EAST AFRICAN CAMPAIGN

Evening Star, Issue 16335, 30 January 1917, Page 1

EAST AFRICAN CAMPAIGN

AN ACTION DESCRIBED. GENERAL SMUTS'S GOOD WORK. STRONG POSITIONS TAKEN. } I ,10 l L °gion of Frontiersmen OatialiD!,, officially known as the 25 th Royal I.ronticrsnioii Fusiliers, i n a letter to a Legion.officer -Upland, gives interesting Africa' iUS ° l 10 operatiolls '» German East "We have steadily pushed tbs enemy before us since May last,” slates the letter, tiom the 1 align railway to 60 miles south of Morogoro. The Germans have put up innumerable rearguard actions—a very simple matter m tho dense bush. They prepared most formidable positions, which must have cost months of hard labor, aloim the one trunk road from Ihe British border to Morogoro and still further south to Kir.saki but they never dared io bold them for fear or oeing' surrounded. These positions Mere mostly wnere the road missed tho rivers, and so we had to fight, for water after long inarches in (he terrific heat. AVe occasionally caught them napping, as, for instance, at the Sukigura River, where they had constructed trendies and redoubts in the thick bush pi ml amongst the rocky ridges across the river, and where thev had blown up the bridge. —Attack on the. Enemy.— A frontal attack was out of the question so the Legion of Frontiersmen Battalion was sent to a flank attack. 20 miles through dense bush, across the river, in the early dawn. AVc made a long detour, and got in to the back of flic German position. AVo were nil dead tired, and also hungry and thirsty, and could not have dragged onr weary bodies much further, when suddenly machine-gun and rifle fire opened on us. Every man was immediately fresh and alert. AAe attacked at once, our machine guns opening fire, and two companies, supported by a third, crept, through the dense bush, each man for himself, hut keeping in close touch—onr men are expert, in bush work—and at length we got. to the creek, and with a cheer we charged the position in face of a pom-pom and two machine guns in full blast. .Tho trenches were full of Askaris. AA o wept through them. In a fe,w minutes tint hiil face was covered with bayoneted Germans and Askaris. AVe captured the pom-pom and tho two machine guns and' the stand of a third. AA'e did not get the gnu itselr; some Askari must have shouldered it and got off into the bush. All the Germans died at their posts; they had' not time to get out. Having secured the enemy's main or reserve position, we had the positions on the river bank, a few hundred yards away, between ourselves and the troops in front across tho river, and then the rest of the enemy surrendered, a few on the extreme flanks breaking off into the bush. —Half Rat ions for Davs.— ‘‘Both General Smuts and General Haskins heartily congratulated us on what tiny called the prettiest bit of fighting in the East African campaign. The enemy were very chan- of holding their strong positions I after tnat, and many a wonderfully-con-structed and ugly-looking position wo found we could march through without scarcely a shot being tired at us. But what a march it has been from the British border to down south 1 I have tramped ovary inch of the road on foot for five long, weary mouths. General limits, without doubt the smartest general who could have been found for the East African campaign, has spared neither nnnself nor his men nor the enemy, and we have come fast, and far, so that ’we have occasionally been too fast, for our supplies’ to catch ns up. We havo gone on halt rations many days, and only men of iron could stand it ami the fever and dysentery. There are only 50 to 40 per cent.' of onr original battalion left, but they are as fine a set of men as you could seo anywhere on earth. They can live and grow strong on little food, with no shelter, and with only one rageod suit of clothes apiece. We dispense with transport. —Askaris as Fighters.— “AVo have run the. white, Gormans off their legs, and we have nearly all of (hem in our hands or killed; but the cunning Askari is a different proposition, for the btrsli is his heme, and hundreds of them can lay concealed within a few wards of a marching column in the elephant grass or the bush, and they don’t fail to murder stragglers. They are hardy and climaieprooi, well drilled, and mobile. Of course, there are some equally hardv Germans loft with them, but they will not'fight us in the open, even when their numbers are <rreater than ours. Wo hold all the railways, seaports, and towns, and they have only the dense bush left to them.” The officer in a later section of the letter, evidently written after mails and supplies had been rushed forward, says; “We nro now resting a bit, and 1 presume General Smuts is malting fresh plans in his ' clever head. Ho does his own scouting, anti I Brink we are most fortunate in having such a commander. AVe could end it in one 5 tight, i but tho enemy won’t meet us in tho open, i and we will have to patiently hunt him’ i out.”