On the 16th May “Rosecol” left Msalu, and marching along bush paths in a westerly direction, leaving the road to Lusinje on the north and having the Msalu River on its right, began a movement which was designed to cut the main road between Lusinje and Nanungu. Camping for two nights in the bush—orchard country which, though the soil was of a rocky character, was broken by frequent patches of cultivated land—the column crossed this road on the 18th May, and pushed on toward Chisona. On reaching the Lusinje–Nanungu road, a patrol was dispatched to examine the ford across the Msalu River, and on approaching it was fired upon by a party which proved to be composed of scouts belonging to the Rhodesian Native Regiment—part of the weak column which General Northey had sent out across the Rovuma River. Connection was thus established for the first time with this force.

On the 19th May “Rosecol” continued its march to Chisona, where it camped on the banks of the Msalu River at a place about two miles from the column from “Norforce” above mentioned, which was under the command of Colonel Griffiths. The river was unfordable at this season of the year, but the battery-carriers quickly constructed a bridge under the personal supervision of Colonel Goodwin, who, as a former commander of the Pioneer Company, had proved himself, both in the Kameruns and in East Africa, to possess a special gift for such improvizations.

On the 20th May the column crossed the Msalu, and marched due south to within five miles of Chilonga, I Company leading the advance and doing what it could to widen and improve the existing paths so as to facilitate the passage of the column. On the 21st May the latter pushed on twelve miles in a westerly direction and camped at a spot some three miles to the north of the road to Mahua. Five companies of the enemy, under Kohl, were reported to be on this road; and it was here learned that “Kartucol” had entered and occupied Nanungu without opposition, and was advancing along the Mahua road. This advance had been opposed by Kohl during the day, one company of the enemy with one gun having been in action, while the rest of his force was held in reserve. Meanwhile Colonel Griffiths’ column was marching parallel to “Rosecol,” on a line a few miles to the north of it.

At this juncture General Edwards hoped to surround Kohl from the west, east, and north; and with this object in view “Kartucol” was ordered to advance along the Mahua road, Colonel Griffiths’ column to march in a south-westerly direction, so as to get astride that road in the rear of the enemy, while “Rosecol” was instructed to march on a line about three miles to the north of the Mahua road and roughly parallel to it with the object of turning the enemy’s left.

During the afternoon of the 22nd May Colonel Griffiths’ force was heard to be heavily engaged, and “Rosecol” continued its march until 10 p.m., when it camped, Major Shaw in command of the Pioneers and B Company of the Gold Coast Regiment, and two Gold Coast Stokes guns, forming an advanced detachment encamped on high ground a few miles forward, overlooking the place where Colonel Griffiths was entrenched. During all these operations “Rosecol” was separated from “Kartucol” by the Mwambia Ridge—a high barrier of grey, granite hills, with unscalable, cliff-like sides, rising abruptly from the grass and bush and orchard forest at their base—which flanks the main road on the north for a matter of more than a dozen miles.

Colonel Griffiths’ column, it appeared, had struck the Mahua road, and had entered and occupied Kohl’s camp at Mwariba, meeting with very little resistance. Here he had possessed himself of practically all Kohl’s heavy baggage—a really severe loss to the enemy at this juncture; but almost immediately afterwards he had been vigorously attacked, his small column being completely surrounded and suffering many casualties. Failing to push home his attack, however, the enemy had drawn off during the night and had then retired in a southerly direction.

Yet another attempt to envelop him had definitely failed.

The Gold Coast Regiment this day came into contact with the enemy for the first time since it had quitted the main road near Koronje on the 13th April. Its only casualty, however, was one man wounded.

On the 23rd May “Rosecol” advanced through Colonel Griffiths’ camp, with Major Shaw’s detachment about one mile ahead of it; and very shortly afterwards the latter became engaged with the enemy, who, with one company and two machine-guns, was covering the retirement of Kohl’s main force. Major Shaw drove this enemy party back a matter of two miles, when he was relieved by the 4th Battalion of the 4th King’s African Rifles, who now formed the advanced detachment of “Rosecol,” supported as usual, however, by two guns of the Gold Coast Regiment’s Stokes Battery.

On this morning the Regiment lost one British non-commissioned officer, Sergeant Kent, and one soldier killed, and three men wounded.

On the 24th May the 4th King’s African Rifles advanced at 6 a.m., and forthwith became engaged with the enemy, whose strength had now been increased to at least two companies with four machine-guns. All day long the Germans fought a series of very stubborn rear-guard actions, and the progress made by dusk was only two miles. In the course of the day Lieutenant Percy and two battery gun-carriers, attached to the Gold Coast Stokes guns, were wounded.

On the 25th May “Rosecol” advanced along the Mahua road in the direction of Korewa, with “Kartucol” following in its rear; Colonel Griffiths’ column having marched west on the preceding day with the object of once again getting astride the road behind the enemy, this time on the other side of Korewa. The enemy was not met with, however, Major Shaw occupying Korewa in the afternoon without opposition, and during the night news was received that Colonel Griffiths had struck the road at the point aimed at, and that he, too, had seen nothing of the enemy.

From Korewa patrols were sent out in several directions, and by the 27th May, it having by then become pretty evident that von Lettow-Vorbeck with the main body, followed at a short distance by Major Kohl and his redoubtable rear-guard, had crossed the Lurio River into the province of Mozambique, Colonel Griffiths’ column marched that evening in pursuit.

On the 28th May B Company, less one machine-gun and one Lewis gun, left the camp at 6 a.m. for Wanakoti, thirty miles to the east, acting as escort to the 22nd D.M.B. The rest of the Regiment remained in camp at Korewa, where it was rejoined by B Company in due course.

With the retreat of von Lettow-Vorbeck southward across the Lurio River, the expedition into the Nyassa Company’s territory, which had been begun five months earlier by the landing of Major Shaw’s advanced detachment at Port Amelia, reached its natural termination. Yet another campaign, based so far as the British were concerned upon the port of Mozambique, was about to begin, though as yet no very extensive preparations had been made for its effectual initiation.

The Gold Coast Regiment, as it has been seen, had been transferred straight from the pursuit of von Lettow-Vorbeck through the Kilwa and Lindi areas and on to the banks of the Rovuma, to the very trying inland march from Port Amelia. Other units subsequently engaged in that enterprise had in the interval been afforded a period of rest, the 2nd Battalion of the 2nd Regiment of the King’s African Rifles, for example, having been allowed to return for a space to their cantonments and to their womenkind at Nairobi. The men of this corps and those of the Gold Coast Regiment, who had done so much hard fighting in company, had learned greatly to trust and value one another, and though they were drawn from such widely different parts of the African continent and though the Gold Coast soldiers’ knowledge of Swahili was still rather elementary, a species of blood-brotherhood had come to be recognized as existing between them. When the “Second Second,” as this battalion of the King’s African Rifles was familiarly called, had made its appearance in Portuguese East Africa, it had been warmly welcomed by the men of the Gold Coast Regiment, and the latter, it may be surmised, had listened not without envy to the accounts which their friends had to give them of the good time the former had enjoyed during their stay at Nairobi. Were the war-worn veterans of the Gold Coast Regiment never to enjoy a similar respite from patrols, attacks, counter-attacks and endless toils and fatigues? The men put the question to their officers. They would fight on if they must, embarking forthwith upon this new campaign which was clearly about to begin; but they would fight better, they felt, if in the interval they might have a taste of the delights of rest and home in their cantonments at Kumasi. Colonel Goodwin, who was now commanding the Regiment, and Colonel Rose, who was commanding the column to which the battalion was attached, shared the men’s opinion, and General Edwards agreed that the Regiment had fairly earned a rest.

Accordingly, at 7 a.m. on the 1st June, the Gold Coast Regiment left the camp at Korewa, and began its march back to Port Amelia. From Medo to Ankuabe—a distance of five-and-twenty miles—it was conveyed by motor-cars, but the rest of that weary journey was accomplished on foot over a road which had been knocked to pieces by the traffic passing over it. A standing camp was established at Gara, between Mtuge and Bandari, which was reached on the 13th June, Colonel Rose having, on the preceding day, relinquished the command of “Rosecol” and resumed that of the Regiment.

The rest of June, July and the first twelve days of August were spent in refitting, and men of the Regiment who were doing duty at various points along the lines of communication were gradually recalled and collected. On the 29th July Colonel Rose and Major Read sailed for South Africa from Port Amelia on board H.M. Transport Hymettus; and on the 13th August Major Hornby with 37 officers, 17 British non-commissioned officers, 862 rank and file, and 135 stretcher-bearers, gun-carriers, etc., embarked on board H.M.T. Magdalena and on the 14th August set sail for West Africa.

At Durban, reached on the 18th August, Colonel Rose and Major Read rejoined the Regiment, and both here and at Capetown, where the transport arrived on the 27th August, several officers were landed who were taking leave in South Africa, Australia or Tasmania.

Accra, the capital of the Gold Coast, was reached without incident late on the 5th September, and on the following day the Governor, who had seen the Regiment off from Sekondi exactly two years and two months earlier, came on board the Magdalena to welcome and inspect the troops, and to thank them on behalf of the Colony whose name they bear, for the splendid fashion in which, through all the trials and dangers of the East African campaign, they had upheld its reputation.

Colonel Rose and Major Read disembarked at Accra, but the Regiment sailed on the evening of the 6th September for Sekondi, where it arrived early next morning.

From this port to Kumasi, whither the Regiment at once proceeded in special trains, its journey was a triumphal progress. At Sekondi itself a feast of native foods, such as these soldier-exiles had not tasted for two years, had been prepared for their consumption; and at every halting-place crowds had assembled to greet and acclaim the Regiment and to load the men with gifts. All along the line little knots of natives shouted and danced their welcome, and even after darkness had fallen every station at which the trains stopped was crammed by eager crowds of Europeans and natives alike, bent upon showing the men what pride the colony felt at the reputation which they had won for themselves, and how deep was the popular sympathy for all they had suffered and endured.

It was a royal home-coming, and when at dawn the men, worn out with excitement and fatigue at last arrived at Kumasi, their women met them at the station in a clamorous mob, and accompanied them in triumph to their cantonments, with the songs and dances wherewith the warriors of West Africa have always been greeted on their return from a victorious campaign.

But, alas! there were wailings and keenings too, mingling with the joyful tumult, for many a woman there was lamenting some poor fellow who lies buried far away on the other side of Africa, and would not be comforted because he was not.

The casualties sustained by the Gold Coast Regiment during the campaign in East Africa were as follows:—

The strength of the Gold Coast Regiment actually in the field never much exceeded 900 rifles. The total of effectives belonging to the Regiment at any one time in East Africa never numbered much more than 3000, and from first to last the total number of officers and men of all ranks dispatched did not amount to much more than 3800. When these facts are remembered, the above table will be found strikingly to illustrate the severity of the fighting in which the Regiment took so active a part, and to indicate the ravages caused by disease to which prolonged strain and hardship exposed it.

Meanwhile the recruiting efforts made by the Government of the Gold Coast, to which during 1917-18 Captain Armitage, C.M.G., D.S.O., the Chief Commissioner of the Northern Territories, had devoted special energy and enthusiasm, had resulted in the collection of a very large number of recruits at the various training-depôts throughout the Colony, Ashanti, and the Northern Territories; and the Regiment had proved itself to possess such fine qualities that, as the early end of the war was not at that time anticipated, the War Office decided to convert it from a battalion to a brigade. This consisted of four full battalions with a battery of four 2·75 guns, and a battery of eight Stokes guns, and it was constituted a brigade as from the 1st November, 1918, under the command of Brigadier-General Rose. It was an open secret that, as soon as its organization was complete, the Second West African Brigade, as it was now called, was to be dispatched on active service to Palestine.

Then, during the closing days of October and the first half of November, came the dramatic collapse of the Central Powers and of their Allies—the débacle in the Balkans, the surrender of Turkey, the rout of the Austro-Hungarian armies on the Italian front, the succession of hammer-blows delivered on the western front from the Swiss frontier to the sea, and finally the Armstice granted to a defeated, crime-stained enemy, the terms of which exactly reflected the magnitude of the Allies’ victory, and the extent to which Germany and Germans had forfeited the trust and the respect of all mankind.

The reading of those terms from the balcony of the Public Offices at Accra to a large concourse of people, almost beside themselves with enthusiasm and delight, was recognized as closing the short career of the Gold Coast Service Brigade; and by the end of the following December its disbandment was completed. It had existed long enough, however, to enable the Gold Coast to boast that it, no less than its neighbour the huge territory of Nigeria, had been able to raise by voluntary enlistment a full brigade of soldiers for the service of the Empire in the Great War.