My Reminiscences of East AfricaLettow-Vorbeck, Paul Emil von
History
My Reminiscences of East Africa
Lettow-Vorbeck, Paul Emil von
World War, 1914-1918 -- Campaigns -- Tanzania
Since the 25th July, 1915, General Wahle was besieging the enemy,
who was strongly entrenched at Jericho, with four companies and two
1873-pattern guns. Relief expeditions from Abercorn were defeated, but
the siege was raised on the 2nd August, as no effect could be produced
with the guns available. General Wahle returned to Dar-es-Salaam with
three companies. The 29th Company remained at Jericho, the two guns at
Kigoma.
On the 19th June the _Goetzen_ towed off the steamer _Cecil Rhodes_,
which was lying beached at Kituta, and sank her.
During September and October there were continual skirmishes between
patrols on the border near Bismarckburg; Belgian reinforcements again
invaded the country about Abercorn. On the 3rd December it was observed
that the defences of Jericho had been abandoned and dismantled. A new
fort, north-east of Abercorn, was bombarded by Lieutenant Franken on
the 6th December with one hundred rifles and one machine gun; the enemy
appeared to sustain some casualties.
The English Naval Expedition, the approach of which, by Bukoma and
Elizabethville, had long been under observation, had reached the
Lukuga Railway on the 22nd October, 1919. We picked up leaflets which
stated that a surprise was being prepared for the Germans on Lake
Tanganyika; this made me think that we might now have to deal with
specially-built small craft which might possibly be equipped with
torpedoes. We had, therefore, to meet a very serious menace to our
command of Lake Tanganyika, which might prove decisive to our whole
campaign. The simultaneous transfer of hostile troops towards Lake Kivu
and Abercorn proved that an offensive by land was to be co-ordinated
with the expedition. In order to defeat the enemy if possible while
his concentration was still in progress, Captain Schulz attacked the
Belgians at Luwungi on the 27th September, inflicting heavy loss.
On the night of the 28th October the steamer _Kingani_ surprised a
Belgian working-party, who were constructing a telegraph line, and
captured some stores. In the mouth of the Lukuga river a railway
train was observed on the move. At last, the _Kingani_ did not return
from a reconnaissance to the mouth of the Lukuga, and, according to
a Belgian wireless message of the 31st December, she had been lost,
four Europeans and eight natives were said to have been killed, the
remainder to have been captured. Evidently, the favourable opportunity
for interfering with the enemy’s preparations for gaining command of
the Lake had passed.
Then, on the 9th February, 1916, another of our armed steamers was
captured by the enemy.
On Lake Nyassa the German steamer _Hermann von Wissmann_, whose captain
did not know that war had broken out, was surprised and taken by the
English Government steamer _Gwendolen_ on the 13th August, 1914.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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