In the middle of the bush I met Lieutenant Von Ruckteschell with some bearers, on his stretcher which he was forced to use temporarily because of his wounded leg, which had not yet healed; he had kept the column together as far as possible during the long march and now, rifle in hand, was beaming with joy at the possibility of taking part in the engagement with the enemy patrol which appeared on the flank and in our rear. Part of our columns had lost their way in the thick bush and only found us some hours later. After nightfall the dressing station in a ravine had been filled with wounded. It was reported that Lieutenant Schroetter and Naval Lieutenant Freund had fallen. In a further patrol-attack, Sergeant-Majors Bolles and Hüttig accidentally came close to the enemy positions and were fired on suddenly; Bolles fell, Hüttig was captured, severely wounded. Sergeant-Major Thurmann had come within five yards of the enemy trenches, and being an excellent shot he repeatedly picked off from an ant-hill any of the enemy inside the camp who exposed himself, until he, too, received a mortal wound.
Captain Goering, regarding it as hopeless to storm the camp, did not attempt this and, after dark, withdrew the force, leaving only patrols in front of the enemy. The main force was thus collected in several groups north of the enemy camp, and I decided to evacuate the scene of action on the following day and march on.
[Illustration: Fig. xx. Through Portuguese East Africa.]
By force of necessity we had to leave behind part of our sick and wounded, as well as the sick prisoners, in charge of an English medical officer, and at nine o’clock in the morning we began our march north in several columns. We had no guides; the country was quite unknown to us and I could only give the Commander of the advance guard general instructions that I intended to pass round one of the hills that lay before us to the north. Soon firing could be heard from the advance guard. It gradually became clear in the bush that our advance guard had turned against an enemy who had attacked in the rear from the left. The shooting was at close range, and from Headquarters, which was with the main body, seemed to come from a considerable force.