British occupy Handeni

In mid-June 1916 the troops of General Jan Smuts occupied Handeni, an important road junction in the north-eastern part of German East Africa. The sources differ by one day. Smuts’s report of October 1916 and the British chronology of the war give 19 June. The British official history (Hordern) writes that the column of Brigadier-General S. H. Sheppard entered Handeni without a fight as early as 10.30 a.m. on 18 June. Either way, the Germans abandoned the settlement without a battle.

Across the waterless steppe

After the fighting at Mkaramo on the Pangani river Smuts personally led the further advance. The German forces of Major Georg Kraut were falling back along the field railway to Handeni. Beyond the village of Luchomo the troops left the Pangani valley and its plentiful water. Ahead of them lay about 50 kilometres of dry, malarial country, in which the scarce watering places had to be found in advance, so the columns advanced in short stages. Apart from minor skirmishes with German patrols they did not meet the enemy until 15 June, when Sheppard’s advanced guard reached the village of Kilimanjaro. Patrols and aircraft discovered trenches there covering Handeni, and it seemed that Kraut would make a stand.

On the same day, in the east, the column of Brigadier-General J. A. Hannyngton, advancing along the Usambara railway, occupied Korogwe station. During the night askaris of the 3rd Battalion, King’s African Rifles crossed the torrential river on a few tree trunks and at dawn captured the wooden Zuganatto bridge intact, which the Germans had already prepared for burning. It was the only crossing for many kilometres by which Hannyngton’s column could join the main force. At Korogwe the Germans blew up the station and the engine shed with three locomotives.

An outflanking move that failed

Smuts did not want to attack the fortifications frontally. He sent two South African battalions under Brigadier-General P. S. Beves in a wide arc to the south-west, through Mbagwe and Gitu to Sangeni, to outflank the German position and cut the line of retreat to the south. Sheppard was meanwhile to move west across the enemy’s front and cover this manoeuvre. Kraut, however, was warned in time and at once fell back to his supply depot at Pongwe, about 20 kilometres beyond Handeni. Beves reached Sangeni on 17 June, and the next day sent the 5th and 6th South African Infantry towards Pongwe. Both fought sharp skirmishes with the retreating Germans. The 6th Battalion counted 27 enemy dead and took 4 askaris prisoner, and the 5th Battalion captured 3 Germans near Pongwe. Hordern observes that because Sheppard, bound by Smuts’s orders, did not hold the Germans from the front, their retreat took place practically unhindered.

Handeni was a sizeable settlement with a solidly built boma, that is, a fortified seat of the administration, and a few European houses among farms and plantations. It had water, though not very good, and it was unhealthy. The Germans left many sick Africans with typhoid in it, and among the undernourished British soldiers dysentery and malaria spread rapidly. As early as 15 June the 1st Division headquarters noted that the strength of the units had fallen by about 15 per cent, and beyond Handeni the losses grew quickly. On 19 June Hannyngton’s column joined the main force.

The capture of Handeni opened the way south, towards the Central Railway and Morogoro. Smuts ordered an immediate advance. As early as the evening of 20 June the German rearguard laid an ambush at Kangata for the 5th South African Infantry, which according to the South African official history lost 96 men. Hordern supposes that in these days Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck finally realised that the main attack was coming from the direction of the Pangani, not from Kondoa Irangi, and began to shift his troops here.