When during the latter days of July, 1914, the prospect of war with the German Empire became imminent, the Gold Coast Regiment was rapidly mobilized, and detachments took up pre-arranged strategical positions on the borders of Togoland. On the declaration of war on the 4th August, the invasion of this German colony was promptly undertaken; and the Regiment, which had been joined at Lome, the capital of Togoland, by a small party of Tirailleurs from Dahomey, pursued the retreating enemy up the ma

The military situation, at the moment when the Gold Coast Regiment received its orders to take the field, was approximately as follows. Tanga, the coast terminus of the more northerly of the two German railways, had fallen some time before, and the whole line from Moschi to the sea was now in the hands of the British. A column of Indian troops was moving down the coast with Sandani at the mouth of the Wami river, Bagamoyo at the mouth of the Kingani, and Dar-es-Salaam, the terminus of the princi

The task which the First Division had before it was to force a passage into the Uluguru Mountains, the main entrances to which the enemy was preparing stoutly to defend. The principal highway lay some distance to the east of the Matomba mission-station, and here the main battle was in progress; but commanding the road, along which the Gold Coast Regiment marched when it moved out of its camp at Matomba, the enemy had occupied a very strong position, and was using Kikirunga Hill—a sugar-loaf-shap

The reason for the transfer of the Gold Coast Regiment, from the region lying to the north of the Rufiji to a scene of operations situated to the southward of that river, can be explained in a few words. The enemy having been driven, in the course of the 1916 campaign, first across the Dar-es-Salaam-Lake Tanganyika railway, and thereafter through the hilly country to the south of that line to the southernmost fringe of the Uluguru Mountains, it was the object of the British command to confine hi

On the 26th January, 1917, the Regiment, under the command of Major Goodwin, left Kitambi for Ngarambi Chini, and reached its destination next day, after camping for the night on the road at Namatwe, a spot distant fourteen and a half miles from the former place. From this point the roads in the neighbourhood were regularly patrolled; and on the 31st January the Regiment moved to Kiyombo—a place some six miles north of Ngarambi Chini—where the brigade camp was established. From the 29th January

During the month of March, 1917, the main body of the Regiment lay in camp at Mitole, undergoing company training, and sending out frequent small patrols along the roads in the neighbourhood. The Depôt Company still remained at Mpara, between Kilwa Kivinje and Kilwa Kisiwani, the latter being the port at which the Regiment had landed when it was transported south by sea from Dar-es-Salaam in the preceding November. B Company was dispatched to hold a post at a place variously called Kirongo and N

General Beves was now preparing to take the offensive, his plan being to divide his force into three columns which, working southward, but describing segments of a circle on the west and on the east, might perhaps get in behind the enemy and contrive to envelope him. As usual the difficulties of maintaining sufficient supplies of provisions, ammunition and water obtruded themselves from the outset; but the force was well equipped with motor transport, and it was hoped that, by cutting tracks eig

Although the Germans had abandoned their position at Narungombe, the severe losses which they had inflicted upon the British were out of all proportion to any advantages which the latter could claim to have secured. The check, too, impressed the British command with the difficulty of dealing with the enemy unless the pursuit could be rendered not only rapid but continuous, and above all with the fact that an adequate supply of water was the hinge upon which all future operations must turn. At Na

On the morning of Wednesday, the 19th September, the Gold Coast Regiment quitted its camp at Liwinda Ravine. At 6 a.m. A Company and half the Pioneer Company, with which was the 27th Mountain Battery, set out for Kitiia, under the command of Major Shaw. Kitiia, as has been mentioned, lies five miles to the east of the camp at Liwinda Ravine, and three miles to the west of Mihambia, and is connected with both by a footpath leading through the grass, tree-set scrub, and occasional bush. It was the

On the 27th September No. 1 Column broke camp at 5.30 a.m. and continued its march to Nahungu from the east, the 2nd Battalion of the 2nd Regiment of the King’s African Rifles forming the advanced guard, with the Gold Coast Regiment in support. Simultaneously the Nigerians were advancing upon Nahungu in two columns from the north. Very shortly after leaving camp, the King’s African Rifles came into contact with the enemy outposts. The latter fell back, and a ridge situated to the east of Nahungu

The operations which have formed the subject of the three preceding chapters were designed to drive von Lettow-Vorbeck’s main force in a south-easterly direction, until its progress should be stayed by “Linforce.” This latter column, in the face of stubborn resistance, and hampered, too, by the inadequate harbour facilities available at Lindi, was fighting its way mile by mile down the road which leads from that place to Massassi, where, as we have seen, von Lettow-Vorbeck had established his Ge

The position at this moment was approximately as follows. After the taking of Nahungu on the 28th September it had become evident to the British Command that it was not possible to feed and supply all the troops assembled in that area, and the Nigerian Brigade was accordingly given a week’s rations, and with Major Pretorius acting as its guide, was bidden to march across country, by such tracks as it could find, to join up with “Linforce” on the Lindi-Massassi road. This was a somewhat perilous

On the 19th October patrols sent out at dawn reported that the enemy had retired. The 1st Battalion of the 3rd Regiment of the King’s African Rifles accordingly occupied the mission boma and the church, while the remainder of No. 1 Column camped on the crest of the hill to the north, overlooking the valley of the Lukuledi, from which on the preceding day Captain Methven had caught his first view of the mission buildings. Before this move was made, I Company of the Gold Coast Regiment was dispatc

The actual movements and whereabouts of von Lettow-Vorbeck and his troops were, as usual, still largely a matter of conjecture, but every base which he had possessed in German East Africa was now in the hands of the British. He was known to be short of supplies, of food, of equipment, and of ammunition; the end of the dry season was drawing near, and the Portuguese were aware that he was approaching the frontier, and were strongly encamped at Ngomano, on the right bank of the Rovuma, about fifty

With the transfer of military operations from German to Portuguese territory the campaign against von Lettow-Vorbeck assumed a somewhat new aspect. Until now the German Commander-in-Chief had been operating in country that had long been subject to German rule, throughout which German mission stations and German administrative posts had been established, and where every corner and cranny of each district was familiarly known to Europeans or natives resident in the German camps. The enemy troops,

Although the Great War had now been in progress for more than three years and a half, the time-honoured British practice of attempting to effect a military purpose while employing therefor a wholly inadequate force had once more been resorted to. The difficulties which had been experienced in feeding and supplying the columns of “Linforce” and “Hanforce” during the operations which led to von Lettow-Vorbeck’s retreat across the Rovuma, probably convinced the British Command that any direct pursu

All that remained of the Portuguese boma at Medo was the deep ditch by which it had been surrounded, and the mound or earthwork fashioned from the earth that had been excavated from it. Any buildings that these fortifications may have been designed to protect had long ago been burned to the ground, and save for a big red-brick store, with an iron roof, situated outside the ditch, there was no habitable place in the immediate vicinity. It can never have been of much military value, except against

On the 16th May “Rosecol” left Msalu, and marching along bush paths in a westerly direction, leaving the road to Lusinje on the north and having the Msalu River on its right, began a movement which was designed to cut the main road between Lusinje and Nanungu. Camping for two nights in the bush—orchard country which, though the soil was of a rocky character, was broken by frequent patches of cultivated land—the column crossed this road on the 18th May, and pushed on toward Chisona. On reaching t

There is another Gold Coast unit, which never served with the rest of the Regiment, and which remained behind in Portuguese East Africa when the remainder of the battalion returned to the West Coast, and of its short but adventuresome career some brief account must here be given. At the end of February, 1918, nearly two months after the arrival of Colonel Goodwin with the main body of the Gold Coast Regiment at Port Amelia, Lieutenant G. H. Parker, who has been mentioned in an earlier chapter as

The departure of the Gold Coast Regiment from my Command furnishes me with a fitting opportunity to place on record my high appreciation of the distinguished and gallant services which the Gold Coast Regiment has never failed to render me within the period that I have had the honour to command Pamforce. The greatest testimony to the excellence of the services rendered by the Gold Coast Regiment is to be found in the fact that during the period which the Regiment has formed an integral part of Pa