THE WAR IN EAST AFRICA

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2350, 5 January 1915, Page 7

THE WAR IN EAST AFRICA

' HOW. A'GERMAN ATTACK WAS . . BEATEN OFF. . Only scant accounts have been received of the in British East ' 'Africa', where British and' German forces have', been hotly engaged at various 1 times during- the : last three months. The following extracts from a letter Ihome, from a native 'of Carnarvon lately in business in; Manchester, gives interesting details of a gallant fight against superior numbers:— < i When war was declared the Germans had 6000 troops in British East Africa, and they sent small bodies of troops in at several points. But we recalled all our troops from the Abys- : fiinian frontier,-and drove them back. ! We had far too few to drive back a ' real invasion, so every man ; was called • upon to volunteer throughout, the country. That brought our number up, but the Germans had raised about 2000 white men too, so the balance was still too heavy against us. We then got eome Indian troops, and won a fight , at , driving the Germans across the frontier there and everywhere else, and things looked brighter. At we 'had cleared a piece of land and put ■ up a blockhouse and entrenched the ; whole place. The blockhouse consisted i of two walls' of tin' six feet apart, the space between being'filled with sand. It ' was about 16 feet square inside, and quite impregnable against a force without a gun.' The' ground was quito clear for 600 yards all round. Well, here they attacked us, and we could put only 100 men in the firing line to 1 their 600.. They had two Maxims, we tad one, so they soon drove us back till we held just the blookhouse and the trench round it, and then the fun •began. First they tried to rush us, , and we gave it them hot. Tien they i tried to pick off ths wliits men, and hero we beat them at their own game. ! They attacked all day and never got within 250 yards of ;us, and at night they retreated' beaten. We lost seven natives killed and ,11 wounded, our commander badly wounded, and the second in command slightly wounded. They left on the field choir commander . and eight white men dead and 33 na- ; tives dead, and must have had a lot ■ of wounded. We were bucked. ; . 'fi 16 . on ty 'ling I remember of the ' fi , g . ™ when one of their white- men • ? ? )~i —• He was lying behind a tuft of short grass and shot W at a loophole. I was at the next- loophole, and ha was only 250 yards away. He • knew he'd got W—, and ho deliberately stooci up and waved his hand, and I ■ shot hun. ■ had a look at him when ■ tiio thing was over, and I'd shot him : clean through the head. I felt rather sick about it afterwards, as I knew • ; !him; he wac quite a good sort. For three days after this nothing hap- ■ pened. The Germans had fallen back ; 12 miles, and we were too few to attack them. On the fourth evening I got fever, and after a dose of phenacetin went to bed to sweat it out, but at 11.30 our scouts came in reporting ; that the Germans had, got reinforcements, and were advancing with two r field guns. There was only one thing to do, and that was retreat. Well, we started, and from the first I knew I. oauld never reach , our haltingplace. It waa a nightmare of a marcii for me 4 , but' I got- within three miles ! and was oarried the rest. Of course, it i poured with rain. They put a shelter up for me, andf'? kv on the ground. • R'e had got the/-.' "Man., and at ' ten o'clock j W maroh to —another loS.jes. -Jily temperaturo was then 106, but coming down, however, I could not bo moved, so was ' left behind with a doctor, some porters, ; and a stretcher. Next morning at four . o'clock I was down to 104, so we started, arid hod got within two miles of our ; camp when, bang, the Germans overtook us and opened tiro, The "boy" • carrying my rifie, clothes/ revolver, ; belt, etc., was hit, and I lost all my ; belongings; but the "boys" carrying me • ran like the wind. The doctor, an In- { dian, waved the Red Uros3 flag, but <: they only went on firing.