Late in the afternoon I received an urgent message that strong forces of the enemy were advancing in our rear towards the railway at Kissangire, and that the event we feared had actually occurred. I was, therefore, compelled to issue orders for an immediate withdrawal towards Kissangire. The enemy could not yet have reached there in strength, and I hoped to defeat him there by rapidly throwing all my forces against him. Thus it happened that Captain Schulz’s well-directed counter-attack could not be carried through, or produce its full effect. The transfer by night of our force across the Pangani, which was close behind us, and over which we had previously made a number of bridges and crossings, was effected smoothly and without interference. Even on the following day the patrols we had left behind found its north bank clear of the enemy. Our good four-inch gun, which we could not take away owing to its lack of mobility, was blown up. After midnight, that is, quite early on the 22nd March, I arrived at Kissangire Station, and discovered to my very great astonishment that all the reports about strong hostile forces moving on that place were erroneous, and that our withdrawal had therefore been unnecessary. This incident afforded me a remarkably striking proof of the extraordinary difficulty of observing the movements of troops in thick bush, and of the great care every commander must exercise in estimating the value of such reports. But it also demonstrates how difficult it is for any commander to combine his own powers of reasoning and his judgment of the situation with the constantly conflicting reports, both of Askari and Europeans, in order to base his decision on a foundation that even approximately resembles the reality. In the African bush it is particularly important, whenever possible, to supplement the reports one receives by personal observation. However, our withdrawal could not now be altered, and the most important thing was to re-group our forces. In this operation the decisive factor was water-supply. This, and the necessity for distribution in depth, caused me to leave only a detachment of a few companies on the high ground at Kissangire, from where it observed the seven and a half miles of waterless thorn desert extending to the Pangani. To the east of this detachment at Kissangire, under Major von Boehmken, was Otto’s detachment, pushed up on to the North Pare Mountains in order to close the passes leading over them. Major Kraut took up a position on Ngulu Pass, between the North Pare and Middle Pare ranges. The main body of the force settled down in several fortified camps in the fertile Lembeni country.