Towards the end of 1915, the enemy having in the meantime shifted his camp on Kasigao Mountain, we attacked him once more. During the night a German fighting patrol, under Lieutenant von Ruckteschell, had ascended the mountain in nine hours, and arrived rather exhausted near the enemy’s work. A second patrol, under Lieutenant Freiherr Grote, which was co-operating with Ruckteschell’s, had been somewhat delayed by the sickness and exhaustion of its commander. Lieutenant von Ruckteschell sent a reliable old coloured N.C.O. to the enemy to demand surrender. He observed that our Askari was cordially welcomed by the enemy; he had found a number of good friends among the English Askari. But, in spite of all friendliness, the enemy refused to surrender. Our situation was critical, in consequence of exhaustion and want of food. If anything was to be done at all, it must be done at once. Fortunately, the enemy in their entrenchments did not withstand our machine-gun fire and the assault which immediately followed it; they were destroyed, and a large number of them were killed in their flight by falling from the steep cliffs. The booty included abundant supplies, also clothing and valuable camp equipment.
The feeling of comradeship which our Askari had for us Germans, and which was tremendously developed by the numerous expeditions undertaken together, led on this occasion to a curious incident. After climbing Kasigao Mountain by night, among rocks and thorn-bushes, an Askari noticed that Lieutenant von Ruckteschell was bleeding from a scratch on his face. He at once took his sock, which he had probably not changed for six days, and wiped the “Bwana Lieutenant’s” face with it, anticipating the somewhat surprised question with the remark: “That is a custom of war; one only does it to one’s friends.”
In order to study the situation on the spot and to push on the attacks on Kasigao, I had gone by rail to Same, thence by car to Sonya Mission, and then either by cycle or on foot in the direction of the mountain to the German border, where a company was encamped at a water-hole. From there we had fair communication to Kasigao by heliograph, and we were thus enabled to make good the success we had gained there. Troops were at once pushed up, so that until the arrival of the South Africans the mountain was held by several companies. It was, indeed, decidedly difficult to keep them supplied; for although the German frontier territory west of Kasigao was fertile, it could not permanently support a force which with carriers amounted to about one thousand.