There is another Gold Coast unit, which never served with the rest of the Regiment, and which remained behind in Portuguese East Africa when the remainder of the battalion returned to the West Coast, and of its short but adventuresome career some brief account must here be given.

At the end of February, 1918, nearly two months after the arrival of Colonel Goodwin with the main body of the Gold Coast Regiment at Port Amelia, Lieutenant G. H. Parker, who has been mentioned in an earlier chapter as having been in temporary command of the Battery, was chosen by Colonel Rose to raise and train a small body of Mounted Infantry. He was told to pick out for this purpose, from a newly arrived draft of recruits from the Gold Coast, 170 men; and to him were attached Lieutenants Drummond and Saunders, and five British non-commissioned officers.

The men chosen were natives of the Hinterland of the Gold Coast, to whom, since they for the most part live beyond the range of the tsetse fly and the Trypanosoma, horses are more or less familiar animals. About 10 per cent. of them could ride in the hunched-up, Tod Sloan-like fashion peculiar to folk to whom saddles are unusual luxuries; but not a man among them had the vaguest ideas concerning horse-mastership and management.

Four riding-schools were constructed near the camp, upon the top of the hill which slopes on the one side to the waters of the Indian Ocean, and on the other falls in a sheer cliff to the beach at Port Amelia; and daily for hours at a time the European officers and non-commissioned officers shouted themselves hoarse, while the men bumped round the manÈges. A certain number were incurably horse-shy, and had to be “returned to store,” but the majority were quite fearless and enjoyed their daily ride, and though horses had not been received at Port Amelia until the end of March, by the 30th May No. 1 Troop of the Mounted Infantry of the Gold Coast Regiment was declared to be fit to take the field.

This troop, under the command of Lieutenant Drummond, consisting of 1 British non-commissioned officer, 41 rank and file, 51 horses, 2 mules, and 2 camp-followers, left Port Amelia on the above-mentioned date, and rode up the well-worn track from Mtuge to Medo, and thence to Wanakoti, General Edwards’ Headquarters. The troop arrived at this place just as the Gold Coast Regiment was about to begin its march back to the coast from Korewa.

It is not possible to follow the history of this troop in detail without embarking upon a full account of the campaign in the Province of Mozambique, to which the British were committed after the Germans had retreated across the Lurio River, and this forms no part of the plan of the present work. It must, therefore, suffice to note that “Kartucol” from this time onward followed hard upon the heels of the enemy forces, pursuing them without intermission nearly as far south as Kilimane. A little north of this place one and a half companies of the 2nd Battalion of the 3rd King’s African Rifles, with a much larger force of Portuguese encamped at Nhamaccura, were attacked by the enemy, who, having possessed himself of the guns belonging to the Portuguese, nearly annihilated the small British detachment, Colonel Gore Brown, who was in command, being himself killed with a large number of his men.

After this the enemy went north once more, still pursued by “Kartucol,” which had now cut loose from its transport and was living on the country; and the Germans shortly afterwards attacked and invested Namirrue, a place near the centre of the province, which was being held by a company of the 2nd Battalion of the 3rd King’s African Rifles, under Captain Bustard.

Drummond’s Troop of Gold Coast Mounted Infantry had worked its way down in a southerly direction from Wanakoti to Namirrue, scouting for the columns, and doing some excellent work; and it had joined up with Captain Bustard’s little force just before the latter was surrounded.

Finding that the position which he occupied at the moment of the enemy attack was commanded by the German guns, Captain Bustard occupied a higher hill near at hand; and, though hopelessly outnumbered, cut off from water, and bombarded by a Stokes gun which had been captured by the Germans, he made a gallant fight of it, and held out for three days.

Meanwhile the three remaining troops of the Gold Coast Mounted Infantry, under Captain Parker, had sailed from Port Amelia on the 1st July, arriving on the following day at Mussuril Bay, in the entrance to which lies the island of Mozambique. The force consisted of 8 British officers, 10 British non-commissioned officers, 137 rank and file, 84 East Africans, 2 Indians, 11 other details, with 133 horses, 50 mules, and 141 donkeys.

The Mounted Infantry were disembarked at Lumbo, on the northern shores of the bay, and on the 5th July marched twenty miles to Monapo, where their depÔt was established. On the 8th July the Squadron began its march to Nampula, eighty miles further inland, where at this time General Edwards had his Headquarters; and travelling an average of about twenty miles a day, it reached its destination on the afternoon of the 11th July. Here Captain Parker learned that No. 1 Troop was with Captain Bustard at Namirrue, and that it was thought that the small post established there would embarrass the retreat of the enemy, who was known to be advancing from the south.

On the following days the Squadron pushed on in the direction of Chinga, which lies five-and-forty miles to the west of Nampula, walking and leading most of the time, for sore backs among the horses were already giving occasion for anxiety. From Chinga on the 15th July the Squadron marched sixteen miles to Marrupula; and here on the following day Captain Parker received orders to press forward as rapidly as possible to Metil, and thence to take up certain positions on the Ligonha River. Three days’ rations were drawn, and though the nights were very cold, the capes and spare clothing were all left behind, the men being cut down to their body-clothes and one blanket each, in order to ease the horses of as much weight as possible.

On the 17th July the Squadron covered a distance of thirty-three miles to Calipo, and on the morrow reached Pequerra, and pushed on thence to the banks of the Ligonha River, travelling on that day thirty-six miles between dawn and dusk.

The geography of the country was very imperfectly known, and the only available maps were grossly inaccurate. Moreover, whereas it had been anticipated that the Ligonha River would only be fordable in a few places, which the Squadron had been ordered to hold, it was found that the stream was quite shallow for a distance of at least twenty miles. This was discovered on the 19th July, on which day Metil was reached, the Squadron having marched one hundred and two miles to that place from Murrupula in fifty-seven hours—a very good performance for a newly raised body of Mounted Infantry.

From Metil one troop, under Lieutenant Poole, was sent eastward to Napue; a second, under Lieutenant Viney, went toward Muligudge, five miles south-east of Metil; and a third, under Lieutenant Saunders, back along the track towards Pequerra, twenty men and Lieutenant Broomfield remaining at Metil with Captain Parker. All these mounted patrols had orders to try to locate the enemy and to keep touch as far as possible with one another and with Captain Parker.

On the 23rd July news was received that Namirrue was invested by the enemy, and that though it was still holding out, Colonel Fitzgerald’s column, consisting of the 4th Battalion of the 4th and the 3rd Battalion of the 3rd King’s African Rifles, had had to retire when attempting to move to Captain Bustard’s relief. As Captain Parker was instructed to get as many of his men together as possible in order to scout in the direction of Namirrue, the troops under Lieutenants Poole and Viney were recalled, and on the 24th July, Captain Parker moved back to Pequerra, and thence proceeded through dense bush to the banks of the Ligonha. From here Lieutenant Viney with twelve troopers crossed the stream and went scouting in what was believed to be the direction of Namirrue. On the 26th July Lieutenant Broomfield with twenty men were sent to Lulete, Captain Parker and Lieutenant Saunders with twenty-eight men—all that remained at their disposal—moving up the left bank of the Ligonha. At 4 p.m. they came upon a track, surprised an enemy baggage-train, and captured nine porters, the baggage-guard making off. Lieutenant Saunders with a few rifles was left to watch the trail, and late that afternoon he had a brush with the enemy, and captured a German, an Askari, and about a dozen more porters, also killing one or two enemy soldiers.

On the 27th July Captain Parker set off for Pequerra with the prisoners, leaving Lieutenant Saunders with a few men to watch the track and to snipe and harass the enemy. Captain Parker fell in with a superior force of the enemy, lost all his prisoners and a good many of his men and horses, and was himself reported missing for three days. At the end of that time, however, he and the surviving remnant of his troop contrived to rejoin. Meanwhile Lieutenant Saunders also came into touch with the enemy, was wounded and had several of his men and nearly all his horses shot; while Lieutenant Viney, who was surprised and attacked just as he had off-saddled, was killed, his men, acting on his orders, dispersing into the bush. Immediately afterwards word was received that Captain Bustard at Namirrue had been compelled to surrender, and with him Lieutenant Drummond and what was left of No. 1 Troop of the Gold Coast Mounted Infantry.

This meant that the Gold Coast Mounted Infantry, which on the 5th July had numbered, including Lieutenant Drummond’s troop, about one hundred and sixty-five rank and file, was now reduced to sixty-five men; and Captain Parker returned to the depÔt at Mnapo to train and equip further drafts, while Lieutenant Broomfield remained in the field in command of the handful of mounted men still effective as a fighting force.

Though the enemy had won successes at Nhamaccura and at Namirrue, in both of which places he had succeeded in cutting off small British forces, he was now being hunted by “Kartucol” from the south into the grip of six converging columns; and for the first time in the history of the whole campaign he was so completely cornered that in the neighbourhood of Chalana—a place some five-and-forty miles inland from the coast of Antonio Annes—he was compelled to concentrate all his troops, combining them into a single force.

It was while the meshes of the net appeared at last to be securely drawn around von Lettow-Vorbeck, that Lieutenant Broomfield and his little body of sixty men of the Gold Coast Mounted Infantry specially distinguished themselves. It was of great moment to General Edwards that he should be kept fully and frequently informed of the exact position and movements of the enemy, and this service was rendered to him by Lieutenant Broomfield. For a week the Gold Coast Mounted Infantry maintained close touch with the enemy’s main body. The country is here very thickly populated. The Germans, who were paying for all their supplies with cloth which they had looted from the Portuguese stores, had made themselves very popular with the local natives, who witnessed the wholesale destruction of the Portuguese bomas with ecstatic delight. The British, who they were assured were hired bravos engaged by the Portuguese to capture their deliverers, were proportionately unpopular, and the movements of Broomfield’s two troops were again and again betrayed by the natives to the enemy. Often he had to change his resting-place three and four times a day; he was engaged with the enemy almost as frequently; yet his active patrolling continued without interruption, and General Edwards was kept regularly informed as to every move which the enemy was making. It was, in its way, an outstanding little bit of work, carried out with great coolness, persistency and skill, and it by itself would abundantly have justified all the labour which had been expended in raising and training the Gold Coast Mounted Infantry.

At Numarroe—which lies much further to the west and must not be confused with Namirrue—von Lettow-Vorbeck surprised and captured at the end of August a small British detachment from what had formerly been one of General Northey’s columns; but at Liome on the 31st August and on the 1st September he came in for the worst hammering he had experienced in the whole course of the campaign, losing some fifty of his Europeans and several hundreds of his Askari killed, wounded and captured. On this occasion Lieutenant Drummond and a number of other captives were able to make their escape.

Thereafter, as is now well known, von Lettow-Vorbeck broke away north, succeeded in crossing the Lurio River, and thence treked through the Nyassa Company’s territory to Ngomano on the Rovuma, where at the end of November in the preceding year he had re-equipped and refitted at the expense of the Portuguese garrison. Crossing the Rovuma, he once more entered German East Africa, still hotly pursued by battalions of the indefatigable King’s African Rifles; but when after the signing of the Armistice he finally surrendered, he made his submission to a small police post in Northern Rhodesia.

The Gold Coast Mounted Infantry, once more reinforced and under the command of Major Parker, joined in the pursuit as far north as Ngomano, but on this occasion saw no fighting. On the 3rd October, however, orders were received for them to return to the Gold Coast in order to rejoin the 2nd West African Brigade; and as soon as the necessary arrangements could be completed, the men of the Gold Coast Mounted Infantry were embarked at Port Amelia, and on their arrival at Accra were disbanded, and reabsorbed into the Gold Coast Regiment.