Early on the 9th September, Schulz’s Detachment attacked from our right. Rifle and machine-gun fire soon started, and the enemy’s light artillery also opened fire; but the thick high elephant grass, with which the plain was covered, made it impossible to form a clear idea of things. I thought the attack was going well, and proceeded to the left in order to get a view of the situation. The heights there were also densely overgrown. It was very fatiguing to get along and difficult to find anybody. I was clambering about, fairly exhausted in the heat of a tropical noon, when I luckily heard the sound of tin pots, and found I was right in concluding that some European was just having lunch. It was Captain Goering, who had taken up his post in the bush on a height which afforded a good view. Here, towards three p.m., I received the unwelcome news that the attack by Schulz’s Detachment on our right had not attained its object. It had been simply impossible to get at the enemy through the dense elephant grass. If, therefore, any decisive action was to be taken on that day at all, it could only be done on our left. Even here, owing to the difficult country, success was not very probable. The advancing companies got into a very intersected mountain tract, in which they shot at the enemy, and were shot at by him without any result, and at dusk returned to their original positions. During the following days the enemy directed his attacks mainly against our left, and was frequently driven back by counter-strokes. But, on the whole, it was evident that success was only possible if the enemy proved very unskilful. On the other hand, our communications, which from now on no longer ran to Kissaki, but towards Behobeho in the south-east, were in a great degree threatened by the enemy. I therefore abandoned Dutumi, and withdrew the main body an hour’s march to the south, across the Mgeta river, where the Force occupied an extensive fortified camp, which it continued to hold for months. By this move the rich fields of Dutumi were unfortunately given up. In the poor country of Kiderengwa we had to depend mainly on supplies from the rear, which were sent up from the Rufiji. Unfortunately the fatigues of this transport work, combined with sickness caused by tse-tse, very soon led to the almost complete loss of our pack-donkeys. From Kiderengwa our fighting patrols attacked the enemy’s communications, which ran to the north-east from Dutumi, as well as the Dutumi-Kissaki road, which soon became alive with enemy detachments and transport.