Lettow-Vorbeck returns across the Rovuma

At the end of September 1918 the German Schutztruppe of General Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck reached the Rovuma from the south and crossed to its northern bank. After ten months of marching and fighting in Portuguese East Africa, the Germans once again stood on the soil of German East Africa, which they had left in November 1917. The British chronology of the war records the return under 29 September. Lettow-Vorbeck himself wrote in his memoirs that his columns reached the river on 28 September and, after crossing to the German bank, halted for two days near Nagwamira.

Retreat from the Lúrio

After his victory at Nhamacurra at the beginning of July, Lettow-Vorbeck turned back north. The British columns of General Jacob van Deventer, made up mainly of African battalions of the King’s African Rifles, were, however, hard on his heels. At the end of August, in fighting near Lioma, the Germans lost several dozen killed and missing, 48,000 rounds of ammunition, part of their medical supplies and one detachment’s baggage train. On 6 September, at Mount Hulua near Mpuera, they ran into the rear of a British column and in a hard fight shattered one of its battalions, but they had several dozen wounded, among them several officers. According to a German return of 1 September the Schutztruppe now numbered only 176 Europeans and 1,487 askaris, not counting the porters, women and children who went with the column.

From then on Lettow-Vorbeck avoided a decisive battle and marched rapidly north, east of Lake Nyasa. Local guides helped with the crossing of the Lugenda, and on 17 September the columns reached Mwembe, where the soldiers had their first day of rest in a long time. A greater danger than the pursuit was disease. The Spanish flu pandemic reached the force: according to Lettow-Vorbeck, from mid-August 7 Europeans and about 200 Africans fell ill, and in some companies several men had pneumonia. The seriously ill had to be carried, and some of the weaker ones fell behind.

Back on German soil

North of the Rovuma the Germans entered fertile country rich in food, where they surprised several British depots and supply columns that had not expected their arrival. Lettow-Vorbeck feared, however, that his porters from the Ngoni (PL) people, whose villages lay north of the river, would now start running off home, and in the following weeks many of them did indeed desert. The column moved off towards Songea, which was held by the British.

The return to the colony did not mean the end of the trek. In October Lettow-Vorbeck passed Songea, crossed the Bena country and, instead of turning towards Tabora, led his men west, between Lakes Nyasa and Tanganyika, towards Northern Rhodesia. From newspapers captured along the way he learned of the German defeats in France and of Bulgaria’s capitulation, but he did not regard this news as decisive. His small force was still tying down many times more numerous British forces in East Africa.