangata he butted into the new concentration.
It had taken place there because Kangata was at the
northern end of a main road which the Germans had
recently constructed from Morogoro on their Central
Railway. This road, though still unfinished, had been
completed for eighty miles to the north from Morogoro,
cutting transversely across the Nguru mountains.
Round Kangata the bush is thick, and the enemy was
entirely hidden in it, and but for the vigilance of the
South African scouting Fitzgerald would have been
ambushed. Greatly outnumbered, he lost heavily, but
the effort to drive him off proved futile, and he held on
until the main British Column came up.

The next obstacle was the Lukigura river. There the
enemy held the bridge on which the new road had been
carried over the stream, and as the Lukigura is rapid,
tumbling seaward from the steppe through the moun-
tains, and between precipitous banks, this was again
a tough little problem. Round the north end of the
bridge there was laid out an arc of defences. General
Smuts, however, had again thought out his turning
tactics. In the night Hoskins set out with two battalions
of South Africans, and a composite battalion made up
of Kashmiri Imperial Service Infantry, and companies
of the 25th Royal Fusiliers, and a body of mounted
scouts ; followed the course of the Lukigura upstream ;
found a crossing ; passed over ; and was next morning,
after a rough march through the hills, on the new road
to the rear of the hostile position. Preconcerted signals
having shown that the manoeuvre had been brought off,
Sheppard with both East African Brigades began a
frontal attack, and it was in progress when Hoskins
debouched on the enemy's rear. The enemy was now
surrounded on three sides, and but for the bluffs, densely
overgrown with scrub, would have been surrounded
altogether. He no longer stood on ceremony, but break-

121

THE CAMPAIGN OF GENERAL SMUTS

ing up, his now usual resource when in a tight place, made
his way in parties through the jungle of grass and giant
weeds. Much of his ammunition, and machine-gun and
other equipment had, however, to be left behind, and a
good proportion of his force was captured.

In every sense the drive south from Kahe had been
extraordinary, and the more it is studied in detail the
more remarkable it appears. There were not only the
actual difficulties of such an advance in such a country ;
there was the necessity of dealing with guerilla tactics
in the rear. When the Germans found that direct
effective resistance was out of the question, they laid
themselves out to hamper the transit of supplies, re-
mounts, and munitions. Bands of snipers infested the
country, and skirmishes with convoys were of daily
occurrence. All this had to be systematically dealt with
and put down, and apparently innocent non-combatants
of German nationality rounded up. On the coast, from
Tanga as far south as Bagamoyo, the occupation of the
ports was effected by landing parties from the ships of
the blockading squadron. Meanwhile, in view of the
distance to Moschi, the Lukigura represented for the
present the limit of the advance. Th. problem of supply
had been stretched to its utmost. The advanced base
must be moved from Moschi farther to the south and
the line of communication thoroughly secured. So far
indeed had the supply problem been stretched, added
to guerilla obstruction, that on the march from the
Pangani the troops had lived upon half-rations. Not
infrequently, also, they had had to face shortage of
water. All this was wearing, and the percentage of
sickness had become high. Had it not been for the
wise prevision which had reserved ample force to deal
with irregular attacks in the rear, the movement would
have been held up. In any event, the time had come
before going farther to reorganise, rest, and refit. Hence
just south of the Lukigura, General Smuts laid out a
standing camp sufficient for his whole force, and pro-
ceeded to overhaul his arrangements.

During the advance from Kahe, and belonging to this

122

FIRST PHASE

phase of the campaign, there had taken place, in the
north-west, the invasion of Ruanda by Belgian forces
from the Congo Free State, and the capture by the
British of Mwanza, the German base in that area,
where there had been erected another powerful wireless
apparatus. In this region east and west of the Victoria
Nyanza, co-operating with the Uganda units, Lieut. -Col.
D. R. Adye had under his command a Lake Detachment,
four battalions of native regulars, and auxiliaries. For
some months his Detachment could act only upon the
defensive, but when the Belgian Column of General
Tombeur crossed the frontier of Ruanda, and moved
upon the capital Kigali, the most effective British sup-
port became a co-ordinated attack. The first objective
was Ukerewe Island, about fifty miles in length, near the
south end of the lake. Its capture was important
because from it, by way of Tabora, the Germans chiefly
drew the supply of rice forming the staple ration of their
askaris. Adye's force, transported by the British naval
flotilla under Commander Thornley, R.N., landed by
surprise and took the German garrison prisoners. After
that stroke the way was open for a move against Mwanza.
Under General Sir Charles Crewe, who had been mean-
while sent by General Smuts to take over the Lake
command, the British troops there were formed into an
Expeditionary Force, mustering some 1,800 rifles. Crewe
to begin with occupied Bukoba, to check a hostile move-
ment from that side. Mwanza, at the extreme south end
of the Victoria Nyanza, lies on the eastern shore of a
great inlet, and on the western side of a hilly promontory.
Assembling his main body on Ukerewe Island, General
Crewe embarked them and crossed to the Mwanza
peninsula by night, threw part of his force ashore at
Kongoro, on its eastern side, and another part at its
northern end. The two columns converged upon the
town, and the need for these precautions was that
Mwanza, the base of their operations in all this north-
western tract, had been converted by the Germans into
a fortress. It was now held by 500 askaris under
German officers. After a four days' blockade the

123

THE CAMPAIGN OF GENERAL SMUTS

British got in. The Germans in the place took to the
ships in the harbour, and on two of these, the armed
steamer Mwanza, and Heinrich Otto, together with a
steam pinnace Schwaben, made a dash up the gulf
inland. At the same time the natives of the garrison
broke out along the Tabora road, and in the running
fight which followed many got away. Abandoned
steamers and lighters, and a great quantity of stores,
baggage, and ammunition, were among the captures,
but much more significant was the uprooting of German
power in this part of the country, and the acquisition
of a new and valuable base for an advance upon Tabora.

124

CHAPTER VII

EAST AFRICAN CAMPAIGN : THE CLOSING PHASES

Fighting value of German forces — Enemy concentration in Nguru
mountains — Van Deventer'a dash from Kandoa Irangi — Action at
Tschenene — Railway from Tabora cut — Northey's advance from
Rhodesia/ — Belgians take Ujiji and Kilgoma — Operations of Smuta
in the Nguru mountains — Battle at Matamondo — Germans fall
back towards Morogoro — Battle at Dakava — Enemy's preparations
in the Uluguru mountains — Review of the situation — Van Deven-
ter's march to Kilossa — Plana to entrap enemy in Uluguru area —
Reasons for their failure — British check at Kissaki — Exhaustion
of the combatants — Germans fall back towards Mahenge — Capture
of Dar-es-Salem — Belgians take Tabora — Northey's advance —
Actions at New Iringa and on the Ruhuje — Germans attack
Lupembe — Surrender of German force at Itembule — End of the
second phase of General Smuts's campaign — Further reorganisation
of his force — Increase of black troops — The new British dispositions
— Von Lettow-Vorbeck's counter-plan — Germans attack Malan-
gali — Their defeat at Lupembe — British operations at Kilwa —
Battle at Kibata — New plan for enclosing movement — Tactical
disguises — Battle at Dutumi — Crossing of Rufigi seized — Opera-
tions on the Rufigi — Smuts relinquishes the command — German
food difficulties — Van Deventer succeeds Hoskins — Van Deventer'a
strategy — Von Lettow-Vorbeck forced to fight — Battle at Naron-
gombe — Mahungo captured — Battle on the Lukulede — Heavy
German losses — Germans defeated at Mahenge — Surrender of
Tafel's Column — End of the Campaign.

The second phase of the campaign of General Smuts
opened towards the end of June, 1916. In this far-
extended struggle in East Africa and in the interior,
difficulties arising from transport, and it is by transport
that civilised armies live, were enormous. At the same
time, the character of the German forces and their
leadership must not be lost sight of. That these troops
were, with the exception of their European officers,
black, implied no military inferiority. They were, in

125

EAST AFRICAN CAMPAIGN

view of their training, a body of first class fighting men,
imbued with a professional and caste spirit, and, as
already pointed out, devoted to their service body and
soul. The fact that they were natives was indeed an
advantage. Inured to the climate, they were able to
face long and fatiguing marches on very simple, often
scanty, fare. In equipment, again, they lacked nothing,
and so long as the German administration in East
Africa had credit or authority, and retained control of
the area west of the greater mountains, enrolment of
recruits could be depended upon to fill gaps left by
casualties.

In the opening phase of this campaign von Lettow-
Vorbeck, beaten in his attempt to retake Kandoa Irangi,
had not only lost his hold on the Usambara highlands,
but had observed the British main force advancing
irresistibly to the south until on the Lukigura it occupied
a position threatening his flank on that side. Smuts
was now not more than seventy miles from Morogoro
and the Central Railway, and von Lettow-Vorbeck in
the area of Kandoa Irangi was not only as far off the
line himself, but actually farther to the north. Had
he won in the battle at Kandoa Irangi he could, of course,
have crossed the Masai steppe and thrown himself upon
the flank of the British column, but to do that with a
victorious opponent, Van Deventer, in his rear, was not
to be thought of. He would find himself cut off from
the south of the colony, where he had his chief remaining
depots of ammunition and stores, and cut off, too from
the west and from the railway and deprived therefore
of his main means of supply.

The situation was one that might well have given rise
to hesitation, and it had developed with startling
rapidity. When, however, Smuts had reached and
passed the Lukigura, hesitation was no longer possible.
Van Deventer notwithstanding, the further advance of
the British main column had to be barred. The German
commander accordingly, leaving a rearguard to watch
and oppose Van Deventer, moved his force across
country by forced marches, and threw himself into the

126

THE CLOSING PHASES

Nguru mountains. He there rejoined the remnant of
his troops who from Lembeni had been righting an
almost unbroken succession of rearguard actions. Their
strength had been heavily reduced, and not least by the
last and disastrous attempted stand upon the Lukigura.
On the other hand, the Nguru mountains form a very
rugged knot of country, and von Lettow-Vorbeck had
there not merely a good road behind him, but was
within easy distance of the railway, and in touch with
his bases in the south. In the circumstances it was the
best move he could have made.

Because it was that General Smuts had foreseen its
probability and was ready fc- it. While his own force
was being reorganised and recuperated, he had been in
communication with Van Deventer, and as soon as
evidence appeared of the enemy concentration in the
Nguru area Van Deventer, re-equipped, was again on
the move. A detachment of his Division (under the
command of Lieut. -Col. A. T. Taylor) moved west to
and captured Ssingidia. Another detachment (under
the command of Lieut. -Col. II. J. Fitzpatrick) struck
south-west to Saranda on the Central Railway. There
was opposition on the way at Mpondi, but Fitzpatrick
in a dashing attack swept it aside. Van Deventer's
main body at the same time moved south, its destination
the town of Dodoma, also on the railway, but 100 miles
east of Saranda. At Tschenene on the route the enemy
had a well-fortified position, wired in, and covered by
the well-known devices. To Van Deventer's equipment,
however, there had now been added a battery of ar-
moured motors, and they helped materially to make
short work of the defence and defenders. Working up
to and along the hostile line, they machine-gunned the
occupants of the trenches at short range. From this
point, to anticipate the moving up of enemy troops to
Dodoma, Berrange was sent on ahead with two battalions
of infantry, a motor cycle corps, and a strong detach-
ment of mounted scouts. He was in Dodoma four days
later (July 29). By this prompt seizure of the railway
one of the chief advantages of von Lettow-Vorbeck's

127

EAST AFRICAN CAMPAIGN

move into the Nguru district was nullified. The move
of Van Deventer besides was a necessary aid to the
operations now developing against Tabora. In the
west, Belgian troops transported across Tanganyika had
taken both Ujiji and Kilgoma, and in the south-west
General Northey, at the head of the Expeditionary
Force from Rhodesia, had both driven the Germans out
of Bi marckburg, and New Langenburg, and pushed
them 150 miles into the interior.

Northey's force was made up of the 1st and 2nd South
African Rifles; the British South Africa Police; the
Northern Rhodesia Police, natives under white com-
missioned officers ; and the 1st King's African Rifles.
Arriving at Karonga from the Cape in February, 1916,
General Northey had until the middle of May been hard
at work setting on foot the organisation for an offensive
and forward movement. His difficulties were not light.
Supplies, munitions and stores had to be brought up either
from the Cape to railhead in Rhodesia, 600 miles from
the German boundary, or up the Zambesi, and then over-
land to Lake Nyassa. From Chinde on the Zambesi to the
Karonga the distance was 700 miles. Besides the com-
batants more than 20,000 native carriers had to be pro-
vided for. The country, too, over which prospective
operations werejjto be carried on — the South-Western area
of German East Africa — was crossed by lofty mountains,
between them now desolate and depopulated valleys
covered by dense tropical bush. And save for native
tracks, some of them over passes 8,000 feet above sea
level, it was without roads. Hardly is it possible to
imagine a more formidable wilderness. This had been the
scene of the long drawn out native struggle against German
rule, and its solitudes still testified to the desperation on
the one side, and mercilessness on the other. But of the
solid work of General Northey the convincing proof is
that during the many months of this campaign his
troops never once found themselves short of supplies.

As soon as the further move on the part of Van
Deventer had been carried out, and the enemy's main
supply line from the west cut, General Smuts, at the

128

THE CLOSING PHASES

beginning of August, 1916, struck his camp at Msiha,
south of the Lukigura, and proceeded to deal with the
hostile concentration confronting him. His road lay in
the first instance over a pass through the hills which
divide the valley of the Lukigura from that of the
Mdonga. The latter river cuts the block of mountains
into two parts. To the east is the Kanga mountain
and a tumble of foothills ; to the west the main mass of
the Nguru range. Across the pass to the south-west,
and then along the valley of the Mdonga to the south,
the new road to Morogoro had been constructed. The
enemy, of course, had obstructed the pass, and to force
it by direct attack would have been tedious and costly.
But there is a break in the main chain to the north-west
by way of Kimbe, and this defile led to the valley of the
Kisseru, a tributary of the Mdonga. Following the
rough track along the Kisseru a movement might be
made which would come out into the Mdonga valley
at Mhonda mission station, and so get astride of the
German line of retreat. General Smuts seized upon this
opening. Informed that the mountain tracks were
practicable for wheeled transport, his plan was to send
the division of Brits round by Kimbe to Mhonda, the
Mounted Brigade of Enslin leading, and Beves's Infantry
Brigade in support. On the other (left) wing to the
east, the brigade of Sheppard, while part of his force
feinted, to begin with, at the enemy defences of the
pass, was to work round bjr Mount Kanga, cross the
foothills, and strike the Mdonga valley nearly opposite
to Mhonda. Hannyngton, in the centre, was to move
out of Msiha camp and work up the pass along the
foothills. It was a well-planned scheme, and assuming
that it was carried out as designed, von Lettow-Vorbeck
would find the main British force massed on his right
flank and in his rear, and his own troops pinned against
the Nguru mountains.

But it happened that the scheme was not carried out
as designed. Enslin, on reaching the valley of the
Kisseru, sent back word that the tracks to Mhonda were
not practicable for wheeled transport. The Brigade of

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EAST AFRICAN CAMPAIGN

Beves was therefore diverted to Mahasi, at the lower or
south-western outlet of the pass, and Enslin not only
pushed on to Mhonda without infantry support, but
with only two out of his three mounted corps. The
third, losing its way in the hills, followed the track of the
infantry brigade to Mahasi. Further, Sheppard's men
also were delayed owing to difficulties in cutting through
the bush. The result of all this was that the enemy,
falling back before Hannyngton, on discovering the
danger in the rear, encountered on endeavouring to
debouch from the pass the troops of Beves, and at
Matamondo, with the force of Beves in front and that
of Hannyngton on the rear, was brought to action. The
fight lasted two days (August 10 and 11) and the troops
of von Lettow-Vorbeck were severely handled. Never-
theless he managed in the end to break out. At Mhonda
he came across the two corps of Enslin's brigade holding
positions across the main road. Here, being in superior
strength, he attacked and with resolution, for he was in a
hurry. Enslin held on, but was not strong enough to bar
the exit. Badly damaged therefore though they were,
the German force contrived once more to get away.

In the meantime (August 11), Sheppard had reached
the point at which he was to touch the route, the Rus-
songo river. By that time, however, the quarry had
flown. South of Mhonda there is a junction of roads
and the routes run to Morogoro due south, and to
Kilossa south-west. At this junction, alike to confuse
the pursuit and speed up the retreat, the German troops
divided, the smaller body making for Kilossa, the larger
for Morogoro. Hannyngton now moved in pursuit to
Kilossa, and Sheppard again to the left, while Enslin
followed up along the main route. The latter at Dakava
crosses the Wami, and as the Wami is both wide and
deep there was here a large modern bridge. The
British intention was, if possible, to seize this crossing.
Sheppard, having those orders, struck the Wami lower
down at Kipera, and in time to prevent the destruction
of a light footbridge at that place ; crossed with his
brigade to the south bank, and pushed westward for

130

(T) British Camp

(2) Enemy defences across the pass
(S) Route of Britz's Column

(4) Route of Shepherds Column
(5) Direction of ffanyogtoris attack
~ -, Roads

SCALE
20 30

COPYRIGHT

GE06RAPHI A LTP 55 FLEET STREET LQNQON £C4.
K 2

EAST AFRICAN CAMPAIGN

Dakava. But the enemy had got over in strength just
before, and were (August 16) able some miles down-
stream to hold him off. Coincidently Enslin had
followed them up and was on the north bank. The
German rearguard, however, there defended the bridge-
head with determination, and Enslin's brigade had to
find a fordable crossing up stream. When they were
discovered to have passed the river von Lettow-Vorbeck
resumed his march south (August 18).

His extrication of himself and his forces out of the
Nguru entanglement, the severity of the fighting and
marching involved, and his serious losses both of men
and of equipment, proved in truth to be one of the
determining points of the campaign. Immediately
south of the Central Railway at Morogoro lies another
knot of rugged country — the area of the Uluguru moun-
tains, and it had formed part of von Lettow-Vorbeck's
plan to hold on to this tract. It commanded the
railway, and so long as he remained in possession the
line could not be used. Behind him he had his southern
depots, for a notable feature of the German preparations,
intended alike to reduce transport and to. minimise the
risks of capture, had been the storage of reserves of
arms and ammunition at various centres, any one of
which could readily be converted into a base. The
measures adopted for the defence of the Uluguru area
had been, it was evident, carefully thought out. Military
roads had been cut, and in one instance carried over a
defile along the face of a sheer cliff upon a gallery of
massive beams ; naval 4.1 inch guns emplaced at com-
manding points, and large reserves of heavy munitions
accumulated.

But a combination of circumstances now went to
render these German preparations futile. The first was
the state of von Lettow-Vorbeck's forces. They were
showing unmistakable signs of wear. Their moral,
shaken by the defeat at Kandoa Irangi, where they had
fairly measured themselves in the open with their
opponents, was falling. Since then they had experienced
nothing save reverses. Mechanical preparations are of

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THE CLOSING PHASES

little avail if there are not resolute men behind them.
The German officers were doubtless still resolute, but
their men in the mass were discouraged, and fought on
from a habit of obedience. It was not enough. Secondly,
the developments in the west were gloomy. On a
review of events not the slightest doubt can be enter-
tained that the German scheme for the defence of East
Africa, seeing that attack depended upon the sea,
assumed as a condition precedent command of the Great
Lakes, and ability to safeguard themselves on that side.
And, safe on that side and their chief recruiting and
supply ground assured, to hold in succession from north
to south such knots of country as the Usambara plateau,
the Nguru mountains, the Uluguru mountains, and the
Upogoro hills near Mahenge, should have enabled them
to confront an attack with a series of almost insoluble
problems. But command of the Lakes, which is in
effect the mastery of the interior of Africa, had been
lost, and there had come to pass what had never been
reckoned probable — an attack from north to south
parallel with the coast, combined with a converging
onset west of the main mountains. At this very time
while Northey was moving in from the south-west, and
Crewe pushing south from the Victoria Nyanza, three
columns of Belgian native troops were in a swift and
remarkably timed co-ordination closing upon Tabora.
Von Wehle, who had fallen back on that place, was
striving to head off his opponents, but he was out-
weighted, and his retreat with such of his troops as he
could keep together was imminent. Not less serious,
von Falkenstein in the south-west was equally out-
matched, and had been uniformly unsuccessful.

From Dakava, looking at his proceedings from the
British standpoint, the German Commander-in-Chief,
having the option of retiring either upon Kilossa or upon
Morogoro, was as likely as not to choose the former
alternative, since Kilossa lay on the direct route to
Mahenge. The defences in the Uluguru mountains
were not then known. It appeared therefore desirable
to deprive him of this option, and to leave Morogoro

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his only choice. According to the calculations of General
Smuts, there was a good chance of there rounding him
up. On these grounds Van Deventer had been asked to
advance with his Division east along the railway and
occupy Kilossa before the main German force, then in
the Nguru mountains, could fall back to that point.
Van Deventer's advanced troops were then at Gulwe,
and the distance of Gulwe from Kilossa is seventy miles.
But it is seventy miles of most difficult country. Its
character may be inferred from the fact that on this
section of the railway there were some forty bridges.
The country was a succession of ridges, and they were
only to be crossed through defiles, often narrow.

It is hardly necessary to say that von Lettow-Vorbeck
had not neglected to cover his flank in this direction.
The force Van Deventer had against him was ten double
companies, mustering at full strength 2,000 rifles ; a
feeble total, of course, measured by the standard of
operations in Europe, but in such a country, and falling
back from ridge to ridge, capable of offering a serious
opposition. The South African commander set out on
this march on August 9, and it was one of the most
remarkable in the whole East African campaign. In
their advance from Kandoa Irangi his men had had an
arduous time, and owing to the distance and the difficulty
of provisioning from Moschi they had had to go very
often upon short commons. They responded, however,
to this new call with spirit, and faced its fatigues cheer-
fully. And the fatigues were far from light. Van
Deventer found himself obstinately opposed, not merely
every mile, but every yard of the way. All the bridges
on the railway had been mined, and where not wholly
destroyed — some were massive — were left unfit for
traffic. Had it not been for the industry and ingenuity
of the engineers, who with local material rigged them up
and adapted them for motor trolley transport, Van
Deventer's Division could not have got on at all. But
from one position after another, usually by skilful
turning tactics, the enemy was hunted. The hostile
positions were well prepared ; every place suitable for

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THE CLOSING PHASES

an ambuscade taken advantage of. Ruse, however,
was met with ruse, and steadily the advance rolled on.

The last stage of the march was the worst. It lay
through the Usugara mountains, along the defile twenty-
five miles in length worn in the hills by the Mkondokwa
river. The defile is narrow, a canon having on either
hand steep wooded bluffs rising to nearly 2,000 feet
above sea level, and the river winding from side to side
across the nearly flat floor. Here was a position lending
itself to every artifice of defence, and one of the enemy's
means of defence was a bombardment along the valley
with naval guns outranging any pieces Van Deventer
had or could move. Nevertheless, he fought his way
through, and he got through with very slight casualties,
for in ambuscades he bettered the Germans at their own
game. On August 22 he was in Kilossa.

He arrived there four days after the Germans left
Dakava. But Dakava is sixty miles away, and therefore
he had arrived just in time. And von Lettow-Vorbeck,
having, as was supposed, thus been headed off to Moro-
goro, the next thing was to fasten him there. That, on
the information then available, could be done by blocking
the outlets of the Uluguru mountains in his rear. There
were, it was believed, two of these outlets ; one on the
west through Mlali ; the other to the south-east through
Kiroka. Enslin, reinforced by Van Deventer's 1st
Mounted Brigade under the command of General Nussey,
was sent round to Mlali ; Sheppard to Kiroka, and both
places were occupied. In the meantime the British
main column, crossing the Wami — the bridge at Dakava
having been repaired — moved upon Morogoro by a
slightly roundabout route and approached from the
north-east.

The reason for this manoeuvre was that, informed of
Enslin's move, and believing it to be the prelude of an
attack from the west, the German General had disposed
the main strength of his troops in that direction. It was
important to attack him before he could change front.
The last part of the British march was therefore made
at the best speed, but twenty-five miles of the way lay

135

EAST AFRICAN CAMPAIGN

across a waterless belt, and in other places through bush,
and where the sun at noonday is without shadow in a
weary land, this was trying. It was, indeed, the most
trying march the troops had been called upon so far
to face. They faced it cheerfully, because there was at
last the prospect of a decisive stroke.

Unfortunately, the great stroke — the stroke which
was to have wound up the campaign — missed fire.
When they arrived at Morogoro von Lettow-Vorbeck
was not there. East Africa, of course, was not a country
which had then been systematically surveyed, and much
of the detail of its geography was guesswork. Unknown
to General Smuts or to his Intelligence Service, there
was a road from Morogoro out of the Uluguru tangle to
the south through Kissaki. The elusive von Lettow-
Vorbeck had taken it. He had had to leave behind him
his heavy guns and a mass of ammunition, but all that
was a detail compared with slipping past the pincers.
As usual when in a corner, he had, for the sake of speed
in movement, and in part also to ensure the escape of
his main body, sent detachments along the side tracks
to Mlali and Kiroka on the chance of finding those doors
still open. Enslin and Sheppard, being already there,
these detachments were broken up. General Smuts
found out what the situation was on arriving at Mlali
just after the fight. Forthwith Brits, with Enslin's and
Beves's Brigades made a dash for Kissaki, while Nussey,
striking from Mlali eastward into the hills, was to get on
to the road from Morogoro to Kissaki and hustle the
enemy's rear. Nussey was guided by the abandoned
ammunition which he found everywhere strewn along the
line of flight.

And now ensued one of the most peculiar actions of
the campaign. At Kissaki von Lettow-Vorbeck, encum-
bered with sick, found it imperative at last to allow his
harried troops a slight pause, and he was at Kissaki
when, on September 5, Brits appeared. On the way,
however, Brits had had to pass the Mssongossi river, and
he found it too deep to take over either his wagons or his
artillery. Nor were there any means of constructing

136

THE CLOSING PHASES

bridges strong enough for such a purpose. Nevertheless,
though without guns, he decided to go on. Arriving
before Kissaki, he opened an attack. This native town
is on the north bank of the Mgeta river, and the attack
by the British infantry (Beves's Brigade) was from the
north, conjoined by an attack from the west and south-
west by Enslin's troopers. But, his manoeuvre covered
by the bush, von Lettow-Vorbeck dexterously thrust a
strong contingent in between the attacking infantry and
the attacking horse, and wedged them apart. The
result was that neither operation prospered, for having
effected that disposition he threw his main body against
Enslin, and compelled his retirement. In the circum-
stances, Brits decided to entrench six miles north of
Kissaki and await the arrival of Nussey. Next morning
Nussey rode down from the mountains. During his
move his wireless had been put out of action by an
accident, and he was not aware that Brits was in the
neighbourhood. Finding the enemy in Kissaki, he also
attacked, but he speedily discovered that he had to
confront the whole German force. The battle lasted
all day, Nussey gallantly holding his ground against
greatly superior numbers, and it was heard from Whigu
Hill, where the troops of Brits had dug in. It was a
case, however, of so near and yet so far. To move
through the interlying bush was not possible. All
that could be done was to warn Nussey of the situation,
and direct him to retire.

Not slow to perceive the advantage which had thus
unexpectedly fallen to him, von Lettow-Vorbeck sat
tight at Kissaki for another week, a pause which to him
and his tired forces was beyond estimate. But, of
course, he was aware that the squeeze would soon be
renewed, so that when Hannyngton's Brigade moved
upon him from the east, having come down from Kiroka,
and Enslin began to encircle him from the north-east,
he made up his mind that Kissaki was too hot to remain
in, and resumed his wanderings, leaving to his foes his
sick, who included seventy-two Germans.

So far as manoeuvring was concerned, von Lettow-

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EAST AFRICAN CAMPAIGN

Vorbeck had been at Kissaki brought definitely to bay,
and could the British forces then and there have closed
in upon him the campaign to all intents would have been
at an end. He could not have avoided surrender. But
if his troops were tired the British were not less so. In
this last, and as it was hoped final, effort they had put
forth their last ounce of energy. The advance round
the eastern spurs of the Uluguru block had been an
extraordinary feat. Besides marching with their kit
under a scorching and pitiless sun, the men of Sheppard's
Brigade had been engaged in road-cutting and road-
making. In one instance, where the route to the south
was found to lead to a perpendicular cliff, a way down
had been blasted through the rock. Sheppard was a
military engineer, and his skill in the direction of all
this work was invaluable. At the same time, while it
alone made the moving up of supplies practicable, it
involved fatigue. Shortage of rations, economised to
permit of rapidity of manoeuvre, and rapidity could be
achieved in no other way, had, too, added to the climate,
caused a high percentage of sickness. Again, in crossing
the belts of the country infested by the tse-tse fly, the
horses had perished by hundreds. Means of moving the
guns and supply wagons became uncertain or were
crippled ; mounted corps were mounted for the most
part only in name, and nine-tenths of the men left fit
fought on foot. In short, the Divisions of Smuts which
closed round Kissaki were threadbare.

It is true that the force of von Lettow-Vorbeck was in
the matter of effectives in no better case. The German
General had through disease and casualties lost half his
men. In particular, the European element of his force
had been reduced to a remnant, and that remnant was
itself fast disappearing. His equipment and supplies,
besides, had gone to wreck. But in one vital respect
affairs had altered in his favour. His force now pos-
sessed superior mobility, where before it had been inferior.
And in Kissaki, owing to the accidents which had frus-
trated the British co-ordination, and enabled him to
check the British attacks in detail, his men had had a

138

THE CLOSING PHASES

respite which at this juncture it had been of the utmost
consequence to deny. On the other hand, their efforts
having missed fire, the troops of General Smuts had had
no such advantage. When, therefore, von Lettow-
Vorbeck moved out of Kissaki, it was in face of an enemy
unable to follow him up.

The motive for his move was not only the desire to
slip away while opportunity, a piece of unlooked-for
good fortune, offered, but the necessity which had now
arisen for stiffening the German resistance round Ma-
henge. The British had a column, mustering 1,800
rifles, under the command of General Edwards, who was
safe-guarding the lines of communication, moving down
the coastal zone, and led by an energetic officer, Col.
Price, a swift march had been made towards Dar-es-
Salem. The port itself had been seized by a landing
party from the British squadron, and having the railway
from that place now in their hands, the reorganising
elements of the attack were hard at work adapting the
line for transport. In the west, Tombeur had pinched
von Wehle out of Tabora (September 19) and Crewe was
east of that place at Igalulu. With such troops as he
could still keep together, von Wehle was in retreat
through the Itumba mountains, and his lieutenant,
Wintgens, covering his flank from the south, on the move
with a smaller column by way of Sikonge. Both bodies
were making for New Iringa, 120 miles or thereabouts
north-west of Mahenge. It was of consequence for
what was left of the German forces to gather at Mahenge.
Northey, however, was pushing towards that place, and
one column of his force was now south-west of it on the
Ruhuje river, while another was already on the
Ruanga to the north-west. It was no longer certain
that von Wehle and Wintgens could dodge him. Finally,
the Portuguese, having joined with the other Allies, had
crossed the southern frontier.

In the circumstances, the one course open to von
Lettow-Vorbeck was, while safeguarding the line of the
Rufigi, to march as rapidly as possible towards Mahenge,
and before the British main force could again get on

139

EAST AFRICAN CAMPAIGN

the move, and in conjunction with his western lieutenants,
defeat Northey in detail. But the tide of fortune, which
had for a moment seemed favourable, once more turned
against him. Northey, on hearing of the move of von
Wehle upon New Iringa, directed his Ruanga column
towards the same point. South of New Iringa, on
October 19, the two bodies met, and the Germans,
though assisted by a diversion from Mahenge, were
defeated. Having thus disposed for the time of von
Wehle, Northey turned to deal with the column from
Mahenge, encountered it on the Ruhuje, and in a
desperate little battle in which the enemy's loss in killed,
wounded, and prisoners was nearly 300 men, threw it
back across the river. In the meantime, also from
Mahenge, the Germans had moved out to attack the
south-western column.

This was a well-devised counter-stroke, for while one
part of their force marched rapidly west to Northey's
advanced base at Lupembe, and laid siege to it, the
other manoeuvred to place itself between Lupembe and
New Iringa so as to cut off relief. But Northey acted
with promptitude and energy. Reuniting his troops, he
shepherded the intercepting enemy off the route to
Lupembe into the hilly country to the noith-west, and
pushed them to Itembule Mission, sixty miles off Lupembe.
There, isolated in the hills, after an attempt to cut their
way out in which they lost seventy-one German officers,
with proportionate native casualties, the rest, with fifty-
three German officers, laid down their arms. The prisoners
totalled over 500. After this Northey turned to the
relief of Lupembe, and on his approach the siege was
raised. While he was thus engaged, von Wehle had got
through to Mahenge, but the march of 500 miles from
Tabora, added to the losses in and desertions following
his reverse, had left his contingent a skeleton. The
blows the Germans had suffered had been among the
heaviest they had yet experienced. All that remained
to them of East Africa, and of the once enormous
sphere of influence, was the territory south of the Rufigi.

The campaign now entered upon its final phase, and

140

THE CLOSING PHASES

the features which marked that phase were first a further
reorganisation of the forces on the British side ; secondly,
and with a view to hindering that reorganisation, a
German counter-offensive ; thirdly, the renewed British
advance.

All the white combatants in General Smuts's forces
declared to be medically unfit were sent home. They
were replaced by African infantry, partly raised and
trained in East Africa, and enrolled as fresh battalions
of the King's African Rifles, partly by a Nigerian Brigade,
excellent Hausa regiments, under the command of
Brigadier-General F. H. B. Cunliffe. Towards the enrol-
ment of troops on the spot the work of the British
Political Officers in the part of the country already
occupied had contributed most materially. These ex-
perienced and capable men were in touch with the native
chiefs and communities, and in view of the general odium
of German rule, naturally warlike recruits were readily
forthcoming. The chief change in the forces was the
reduction in the proportion of mounted men, owing to
the heavy wastage of horses. Some indication of the
loss will be gathered from the fact that in the course of
this campaign there were sent from South Africa more
than 23,000 horses, upwards of 24,000 mules, and 7,500
and more donkeys. But even with that huge importa-
tion it was impossible to keep pace with the ravages of
disease set up by the tse-tse pest. The Mounted Brigade
of Enslin was therefore rolled into that of Nussey, and
both placed under the latter's command. As re-formed
the main force was made up of two divisions and a
Reserve on this basis : —

1st Division (Hoskins) consisting of the 3rd East
African Brigade (assigned to Hannyngton) and Hannyng-
ton's old command, the 2nd East African Brigade
(transferred to Brigadier-General H. de C. O'Grady).

2nd Division (Van Deventer) with the native regulars
of Crewe's Lake force added to it.

Reserve, 1st East African Brigade (Sheppard), South
African Infantry Brigade (Beves), the Nigerians, and a
contingent of Indian troops.

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EAST AFRICAN CAMPAIGN

As regards the disposition of forces there had been
made at the end of October, the important move of
sending the 3rd East African Brigade, then a new forma-
tion, by sea from Dar-es-Salem to Kilwa, 150 miles
farther south on the coast, and sixty miles south of the
Rufigi estuary. North of the Rufigi the enemy still
held towards the coast a triangle of country from which
he made thrusts towards Dar-es-Salem and the railway.
His chief point of support here was at Kisseranga, a
strong position at the end of a range of rugged hills.
An attempt had been made to turn him out of it, but
it had not been successful. Beginning at Kilwa on the
east, going round by Kisseranga, through Kidatu, and
New Iringa (now Van Deventer's headquarters) to
Northey's main position on the Ruhuje, the British
forces were disposed roughly along two-thirds of a circle.
Northey was being reinforced by a battalion of South
African Infantry sent north by rail and then across Lake
Nyassa.

The Rufigi is the main trunk of a great system of
rivers, and streams which, like the branches and twigs
of a tree, converge into it from the interior plateaux.
Everywhere the plateaux have been scored into ridges,
divided by valleys which in the wet season are swamps,
and in the dry a rank growth of tangled tropical bush.
Manifestly it was an ideal country in which to play a
game of hide-and-seek, as the Germans had themselves
found in the native wars, and it was conversely a very
unideal terrain over which to hunt a slim and elusive
foe. Von Lettow-Vorbeck, therefore, was long-headed
in selecting this as the stage for the last act of his drama.
Because of the character of the country and its oppor-
tunities, he was not disposed to remain passive while
Smuts worked out preparations for crushing him. What
those preparations were was disclosed to some extent
by the trace of the British line. It probably appeared
to von Lettow-Vorbeck that the two-thirds of a circle
were meant shortly to become a whole one. His counter-
plan was to wall up the force at Kilwa, which had fast-
ened dangerously upon his flank, and in the weeks which

142

THE CLOSING PHASES

must elapse before the British main force was on its
legs again, to strike with all his weight at Northey. If
that troublesome opponent could be disposed of, and
the force at Kilwa held, then as likely as not the British
thrust when it took place might be turned into a failure.
But von Lettow-Vorbeck disguised these intentions
with characteristic finesse. The first move was an
attempt to wedge Northey off from Van Deventer —
they were acting in co-operation. It was thought on the
British side that this was an effort to break through, and
there was a good deal of miscellaneous fighting and
skirmishing, with the result that for a time Northey was
cut off from communication with New Iringa. Whether
he saw the true character of the manoeuvre or not,
Northey had prudently concentrated his forces at
Lupembe, holding Malangali with an advanced detach-
ment. To Malangali the Germans laid siege (Novem-
ber 8-12), and being somewhat in haste to get on, tried
to carry the defences by storm. In that kind of opera-
tion, however, they had had very poor fortune, and this
was no exception. Three times their storming parties
came on, and each time they were dogged enough to get
to close quarters, but they were not dogged enough to get
in, and they were still sitting before the place when Lieut. -
Col. R. E. Murray advanced with a column to its relief.
A week later (November 17) Lupembe was attacked.
Though on a small scale, it was a fierce battle, and the
German losses may be judged from the circumstance
that here and at Malangali, besides the wounded, who
must have been at least thrice the number, those found
dead and abandoned on the field, and the prisoners,
totalled 125 Europeans and 619 askaris. Northey had
again proved a hard nut to crack, and he was still at
Lupembe, and a nasty threat to Mahenge ; a threat
which, if the walling up operations at Kilwa were to
come to anything, ought to be got rid of. But the last
straw of ill-luck came when Murray surrounded the
contingent of Lieut. -Col. Heubner, who had been scouring
the country towards New Iringa and had made himself
very unpleasant. Heubner's column was 500 strong.

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EAST AFRICAN CAMPAIGN

The survivors who surrendered were 54 Germans and
303 natives.

North-west of Kilwa on the coast, the British had
seized among other positions a bold spur of the Matumbi
hills, and the native town of Kibata sited upon it. If
they were to be blockaded at Kilwa, this Kibata posi-
tion, which was on the way to the Rufigi, must be re-
taken, and there was a determined effort to retake it.
The loss of Kibata, however, would have left the
British move on Kilwa stranded, and the defence was as
determined as the attack. On and around the spur
were various outlying positions. In the fighting they
were taken and retaken. On December 10 the enemy
essayed to carry the position by storm in a night attack,
supported by naval guns as well as by field pieces. The
British guns were unable to get up owing to the state of
the roads — the wet season had now set in — but in spite
of that the garrison beat off the assault. The next step
was an effort to encircle the place and starve out the
defence by a close blockade. Hannyngton's Brigade,
however, moving up from Kilwa, worked west and,
acting in conjunction with that of O'Grady, cut the
German communication. It was now they who were
likely to be starved out. Without further delay they
raised the siege.

Both in the coastal area and in the south-west the
German counter-offensive had met with a check.

Between the operations at Kissali and the renewed
advance of General Smuts there was an interval of three
months. In part the pause arose from reorganisation
difficulties ; in part from the weather. But by the end
of December, 1916, everything was ready for another
move. This time, since the main force still commanded
by von Lettow-Vorbeck was now on the Rufigi, safe-
guarding— it is a wide and deep river — the practicable
crossings, and especially that at Kibambwe, south-east
of Kissaki, the plan of General Smuts was, passing oyer
the river, to advance to the south-east, in conjunction
with an advance of Hoskins's Division from Kilwa to the
north-west. The two approaching lines of advance

144

THE CLOSING PHASES

would thus trace, as it were, the base of a triangle of
which the Rufigi was one side and the coast the other,
and within that triangle the force of the enemy, if not
bottled up, should in breaking out be heavily trounced.
At the same time communication between these hostile
troops on the Rufigi and those at Mahenge should be cut.

In order, however, that the scheme might not become
too soon apparent, it was essential to throw the
manoeuvring force over the Rufigi before the enemy's
suspicions were aroused, to secure, therefore, an unop-
posed crossing, and until that had been done, to disguise
the intention.

The procedure of disguise was in the first instance to
set Van Deventer in movement, and marching out from
New Iringa towards Mahenge, he fought (December 25-
27) a three days' battle with hostile forces entrenched in
the Lukegeta pass. Northey also started to move upon
Mahenge by way of Mfirika. So far the main British
force gave no sign of activity, except that some little
time before Beves's Brigade had marched south from
Morogoro. The troops in line were the brigades of
Sheppard, Beves, and Cunliffe, with the Indian contin-
gent in reserve.

The enemy still held north of the Rufigi the three-
corner-shaped area marked off by the little river
Mgeta, and the line of hills beyond Kissangire, and with
that area, to which von Lettow-Vorbeck had tenaciously
hung, their main communication was by the bridge at
Kibambwe. Near this line of front was Dutumi, held
by the British, and Tulo. On their side of the line the
Germans held Behobeho.

The Brigades of Sheppard and Cunliffe were massed
at Dutumi and Tulo for an attack upon this part of the
enemy front, the manifest object of the move being to
cut him off from the Kibambwe crossing and isolate his
troops north of the big river. And that there might
be no mistake that the move was seriously meant, it was
supported by a flanking manoeuvre to the east by a
column made up of the 2nd Kashmiris, and a Nigerian
battalion, under the command of Lieut. -Col. R. A.

145 l

EAST AFRICAN CAMPAIGN

Lyall, whose instructions were to work round to a point
on the road north of Behobeho. At the same time,
Sheppard was dispatched on a movement round the
enemy's western flank, and in association with this
manoeuvre Lieut. -Col. Dyke, with a double company of
the 130th Baluchis, was, moving on an outer but nearly
parallel line, to work round by the west and reach the
same point as Lyall, but from the opposite direction.

All these tactics, needless to say, were designed to
mask the real purpose of the whole operation, which was
to secure a crossing of the Rufigi unopposed and before
the enemy suspected it. And that, the vital part of the
affair, was entrusted to Beves. The point Beves made
for, setting out from Kirengwe as secretly as possible,
was Mkalinso, at the confluence of the Rufigi and its
principal tributary, the Ruaha. This point lay twenty
miles above Kibambwe. Beves had before him a march
of thirty miles, and part of the way a road had to be cut.
Before the operations round Behobeho, though they
were no more than a holding attack, the enemy showed
signs of giving way. Of this Beves was duly warned,
and his South Africans, to save time, covered the last
stage in a continuous march of thirty hours, a feat which
has rarely had a parallel and is in tropical campaigning
a record. They arrived a day in advance of the time
table ; crossed the Rufigi unopposed, and established a
bridgehead on the farther bank.

The main object of the operations thus made good, the
attack north of Behobeho became a serious business
designed to push the enemy eastward and delay his
retirement over the Kibambwe bridge. Striving to elude
Sheppard, the retreating force came across Dyke, who
with his Baluchis had put himself astride the road. He
was attacked, but held on. Four charges were made,
and there was hand-to-hand fighting with the bayonet.
Still the road could not be cleared, and the enemy had
at length to find a way round to the east. South of
Behobeho, the road was again obstructed by the 25th
Fusiliers, and there was another bitter little battle.
Here Capt. F. C. Selous, the famous hunter, explorer,

146

THE CLOSING PHASES

and naturalist, who had joined the regiment as a
volunteer, was killed at the head of his company.

With the exception of their garrison at Kissangire,
and some other detachments, the Germans had by
January 5, though in some disorder and with no slight
loss, got across the river at Kibambwe. By that time,
of course, information of the bridgehead at Mkalinso
was common knowledge, and consequently, while watch-
ing the crossing at Kibambwe, part of them were at
once hurried to Mkalinso, where they proceeded to
throw up an entrenched line. This gave Sheppard his
chance, and on January 6 he got part of his force over
at Kibambwe, notwithstanding that the Germans had
damaged the bridge. The enemy had now two bridge-
heads to blockade. In these circumstances, the Niger-
ians were transferred to Mkalinso, and from that
place on January 17 the drive to the south-east was
begun.

Such was the state of affairs when, on January 17,
1917, General Smuts, summoned to London to take
part in an Imperial Conference, laid down the com-
mand.

Previously to this, indeed since the cutting of his
communications with Tabora, von Lettow-Vorbeck had
been in the military sense living upon his fat. There
were not only no means of filling the gaps left by his
losses, and sickness and fatigue continued also to exact
a heavy toll, but he was severely pinched for supplies.
And that state of things with a rainy season of unusual
severity which turned all the lower area of the Rufigi
into an inundation, found him at length unable to feed
even his reduced force, though everything consumable
within his reach was ruthlessly seized. Kraut crossed
the Portuguese frontier on a food raid, and that not
yielding enough, Wintgens at the head of some 600 men
broke out towards Tabora. He was finally rounded up
and surrendered to a Belgian force.

The British command had been assigned to General
Hoskins. Owing to the state of the country, however,
little could be done beyond rounding up the enemy still

147 l 2

EAST AFRICAN CAMPAIGN

north of the Rufigi. At the end of May the command-
in-chief devolved upon General Van Deventer, and his
plan was, in conjunction with a combined advance upon
Mahenge by Northey and the Belgians, to push westward
from the coast both from Kilwa and from Lindi. This
was again an encircling scheme starting from opposite
directions. The substance of the plan, however, lay in
the fact that von Lettow-Vorbeck's chief remaining
depots of ammunition were along the section of coast
lying between the columns advancing westward. Either
then the German General, in falling back, would have
to abandon them or he would have to give battle. He
chose the latter alternative, and at Narongombe, south-
west of Kilwa, on July 19 there took place one of the
stubbornest actions of the campaign. The Germans
were forced back, and retired upon Mahungo, the most
important of these supply places. Later (September 28)
that place was captured. Von Lettow-Vorbeck now
found himself driven south towards the Lukuledi river,
and though just dodging the column from Lindi, he
managed to cross into the mountainous area contiguous
to the Portuguese frontier, nearly 1,000 of his men,
among them 241 Germans, surrendered. His casualties,
too, had been severe. In the west, covering Mahenge,
he had under the command of Colonel Tafel a force of
some 2,000 rifles, but Tafel, attacked by the Belgians,
was driven east from his defences, and Mahenge with
its munitions and stores, now precious beyond estimate,
fell into their hands. At the same time, Van Deventer
was pressing von Lettow-Vorbeck westwards along the
Lukuledi valley. The South African General's strategy
was to force the enemy to accept battle, and with his
back this time to the wall von Lettow-Vorbeck had no
other choice. After a severe battle at Mahiwa (Oct.
15-18), he made his last stand on the Lukuledi on
November 15 and he fought on for four days. The
action broke him. Nearly 1,500 of his force, surrounded,
laid down their aims. Henceforth he was a fugitive.
With Tafel he had lost touch. At the head of 1,400
men, Tafel, dexterously avoiding contact with British

148

THE CLOSING PHASES

troops, marched from Mahenge across country
towards the Portuguese border, and he had got to
Nevala, within twenty miles of it, when he found him-
self in an unlooked for difficulty.

It had been the intention of von Lettow-Vorbeck and
Tafel, joining forces, to cross the Rovuma into Portuguese
East Africa. On the other hand, to prevent the German
commanders from combining, and to bar their way over
the Rovuma, had now become General Van Deventer's
main aim. Nevala had been the appointed German
rendezvous, and von Lettow-Vorbeck had fought at
Masasi on the Lukaledi in November because for one
thing Masasi is on the road to Nevala from Mahenge.
When the action at Masasi proved for him disastrous he
was headed off this route towards the south-west. His
lieutenant, retreating from Mahenge, was not aware of
these events. Hurrying towards Nevala Tafel unwittingly
marched across the rear of the British forces who had
followed up the enemy's main body. At Nevala, there-
fore, his men, fatigued by their long and trying retreat,
and without supplies, found themselves between the
British and the coast. So far as Tafel could tell
von Lettow-Vorbeck had left him to his fate. The
German Commander-in-Chief was somewhere to the west,
but where was uncertain. In an attempt to rejoin him
Tafel made a move out of Nevala. He was opposed by
the 129th Baluchis. They were but a feeble contingent,
not more than 120 strong, but behind them was a
British mounted brigade made up in part of Indian
cavalry, in part of South African burghers, and twenty
miles to the west, though in touch with the mounted
men, was the Number 1 Column of the British posted
at the confluence of the Rovuma and the Bangalla river,
a tributary flowingTin from the north. Judging these
obstacles to be insurmountable, aware that the British,
now informed of his whereabouts, would speedily
close in upon him, and believing the end of the
campaign to be at hand, Tafel sent out a flag of truce.
On November 28 he surrendered with his entire
force.

149

EAST AFRICAN CAMPAIGN

Von Lettow-Vorbeck, it was estimated, had with him
320 whites and 2,500 blacks, about 1,500 of the latter
veteran combatants. To prevent him from breaking
away to the south over the Rovuma, a body of Portuguese
native troops, 900 strong, under the command of Major
Pinto, had been moved up to Ngomani where the main
river is joined from the south by the Lugendi. Unfortu-
nately Pinto does not appear to have been a very ener-
getic officer, and while he was laying out his camp at
Ngomani, von Lettow-Vorbeck, unopposed, crossed the
Rovuma higher up stream ; carried out a swift encircling
march ; and fell unexpectedly upon the Portuguese
position. Pinto's camp at Ngomani was on the south
bank of the Rovuma, and he was looking for attack from
the farther side of the river. Instead he found himself
assailed from the rear. In the defence he lost his life,
and the casualties of his corps, outnumbered by two to
one, were heavy. The 700 or so who survived capitulated.
Von Lettow-Vorbeck thus obtained a valuable haul of
arms, and what had become of even greater moment,
a supply of ammunition, and a great quantity of stores.
He was without either, and his men were in rags. Re-
clothing them in the uniforms of the Portuguese, whom he
impressed as carriers, he at the same time rearmed them
with the Portuguese rifles and cartridges, and, his com-
missariat for the present again assured, set out for the
south. It was two days before the British, when news
of this disaster reached them, could get well on the move
in pursuit. Those two days the German commander
had as a clear start. Once more, then, and just when
he seemed to have been brought to the last extremity, he
was on his legs. And he meant to keep on them, for he
moved rapidly south towards Fort Nanguri.

Portuguese East Africa is traversed by the chain of
the Ukula mountains, and Fort Nanguri was a military
post and depot commanding the chief pass over the range
on the road from Mozambique to the Great Lakes. The
garrison of the fort moved out to obstruct the pass. This,
in the circumstances, was a blunder. They were com-
pletely defeated. The result was that von Lettow-

150

THE CLOSING PHASES

Vorbeck seized the fort and in it rations enough to keep
his men on full supplies for six weeks, besides a huge
reserve of ammunition. All the probabilities are that
he had learned all about Fort Naguri and its contents
from his prisoners. Evidently, too, the defeated garrison,
misled by the Portuguese uniforms of the hostile force,
had allowed themselves to be attacked suddenly and at
short range. Hence, by what appeared to be singular
good fortune, though it was in fact resourcefulness
combined with decision, von Lettow- Vorbeck had estab-
lished himself in a strong position in the very heart of
Portuguese East Africa, and had made a hash of the
resistance.

The rainy season also was now again at hand. To
move up forces against him from the coast was, he knew,
during the rains next to impossible. Next to impossible,
too, was it in the wet months to pursue him from across
the Rovuma. The wet season had been relied upon to
destroy him. But he was living, and living well on the
spoils of the foe ; he was in a country undevastated by
war ; and he had a following who had reduced the squeez-
ing of supplies out of the natives to a fine art. All the
anxieties were with the enemy.

Under the conditions the chase for the time hung

fire. The British, however, or rather the not less

resourceful brain of Van Deventer, had thought out

another move. This was the transport of troops down

and across Lake Nyassa. From the south end of the

lake to the Ukula mountains the distance, as distances

go in Africa, is short, and on Lake Nyassa the British

had available four steamers. As soon therefore as the

season made the movement practicable, the flotilla was

made use of for this purpose. It was now von Lettow-

Vorbeck's turn to be surprised. He was dislodged,

driven to the south-east ; but doubled back across the

mountains, and headed for the Upper Rovuma. Hard

on his heels came a column of the King's African Rifles

under the command of Colonel Giffard, while ahead of

him in the Ssongea area, north-east of Lake Nyassa,

were other Allied troops all eager to entrap him. The

151

EAST AFRICAN CAMPAIGN

movements of the fugitive were swift. For many days
together he kept up an average march of 18 miles a day,
notwithstanding that, compelled to exist on the country,
he had to collect food and cattle en route. The uncertain-
ties of campaigning in this wild and little known part
of Africa may be illustrated by one well authenticated
episode. Following up at top speed along what was
thought to be the hostile track, but was in truth a parallel
route, Giffard passed by and outpaced the retreating
Germans. Not less in the dark as to Giffard's move-
ments, the latter, thinking it the safer, had diverted
themselves on to Giffard's route. The consequence was
that the German advance guard came into contact with
the British rearguard. Giffard forthwith faced about.
But the time needed for him to change his dispositions,
was time enough for von Lettow-Vorbeck to plan how to
elude him. Just as Giffard's column had swung into
position, and the battle had begun, night came on with
tropical suddenness. In the darkness the Germans
slipped away. They had, however, to leave behind a
large part of their baggage, and much of their stock of
ammunition.

So the chase went on. It had opened in May ;
it continued throughout the dry season. In Septem-
ber, 1918, von Lettow-Vorbeck recrossed the Upper
Rovuma into German East Africa. Then, in the tumbled
region round Ssongea, his exact whereabouts remained
unknown for nearly a month. With him secrecy had
become safety. What he might do was guesswork.
He might make towards Mahenge and New Iringa, in
which wilderness he might dodge about until the next
rains, when once more pursuit would have to be suspended.
In view of the possibility the British garrisons of Mahenge
and of New Iringa were increased. But equally he might
adopt any one of half a dozen possible alternatives.
To bottle him up in the Ssongea area General Edwards
at Tabora had orders to move troops to the south,
and General Hawthorn transported a brigade across
Lake Nyassa to Wiedhaven. In the meantime General
Van Deventer had made up his mind that if there was an

152

THE CLOSING PHASES

attempt to break out of the country round Ssongea,
which had to be looked for as soon as it was no longer
possible to exist there, and all the food to be had had
been picked up, the break out would be to the north-
west following the track past Lake Rukwa.

That body of water, a kind of connecting link between
Nyassa and Tanganyika, is surrounded by extensive
swamps. But to the west of it is a pastoral district
where the natives possessed cattle, and in the opinion
of General Van Deventer the cattle would be an attraction.
This inference turned out correct. Early in October the
whereabouts of the fugitives had been picked up by a
contingent of the Northern Rhodesian Police. They
were encountered at Fuses, fifteen miles south-west of
Ssongea, and were moving as had been expected. The
business now was if possible to trap them in the district
west of Lake Rukwa. So far as a break out to the north
was concerned the way had been barred by the transport
of a brigade down Tanganyika toBismarckburg. Northern
Rhodesia, however, was bare of armed forces. All had
been transferred across Lake Nyassa. To bring them
back again, land them at the head of the Lake and
move them up to New Langenburg should have been a
much quicker proceeding than even the quickest march
von Lettow-Vorbeck might make by land, and if that
could be done he was at last caught. But as it turned
out it could not be done, at all events not in time. Of
the four steamers on the lake three were out of com-
mission. They had been heavily worked, and were under
repair. With one only the transfer was not completed
before October 18. By that date the enemy column had
got past the intended obstruction.

Finding the road north barred by General Edwards at
Bismarckburg, and not venturing to attack, von Lettow-
Vorbeck turned south and crossed the Rhodesian bound-
ary. In Rhodesia his prospects of picking up a living
were poor. The country was open veld, farms few,
and at long distances from each other ; villages even
fewer. At the same time he had for the moment no
opposition to fear. In the hope of plunder he first

153

EAST AFRICAN CAMPAIGN

appeared before Abercorn, but as a precaution two com-
panies had been sent south from Bismarckburg to occupy
the place, and confronted with their carefully made
entrenchments his attack failed. The German general
then moved south towards Kasama, the Bismarckburg
force shadowing him. By this time he was plainly in
any event near the end of his tether. The wandering
fugitive life, and its unrelieved hardships ; the successive
defeats, and the hopelessness of the struggle, had begun
to tell even on the fidelity of his askaris. They had served
him with rare devotion, for as already pointed out he
was their all, and like all black righting men they wor-
shipped the heroic. But on the other hand they were
vagabonds and outlaws, once more in rags, and wandering
they knew not whither.

After a brush with the pursuing forces at Kayambi — it
was the last combat of the campaign — von Lettow-
Vorbeck arrived on November 8 at Kasama. But he
had, on the approach of his pursuers, speedily to evacuate
it, and when the armistice was entered into on November
11 he was out somewhere on the veld. By clause 17
oi the armistice, which related to him exclusively, he
was allowed a month in which to give himself up. He
was encountered once more a few days later, and
informed of these conditions. In compliance with them
he, on November 25, 1918, formally, with his following,
surrendered to General Edwards, at Abercorn. There
were then with him 155 Europeans, and 1,168 natives.
Recognising the gallantry of his struggle, for indepen-
dently of its motives it had been remarkably intrepid,
he as well as his remaining officers were allowed by
General Van Deventer to retain their swords, and his
men to carry their arms as far as Dar-es-Salem.

So closed this protracted conflict. On both sides it
had involved hardships beyond example. But out of
the evil there had arisen incidentally a certain degree
of good. To move the supplies on which they were
dependent the British had had perforce to lay down
thousands of miles of motor roads. These were of per-
manent benefit to the country and its primary! need.

154

THE CLOSING PHASES

Again the struggle had lifted from this vast region of
Africa the dark menace of chattel slavery, and put an
end to the reign of cruelty and violence. The country
had been ravaged, but for the first time in its history it
was to know the meaning of a settled peace. The injury
was transient ; the advantage enduring.

155

CHAPTER VIII

THE CAMPAIGN IN TOGOLAND

German annexation of the Colony — Its native population — German
labour policy — Economic effects — Military weakness of German
position — Place of Togoland in German Imperial Schemes —
Proposal of Neutrality — Why rejected — The Anglo-French in-
vasion— German retirement inland — Battle on the Chra — Position
turned by the French — German surrender at Kamina — End of
the Campaign.

As in the case of South-west Africa, Togoland was
handed over to Germany by the British Imperial Govern-
ment in opposition alike to the opinion of the Gold
Coast Colony administration and to the protests of the
natives. On the coast at Togo German traders had
established a factory. Later, by agreement with local
chiefs there were added some 500 square miles of ad-
jacent territory. The hinterland was, or was presumed
to be, within the sphere of the Gold Coast administration.
At all events the natives, though little interfered with,
understood themselves to be under British protection,
and that protection was of value, since after the subjuga-
tion of the warlike Ashantis who had long terrorised this
region of Africa, British authority had brought about a
settled peace. But in 1890 the Togo hinterland, about
30,000 square miles in area, was acknowledged to be a
possession of the German Government. To the repre-
sentations of the Gold Coast Colony Council on behalf
of the natives, the reply of the British Imperial Govern-
ment was that if Germany wished to acquire colonies,
her co-operation in the work of civilisation would be
welcomed.

156

THE CAMPAIGN IN TOGOLAND

The co-operation of Germany in the work of civilisa-
tion proved to be in Togoland what it was in South-west
Africa.

Owning their respective lands in common, the native
tribal communities had under settled conditions made
some progress in agriculture. They grew in rotation
each year a crop of yams, and a crop of corn, and on
suitable soil, when trade in that commodity had been
opened through Lome and the Gold Coast territory,
cultivated cotton. By the Germans this new possession
was exploited purely for profit. From the lands best
adapted for cotton growing the natives were expropriated
on a " compensation " fixed by the Germans themselves,
and, it is hardly necessary to say, derisive. To ensure
native labour for these estates the natives were subjected
to a poll tax of 65. per head annually. In order to pay
it, and with rare exceptions they had no other means,
they were obliged to sell themselves for a part of the
year. This made the cultivation of their own farms
difficult. To add to the difficulty they were subjected
to annual corvees. In large gangs they were trans-
ported from one part of the country to another, and,
under conditions which caused a high rate of mortality,
forced to labour on the making of roads and other works.
Almost always these demands coincided with their own
seed-time. Through the resultant losses of their crops
they were brought down to a state of abject penury.
Since, too, their cotton could now only be sold to Ger-
mans, it became no uncommon practice for a German
official, when the crop was ripe, to come along, inspect
it, and " purchase " it for one shilling, or two shillings.
But the grievances of the natives were not economic
merely. There were the same punishments without
inquiry and the same abuse of the lash for infringements
of a Code of which the natives remained totally ignorant.
And in regard to native women, there was the same
disregard of honour and decency. In a word, Togoland
became in West Africa an area of misery from which all
who could escaped across its boundaries. To arrest
this loss of the most able-bodied of the population, aged

157

THE CAMPAIGN IN TOGOLAND

parents were lashed for complicity. Such were the
scenes enacted in these villages, and the share in ad-
vancing the work of civilisation. It happened that the
western boundary of Togoland north of the Daka river
had been drawn by European diplomatists right through
the middle of the territories of several native tribes, so
that while one half in the Gold Coast Colony was tranquil,
the other half, so far as it could not be deserted, presented
all the features of German rule. Naturally such con-
trasts added to the bitterness of the native lot. If no
revolt took place in Togoland as elsewhere it was because
the population were too few. There was nothing for it
save to endure.

With a breadth from west to east of 150 miles on the
average, and a length of 500 miles from north to south,
Togoland lay like a long wedge between the British
Gold Coast territory on the one side and the French
possession of Dahomey on the other. On the north it
was limitrophic with the French colony of Upper
Senegal. The possession was thus readily open to
invasion from all sides, and as the Germans dared not
trust the natives with arms, and had only a force of
some 500 native police, and those not wholly to be relied
upon, the resistance they could offer was but feeble.
Their power had in fact been undermined by their own
methods of government. The real obstacle to attack
lay both in the distances to be covered, and the character
of the country, for despite its development by forced
labour, roads in the ordinary sense of the word were
still few. The only practicable means of traversing it
was with a multitude of native porters from three to
four times as numerous as the combatant element.
Much therefore depended upon the goodwill of the
population, and of that the invaders were assured.

On the other hand, the Germans were very anxious
to keep their footing in this part of Africa. Togoland
was looked upon as the nucleus of a much larger pos-
session. Assuming German success in the war, the
probabilities were judged to be that the African depen-
dencies of the German Empire would stretch across the

158

THE CAMPAIGN IN TOGOLAND

Continent from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean, and
from the Mediterranean to the northern boundary of the
South African Union. In brief, the Union would become
the only non-German part of Africa, and even that an
appanage.

In 1914 these ambitions were no secret. That Ger-
many aspired to found in Africa a vast consolidated
dominion was a project which had reached the stage of
public discussion. Later and during the African cam-
paigns, official reserve being now judged of little value,
it was debated by Paul Leutwein, Hans Delbriick, Paul
Rohrbach, Davis Trietsch, Emil Zimmermann and
others regarded in Germany as authorities, and written
up in detail both military and economic. The German
Tropical Empire was to comprise not only both German
and British East Africa, but the Congo Free State and
French Equatorial Africa, thus linking East Africa up
with the Cameroons. And on the north it was to com-
prise Uganda and the Soudan, with Egypt and Tripoli,
again become nominally Turkish but really German
dependencies. There was even in view a German
express route from Berlin via the Mediterranean to
Timbuctu. On the south the possession was to be
linked up with German South-west Africa by the annexa-
tion of Portuguese Angola, and Rhodesia as well as
Nyassaland, and Portuguese East Africa. The capability
of these African territories of supplying raw materials
for German industry at a cheap rate had been carefully
gone into, and the easiest means of economical control
by an apparent alliance for the time being with Moham-
medanism in the north schemed out. On the military
side, the value of this great consolidated dominion was
held to lie in the fact that it could be rendered not merely
sufficient for its own defence, but a sensible addition to
Germany's armed power. Assuming the Turkish Empire
to be maintained — which would follow from a German
success, even though it would be a German possession in
everything save the name — then the German African
Empire could only be attacked by sea from east or west.
Those attacks, however, could have in any event but

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THE CAMPAIGN IN TOGOLAND

slight hope of prevailing. In the face of a native army
of from 60,000 to 80,000 men, trained on European
methods, and scientifically equipped, the probability
might with perfect safety be dismissed, and a native
army of that strength could, it was computed, be main-
tained without costing the German Imperial Treasury a
cent. Already in German East Africa the beginnings
of such an army had been set on foot, and it will be seen
when the campaign in the Cameroons is narrated how
German military measures there as well as in East
Africa had been shaped to fit in with this larger project.
In 1914 the mask of deceptive professions about the
work of civilisation had been cast aside. They were
useful in the day of preparation before Germany had a
powerful fleet, and when her military system had not
yet reached its full stature ; they had become superfluous
now that the powerful fleet was in being, and the military
machine ready to act as soon as the German Staff pulled
the lever. The future of Togoland in German estima-
tion had been disclosed besides by the installation at
Kamina, the inland terminus of the railway from the
coast, of a powerful wireless installation complementary
of those at Mwanza and Windhuk. Such a work,
completed at great labour and expense, and it may be
added at the cost of many native lives, formed no part
of the development of the Togoland colony. It was a
link in the chain which was being forged to bind the
world. On these grounds the Allies were as desirous of
ousting the Germans from West Africa as the Germans
themselves were to remain, and the Allies were the more
resolved to act because here as elsewhere German
dealings with the natives were a disturbing influence
spreading far beyond their own boundaries. It can
therefore readily be understood why, acting upon instruc-
tions from Berlin, Colonel von Doring, then in charge of
the colony, should have proposed to the authorities both
of the Gold Coast and of Dahomey that pending the
issue of the war in Europe Togoland should be treated
as neutral territory. Properly, had it been entered into,
an agreement of that kind would have involved the

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THE CAMPAIGN IN TOGOLAND

disuse of the wireless installation for war purposes. But
that was not the intention of the Government at Berlin.
They wanted all the benefit of an armistice where it was
a benefit, yet meant to evade its obligations. Their
instructions to von Doring left the point beyond doubt.
It is hardly likely in any event that the proposition
would have been entertained, but on this discovery it
could not so much as be considered. Accordingly
within a week from the outbreak of war Togoland was
invaded by the Allies from both sides.

While from the west Captain Barker, with a small
mobile column of Gold Coast troops, crossed the frontier
and occupied Lome, the administrative capital, the
French crossed from Dahomey, and occupied Anecho
and Togo. The Allies had thus the whole of the coast
line in their hands.

So far they met with no resistance. The Germans
with their native auxiliaries had removed themselves
inland, and announced that they had surrendered the
territory up to 120 kilometres from the seaboard. That,
however, was no more than a military move in their own
favour. In retiring they had dismantled the railway,
and they were well aware that, apart from the railway,
this coastal belt, densely overgrown with tropical bush,
would be far from easy to penetrate. What the move
in fact covered was preparation for defence inland, where
their own limited force would be on terms of equality
with the attacking troops. The position selected was
on the Chra river. On the way inland to Kamina the
railway crosses that stream which here flows through
the jungle, its banks a mass of rank reeds and under-
growth. To all intents, the bridge over the Chra having
been wrecked, such a crossing in the face of a hostile
force was impregnable. It had been picked out with
an eye to its defensive value, and here the German force
sat down, hoping it may be that the Allies, advancing
north from Lome, and expecting in view of the reported
surrender little opposition, would blunder into this
deadly ambuscade.

In the meantime, on the side of the Allies the decision

161 M

THE CAMPAIGN IN TOGOLAND

had been arrived at to push into the interior. For
that purpose the British and French columns which had
moved in along the coast were united under the command
of Colonel Bryant. He landed at Lome on August 12
with a reinforcement of the Gold Coast Regiment, and
a body of native porters, and to anticipate hostile
obstacles, began his march inland without delay. In
eight days he had covered 80 miles to Nuatya. Up to
that time there had been no sign of the enemy though
it was known that all the Germans inland had been
hurrying south. On August 22, however, the crossing
of the Chra was reached. Reconnaissance disclosed the
formidable character of the position. Across the river
lay the wreck of the railway bridge, destroyed by dyna-
mite. There were various efforts to get over at various
points, but none were successful. Securely hidden amid
the undergrowth on the farther bank the hostile force
had matters pretty well their own way and the attack
was completely held up. But it had after all not been
futile. While von Doring had thus been occupied on
the Chra, a French column, setting out from Abome,
had crossed the frontier, and meeting with no opposition,
had made a swift march across country towards Kamina.
The German commander now found his chance of moving
inland menaced. If the French arrived at Kamina
before he did he would be entrapped, and the wireless
installation would fall into their hands. That above
all had to be prevented. Accordingly on the night of
August 22 von Doring evacuated the Chra position and
hurried north. Colonel Bryant pushed on after him.
On August 24 the advanced guard of the Allied column
came in sight of the tall skeleton tower, the landmark of
the Kamina installation. But soon afterwards there
was a succession of heavy explosions. The tower swayed,
and heeling over disappeared from view. When Bryant's
main body reached Kamina next day they were met
by a German parlementaire, sent forward to negotiate
terms of surrender. The reply was that the surrender
must be unconditional. Since in the interval the French
had been closing in on the north and von Doring's

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THE CAMPAIGN IN TOGOLAND

already meagre force had been thinned by desertions
during his retreat, he had no choice left save compliance.
On August 26 therefore his troops laid down their arms.
The campaign, the shortest in the war, had lasted just
three weeks, and German dominion in West Africa was
dead.

163 jvi 2

CHAPTER IX

THE CAMPAIGN IN THE CAMEROONS

Features of the African Campaigns — Character of the Cameroons —
The German military scheme — The fortified frontier — British
attack from Nigeria — Its failure and the reasons — The reverses at
Garua and Nsanakang — General Dobell's plan of invasion from
IJuala — Effect of the French attack — German precautions at
Duala — The British naval operations — Dobell's expedition to
and capture of Duala and Bonaberi — Germans forestalled —
British operations against Jabassi and Edea — Clearance of the
Northern railway — German rebound — Actions at Edea and
Nkongsamba — German commander's projects — The French ad-
vance— Battle at Dume — Allied operations at a halt — General
Dobell's view of the position — The French plan for a combined
movement against Jaunde — British and French advance from
Duala — Battle at Wum Biagas — Failure of the project — French
advance to Dum6 and Lome — Resumption of the attack from
Nigeria — Siege and capture of Garua — Breach of the German
military barrier in the north — The siege of Mora — Second Allied
Conference at Duala — New plans — Nigerian forces link up with
those of Dobell — The final converging moves — Resumed British
move from Duala inland — Battle at Lesogs — Siege and capture of
Banyo — The final dash to Jaunde — German retreat to Rio Muni —
Surrender of Mora.

In the German Cameroons the Allied forces were called
upon to face some of the hardest military problems of
the War, and the manner in which those problems were
overcome renders the Cameroons campaign one of the
most instructive. It is a mark of these campaigns in
Africa that no one of them was in its features a repetition
of another. Each was distinct. That already has been
strikingly evident in the operations in South-west Africa
and in East Africa. When the struggle in the Cameroons
is told the observation will be found equally to apply.

Covering 306,000 square miles, this possession was one

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THE CAMPAIGN IN THE CAMEROON'S

and a half times as large as the German Empire in
Europe. By itself probably such a statement conveys
little, for little-known countries are commonly studied
on small maps, and this vast equatorial land was
before the War and outside the German Colonial
Office, one of the least known parts of the world.
Even the Germans themselves had over great tracts
of it but slight dealings with the natives. Their first
concern, having regard to their ultimate aims, had
been to ensure their retention of the country in case
of attack, and to that matter they had given careful
attention. Running north-east and inland from the
Bight of Biafra there is a great mountain chain, which
extends almost all the way — 1,000 miles — to Lake Chad
in the Western Soudan. A feature of this mass of moun-
tains, the natural boundary between Nigeria and the
Cameroons, is the breadth of their area. The area is
100 miles across. They constituted therefore a military
obstacle of the first class. And to the south-east of
the mountains spreads a vast plateau, having a rugged
northern rim. From this plateau the land falls north-
wards towards the lower levels of the Western Soudan ;
east and south towards the wide basin of the Congo.
Notwithstanding that it lies nearly under the equator,
the tableland has a relatively temperate climate. There
are expanses of open grasslands, and in the hollows belts
of wood. It is only along the lower-lying coastal belt,
and in the lower levels of the Congo basin that the tropical
jungle is met with. Earlier European explorers appear
to have judged the country as a whole from those
characteristics, and to have concluded that it was
uninhabitable by white men. But the lower levels
are comparatively a small part of it — its mere outer
fringe. The Germans saw that it had capacities for
development.

Their Cameroons military scheme, which alone need
be touched upon here, consisted in the first place of the
enrolment and training of a native army. With the
offer of attractive pay that was not difficult, and in 1914
this force numbered roundly 20,000 men. Its equipment

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THE CAMPAIGN IN THE CAMEROONS

had not been stinted ; indeed, was on a European scale.
Above all, it had been amply provided with machine-
guns, weapons especially formidable in bush fighting.
Neither in Nigeria on the one side nor in French Equa-
torial Africa on the other were there forces of anything
like this same magnitude. The troops of both possessions
united would not reach the total of this German standing
army. Even if they should act together, however, they
would be nearly as distant from each other as the armies
on the Western and Eastern main fronts in Europe.
Under the conditions efficient co-operation would be
far from easy, and it was reasonable enough to suppose
that the German force would be fully capable of defeating
each in turn. Beyond doubt it was to impede such a
possible co-operation that the Germans in 1911, in
return for relinquishment of their claims in Morocco,
had exacted from France the concession of 100,000
square miles of Equatorial Africa, which carried the
boundary of the German Cameroons at one point to the
Congo, and at another point to the Ubangi, its great
northern tributary. All the same, still further to econo-
mise their military resources, and to make assurance
doubly sure, they had established in and along the
mountain chain— the boundary of Nigeria having been
drawn along its north-western foot, leaving the area
therefore wholly within German jurisdiction — a system
of fortresses, which barred the main passes. Thus in
any event an attack from the side of Nigeria would be
difficult, while the distances from the French side im-
posed hardly less grave impediments. On the other
hand, as German columns might readily descend into
Nigeria from the mountains, a counter-offensive, or if
necessary a set attack, might with advantage be carried
out. Looking at it as a whole, few schemes have been
more complete. The Cameroons, in fact, had been
converted into a tropical Prussia, and it is manifest
that the task of pulling this system up by the roots
could be no easy affair. Another point relied upon in
the German scheme was the difficulty of penetrating-
inland across the tropical jungle along the coast. As a

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THE CAMPAIGN IN THE CAMEROONS

military operation an advance from the coast presented
so many deterrents that the Germans did not believe
it could succeed, even if attempted.

And the first operations of the campaign corresponded
fully with their forecasts. The British attacked from
Nigeria. At suitable jumping-off places along the
frontier — Maidugari, Yola, and Ikum on the Cross
River — columns of Nigerian troops were rapidly as-
sembled, and sent forward into the hills. Unsuspect-
ingly they bumped into the strongest German line of
defence. They were on the move early in August, 1914,
and two of them, that from Maidugari, and that from
Yola, set out on the same day, August 25. It was
supposed that this alacrity would find the Germans in
the mountain region not yet prepared. The Germans
had been prepared for years. The Maidugari Column,
under the command of Major (then Captain) R. W. Fox,
of the Royal Warwickshires, was to march by the route
leading past Mora and over the northern spurs of the
Mandara mountains. As to whether or not the enter-
prise was practicable it is enough to observe that at
Mora the Germans had established one of their fortresses.
The position was an almost flat-topped mountain mass,
nearly thirty miles round the base, and 1,700 feet high.
What made it a natural stronghold were its sides, sheer
cliffs, their wall broken here and there at long distances
only by steep gullies. In the rainy season the beds of
roaring torrents, these breaks or chimneys were full of
great boulders, for sharpshooters a ready-made but per-
fect cover. And the position, its flat top miles in
diameter, was capable of being provisioned for a siege
of indefinite duration, to say nothing of the fact that
only a large force could effectually blockade it. That a
small mobile column could dislodge from such a fastness
a garrison as numerous as itself was of course out of the
question. Seeing that it was out of the question,
Captain Fox did what he judged the next best thing.
He took up a position on the road from Mora to Garua,
and held on there until joined (October 13) by a column
of French troops who, under the command of Lieut-Col.

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THE CAMPAIGN IN THE CAMEROONS

Brisset, were moving south from the district of Lake
Chad.

The march of the Yola Column, commanded by Lieut-
Col. P. Maclear, Royal Dublin Fusiliers, was upon Garua.
On the way at Tepe, the column was opposed, and
obliged to drive the enemy out of the village. The fight,
however, was stiff and the casualties considerable. On
August 30 Garua was reached, but Garua had also been
converted into a fortress. The place was a precipitous
bluff on the north bank of the Benue river, which circles
round it on three sides. The only means of access, save
for an attempt to cross the river, in face of the artillery
the Germans had mounted, was from the rear. In the
rear, however, there had been constructed three forts
with linked defences, enclosing an area large enough for
an entrenched camp. The column of Colonel Maclear
had marched and climbed nearly 100 miles, and to that
gallant officer, who later lost his life, it hardly seemed the
thing to turn back without a fight. In view of the
natural strength of the Garua position his plan was a
night attack. The attack failed, and this column had
to retread the weary miles, beating off assaults most of
the way. Only a remnant returned.

The Cross River Column, Lieut-Col. G. T. Mair, R.A.,
in command, was directed upon Ossidinge. Its advance
guard had reached Nsanakang, ten miles across the
border, when a much more powerful hostile force,
hurriedly sent north from Duala by rail, fell upon it.
Outnumbered, these gallant men, 200 strong, could not
avoid being surrounded. With the exception of two
British officers and ninety native rank and file, who cut
their way through with the bayonet, took refuge in the
bush, and reached safety after a series of hairbreadth
escapes, and after undergoing the extreme of hardships,
the advance guard was wiped out. It had exacted a
heavy toll from the enemy, heavier than its own numbers,
for it fought till the last man, and the struggle was bitter.
Nevertheless this was a serious check, and looking at the
experiences and losses of the Yola Column the campaign
could hardly have opened more unfortunately.

]6S

THE CAMPAIGN IN THE CAMEROONS

In these circumstances affairs were placed in the
hands of Major-General C. M. Dobell, who left England
early in September. Though not then definitely formed,
his plan was to seize Duala, the chief port of the Camer-
oons, and the seat of the German administration, and
from that place as a base to push inland. Inquiries at
the ports of call on the West Coast of Africa during his
passage out went, General Dobell has stated, to confirm
his view. The news of the reverses which had overtaken
the Nigeria columns was now on the coast common
knowledge, and gave the aspect of affairs a gloomy cast.
It was advisable to act with promptitude and energy.
Otherwise, despite distances and the lack of railways,
the check experienced on the British side might very well
be followed by misfortune to the French operations set
on foot at the same time from French Equatorial Africa.

In part it was the French attack which after the British
reverses kept the Germans still on the defensive. For the
most part the colonists in the region of the Cameroons
added in 1911 were Frenchmen. They not only detested
this transference to German authority : they were on
good terms with the natives. When, consequently, war
broke out they instantly rose in arms. Bonga on the
Congo, and Zinga on the Ubangi, fell at once into the
hands of these bodies of volunteers, whose knowledge
of the country was to the French troops moving in under
the command of General Aymerich invaluable. It was
necessary for Colonel Zimmermann, the German Com-
mander-in-Chief, to detach no unimportant part of his
army to deal with the menace, and as his nearest railhead
was 450 miles from these frontier posts, his defensive
on the east was a heavy obligation. Already one column
of French troops was marching from Bonga up the Sanga
river, and another from Zinga pushing west to Bania
and Carnot. Zimmermann had won the first round,
but he was much too prudent to presume on that pre-
liminary success. He confined himself therefore on the
Nigerian boundary to frontier raids, designed to pin
there as many British troops as possible. And in order
further to free his hand for dealing with his French

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THE CAMPAIGN IN THE CAMEROONS

antagonists, he took measures in the event of attack for
transferring the German administration from Duala to
Jaunde, 150 miles inland, and on the edge of the plateau
overlooking the coastal zone.

Nor had any precautions likely to obstruct attack upon
Duala from the sea been omitted. The town stands on
the southern shore of a large inlet. Less than five miles
across at its entrance this body of water expands into
a wide, tranquil, and deep lagoon, one of the best natural
harbours in Africa and navigable inland by ships of
large tonnage for thirty miles from the seaboard. The
entrance, the channels, and the Cameroon river had all
been skilfully mined, for into Duala on the outbreak of
war a number of German craft, including eight liners,
had run for safety, and this shipping was now at Bona-
beri, the secondary port on the opposite shore of the
gulf. But not relying merely upon mines, the Germans
had provided themselves with torpedoes, some designed
to be fired from shore, others adapted for being towed
out, and launched against an attacking warship at short
range. The Cameroon river had also been blocked by
sinking craft loaded with stones and ballast.

On the coast at this time the British had H.M.S.
Challenger, H.M.S. Cumberland, and the gunboat Dwarf,
and by them business of dealing with the obstructions
had been taken in hand. Cumberland, in charge of the
mine-sweeping operations, cleared the entrance and the
lower main channels, while Dwarf, owing to her lighter
draft, was put on to the Cameroon river obstacles. She
had the work of blowing up and removing the wrecks,
and it was work which had to be done in the face of
constant attacks. Three times she narrowly missed
being torpedoed. When those efforts failed the Germans
sent down a steamer for the purpose of ramming her,
but this craft crashed into one of the sunken obstructions
and was wrecked. Challenger supported these activities.
By incessant work, joined to bulldog tenacity and pluck,
the approaches had been so far cleared in the latter half
of September as to allow transports to enter into the
lagoon, and approach near enough to Duala to admit

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THE CAMPAIGN IN THE CAMEROONS

both of a bombardment by the warships and of a
landing.

General Dobell had in the meantime been pushing
forward his preparations. He found that the native
troops at his disposal totalled 4,300, and adding Euro-
peans less than 5,000 in all. Not a large force, and not
one with which anything ambitious in the way of inland
operations could be essayed, but enough, it was hoped,
for the seizure of Duala. The success of the operation
must in part at any rate be attributed to its promptitude.
The descent took place on September 26, and there is
little doubt this rapidity took the Germans by surprise.
An attack of course they had looked for, but they had
not looked for an attack on this scale within a fortnight
of the British commander's arrival. They had not
been given time to remove either their guns or their
stores, and the German civilian population of Duala
was still in the place. A little later, doubtless, the port
would have been left an empty shell. As it was, it
was an egg full of meat. Knowing that if he afforded
the chance what there was of value would be forthwith
destroyed, General Dobell on arrival sent ashore a
summons to surrender. The demand was refused. It
had been intimated that in the event of refusal a bom-
bardment would be opened, and the enemy soon found
that the threat was no empty one. Immediately the
negative was learned, the guns of the warships opened.
All that day while the ships poured in shell, a strong
detachment, thrown ashore, was drawing a cordon
round the town. Next morning the German comman-
dant ran up the white flag. Duala, Bonaberi, with an
area contiguous were formally surrendered. In the
two towns 400 Germans of military age were rounded
up, the captures of guns, stores, and munitions were
large ; and the shipping at Bonaberi formed a prize of
the utmost usefulness.

Beyond doubt this sudden and severe blow, which
more than counterbalanced the British losses, exercised
a very adverse effect on German prospects all through
the campaign. And Zimmermann, his attention directed

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THE CAMPAIGN IN THE CAMEROONS

towards the French invasion, was not ready with a
reply. His main strength had been thrown far into
the interior, nor was it until three months had gone by
that he found himself able to react with vigour. General
Dobell did not neglect the opportunity. When it was
said that the Germans discounted the probability of a
successful attack from Duala they assumed a sufficient
and effective defence, and on that assumption the
justice of the conclusion cannot be questioned, for,
given such a defence, a British force in Duala and
Bonaberi, if not entirely bottled up, would find it difficult
and costly to get out. This was a risk General Dobell
had to face, and his venture and its result offer another
illustration of the effect of boldness in war. The
sufficient defence was for the time being not there.

Near Duala, their lower courses converging towards
that point, the coastal flats are traversed by three
rivers — the Wuri, the Sanaga, and the Njong, and they
are all of them deep enough and wide enough to be bad
military obstacles. The Sanaga is a great stream.
More than that these rivers flowed here through the
tropical forest, growing down to their banks, and even
encroaching on their beds. By far the best routes
inland lay along the railways. The line from Duala
ran inland through Edea, crossing the Sanaga. From
Bonaberi there was also a line northwards to Bare
(80 miles), where the higher land is reached. To con-
vert Duala into a suitable base it was essential to
command these routes, and to seize them without loss
of time.

The clearance of the area between Duala and the
Sanaga having been effected, a move was made up the
Wuri river upon Jabassi, for down the Wuri a counter-
attack might be delivered, and until Jabassi was occupied
a move upon Edea would not be safe. There had been
added to the Expedition a flotilla of armed river craft,
and these were now employed to cover the transport
of the Wuri attacking force up stream. The first
attempt, on October 8, failed. Coming under machine-
gun fire for the first time, always a trying experience, the

172

'GEOGRAPHIA" L'° 55 rL££r ZTPiET LCWONS.S.

THE CAMPAIGN IN THE CAMEROONS

native troops got out of hand. There had been here a
defect in their training. But as nothing could be done
until this move had been carried out, the column was
reorganised, and in the second try Jabassi was taken,
and the district cleared.

The operation against Edea was a larger affair.
While the armed flotilla was sent up the Sanaga, a
dangerous feat in view of the sandbanks, but carried
out under the direction of Commander L. W. Braith-
waite, R.N., with conspicuous skill, two columns were
to converge upon Edea by land — one, a French con-
tingent under Colonel Mayer, from Japoma ; the other
by way of the Njong river, and then by a track through
the forest. The Japoma bridge over the Dibamba
creek, 900 yards long, had been broken by the enemy in
two places, but though opposed by a brisk rifle and
machine-gun fusillade, the French troops, with support
from the naval guns, gallantly made good these gaps.
All along the line of railway there was stiff fighting, for
there the enemy had disposed his chief force. The
attack by the flotilla and the turning movement by
way of the Njong possibly enough took him by surprise.
At any rate the operation was brilliantly successful.
Edea was occupied (October 26) and the column pushed
forward along the railway to Kopongo, nearly twenty
miles farther inland.

After this General Dobell turned to the clearing of
the line north from Bonaberi. The preliminaries here had
been entrusted to Lieut. -Col. Haywood, and in con-
tinuous minor scrimmages he had pushed the enemy
steadily back. That opened the way for a move against
the port of Victoria, which the Germans still occupied,
and against their summer resort, Buea, on the slopes
of the Cameroon mountain. In conjunction with the
ships of the squadron both places were seized. Naval
activity had been in evidence all along the coast which
was now securely held and patrolled. One result was
to bring up the bag of Germans of military age to 968,
a heavy loss to the enemy's defence.

The completing step in this preparation of a secure

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THE CAMPAIGN IN THE CAMEROONS

base and jumping-off position was now undertaken — a
movement along the northern railway to the railhead,
Nkongsamba. With a strong column Col. Gorges, taking
up the work of Haywood, fought his way to Nkong-
samba, and pushed fifty miles farther on into the moun-
tains to Dschang, where the Germans had built one of
their fortified positions. Dschang was taken and its
defences destroyed. For the time, however, it was the
judgment of General Dobell that Dschang was too distant
from Duala to be occupied. His small force had had
already to be disposed over a territory as large as Wales,
and for such a purpose and until reinforcements arrived
it was no easy matter to make it go round. Sickness,
and the effects of the tropical rains had also to be
provided for.

His operations had been completed none too soon.
Dschang was taken on January 3, 1915. On January 5
the German reaction set in. Probably enough because
British activity was the most evident round Dschang,
the counter-attack came from the opposite quarter.
The first intimation of it at Duala was a severing of the
wires to Edea. That place lies on the south bank of the
Sanaga, and to reach it from Duala the river had to be
crossed. It is in the forest zone, and is a scattered
settlement in the midst of a large clearing, but the
ground is uneven and ridged, and the position plainly
lent itself to surprise. As well as the advanced post at
Kopongo, where a blockhouse had been built, it was
occupied by the Senegalese troops of Mayer, who,
seeing the possibilities of surprise, had prudently laid
out a ring of defences, skilfully concealed, traps in fact
in which the enemy, if and when he reappeared, was
intended to be caught in his own toils. And caught he
was. The attack was delivered by a column of German
troops 1,000 strong, and it was obstinate. The Sene-
galese, however, are first class shots, and one attempt
to break in after another was beaten off in confusion.
Finally, after losing a good proportion of their force —
about a fourth were found and buried or picked up
wounded — the Germans drew off. It attests the char-

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THE CAMPAIGN IN THE CAMEROONS

acter of the defence and of the defences that the casual-
ties of Mayer's force were only 15, 4 killed and 11
wounded. Coincidently another part of the German
expedition had attacked Kopongo. But the garrison
there had been put by natives on the alert, and that
assault also was a fiasco.

And very likely believing that these attacks, their
success being counted upon, would draw the Allies
towards Edea, the enemy became active round Nkong-
samba. The fighting here was heavy, for by barring
communication along the northern railway the Germans
aimed at isolating the British force in Duala from the
troops on the frontier of Nigeria, well aware that sooner
or later the two forces were meant to co-operate. The
purpose of Zimmermann, and from a military point of
view it was quite sound, was to keep the various Allied
bodies in the Cameroons isolated from each other. He
evidently still had hopes that Dobell might be contained.
In that case he could hope, too, with his strong points
in the mountains, to hold off any inroads from that
quarter. And if enabled to do this then he had a fair
chance against the French. Pursuant to this scheme,
he pushed Dobell's contingent in the north back upon
Bare, the outpost of railhead, and he entrenched in a
commanding position. An attempt was made to oust
him, and unfortunately it did not succeed. In this
fighting the losses on both sides were heavy.

Apart from the limited advantage thus won, the
German reaction had fallen flat, and it had been an
expensive venture. What had in part prompted it
and made it feasible had been a certain measure of
success against the French. The French forces were
penetrating into the Cameroons in three converging
columns — that of Colonel Brisset moving from the
north ; that of Colonel Morrison, advancing from Zinga
on the east ; and that of Colonel Hutin following the
course of the Sanga from the south. The plan was to
converge upon Jaunde in conjunction with a British
advance from the west and north-west. The marches
of both Morrison and Hutin had been rapid. At Bania,

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THE CAMPAIGN IN THE CAMEROONS

on the Upper Sanga, they had joined, had taken Carnot,
and moved upon Bertua, half-way from Carnot to
Jaunde. Affairs from the German point of view now
began to look serious, for at Bertua the united French
force was distant from Jaunde only 175 miles. But
Zimmermann was able in time to collect a larger bod}7
of troops, and at Dume there was fought one of the most
considerable battles of the campaign. The French were
compelled to fall back. Having brought off that stroke,
the German commander dispatched a swift moving
column south-east to N'Zimu on the Sanga, there got
astride of Hutin's communications, and laid out a forti-
fied position. Nor was the enemy dislodged until a
column of Belgian troops from the Congo, under the
command of General Aymerich, was pushed north and
retook N'Zimu after a three days' battle.

On the face of affairs it now looked as though the
Allied operations had been brought to a halt. Zimmer-
mann, in order to fight the battle at Dume" had risked
and incurred the Duala surprise, yet it cannot be said
that so far he had come off badly. To General Dobell,
considering the situation at the beginning of February,
1915, the sound course appeared to be a resumption of
the Allied advance from the north. An advance from
the north should enable the advance from the east and
south-east — Aymerich had begun a move from N'Zimu
upon Lome — also to be resumed, and in conjunction
with these movements, if his reinforcements which were
coming in slowly arrived, he could himself co-operate
from the west. It was in accordance with these views
that at his request Brigadier-General F. J. Cunliffe
undertook the command of the troops in Nigeria.

But on the French side other ideas prevailed. There
was at Paris, if not in London, some impatience at the
delay and the turn the campaign had taken. A very
natural desire existed to retrieve as soon as possible the
check at Dume, and there was the political value of a
swift success. These views were put before General
Dobell at Duala in March, 1915, by an official deputation
from French Equatorial Africa, headed by M. Fourneau,

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THE CAMPAIGN IN THE CAMEROONS

Lieut. -Governor of the Middle Congo. General Dobell
had his doubts. The dry season was nearing its end,
and the difficulties of forcing his way at the worst time
of the year through such a country as he had in face of
him and with the forces then at his disposal were not
to be ignored. The difficulties could hardly have been
ignored had the opposition to be looked for not been
too serious. It was certain, however, that the opposition
would be serious. In his opinion such an advance, to
be successful under the conditions, should take place in
association with a French pressure close to Jaunde, for
in that case the German main forces would be drawn to
defend the place. But while the French were still at a
distance from Jaunde, the Germans would for the time
being be comparatively free to resist the western advance.
Nevertheless, looking at " the advantage which would
follow upon an early occupation of Jaunde," he agreed
to fall in with the plan. The plan proved another of
the instances in which more haste is less speed, for it
both prolonged the campaign and caused the Allies
their heaviest losses.

So far as the force of General Dobell was concerned,
the first stage in the advance thus initiated was to the
Kele river, and it was opened conjointly by a British
column commanded by Lieut. -Colonel Haywood and by
the Senegalese troops of Colonel Mayer. As expected,
the resistance met with was stiff. Indeed it soon became
evident that the enemy was concentrating on this front.
On May 1, preparations for an attack in strength having
been completed, the column of Haywood was directed
upon Wum Biagas, and the column of Mayer upon
Eseka, the terminus of the Duala railway. Both Wum
Biagas and Eseka are about 100 miles inland, and 50 miles
from Jaunde. Though impeded by broken bridges,
and by difficulties of supply, through and across many
miles of dense tropical jungle, Mayer's column reached
and occupied Eseka on May 11. The enemy's position
at Wum Biagas, a formidable one, was on May 4 carried
by storm, but the losses incurred were heavy. Mayer
and his force from Eseka then moved across to Wum

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THE CAMPAIGN IN THE CAMEROONS

Biagas, and there joined the British contingent. From
this time Mayer was to command the advance.

But now came news that the troops of Aymerich, who
were to have taken Durae and Lome, and from those places
marched upon Jaunde, had not on May 11 arrived at either.
What with the beginning of the rainy season, and the
resistance encountered they had not scored the progress
looked for. On the other hand, for General Dobell to
put off at this juncture the projected push from Wum
Biagas meant that nothing more could be done until
after the rains, and that in the meantime sickness would
play havoc. The sickness rate was rising. It was one
of those situations in which to go back, remain or go on
offered no more than a choice of evils. The decision
of General Dobell was to go on. Accordingly, on
May 25, at the head of about 2,000 effectives Mayer set
out. Fifty miles to Jaunde may not seem a great dis-
tance, but it was fifty miles through the dense bush of
the Sanaga valley, in places impenetrable without cutting
a way through. The advance was slow, and the work
of pushing up supplies to Wum Biagas and beyond,
arduous in any event, became more difficult with every
mile of the march. Not merely was the resistance
obstinate, and backed by machine-guns at every turn,
but the enemy resorted to stampeding the convoys of
native carriers. As General Dobell at this time had
only at his disposal three motor vehicles, the supplies
had to be moved by man-transport, or not at all. This
was the enemy's chance. To stampede the porterage
columns by machine-gun ambuscades was to leave
Mayer's force without supplies. Hardships, shortage of
food and exposure to the rains caused an outbreak of
dysentery. Mayer asked for reinforcements. Up to
June 5, though an energetic and resourceful commander,
he had been able to advance only twelve miles, for in
the latter part of the distance he had been impeded by
a swamp, and as there was no way round, it had, in
face of hostile fire, taken five days to make good a
crossing. There are circumstances in which resolution
conflicts with reason, and that was now the position.

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THE CAMPAIGN IN THE CAMEROONS

Mayer therefore sent back word that in his opinion a
further advance was impracticable. Before deciding
General Dobell asked for news regarding the Allied
forces on the east. The answer came that there was no
news. Instructions were consequently sent up to Mayer
to fall back. Mayer, however, had already been com-
pelled to take the matter in his own hands. The loss
of the supplies which were being brought to the front
by a column of 500 carriers, just cut up and stampeded,
had left his force foodless, and he had to get out as best
he could. As soon as his retreat was observed the enemy
rushed in upon his rearguards, and the last reinforce-
ments General Dobell had at his command in Duala
had to be sent forward to the relief by forced marches.
They arrived on June 16, and they arrived in the nick
of time, for the harassed rearguard were then beating
off a heavy assault. The retreat was continued to the
Kele river. Not until the end of June, and notwith-
standing the losses involved, did the hostile attacks die
down. Of Mayer's force one-fourth were killed or
wounded.

Possibly enough, it was this German concentration
against the Allied advance from the west which about the
same time enabled the Allied forces on the east to retake
Bertua, and to advance and establish themselves both
in Dume and in Lome. But in the absence of further
western co-operation those advances were for the time
without result. The scheme of March, undertaken in
the defiance of sound military considerations, had broken
down.

The one bright spot for the Allies in this phase of the
campaign was in the north. In Nigeria, General Cun-
liffe had prudently decided to focus his force upon
Garua, and to attack that place in conjunction with
Brisset. Since the effort of Maclear the fortifications of
Garua had, however, been elaborated, and it was after-
wards found out that 2,000 native labourers had been
employed upon them. They were also armed with
ordnance outranging field pieces. It was evident
therefore that if the place was to be successfully be-

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THE CAMPAIGN IN THE CAMEROONS

sieged, the guns of the defences must at least be matched.
This problem was solved by the landing of the 12-pounder
guns of Challenger, which were sent up country together
with a head of 500 shell, and a French 95 mm. naval
gun. Whether or not he had heard of these preparations,
the enemy's trans-frontier raids showed increasing
boldness.

The investment of Garua began on April 18, 1915,
and it lasted until June 10. At the outset, the investing
lines were drawn round the place to the south and south-
west, but early in the siege an enemy force of some 300
men, mounted and afoot, broke out, and under the
command of Hauptmann von Crailsheim, who was
defending the fortress, made a dash for the Nigerian
frontier post of Gurin, possibly for the seizure of stores.
The post was bravely and successfully defended. The
discomfited raiders had then somehow to make their
way back for fifty miles through the mountains. By
dodging round the hills, and by finally marching twenty-
eight hours without a break, they eluded the pursuit,
got back, and re-entered Garua. Further reconnaissance
had now convinced General Cunliffe that the best point
of attack was from the north. A line of trenches was
cut there, and night by night steadily advanced against
Fort "A," marked out for seizure. The naval artillery
of the Allies was meanwhile giving evidence of its effect.
So affairs went on until June 9, when in the night there
were two attempts on the part of the garrison to break
out. One was driven back by rifle fire. In the second,
a body of the German native troops tried to swim the
Benue. As usual at this season, the river was in flood,
and in the darkness, battling with the swirling current,
most were drowned. Seventy bodies were cast up by
or recovered from the water. Only some forty-five of
the adventurers got over and escaped.

What these events in fact reflected was a mutiny of
part of the black troops of the garrison. They had had
enough. Next day, after a futile attempt to parley,
the commandant capitulated. His garrison had been
reduced to 37 Germans and 212 natives. Captures of

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THE CAMPAIGN IN THE CAMEROONS

materiel included 10 maxims, and nearly 115,000 rounds
of small arms ammunition, besides guns and shells, and
stores and equipment of various kinds.

General Cunliffe's next move was a dash south-east in
order to surprise the enemy posts holding the tracks
leading up to the great plateau. For that purpose a
column was detached under the command of Lieut. -Col.
Webb-Bowen. The paths leading to the northern rim
of the uplands are rugged and steep, and if not taken by
surprise the enemy there might offer a costly opposition.
On the way, the advance troops, led by Capt. C. H.
Fowle, of the Hampshires, found themselves overtaken
by an unusually severe tropical tornado. The wild
solitudes, fantastically lit at one moment by a dazzling
glare, were the next blotted out in impenetrable gloom,
and while the thunder crashed and echoed and re-echoed
through the hills, the rain came down as only it can
come down in those latitudes. Notwithstanding this,
the advance guard held on. The enemy posts, sheltering
from the storm, were rounded up to all intents without
resistance. Ngaundere, on the main road over these
hills, was thus attacked and captured by the main body
before an attack had been expected. The German
barrier across the north of the colony was broken.

Further immediate advance south, however, could not
be undertaken because of the rains. In a country where
the roads were still for the most part no more than tracks,
and supplies and baggage had to be moved stage by
stage on the backs of mules or on the heads of porters,
the wet season is a bar to movement, and over the dis-
tances in the Cameroons an absolute bar. The base
of these northern British operations was Yola on the
Benue, and about thirty miles beyond the frontier.
Garua lay on this line of communication, and had there-
fore first to be dealt with. But to the north the German
garrison at Mora still held out. True, there lay between
Garua and Mora 120 miles as the crow flies of rugged
mountains, but there was a track round the eastern
spurs of the heights, and to move south, stretching still
further his line of communications while leaving this

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THE CAMPAIGN IN THE CAMEROONS

menace in the rear, appeared to General Cunliffe inadvi-
sable. As a general advance could not be resumed
before the end of October, he proposed in the interval
to reduce the Mora fastness. Returning to Yola, he
began his preparations. Early in August they were
finished. In a march of fourteen days the 170 miles
between Yola and Mora were covered, and on August 23
his force was before the stronghold.

North of the Mora mountain rises a similar flat-topped
mass called Ouatchke, of the same elevation, but less in
perimeter. On Ouatchke the British troops were already
established. The two mountains are divided from one
another by a deep valley 600 yards wide. In the judg-
ment of General Cunliffe the best chance of carrying the
hostile position by assault, and it could be taken in no
other way, was an attack across this valley, for the
storming troops could then be supported by fire from
Ouatchke. Two attacks were undertaken and both
failed. A third reached the summit. There, however,
commanding the debouchment from the main gully, the
enemy had constructed a redoubt. Arriving at the sum-
mit, the forlorn hope, part of the 1st Nigeria Regiment,
made a dash for this work with the bayonet. But they
had to cover exposed ground, and sixty yards from the
redoubt were brought to a halt. There was, taking
advantage of such cover as existed, nothing for it but
to dig in and hold on, in the hope of reinforcement. And
for two days and two nights, despite all the efforts of the
enemy to dislodge them, they did hold on, though for
the whole of that time they were without food or water.
In the rear efforts were being made to send up relief and
supplies, and they were brave and determined efforts.
None, however, succeeded. The attack had got in by
sheer desperate valour. One of its leaders, Captain
R. N. Pike, a Political Officer of the Nigerian Govern-
ment, had displayed fearless gallantry. But the garrison,
taken aback by the feat, which had been thought
impossible, had rallied, and Pike had fallen. Reluctantly
therefore, seeing there was no help for it, General Cunliffe
ordered a withdrawal. And the attack had to be given

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THE CAMPAIGN IN THE CAMEROONS

up, for both the supply of shell for the guns and time had
alike run out. All that could be done was to leave an
investing force to watch the position and check raids.
Mora held out all through the campaign.

Time had run out because at Duala towards the end of
August there had been another conference between
General Dobell and his French allies, attended this time
by General Aymerich. Conditions had materially
changed. If the Allies had suffered losses they could be
made good. The Germans had sustained losses at least
equal ; losses of resources and equipment decidedly
heavier, and they could not be made good. The way,
too, was now open for an Allied advance from the north,
which, besides being on a sure footing, would by sweeping
the enemy off the central plateau deprive him of his best
source of supply. In brief, the breach of the German
barrier in the north had altered the outlook altogether.
As General Dobell had considered all along, it was the
hinge of the Allied campaign.

But the Duala conference decided upon an additional
movement — an advance upon Jaunde from the south
across the Campo river and through Ebolowa, conjointly
with the march of a column from Campo on the coast to
the same point. Jaunde was thus to be approached
from all the four points of the compass. This conver-
gence was to be set on foot early in October.

It was a useful preliminary that the force of General
Cunliffe, though part was occupied before Mora, had been
moving steadily south through the mountains, and in a
dashing little operation had taken another fortified
post — Gashaka. The position was turned by a twelve
hours' march through extremely rugged country, as the
reward of which adventure Captain C. G. Bowyer-Smijth
of the Gloueesters, seized a hill which cut off the retreat
of the garrison. Finding themselves entrapped, they
dispersed in twos and threes, leaving their equipment
behind them.

The reinforcements of which General Dobell was so
much in need were now — including a contingent of
Indian troops — beginning to arrive, and a further result of

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THE CAMPAIGN IN THE CAMEROONS

the advance from the north was that a British column
at Ossidinge, under the command of Major Crookenden,
was enabled to push forward to Dschang. This closed
the gap between the forces of Dobell and those of Cun-
liffe. The point towards which Cunliffe's troops were
to converge was Nachtigall Falls on the Sanaga, thirty
miles due north of Jaunde.

The final moves of the campaign were now entered
upon. Since the retreat in June, the forces of Dobell
had remained on the line of the Kele river. They had
again to push forward to Wum Biagas and Eseka. But
this time the advance was designed to take place by two
parallel columns, one French the other British, and each
having its own line of supply. On October 9 Wum
Biagas was in a dashing attack retaken by troops from
the Gold Coast Colony. The track cut from Edea for
fifty miles through the bush was made into a good motor
road, and in the last week of November everything was
ready for the concluding spring. It began on November 23.
The enemy put up a stiff fight, and one of the severest
engagements of the campaign took place at Lesogs,
but the Northern Nigerian troops, skilfully handled by
Lieut. -Col. Cockburn, crushed the opposition. Though
the enemy had contested ever}' yard of the way, the
British column on November 30 was at Ngung, with
Jaunde only twenty miles distant.

In the meantime, Cunliffe, in the north-west, had
uprooted the last important German stronghold. This
was at Banyo. From amidst surrounding foothills the
Banyo mountain, another of the steep-sided, flat-
topped eminences peculiar to the country, rises in
majestic isolation. Under its slopes at one side was a
native town, the mountain being a natural place of
refuge. The isolated mass had been fortified by the
Germans with every resource of military art. On the
precipitous slopes lay great boulders and masses of fallen
cliff. These had been linked up by walls of rough stone,
loopholed for rifles and machine-guns. There were
nearly three hundred such walls. At every point of
approach a fort had been built. On the summit, as

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THE CAMPAIGN IN THE CAMEROONS

provision against a siege, there were reservoirs made
watertight by the free use of cement, byres for cattle,
fowl-houses, granaries, stores, and quarters for the
garrison. And to ensure the position against being
starved out, there were the agricultural and other imple-
ments for cultivating the area on the top. The enemy's
confidence in the impregnability of the fortress was,
in fact, absolute, and here the German contingents
driven in from west and north had rallied, for that was
one purpose of the fastness.

The British attack was timed to open at daybreak on
November 4. The sides of the mountain were then
veiled in a dense mist, but if this embarrassed the attack,
it to a yet greater extent baffled the defence. When,
some hours later, the fog cleared off the attacking troops
were seen to be well up. The company of Captain
Bowyer-Smijth, a dashing leader, and not less resourceful,
climbed to the top. There, however, in striving to make
good they were enfiladed from both sides. Captain
Bowyer-Smijth unhappily fell. The rest had to beat a
retreat. To dislodge the assailants from positions they
had gained, the enemy hurled down from the top of the
heights bombs filled with dynamite. But in spite of
that the attack turned one sangar after another, and at
sunset on November 5 were generally one hundred yards
only below the summit. That night there was a violent
thunderstorm. In the midst of it the last climb was
resumed, and at daybreak the assault got home. It was
then found that, breaking up into small parties, the
garrison, during the night and under cover of the storm,
had climbed down remoter parts of the mountain by
avenues of escape already selected. The majority
were rounded up. Besides ammunition, stores, arms
and implements, the takings included 226 head of
cattle.

While this siege of Banyo had been going on, a com-
bined move had been carried out by Major Crookenden
and Lieut. -Col. Cotton upon Bagam, followed up by a
movement of Cotton and Major Uniake on Fumban.
These were the last German posts in the hills. Brisset

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THE CAMPAIGN IN THE CAMEROONS

also had (December 3) pushed south to Yoko on the
direct route to Nachtigall Falls.

In advance from the west, General DobelPs force had
from Ngung reached and taken Dschang Mangas, and
were now out of the forest tract into open country.
The column of Mayer, operating through thick bush,
and hotly opposed, had got to Mangales. From the
south and east also the Allies were closing in, and it was
perceived that before the British advance from Ngung
the resistance had been visibly weakening. Under these
circumstances, the column of Colonel Gorges was
ordered to push on. He entered Jaunde on January 1,
1916.

The town had been evacuated. At the head of the
remnant of his forces, now reduced to a few thousands,
Zimmermann was on the way to Rio Muni, the small
Spanish possession which forms an enclave in the south-
west corner of the Cameroons territory. Following him
up, Lieut. -Col. Haywood at Kol Maka released the
European and other combatants and native carriers
whom the enemy had taken prisoners. Zimmermann
finally was shepherded over the Spanish border by the
French troops, and there with his following interned.
The French forces had converged on Jaunde a few days
after Gorges.

Save for the German garrison at Mora the campaign
Avas now at an end. Hauptmann von Raben, in com-
mand at Mora, held out until February 18, but, offered
honourable terms, he capitulated. His native rank and
file was released and given safe passages to their homes,
the officers, sent to England as prisoners of war, retained
their swords.

187

CHAPTER X

THE WAR IN THE PACIFIC AND THE SIEGE OF KIAO-

CHAU.

German policy in the Far East, — Aims of German diplomacy — Basis
and effects of German naval power — The British and Japanese
counter-moves — Growth of German interests in the Pacific —
Influence of Japanese and Australian naval preparations — The
New Zealand Expedition to the Samoan Islands — Australian
conquest of the Bismarck Archipelago and Kaiser Wilhelm Land
— Japanese Pacific Expedition — The Germans in Kiao-Chau —
Character and strength of its fortifications — Germany's " lone
hand " in the Far East— Japan's declaration of War — Preparations
for the siege of Kiao-Chau — Landing of the Japanese advance
forces — The British contingent — General Kamio's first move —
Skill of Japanese operations — Capture of the outer defences — The
attack on the inner defences — A record bombardment — The three
parallels of approach — Last stage of the attack — Surrender of the
garrison.

In the schemes of the Government at Berlin the
possession of Kiao-Chau and the colonies of the Pacific
Ocean fell into one category ; for, in fact, German
imperial policy had two co-related aspects. The first
and older of the two was concerned with the establish-
ment of the German Empire as the leading military
Power on the Continent of Europe. Towards that end
the initial step had been the welding of the Germanic
Confederation into a military unity under the headship
of Prussia, and the purpose was achieved by the victory
over Austria in the war of 1866. The next step was by
utilising and developing these unified resources to raise
the new Hohenzollern Empire to the place of the leading
military State, and in turn that aim was accomplished by
the successes in the war of 1870-71 against France. But

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THE WAR IN THE PACIFIC

between leadership and dominance there is a distinction,
and after 1870-71 dominance, not leadership, became the
ambition. The struggle for dominance, for which after
the war of 1870-71 the rulers of the remodelled German
Empire set themselves without delay to prepare, must, as
they foresaw, arouse a wider and more formidable oppo-
sition. In the contest for leadership, and while their aims
were not yet clearly perceived abroad, they had been able
to deal with obstacles one by one. But in the contest for
dominance it was not less certain that they would have
to meet a combined resistance. One feature of their
preparations was the steady improvement and enlarge-
ment of their military machine. That, in order to allay
suspicions and misgivings, had to be carried out gradually,
and covered meanwhile by reiterated and emphatic
professions of pacificism.

Since, however, though improved and enlarged, their
military machine and their own resources would not,
unaided, suffice for a conflict against a combination, the)'
set about creating a counter-combination ; its core the
offensive and defensive alliance with Austria-Hungary.
As distinct from leadership — the position of primus
inter pares— dominance involved, even on its lowest
footing, the diplomatic and commercial dependence of
other States on the continent of Europe. On its highest
footing, and the lowest would assuredly and in time shade
into the highest, it meant the conversion of Europe into
a German possession.

But precisely because in the ambition of dominance
all that was implied, there comes into view the second
aspect of German policy — the dispersal or division of
probable resistance. In the possible combination against
this vast scheme, the most formidable antagonist to be
reckoned with was Britain and to divide the potential
combination, the active hostility of Britain had if possible
to be fended oft!. With the Continental antagonists
alone — France and Russia — the rulers of the German
Empire believed confidently they could deal. They
were the more confident since, by the alliance of 1883 the
neutrality of Italy had apparently been assured. The

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THE WAR IN THE PACIFIC

feasible procedure was clearly to crush the continental
opposition in the first place ; to fight with Great Britain
in the second ; and finally to overthrow the resistance
of the United States which the break-up of the British
federation would undoubtedly arouse.

If, then, German diplomacy is to be understood and
followed through its mazes, this purpose of realising
ambitions by successive steps has always to be kept in
mind as the inspiration at the back of it, and its guiding
thread. And to begin with, we may say up to the year
1900, and during the whole of the thirty years which
elapsed between 1870 and that date, German diplomacy,
so far as Britain was concerned, seemed to be in every
respect successful. German diplomacy — it was an ob-
vious precaution — had not neglected to establish in high
places in Great Britain an influence which on the surface
worked towards a good understanding. Though the
old British suspicion against France had died away, it
had not then yet given place to cordiality. During the
transition the tendency of British opinion was to look
upon affairs on the continent of Europe as of no more than
indirect interest. This attitude of " splendid isolation,"
congenial to the British public as to that of the United
States, fitted in with German aims. No means were
neglected to foster it. Hence, in Great Britain, the
beginnings of the German navy were regarded with
indifference. It was not understood that command of
the inland seas of Europe — the Baltic and the Black
Sea — was essential to the first part of the German pro-
gramme. It was not seen that, apart from secure German
command of the Baltic, a formidable attack upon France
could hardly be risked. It was not perceived that
German command of the Baltic and of the Black Sea
meant, while safeguarding a great German attack upon
France, the isolation of Russia. Had these things
been apprehended, it is at least highly doubtful if British
opinion would during the thirty years between 1870 and
1900 have remained quiescent.

British indifference, however, to the earlier upgrowth
of a German navy was not, in the judgment of the wire-

190

AND THE SIEGE OF KIAO-CHAU

pullers at Berlin, assurance enough. British indifference
might suddenly change to mistrust. The assurance
had to be increased by creating in various parts of the
world German interests and footholds which, in the event
of war, would have the effect of dispersing British naval
resources. On the one hand, Great Britain was to be
confronted in the North Sea by a naval concentration
strong enough to impose circumspection ; on the other,
she was to be manoeuvred into a position which would
make that concentration difficult to be dealt with. In
these circumstances, her neutrality might be counted
upon until France and Russia had been struck down.
After that her attitude would not signify.

Probably the most remarkable of all the events of
the period from 1870 to 1900 was the British-German
Agreement, which not only enabled Germany in 1890
to annex great territories in Africa, and to round off her
until then petty possessions in the Pacific, but gave her
Heligoland as a place deemed of no value. The assumed
equivalent, for what it was worth, was German goodwill.
For German diplomacy, its aims and programme being
what they were, the compact was a signal triumph,
and on the face of matters the success may well have
seemed at Berlin to be as dazzling as it was facile. British
statesmanship appeared to have been hoodwinked.
Before the Agreement the professions from Berlin were
as smooth as oil. The words were fair. Germany's
only motive was to guarantee the settled peace of the
world, and the world was large enough for everybody.
The value of German goodwill, however, was disclosed
by the outbreak of the Boer War. It was then assumed
that the mask might in part at any rate be dropped.
The role of hypocrisy had been played so long that to the
restive temperament of William II. it was becoming
monotonous. He sent off his famous Kruger telegram,
he gave the word for the long projected strategical
railways to the frontiers of Holland and Belgium to
go ahead, and he openly advertised that the future of
Germany was upon the sea.

British statesmanship, waking up to the fact that it

191

THE WAR IN THE PACIFIC

had been misled, set about repairing mistakes. The
change led to friction. Once, when the Entente with
France was on the eve of being concluded in 1904,
affairs came within an ace of war. The rulers of Germany
threatened and protested. Great Britain's reply was to
mobilise her Fleet, and on reflection William II. and his
advisers backed down. They were not yet sufficiently
ready. The Anglo-French Entente, disagreeable bolus
though it was, had to be swallowed. But they remained
in an evil temper and the race of armaments was speeded
up. The hope of British neutrality was not relinquished,
though William II. had queered it.

German ambitions in Africa have already been touched
upon. If a map of the world be consulted, and German
possessions in the western Pacific — nearly all comprised
in a great ring fence — be looked at, it will be seen that
with a German Africa on one side, these Pacific posses-
sions— enlarged — on the other ; and a German dominance
in Europe, Asia Minor, Persia, and Arabia, the British
position in India, the route through the Mediterranean
being held at best on suffrance, would become extremely
difficult. And if the British position in India resolved
itself eventually into a German position, then the ex-
ploitation of the Far East should be the sequel. Hence
the steps towards " exercising a decisive influence " in
the Far East — the feigned support of Russia as against
Japan ; the war with China ; and the acquisition of
Kiao-Chau.

The move countering these Far Eastern projects was
the British alliance with Japan. It was for the rulers of
Germany a disagreeable move, and it was the more disa-
greeable because Australian opposition to Mongolian
immigration had been counted upon to keep Great
Britain and Japan apart. So far as in that quarter
of the world it carried weight, German influence, working
by the usual methods of suggestion, and repeated
innuendo, was employed to fan the belief in a white
and yellow — that is to say a British and Japanese —
contest for the Pacific. But by 1914 the trend of German
activity had grown so plain that only the grossest deceit

192

AND THE SIEGE OF KIAO-CHAU

acting upon the grossest ignorance could disguise it.
Actually there was in the pigeon-holes of the Foreign
Office at Berlin a plan, cut and dried, for the German
government of Australia. When war broke out German
activities and encroachments had assured not merely
the prompt participation of Japan, but action not less
prompt on the part of Australia and New Zealand. The
three were equally determined to eliminate the Germans
from the Pacific once for all.

Very briefly, for it has a bearing upon later events, the
course of German associations with the Pacific may here
be traced. Previously to 1870 German trade with this
part of the world was mainly represented to the transac-
tions of a mercantile house in Hamburg, the firm of
Godeffroy and Co., its founder a French Huguenot.
This house had opened a trade with the natives of Samoa,
exporting cotton goods and arms, which were bartered
for copra and cocoanut oil. By degrees this business
was extended from the Samoan Islands to other archipela-
gos. In the meantime more German firms had entered
into the trade, and about the year 1875, to resist further
competition, Godeffroy and Co. and two other German
houses pooled their Pacific business into a company with
a capital of some £60,000. The trade was now carried
on on a larger footing. At this point the German
Government came into the matter. In 1877, following
the familiar practice, the German Government negotiated
with the native chiefs of Samoa, a " most-favoured-
nation " agreement. Under the terms of that conces-
sion the Germans occupied the ports, while to protect
their interests a German Consul-General was appointed.
Two years later the Native Council of Samoa was induced
to enter into a treaty of mutual friendship with the
German Empire. It was, in fact, a protection agreement
of the type already noted in German dealings in Africa.

How far all this was useful may be inferred from the
fact that by now the Germans had acquired in the
Samoan Islands very extensive plantations, and in
Upolu owned all the best lands. The privately floated
one-horse company was wound up, but was succeeded by

193 o

THE WAR IN THE PACIFIC

a concern having a capital of £500,000, and the interest
of the German Government in the scheme was evidenced
by its guarantee of a 3 per cent, dividend for twenty
years. It happened, owing to opposition from rivals —
the Cartel or Trust system being of German origin —
that the Government guarantee was negatived in the
Reichstag. The project, however, was put through in
a slightly modified form, and was associated with a
Pacific bank having branches in various islands. There
now, however, arose complications of an international
character. Both the British and Americans had a foot-
ing in Samoa, and were not disposed to be ousted.
Under the protection agreement when differences broke
out between King Malietoa and Mataafa, a leading chief
and rival, the Germans deposed the king, and evicted
him to the Marshall Islands. He was, however, re-
proclaimed through the action and protests of the Ameri-
can and British consuls. Finally in 1899 affairs were
settled by a division of the Samoan Islands between the
three Powers. Germany obtained Upolu and Savaii ;
the United States Tutuila ; Great Britain the Tonga
Archipelago.

Previously, however, to this, in 1885, Germany had in
Oceania systematically annexed everything which any
other European Power did not definitely claim. In New
Guinea she picked up 70,000 square miles of territory,
thereupon named Kaiser Wilhehn Land, and she annexed
New Britain and New Ireland, and the Admiralty Islands,
the whole group being renamed the Bismarck Archipelago.
New Britain became New Pomerania, and New Ireland
New Mecklenburg. She took possession also of the
Marshall Islands, a profitable acquisition, since, besides
defraying the costs of the administration, the German
Chartered Company, to which they were farmed out, was
able to pay its shareholders 12 per cent.

The rounding off of these Pacific possessions occurred
in 1899. For £1,000,000 sterling, the German Govern-
ment in that year bought from Spain the Pelew Islands,
the Ladrone Islands, and the Carolines. The latter
comprise 670 islands extending across the Pacific,

194

AND THE SIEGE OF KIAO-CITAU

from west to east for 1,500 miles and disposed into
forty-seven groups. Germany's Pacific sphere of in-
fluence, nearly 3,000 miles from west to east and nearly
2,000 from south to north, was thus constituted, and the
only speck upon it was the island of Guam, a possession
of the United States.

Two developments which went to discount and dis-
concert these projects, so far as they in turn might not
be offset by a possible German military success in Europe,
were the rapid growth of the Japanese navy and the for-
mation of an Australian naval squadron. In 1895 the
Japanese navy was not strong enough to risk a conflict
single-handed with the fleets of the three Powers who
presented the ultimatum of that year which had obliged
Japan to evacuate Port Arthur. But in 1904 the
Japanese navy was sufficiently strong to fight and win
the battle of Tschushima, and then disclosed itself as
marvellously efficient. The Australian squadron, too,
was a sensible counter-poise. In view of these develop-
ments, Germany maintained at Kiao-Chau a powerful
squadron, and the Austrian navy was represented by one
of its battleships. But the squadron was not so powerful
as to resist being blockaded by the Japanese navy.
Consequently on the outbreak of war in Europe, and,
doubtless instructed that hostilities with Japan were
impending, Admiral von Spee took out the five fastest
ships, leaving the others to assist in the defence of the
port. The three routes of communication from Europe
with the Pacific, apart from that opened through the
Panama canal are round Cape Horn, round the Cape of
Good Hope, and through the Red Sea. Possibly in
other circumstances the Germans might have made an
effort to cut those communications. But with Japan
in the rear and the Australian squadron in the south the
attempt could not in the Pacific seriously be made, and it
is enough to say, though his proceedings do not enter into
the scope of this narrative, that von Spee, recognising
the situation, made for Port Stanley, the coaling station
and base at the Falkland Islands, a position which, could
he have seized it, might for a time have enabled him,

195 o2

THE WAR IN THE PACIFIC

while sufficiently distant from the Japanese, to have
operated against both the Cape route and that round the
Horn. Off the Falkland Islands, however, he met his
doom.

Save for the depredations of Emden the Pacific was
then clear of naval opposition, and that was the state
of affairs in the Western Pacific from the outset. It was
this circumstance which rendered the seizure of Germany's
island possessions one of the most rapid of the allied
operations.

The plan was that the German Islands of the Samoan
group were to be attacked from New Zealand; Kaiser
Wilhelm Land, the Bismarck Archipelago, and the
German possessions of the Solomon group from Australia.
Both projects being " amphibious," Rear- Admiral Sir
George Patey, with the battle-cruiser Australia, and the
cruiser Melbourne, was to see them through.

The New Zealand Expedition left Wellington on August
15, 1914. Pending the arrival of the two Australian
warships, the escort were the British light cruisers
Psyche, Pyramus and Philomel. Though it was known
that the German Pacific squadron had left Kiao-Chau,
it was not known what course had been taken, and since
the German squadron included the swift and powerful
battle-cruisers Gneisenau and Scharnhorst, for precaution
a course was shaped for New Caledonia. There the
Australian ships were to pick the Expedition up. New
Caledonia was reached on August 19. On the station
there was the French cruiser Montcalm, and she joined
the convoy. In due course Australia and Melbourne
appeared, and on August 23 the united force set
out on the 1,000 miles voyage to Samoa. Though a
brief call was made at Fiji, the trip was completed in
six days. On August 30 they were off Apia, the port of
Upolu. To the demand for surrender there was no
resistance. After mine-sweeping operations the war-
ships entered the harbour, landing parties of blue
jackets took possession of the Government buildings, the
custom house, and the quays and bridges, the German
flag was hauled down, the New Zealand ensign run up,

196

AND THE SIEGE OF KIAO-CHAU

the expeditionary force put ashore, and disposed in
quarters, and all was over. Savaii was occupied in the
same way.

Returning to Sydney, Australia and Melbourne con-
voyed the Commonwealth Expedition. This, of course,
in view of the territory to be occupied, and the opposition
looked for, was on larger lines, and comprised a total
force of 4,000 men. The seat of the German adminis-
tration was at Rabaul in New Pomerania, and near that
place was one of the two powerful German wireless
stations in the Pacific, the other being at Yap in the
Carolines. For Simpsonshafen, the Expedition first
made, and the port was occupied without resistance,
and the other port of the island, Herbcrtshohe, captured
also without a shot fired. All the same, the invasion was
not a walk-over. One purpose of the attack was to take
possession of the wireless station, and with as little delay
as possible. This business was entrusted to Commander
J. A. H. Beresford. Immediately the flotilla had arrived
off Simpsonshafen Beresford at daybreak was put ashore
with a mobile column to push inland towards Rabaul,
and seize the wireless installation before it could be
wrecked. He found himself opposed by all the force
the Germans had at their disposal. Part of the way it
was a bush fight, but despite bush, snipers in the tree
tops, land mines, and machine-guns, for every obstructive
device had been resorted to, Beresford fought his way
through. The fight lasted from daybreak until past
midnight. It was the first flush of Australian fury, and
bush-ranging resourcefulness. Both left the opposition
staggered. Hot, tired, thirsty, but triumphant, Beres-
ford and his men arrived at and in the early hours of
November 12 mastered the wireless station, before the
surprised and routed enemy could recover. And this
was the only battle. All the Bismarck archipelago was
occupied and the Germans on it rounded up. Even
Kaiser Wilhelm Land was surrendered without a defence.

Coincidently, the Japanese Expedition had been
going round the Pelew, Ladrone, Caroline and Marshall
Islands collecting the Germans upon them. Com-

197

THE WAR IN THE PACIFIC

manding points were afterwards occupied by Australian
posts.

We now pass to a different scene ; from the gorgeous
colouring and enchanted islands of the tropical oce^n at
the fairest season of the year, to the far north during the
days of the Autumn rains. Not merely had the Govern-
ment of Japan not forgiven the demarche of 1895,
seeing that its inspiration from Berlin was well known,
but to that insult, and the terms of the ultimatum to
Japan had been studiously sarcastic and wounding to
Japanese national self-respect, had been added the injury
of the occupation of Kiao-Chau. This position, on the
south-eastern coast of the Shantung peninsula, com-
manded the Yellow Sea, and such an occupation by
Germany could only have one meaning — the exclusion
of Japanese influence from the Asiatic mainland. That
it would have the effect of leading Japan to seek an
alliance with Great Britain was not perhaps at Berlin
foreseen, much less that the alliance would be concluded.
But such an outcome, for Japan an obvious reply, had
the effect of placing the Germans at Kiao-Chau in an
awkward situation. They had stepped on to what had
seemed a safe place and found that it had become a
trap. Pride, however, forbade withdrawal, and at
Kiao-Chau, pending development of their world-empire,
the Germans meant to remain, trusting to the sequel
proving fortunate. They had very largely rebuilt and
transformed the town and port of Tsing-Tau to their
own liking, for this in the Far East was to be the nucleus
of great things, and the Eastern mind had to be impressed
with the superiority and value of German Kultur. New
docks were constructed ; shipyards fitted up, and broad
new streets driven across the town. Expensive and
resplendent public buildings rose on these frontages.
Gardens were laid out on the model of those in Berlin,
and German officialdom took its leisure along an imita-
tion Unter den Linden, or displayed itself in the novel
tea-grounds. The natives, too, were given the benefit
of schools, where the German language was taught.
The possession was only a leasehold for a mere term

198

AND THE SIEGE OF KIAO-CHAU

of years, but the lessee evidently treated it as a
perpetuity.

Comparatively, however, the civilian changes were a
detail. Nor did they represent more than a fi action
of Germany's outlay. Four-fifths of that outlay,
and it ran into a good many millions sterling, was upon
fortification. The bay of Kiao-Chau is a large, and
almost land-locked inlet, one of the best natural harbours
on the Chinese coast. On the east side of the bay there
is a peninsula, the features of which lent themselves
very peculiarly to military works. Across the peninsula
extend two ranges of hills, an outer range and an inner,
and between them lies a valley rather more than half-a-
mile in breadth. Up the valley from the sea on one
side and from the bay on the other run inlets, not
easy to cross. The space between is narrow, a quarter
of a mile wide at most. It was evident that the outer
range of hills afforded a strong advanced position ;
that the valley, scientifically obstructed, could be made
a very bad obstacle to negotiate, and that the inner
range of hills could be turned into a powerful line of
support. The town and port of Tsing-Tau lies behind
the inner range of hills. To guard against attack from
the sea the port was converted into a naval base and
aisenal of the first class. To guard against attack from
landward, not merely was the outer range of hills
elaborately fortified, but on each of the three inner hills
there were placed forts armed with long-range heavy
pieces. The lighter armament was disposed in a line
of redoubts laid out along the outer footing of the
three hills, and designed to sweep with a cross-fire
the gradual upward slope from the valley. This slope
was left bare, denuded of every vestige of cover, and
beyond it along and extending over the whole bottom
of the valley, flat and swampy, were placed the entangle-
ments, carried also up the opposite and farther slope.
It may well have appeared that in the face of modern
ordnance such a place was impregnable, and when for
its defence there was maintained a garrison of more
than 5,000 men, picked and specially trained, the

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THE WAR IN THE PACIFIC

Germans seemed not unjustified in believing they
could defy every assault. What with their concentrated
heavy, medium, and lighter guns, and machine-guns,
the valley should be impassable. This was the other
side of German Kultur.

That Kiao-Chau had been selected because it could
readily be converted into a first class fortress, as well
as a naval base capable of almost unlimited extension—
the bay of Kiao-Chau is large enough and deep enough
to shelter and refit a great fleet — does not admit of
doubt. Nor can it be doubted that the features of the
place had beforehand been carefully studied. The
quarrel picked with the Chinese while the German-
Russian agreement yet held — that is to say, so long as
the agreement suited the purposes of Germany — was
deliberate, and had this acquisition in view. Japan, mean-
while, had no choice but to look on and see the Chinese
bullied. But it is sometimes forgotten by Europeans that
the Empires of the Far East are immensely old, and that
there exists a sense of time and of its revenges little
understood by those whose history and traditions
date relatively from yesterday. At the beginning of
the eighteenth century Prussia was a petty state.
Hurry had always been the characteristic of its rulers,
and a mark of the Prussian temperament. The tem-
perament of the Far East, however, is before everything
patience. The Entente concluded between Great Britain
and France detached Russia from this co-operation
with Germany against China and Japan. Having taken
the profit of it, Germany viewed the defeat of Russia
in the Manchurian War with complacency, if not with
satisfaction. The British-Japanese alliance was the
finishing touch. From that time Germany in the Fai
East played a lone hand.

Time certainly brought its revenges, and rarely more
conspicuously than in 1914. The ultimatum which in
the August of that year the Government at Berlin
received from Tokio was word for word the mandate
which in 1895 the German Government had presented
to Japan. The only changes were the necessary altera-

200

201

THE WAR IN THE PACIFIC

tions in names. The pompous and sarcastically polite
phraseology in which Japan had been advised to
evacuate Port Arthur now became the terms in which
the German Government were advised to remove from
Kiao-Chau. It was a touch of comedy rounded off
by the solemn affability with which the Japanese
Ambassador at Berlin carried the document over to
the German Foreign Office, and there delivered it into
the hands of von Biilow. Seven days were given for
a reply. The answer of the German Government to
this clean cut was that there was no reply. On August 23,
the seven days' interval expired. On the same date,
Japan declared war.

In the meantime, Admiral Meyer-Waldeck, the German
Governor of Kiao-Chau, had received orders to hold
out as long as possible. He had not only ample stocks
of munitions and stores, but he had been liberally
provided with land mines, and besides a tuning up of
the forts, a stiffening of the redoubts, and a thickening
of the entanglements, the valley beyond Tsing-Tau
was sown with mines so contrived that they could in
part be exploded by attempts to interfere with the
obstacles, and in part by observation from the defence
works. The equipment included also squadrons of
aeroplanes, both bombers and scouts. Nothing appa-
rently had been overlooked, and almost certainly there
was at Berlin every confidence that the siege of Kiao-
Chau, even should it succeed, would last during many
months, and involve the Japanese in huge casualties.
This was the contemplated revenge.

Nothing, apparently, had been overlooked, and yet
sight had been lost of the one element in the business
which mattered most — the skill, subtlety and resource
of the attack. If German study of the defence had been
thorough, Japanese study of the assault had been, if
anything, more searching. There was not a detail of
the defences that was not known ; not a store of any
kind that had not been sited ; not a dump of munitions
which was not marked down ; not a trace along the
works which had been left uncertain ; not a line of

202

AND THE SIEGE OF KIAO-CHAU

barbed wire that had not been mapped ; not a land-
mine unlocated. For this very operation Japan had
trained a special Expeditionary Corps of 23,000 men.
From General Kamio in command down to the junior
officers, every man knew his work. It was no intention
of the Japanese to waste men in massed assaults on these
fortifications. That was not science. The science lay
in reducing the works to rubbish heaps, in firing the
stores and oil tanks, in touching off the dumps, in
causing the land-mines to explode themselves. The
artillery for this purpose was part of the outfit, and it
was not stinted. The pieces ranged up to naval guns
of a calibre of 11 inches. For anything heavier reliance
was placed on the warships, Japanese and British, which
were to attack in enfilade from seaward. But more
important even than the guns were the gunners. They
knew what to hit. and they could be depended upon to
hit it.

The remaining German ships being bottled up by the
Allied fleet in the bay, the Expedition landed without
opposition. The German land forces kept within their
advanced lines. Activities began three days after the
declaration of war.

The advanced forces of the Expedition were landed
at Lung-Kow on the north-western shore of the Shantung
peninsula, and were to march acrosss country south
in order to reach Kiao-Chau from the inland, and seize
the railway from that place. Formally this landing
was a violation of Chinese neutrality, and formally the
Chinese protested, but face having been saved there
it ended. The main body of the Expedition was
put ashore at Laoshan bay, some thirty miles to the
north-east of Tsing-Tau. This part of the force included
a British contingent, the 2nd South Wales Borderers
and the 36th Sikhs under the command of Brigadier-
General N. W. Barnardiston. They had been embarked
in three transports at Tientsin, and escorted by H.M.S.
Triumph and destroyer Usk.

Over the preliminaries the Japanese displayed no
haste. The laying out of a base, the making of roads,

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THE WAR IN THE PACIFIC

the movement and disposition of guns and supplies is
work that usually receives but scant record. It is the
tedium of war, not its glory ; but it is the foundation of
everything, and success or failure depends upon whether
it be well or ill done. In this instance, it was well done.
The conditions were adverse and might well have
appeared disheartening. The autumn rains had set
in, and day after day there was a torrential downpour,
soaking everybody, and every object. Hereabouts
the country is hilly, its surface a clay cut up by deep
ravines. Amid the rains there could hardly be worse
ground, and the state of it churned by a multitude of
men, guns, wagons, and thousands of horses and mules,
can readily be imagined. But the Japanese took the
conditions with philosophical stoicism. And the con-
ditions, after all, had one advantage. At this stage the
Germans had relied upon aeroplane attack, and bombing
activity. The rains kept them off. Severed as their
communications with the country outside now were —
for the mobile force from Lung-Kow had seized the
Kiao-Chau railway station, and Japanese posts had been
drawn all round the beleaguered position to the north —
the Germans must have wondered what was really
going on behind the curtain of mist.

Three weeks thus went by. On the side of General
Kamio, however, they had not been time lost, for when
the weather began to clear towards the end of September
he was ready for a move. He pushed inland and west-
ward to Chimo, and disposed his forces for attack upon
the German outer line. The enemy attempted to impede
this move by bombarding the Japanese right from the
remaining warships in Kiao-Chau bay, but the enterprise
and daring of the Japanese airmen in bombing the
squadron forced it to retire. Chimo was occupied on
September 26. On September 29, the German advanced
positions, extending across the Tsing-Tau tongue of
land from Kiao-Chau bay to the sea were to have been
assaulted. After the Japanese artillery preparation
they were found evacuated. The line of investment was
now moved forward towards the main defences on

204

AND THE SIEGE OF KIAO-CHAU

Prince Heinrich Hill, and others of the outer elevations.
A stiff resistance was looked for here. Prince Heinrich
Hill, a crescent-shaped formation, is nearly 1,200 feet
high, and the most elevated point of the region, and as
an observation post it commanded not only the valley,
but the inner hills and in part the town and bay. It
hardly seemed probable that the enemy would let this
work go without a severe struggle.

For three days the defences were hammered, and the
shelling found the weak links. The works and obstruc-
tions were shot to rags, and it was more than the defence
could stand. When on October 8 the Japanese storm-
ing parties, fierce and agile, were thrown forward, they
got home at the first try. The siege was proceeding
with mathematical precision. In twelve days the
besiegers had, move by move, pushed their lines forward
four miles. Now having Prince Heinrich Hill in their
possession they were in a situation to attack the inner
defences with advantage.

This attack was to form the climax of the bombard-
ment, and there was a pause in preparation for it. The
necessary head of shell accumulated, the guns opened
on the last day of October. Whether as an effect or
as a spectacle it may be doubted if this sustained storm
of fire has ever been surpassed. The three humps
covering Tsing-Tau are : right Moltke Hill ; centre
Bismarck Hill ; left litis Hill, and they range in height
from approximately 270 to 500 feet. Each appeared
a mass of powerful works. Under the cannonade,
supported by the fire of the ships, the forts crumbled
to ruins. The forts on Bismarck Hill were first silenced,
and though the others yet held out, their reply was
visibly enfeebled. At the same time, the bombardment,
with a fatal accuracy, searched the port and storehouses,
and the glare of fire rose over the town. Late in the
day the oil-tanks caught, and enormous volumes of
smoke floated skyward, like an eruption of a volcano.
When darkness fell a red glow shot through the base
of the black fumes ; the inner hills were outlined against
the leaping flames beyond ; the forts were burning.

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THE WAR IN THE PACIFIC

Now and then a dump went up. At rapid intervals
the defences and the interlying valley Avere illuminated
by nights of star shells. Amid this the roar of the
bombardment went ceaselessly on, pounding the forts,
crushing the redoubts, ploughing wide gaps in the
entanglements. At the same time, the assaulting
columns were moving forward to their allotted positions.
They were in four sections, the British contingent the
right centre. Under the cover of the guns three suc-
cessive lines were to be taken up. The first was occupied
on November 1 ; the second, a jumping off position
for attack upon the redoubts, on November 3 ; the third,
the line of the redoubts, on November 6. Five of these
works were carried almost coincidently. The British
troops assisted in the attack on the right.

The last stage, the assault on the hills, was reserved
for the morrow. In the night Japanese skirmishers
had gone forward and dealt with the obstacles and
impediments. The main body of the troops were at
dawn waiting in the ruins and trenches for the last
rush, and with the first light the garrison began a can-
nonade with light guns, varied by an occasional shot
from a heavy piece. The besieging batteries broke out
in reply, a furious intense and destructive chorus.
Then suddenly the white flag went up, and an enemy
deputation came forward with a flag of truce.

Mayer-Weldeck had surrendered. A fortress which
had been expected to withstand a siege of at least six
months had fallen within six weeks. It had been,
however, one of the most scientific sieges in history.

INDEX

INDEX

Abercorn, German attack upon,
94

Adye, Lt.-Col. D. R., 123

Africa, German military policy
regarding, 160

Aitken, Major-Gen., 88

Alberts, Col., 51

Ali Dinar, Sultan of Darfur, 99 ;
his end, 101

Anglo-German Convention of 1890,
situation in S.-West Africa at
the date of the, 9

Angra Pequena, German annexa-
tion of, 7

Armistice of May 20, 1915, the, 60

Ases, battle at, 22, 23

Askaris, scheme for enrolment of,
78

Astrtea, H.M.S., 34, 85

Australia, German policy regard-
ing, 193

Australian Expedition against
New Pomerania, the, 197

Aymerich, Gen., 169, 179

B

Baluchis, the 129th and 130th,

109, 112, 146
Banyo, siege and capture of, 185,

186
Barker, Captain, 161
Barnardiston, Gen. G. W., 203
Barton, Capt., D.S.O., 92, 93
Bastards of Rehoboth, the, 16
Bechuanaland Rifles, the, 50
Behobeho, battle of, 146

BRITISH CAMPAIGNS IN AFRICA. 209

Behr-Bandelin, Count, 74

Beresford, Commander J. A. H.,
197

Beringia, battle of, 100, 101

Berlin Congo Conference, 1885,
the, 2

Berrange, Gen., 44 ; his desert
march, 50, 51 : arrival in E.
Africa, 113; captures Dodoma,
127

Beves, General, 34, 105, 130, 145,
146

Beyers and De Wet rising, the,
38

Bishop, Lieut. P. D., 92

Bismarck Archipelago, the, 194

Blockade of East African Coast,
85, 86

Bondelswartz, episode of, 16

Botha, General Louis, his policy,
29 ; his plan of campaign in
S.-West Africa, 30, 32, 43;
his visit to Tschaukab, 47, 48 ;
his advance from Swakopmund,
50, 57 ; drive to Dorstrivier-
mund, 59 ; dash to Windhuk,
59, 60 ; rejects the German
armistice terms, 60 ; his prepa-
rations for the final move, 62 ;
his terms, 68, 69

Botha, Brig. -Gen. Manie, 47, 113

Bouwer, Col., 44, 56

Bowyer-Smijth, Capt. C. G., 184,
186

Braithwaite, Commander L. W.,
R.N., 174

Breedt, Major, 44

Brisset, Lt.-Col., 168, 176

British Colonial policy in S.-West
Africa, 8, 9

British East Africa Company, 76

INDEX

Brits, Brig.-Gen., 47, 64, 67, 113,

129, 137
Britstown, German attack upon,

44
Brussels Anti-Slavery Conference,

1890, 2
Bryant, Col., 162
Bukoba, British Expedition

against, 91
Buttner, Carl, 7
Byron, Lt.-Col. (5th S.A.I.), 109

C

Cameroons, features of the, 165 ;

German forces in the, 165, 166
Challenger, H.M.S., 170
Chra, battle on the, 162
Christian, Willem, 16
Cockburn, Lt.-Col., 185
Collins, Lt.-Col., R.E., 105
Cotton, Lt.-Col., 186
Credit system, operation of the, in

Damaraland, 14
Crewe, Gen. Sir Chas., 123
Crookenden, Major, 185, 186
Cullinan's Horse, 50
Cumberland, H.M.S., 170
Cunliffe, Brig.-Gen. F. H. B., 141,

177, 181

D

Darfur, the rising in, 99
Davignab, combat at, 54
Deventer, Col. Dirk van, 54, 55
Deventer, Gen. Sir J. van, 43 ;
his advance from Upington, 50 ;
takes Kalkfontein, 56 ; sent
to E. Africa, 105 ; turning
movement at Taveta, 106, 107 ;
manoeuvres on the Pangani,lll ;
captures Lokissale, 115; dash
to Kandoa Irangi, 116; move to
Dodoma, 127 ; march to Kilossa,
134 ; movement on Mahenge,
145 ; succeeds to E. African
command, 148 ; his plans, 148 ;
defeats Germans at Naron-
gombe, 148 ; and at Masasi,
149 ; his final moves, 153, 154

De Wet, General, 38

Dobell, Major-Gen. C. M., 168;

his attack upon Duala, 171 ;

plan of the Cameroons advance,

184
Doring, Col. von, 160
Driscoll's Frontiersmen, 91
Dschang Mangas, capture of, 187
Duala, German defences at, 170 ;

Allied conferences at, 177, 184
Dume, battle at, 177
Dwarf, exploits of the gunboat,

170
Dyke, Lt.-Col., 146

E

Eastern Soudan, German in-
trigues in the, 76, 84

Edea, Allied operations against,
174 ; German reaction at, 175

Edwards, General, 139, 152

El Fasher, British Expedition to,
99

Enslin, Brig.-Gen., his turning
movement in the battle of
Matamondo, 129 ; advance to
Mlali, 135

Eseka, capture of, 178

Falkenstein, Count von, 85
Farrar, Sir George, 39, 40
Fitzgerald, Col. T. O., 118, 119,

121
Fitzpatrick, Lt.-Col. H. J., 127
Fowle, Capt. C. H., 182
Fox, Major R. W., 167
Francois, Captain von, 11
Franke, Col., 42, 60
Freeth, Lt.-Col. (7th S.A.I. ), 109

G

Garua, first British attack upon,
168 ; siege and capture of, 181
Garub, operations at, 39
Geitsaub, action at, 55

210

INDEX

German African Empire, schemes
for a, 159

German Colonial Company, the,
26

German Colonial policy, 2, 9, 10

German Colonisation Society, 74,
75

German East Africa, population
and natural features of, 71, 72 ;
trade routes across, 73 ; admini-
strative system of, 77 ; labour
question in, 77, 80 ; police
abuses in, 79 ; opening of cen-
tral railway, 83

German naval policy in the
Pacific, 195

German S.-West Africa, natural
features of, 3 ; trade rivalries
in, 8 ; increase of the garrison
in, 10 ; German courts of
justice in, 14 ; conduct of Ger-
man planters in, 20, 21 ; police
abuses in, 21

Gibeon, battle at, 57

Giffard, Col., 151

Godeffroy & Co., 193

Goering, Dr., 7, 8

Gorges, Col., 175, 187

Gorges, Mr. E. M., 70

Grant, Lt.-Col., 36, 37

Great Lakes, German command
of the, 84

Great Namaqualand, German
trade with, 6

Griffiths, Capt. A. H., 93

Grobelaar's Scouts, 41

H

Handeni, British tactics at, 120

Hannyngton, Brig. -Gen. J. A.,
114, 118, 119; capture of
Wilhelmstal, 120 ; attack on
the Mdonga pass, 129 ; march
to Kilossa, 130

Hartigan's Horse, 56

Hasuur, capture of, 51

Hawthorn, Gen., 152

Haywood, Lt.-Col., 174, 178, 187

Hereros, customs and beliefs of

the, 4 ; pastoral wealth of the,
4 ; petitions of the, for a
British protectorate, 6, 7 ; Ger-
man attitude towards the, 10,
11, 15 ; alleged German treaties
with, 12 ; German credit system
as applied to the, 14 ; Rebellion
of the, 17 ; atrocities perpe-
trated upon the, 19
Heubner, Lt.-Col., 143
Heydebreck, Col. von, 36, 42
Hornkrantz, German attack upon,

11
Hoskins, Major-Gen. A. R., 114,
118, 121 ; takes over E. African
command, 147
Hottentot-Herero war, 1864-70, 6
Hottentot war, 1903-1907, origin
of the, 16 ; German losses in
the, 22
Hottentots, characteristics of the,

3 ; as scouts, 40, 43
Hutin, Col., 176

Imperial Light Horse, 41
Itembule, German reverse at, 140

Jabassi, British expedition against,
172

Japan, the British alliance with,
192

Japanese Northern Pacifio Ex-
pedition, the, 198

Japanese relations with Germany,
195

Japan's ultimatum of August,
1914, 200

Jaunde, French convergence upon,
177 ; Allied plans for the
capture of, 184 ; British entry
into, 187

Jobst, Lieut., 16

Jordaan, William, 7, 8

Juhlke, Dr., 74

211

INDEX

K

Kaempf, Major, 115

Kahe, German position at, 110,
111

Kahimema, arrest and murder of,
16

Kaiser Wilhelm Land, annexation
of, 194

Kakamas, German repulse at, 45

Kalahari Horse, the, 50

Kalkfontein, military base at, 27

Kalkveld, advance of Union forces
to, 64

Kamaherero, his expulsion of the
Germans from Damaraland, 8, 9

Kamina, the wireless installation
at, 160 ; capture of, 162

Kamio, General, 203, 204

Kandoa Irangi, battle of, 117, 118

Karibib, the advance upon, 49, 54 ;
capture of, 59

Karonga, combat at, 93

Kasama, assembly of Rhodesian
volunteers at, 93

Kashmiri, I.S. Infantry, 121

Kasoa River, defeat of the Ger-
mans on the, 93

Kelly, Lt.-Col. P. V., 99, 100

Kemp, Col., 45

Keriis West, German defences at,
51

Kiao-Chau, German annexation
of 198 ; strength of Japanese
expedition against, 203 ; bom-
bardment and capture of the
inner defences of, 205

Kibata, battle at, 144

Kilwa, British move on, 142

Kissaki, battle at, 136, 137

Kituta, German attack upon, 94

Konigsberg, 85, 86

Kraut, Major, 85, 86

Kuruman, advance of Union des-
ert column from, 44

Land mines, German use of, 31, 42
Lange, Dr. Freidrich, 74

Lesogs, battle at, 185

Lettow-Vorbeck, Col. von, his
plans and preparations, 84, 85 ;
his influence in Darfur, 98 ;
his defensive scheme in East
Africa, 103 ; his reverse at
Kandoa Irangi, 117; his counter-
move into the Nguru Moun-
tains, 126; breaks out at Mhonda,
130 ; defeats British at Kissaki,
137 ; his resistance on the
Lukuledi, 149 ; crosses the
Rovuma, 150 ; successes in
Portuguese E. Africa, 150 ;
moves back across the Rovuma,
152 ; invades Rhodesia, 153 ;
his surrender, 154

Leutwein, Governor von, 11, 16, 17

Lewis, Robert, 8

Lindquist, Governor von, 23

Longido, German position at, 86 ;
British attack upon, 89

Luderitz, Adolphe, 7

Luderitzbucht, German purchase
of territory round, 7 ; British
capture of, 34

Lukegeta pass, battle for the, 145

Lukigura River, battle on the, 121

Lukin, Brig. -Gen., 32

Lung-Kow, Japanese landing at,
203

Lupembe, siege of, 140 ; battle at,
143

Lyall, Col. R. A., 145

M

M'Kenzie, General Sir Duncan,

38 ; his advance inland, 39,

40, 55 ; his dash to Gibeon, 56,

57

Maclear, Lt.-Col. P., 168

Mahenge, capture of, by the

Belgian troops, 148
Maherero, Samuel, 12
Mahiwa, battle of, 148
Mair, Lt.-Col. G. T., 168
Majimaji, legend of the, 82
Malangali, German attack on, 143
Malleson, Brig. -Gen., 104, 108

212

INDEX

Marengo, Jacob, 17, 22

Maritz, Lt.-Col., treason of, 35

incursion into Cape Colony, 40

his defeat at Upington, 44

his arrest, 45
Marshall Islands, German adminis-
tration of the, 194
Matamondo, battle of, 129, 130
Mayer, Col., 174, 178
Mazai, the, 73, 80
Meyer-Waldeck, Admiral, 202,

206
Mikotscheni, action at, 119
Mimi and Toutou, episode of the,

95, 96
Mkalinso, the bridge-head at, 146
Mombasa, trade route from, 73 ;

German plan of attack upon,

85, 86
Mora, the German fortress of, 167 ;

British siege of, 183
Morrison, Col., 176
Moschi. British advance from, 111
Murray, Col. R. E., 143
Mwanza, British Expedition

against, 123
Myburgh, Brig. -Gen., 47, 62, 66,

67

N

Naauwkloof, siege of, 16, 17
Nabas, battle at, 50
Namutoni, capture of, 67
Narongombe, battle of, 148
Ngaundere, surprise attack upon,

182
Nguru Mountains, plan of the

operations in the, 129
Nigeria, British attack from, 167
Nigerian Brigade, transfer of, to

East Africa, 141
Nikodemus, execution of the

Chief, 15, 16
Northey, Gen., 128 ; his advance

on New Iringa, 139 ; defeats

Germans at Itembule, 140 ;

attacked at Lupembe, 143
Nous, German capture of, 44
Nussey, Gen., 135, 136
Nyassaland, mobilisation of

British forces in, 92 ; German
invasion of, 92
N'Zimu, battle of, 177

O

O'Grady, Brig. -Gen. A. de C, 141
Omaruru, German retreat to, 59
Ossidinge, combat at, 168
O'Sullevan, Major J. J., D.S.O.,

94, 97, 98
Otavi, Botha's capture of, 65 ;

German capitulation at, 65
Otjiwarongo, German evacuation

of, 64
Otyunda, battle at, 15
Ovambandjera, rising of the, 15
Ovambos, numbers and charac-
teristics of the, 5

Pacific, German possessions and

influence in the, 192
Palgrave, Mr. W. C, his official

inquiry in 1876, 6
Pegasus, H.M.S., 85
Peters, Dr. Karl, 74, 76
Pfeil, Count, 74
Pike, Capt. R. N., 183
Pinto, Major, 150
Plattbeen, action at, 55
Port Nolloth, landing of Union

forces at, 32
Price, Col., occupies Dar-es-Salem,

139
Prince Heinrich Hill, Japanese

capture of, 205

R

Rabaul, battle at, 197
Raben, Capt. von, 187
Raman's Drift, capture of, 34 ;

combat at, 44
Rheata-Latema pass, battle for

the, 109
Rhenish Missions Society, work of

the, in S.-West Africa, 5, 6

213

INDEX

Rhoades, Commander E. L., R.N.,
92

Riet, Union tactics at attack upon,

54
Rietfontein, recapture of, 51
Rohrbach, Dr. Paul, his opinions

on German colonial policy, 9, 10
Ruhuje, combat on the, 140
Rukwa, operations round Lake,

153

Saisi, gallant defence of, 97, 98

Samoa, the German influence
over, 193 ; New Zealand expedi-
tion against, 196

Sandfontein, combat at, 36, 37

Saved Khalifa, 75

Schaapkolk, combat at, 51

Schemelen, von, missionary pio-
neer, 5

Seitz, Dr., 60

Seliman Mamba, 81, 82

Selous, Capt. F. C., 146

Shabruma, Chief of the Wangoni,
81

Shark Island, treatment of native
prisoners on, 20

Sheppard, Brig.-Gen., Ill, 112,
119, 130, 135; his remarkable
march to Kissaki, 138 ; crosses
the Rufigi, 147

Shirati, British occupation of, 91

Simpson, Commander G. Spicer,
R.N., 95, 96

Simpsonshafen, capture of, 197

Singh, Col. Ragbir, 90

Skinner, Col., 41, 47 ; repulses the
Germans at Trekkopjes, 58

Smuts, Gen. J. C, his views on
German policy, 29 ; takes
command of Southern column
in S.-West Africa, 56 ; takes
command in E. Africa, 102 ;
his plans, 105, 106 ; operations
at Taveta, 109, 110 ; opera-
tions at Kahe, 112 ; reorgan-
isation of his forces, 114; his
advance to Handeni, 118;
operations in the Nguru Moun-

tains, 128, 129 ; operations in
the Uluguru area, 135 ; second
reorganisation of forces, 141 ;
plan for the final advance, 144 ;
resignation of E. African
command, 147

Soko Nassai, battle at, 112

South African Infantry, 41

South African Mounted Rifles, 32,
50

South Wales Borderers, the, 203

S.-West Africa, German official
mission to, 7 ; reasons for
German policy in, 28

S.-West Africa Land Settlement
Syndicate, 11

S.-West Africa, strategical diffi-
culties of the campaign in, 26 ;
German military organisation
in, 27 ; railway system of, 27 ;
German measures of defence,
31 ; German plan of counter-
attack, 31 ; effect of the Union
conquest in, 70

Spanish-German Convention of
1899, the, 194

Spee, Admiral von, 195

Sphinxhaven, British " cutting
out " expedition to, 92

Steinkopf, British base at, 32

Stennett, Lt.-Col., 93, 94

Stewart, Gen. J. M., 88, 91, 105,
106, 110

Swakopmund, capture of, 41 ;
preparations for advance from,
48

Swakop River, effect of floods on
the, 49

Swakop Valley, battle in the, 51

T

Tabora, Belgian concentration

against, 133
Tafel, Col., defeated at Mahenge,

148 ; his surrender, 149
Tanga, British operations against,

88, 89
Tanganyika, German flotilla on,

94 ; naval combats on, 96

214

INDEX

Taveta, German occupation of,
86 ; its military importance,
103

Taylor, Lt.-Col. A. T., 127

Thompson, Major, 109

Thornley, Commander, R.N., 123

Tighe, General, 90 ; his scheme of
attack at Taveta, 104 ; opera-
tions at Taveta, 108, 109

Togoland, German interests in,
156 ; condition of the natives,
157

Tombeur, Gen., 123 ; captures
Tabora, 139

Transvaal Horse Artillery, 32

Triumph, H.M.S., 203

Trotha, Lieut. -Gen. von, 18, 19,
23, 80, 81

Tschaukab, Gen. M'Kenzie's move
on, 39

Tsumeb, arsenal at, 28 ; capture
of, by Gen. Myburgh, 66, 67

U

Uganda, British occupation of,
76 ; German offensive against,
85

Ukerewe Island, capture of, 123

Uluguru Mountains, German de-
fences in the, 132

Uniake, Major, 186

Union of S. Africa, German policy
towards, 24, 25, 27 ; military
forces of the, 25, 26 ; public
opinion of, regarding the war,
28, 29 ; decision of the Federal
Parliament, 30

Upington, defeat of Maritz and
the Germans at, 44

Upingtonia, Republic of, 7, 8

Vanga, the gallant defence of,
90

Victoria, British seizure of the
port of, 174

W

Walfish Bay, British annexation

of, 6 ; German seizure of, 31 ;

British landing at, 41
Wamwera, rising of the, 81
Wangoni rebellion, the, 81
Wavell, Lieut., 88
Webb-Bowen, Lt.-Col., 182
Wehle, Gen. von, 85 ; his attack

upon Karungu, 91 ; his invasion

of Rhodesia, 97 ; his defence

of Tabora, 133
Wells, poisoning of, 42
Whitbooi, Hendrick, 10, 11, 16, 17,

18, 22
Windhuk, cruelties to natives at,

1 1 ; wireless installation at, 30 ;

capture of, 60
Wintgens, Major, capture of hia

force by the Belgians, 147
Witu, Sultanate of, 73, 75, 76
Witwatersrand Rifles, 32
Wum Biagas, Allied advance upon,

178, 179 ; capture of, 185

Yoas, the, 73, 79

Zanzibar, trade of, with India, 74 ;
British protectorate of, 75

Zimmermann, Col., 169 ; plan of
his defensive, 176 ; his counter-
attacks, 184 ; retreat upon

215

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