How "Force B" Fared.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 8 May 1915, Page 4

How "Force B" Fared.

German South-Eliot. Africa, lias been the scene ol some severe lighting, partreuUus ui Wiuch apepur to go almost unrecorded. ilie. Indian iiixpediuonary i'orce, know as "Force i>, liiwl an especially bad lime immediately alter Llieii , arrival there, at tho town ol Monibasba. Aa it was au open town, and undefended by die enemy, it ■• was thought light to give formal notice ol' the British intention 01 occupation. That cour.se nas followed by the commander of 11. M. S. Fox, tiie warship -that escorted the Indian troops. As- u> consequence, the attack was a failure. The Governer refused to surrender, gained esoino time, and prepared for a vigorous defence. An there are hundreds of miles ol railroad behind Mombassa inland, lie was in a position to get large niMiibens of troops into the town. .Some idea of the country that the British troops had to operate in may be ga the rod from the fact that, although Momb-assa is within less than two miles of its; port, the troops were struggling forward for two hours and a hall' before they came under lire. They found it fearfully difficult to make head-. nay. One of the German defences was »o unique as to merit special mention. Wives of bees a\ ere made use of with lolling effect. The paths were narrow and by means of wire attachments the advancing troops were led to pull th« lids off tile 1 lives, with consequences that may' be guessed. One of the Loyal North Lancashire men was Mibxequently reported to be suffering from the effects of over 100 stings in the face and arms. The Germans had also tixod small flag* in the trees attached to light wires, laid so that when the troops passed the flags dropped, and thereby indicated the British position at the moment. Gradually, however, the men of the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment and tin; Kashmir Rifies gained ground. Incidentally, it may be mentioned that there wore at least two Australians in the firing line. Ultimately, the British entered tanga. a suburb ol Moiiilijissa. only to find that the houses were loophole*! and ■strongly piepared for defence. tiie fire was ..ailing, and no support could be not up. the British wefie compelled to slowly retire when darkness came on. That was away back in Nevember. laist. and since then it is safe to surmise that liiucl) heavy lighting has taken place. Writing to his father towards the end of November a young English oflicer stated:—"Half the Loyal Noi ths are now here on the frontier and the rest, near Nairobi, capital of British Kiist Africa. The German* vacated Longuido the other day. and we took possession. When we got there the stench was awful. There were dead bodies of Askharis (native troops) all over the ground, and everywhere in the water-holes. The Germans had only half-buried their white troops. The hlack copses were left to rof .or to the vultures. T wish we could get to Europe out of this. TFn simply 'rotten' fighting out here, ion can't see anything. Their machine guns pop at you out of trees and all sorts of weird place. A lance-corporal of my company—one of my .seeond-ehis* scimi.- — wes positively .shot in two at close range by n pom-pom shell. "In the breaks between fighting T'vo heen out trying to-shoot a lion, hut up to the present my Lag only consist of a hartebeesie (large bok, or deer). Personally. T don't tliink the .South African troops will come here to oust the Germans from East Africa -at least not for long time. TTiey have a very stiff job to beat the Germans thoroughly in AVpsl Africa. Tiie trouble is to get at the oneniy. ft is ideal country for defence. Tn "Rust Africa there is probably not less than f)SO miles of railway, and the country in tho interior is beautifully open and wpll-frrnsspd .Tt is lovely country. Tho natives are said to have about 00.000 or more Wart of cattle, and 7,000.000 to 8.000.000 shoep There also a great don I of splendid coffee lands in Gorman hands."