ForewordThe following After Action Report is from a campaign game a friend and I have started in Darkest Africa. The game is loosely based on the British efforts to stop slavery in British Central Africa around Lake Nyasa at the close of the 19th century. I have changed names and developed my own map of the area, allowing me latitude in expanding our adventures as I see fit. After all, we aren’t trying to replay history, we are making our own.
After Action Report – Matanga Incident, 22nd July, 1890The Governor of British Central Africa, Sir Percy Waxing, had received word that Arab slavers were once again up to their old tricks, plundering and laying waste to the remote interior of the territories. Hastily an expedition was put together under command of Captain Reginald Hollingsworth. Consisting of 50 men (10 figures) drawn from 1st Platoon, A Company, 15th Jandakot Infantry, and supported by a further 50 Masai Warriors (10 figures), the flying column was accompanied by the renowned German Big Game Hunter, Maximilian Krueger (Max) as guide.
Max was a well known throughout Central British Africa and, as a personal friend of the Governor, exerted considerable personal influence across the colonies. Max was both an effective and capable individual, well respected by the hardy plantation owners and quietly popular with the more remote settler wives, although not was as not well liked by the local native population in the region. It was said, that once Max had shot a bearer clean through the head with his pistol when the man spooked a big bull elephant he was stalking. His dealing with Arab traders was just as tough, if Max ever thought for a second they were cheating him.
Captain Hollingsworth’s orders were to make his way south to the village of Matanga where the slavers were believed to be headed. His instructions were straightforward: Order the Slavers to cease their hideous crimes against humanity, pay a fine of 150 elephant tusks and expel them from the territory, or if they prove uncooperative, to take the perpetrator, Ahmond Khan into custody. Not an easy task when operating miles from support in the middle of nowhere.
To cope with this, the Governor offers Hollingsworth a Maxim machine gun. Hamish McBride of the British Lakes Company (BLC) also agrees to go along with the expedition, having had some dealings with Ahmond Khan in the past.
‘He (Khan) is a treacherous devil’ Hamish warns Hollingsworth, ‘watch out for his tricks and deceptions. If we aren’t careful, he’ll have our heads on poles before we can blink!’
Hamish offers the use of his company’s Lake Steamer, ‘SS Dormas’ to ease the burden of a long journey south by foot and hasten the arrival of the expedition. The Dormas is a reasonable size ship of 600 tons and is the largest ship on Lake Nyassa.
Hollingsworth has the machine gun mounted on the steamer’s foredeck in a sandbag emplacement, hoping the gun will prove intimidating and provide some level of fire support to land operations. In addition to the machine gun, the Dormas has her normal crew; all armed with rifles. At McBride insistence, the crew wouldn’t be allowed to leave the steamer, explaining to Hollingsworth that; ‘If the Dormas is taken, the Slavers would rule the Lake. We wouldn’t have anything to stop them!’ Reggie fully understood the consequences if the Dormas is taken and he hoped it wouldn’t come to that, but secretly he vowed to himself to see the ship at the bottom of the lake if things ever got so desperate.
The passage south was uneventful, arriving at Matanga in the early hours of the morning. From the deck of the Dormas, Hollingworth, McBride and Krueger could see six small Arab dhows, two large dhows and 20 odd small native canoes. By the number of vessels located in close proximity to Matanga, the small group deduced that Khan had perhaps 200-300 Slavers and possibly 50-100 Yao natives under his leadership.
The Yao were a large tribe of semi-independent local natives, living in the vicinity of the Arab dominated areas at the southern end of Lake Nyassa. Influenced by the Arabs, the Yao had joined many Arab led slave raids in the past.
It was at this point; the British had absorbed Central Africa into the Empire and were insistent that slave trading was to stop. To enforce the decision, the British Cape Colony had sent two companies of 15th Jandakot Infantry and ten Mounted Policemen. The British would accept no encroachment on their territories and were determined to drive any foreign influences out. The policy had more or less held, with only minor lapses ending with the slavers normally forced to release their prisoners and pay a large fine in elephant tusks.
The most notable slaver was Abdul-Nasser Khan. Abdul-Nasser had five sons, Ahmond, Kazim, Iman, Hamas and Tali. All his children were known for their wilful pride, arrogance and vindictive dispositions. Abdul-Nasser was 66 years old and both clever and learned, making him the most dangerous of them all. He had created an extensive mercantile empire for himself and dominated much of the area through force, intimidation and an uncanny ability to corrupt and destroy any rivals. During the preceding six years, Abdul-Nasser had used his time too consolidate his authority over the other minor slavers, either driving them out or absorbing them into his control. Abdul-Nasser was on good terms with all of the Yao chiefs, relying on them for support if the need arouse.
Hollingsworth, McBride, Krueger and their men made their way inland. The village of Matanga was a small distance from the lake, perhaps three-quarters of a mile. The area around the lake was thick with jungle vegetation, but once though this the terrain opened up into wide savannah. The savannah was sprinkled with patches of elephant grass and a few acacia trees. Matanga had two large rock buttes standing close to the village consisting of some 50 huts. Near the southern end of the village a low rock wall and a stone cattle kraal marked its extremity.
As the British advanced across the savannah, native sentries could be seen running ahead of the force, alerting Ahmond; the meeting would be no surprise.
Deploying their force on a broad front, Hollingsworth and McBride steadily walked towards the village. The Masai and Krueger were on the right flank, in an extended line formation. The Sikhs were on the left flank forming the other half of an ‘L’ formation. The British plan was to swing the Masai around the butte and enter the village from the north. The Sikhs would protect the left flank and offer direct support to Hollingsworth and McBride as they entered the ‘Loins Den’ to ‘Lay down the Law’ to Ahmond Khan.
Ahead of them in the village, the slavers could be seen forming up in the centre of the village.
Krueger and the Masai quickly moved into place. As they filed around the butte, Max could see the slavers lurking in the rocks high above him. If fight broke out, Max feared that it would be hard to displace the Arabs from their advantage point.
Reaching the outskirts of the village, the Masai quickly found their advance blocked by a wall of slavers. Krueger had dropped back to the rear of the Masai to cover the slavers on the butte with his hunting rifle.
On the left, Hollingsworth and McBride had also only just entered the village when they suddenly found themselves confronted by Khan and his horde of slavers.
The Sikhs maneuvered around the outskirts of the village, breaking formation and filtering between the huts and the low rock wall that developed into a rocky cattle kraal at the extreme south of the village. As they ventured towards the kraal, the Sikhs could see more slavers resting their muskets on the wall and eyeing the Sikhs with menacing looks, clearly relishing the prospect of devouring this small force of infidels.
Bravely, Hollingsworth and McBride stood their ground and made ready to deliver the Governor’s ultimatum.
Khan stood slightly in front of a skirmish line of 50 (10 figures) of his followers.
Hollingsworth call out to slaver chief, ‘Khan, by order of the Her Majesty, I order you to stop your slave raiding, hand over 150 elephant tusks as a fine, leave this territory immediately or be prepared to face Her Majesty’s Justice!’ Khan scoffed at the impudence of this junior officer and obvious novice; ‘Is this one of your British jokes?’ he boomed out. ‘You come here like thieves, seeking to simply take what is mine or face the wrath of a woman, your fat, little Queen!’ Brave words indeed, but Khan was well aware of his exposed position and slowly stepped backwards into the ranks of his men.
‘I will not go anywhere with you, you impudent dog’ he replied. ‘My father will hear of your insolence and, God Willing, will punished you like naughty children!’ As he finished, Khan raised his hand from his side. At this pre-determined hand gesture, some of his men cocked their muskets and made ready to fire.
Acting quickly, Hollingsworth drew his revolver and snapped off two shots from his service pistol. His fire was true and two of the ruffians fell dead immediately. A split second later, recovering from their initial surprise at such a drastic move, the slavers returned fire. Most of the shots whistled by Reggie, but two caught him squarely in his chest, dropping him to the ground. Having only just recovered from a recent bout of malaria, Reggie’s weaken constitution failed him. Lying on this dusty patch of nowhere, under the baking sun, a grimace contorted his face. Had he acted to rashly by firing first?
Those Sikhs that could, immediately dart between the huts of the village and added their rifle fire to the unfair exchange; quickly killing 10 slavers (two figures). Arab fire from the kraal however, began to tell on the stalwart fellows in khaki and five Sikhs fell dead (one figure) or another badly wounded (one figure).
(We didn’t remove wounded British figures as they added flavor to the game and their capture was important.)
On the far right of the village, the Masai threw their spear and surged forward with their swords drawn, pouncing on their startled prey. The effect was devastating; 35 slavers were hacked down (seven figures) and the rest immediately broke, fleeing across the village square. Although the Masai had lost 15 men killed (three figures) in this rush, they had seized the initiative and broke the back of the Arab defence. Krueger engaged the slavers on the butte, picking off two men with his pistol while suffering a wound in doing so.
The Masai surged around the butte to threaten Ahmond’s firing line facing the Sikhs and McBride.
From the elephant grass near the kraal, Khan’s Yao allies erupted. At least 100 of them (20 figures) had been hiding in the long grass and now they swept forward, jumping a small rock wall and sealing off the path leading from the village to the lake.
The Sikhs remained resolute, holding their ground within the village and methodically returning a withering fire which began to tell on the Arab forces. Ahomnd could see this and despite suffering a gunshot wound, he quickly managed to slip away from the main battle line and run for his life.
This was only just in time, for the Sikh Havildar (Sergeant), Nanda Singh, noting the change in balance, seized the initiative and quickly ordered his men forward with the bayonet. The fighting was fierce, but again one sided. The Arabs were no match for the points of cold steel, which the well-disciplined Sikhs flung about with obvious relish, skewering their opponents as they advanced. These soldiers from India quickly swept away the last of the slavers and secured most of the village with the aid of the Masai.
Through the confusion of the hand-to-hand melee, McBride could see Ahmond fleeing; his long robes hitched up between his legs as he leaped like a gazelle between the huts of the village. Not wanting to see the villain escape, Hamish ran between the huts towards the kraal, though his gout slowed his pace somewhat.
Khan’s head start allowed him to slip into the protection of kraal which was occupied by another 50 of his men (10 figures). Just as the retched slaver reached the stone wall, McBride, puffing and blowing like a wounded rhino form his exertions, emerged from between two huts. All 50 of the slavers fired at him, but miraculously, all missed. McBride, seeing that ‘the rabbit had gone down the hole,’ withdrew back to the safety of the village before Khan’s cohorts could attempt to pepper him with lead again.
While this was happening, Krueger was engaged in a one man battle with 40 odd slavers (8 figures) occupying the butte. Following the path the Masai had taken, Krueger slowly walked the length of the village near the base of the butte. Switching between pistol and hunting rifle, Krueger traded shot for shot with the Arabs. Although wounded for a second time, Krueger calmly reloaded and continued to pick off the slavers with his expert marksmanship, as they exposed themselves in their efforts to keep pace with the German.
Having steadied the situation and deterred the Arabs from any notion of advancing, Krueger joined McBride at the point where the path from the lake opened up into the village square, the Scotsman having just returned from his mad dash to intercept Khan. The Sikhs were mopping up the last of the slavers from the skirmish line that had brought down Reggie. The Masai had swept past the Sikhs and ran on to confront the Yao.
The situation was bad, but both Max and Hamish knew it was better to go down fighting than be taken alive.
The firing from the Arabs located around Ahmond’s hut was annoying, but at least confined to one segment of the village. After a few quick words the two Europeans boldly charged them, firing their pistols and hollering as they went. The Arabs, shocked at the audacity of such a foolhardy charge by only two men were quite taken back, lost their nerve. Fumbling in panic, they tried to reload their muskets, while Max and Hamish plunged into them like cheetahs in a herd of lame baby gazelles and quickly did them all in; killing 10 (2 figures) and forcing the last five (1 figure) to melt into the cover of the southern part of the village as they fled.
Unable to rest, the two men ran back to support the Masai and Sikhs. The Masai were squaring off with the Yao although they were vastly out numbered. The Sikhs kept the slavers on the butte under fire, as fast as their Martini-Henry rifles could deliver, but casualties were steadily mounting.
Reggie was badly wounded and clearly out of it, delirious at times and quickly fading. The Masai were down to only 35 warriors (7 figures) and the Sikhs were at half strength (5 figures). Determine to make a last stand, Hamish and Krueger drew their small force in around them.
The Yao rushed forward and dealt a killer thrust to the remaining Masai, massacring all 35 of them in a powerful, uncontrollable blood lust. True to their noble heritage, the Masai choose death rather than the dishonour of surrender. Khan’s men peered through their loopholes and cracks and noted their change in fortunes. Ever the opportunists, they emerged from the protection of the kraal and rushed Krueger and the last of the Sikhs. Hamish dragged Reggie’s limp body into a hut and made ready with his pistol to sell his life dearly.
In the mad melee, defeat loomed for the British, but, despite the numbers, knives and spears proved no match for rifles and bayonet. A stoic defence by the remaining survivors lead to a stalemate, with nether side willing to risk their remaining forces to conclusively finish the battle. With the approach of evening and last light, the remaining Arabs and their natives allies withdrew.
A hush settled over the battlefield. The Yao withdrew to lurk amongst the elephant grass and the Arabs under Khan fell back to the kraal, as the slavers on the butte grew silent.
With the British force surrounded and cut-off from all supplies and reinforcement, Khan knew he had bested this puny force of infidels and sent a message to the British by means of an eight year old native boy. The boy simply pointed towards the lake and only said one word, .....‘GO!’
Hamish and Max knew this was their only chance, but could they trust the slavers? Would they be hacked to pieces as they withdrew and became exposed? To stay would mean certain death sooner or later. Kruger and McBride conferred briefly, discussing their options, then, knowing the boldness of the risk they were taking, they ordered the remaining Sikhs to collect all the wounded and headed their decimated but gallant force down the trail to the lake. The Yao menaced and sneered at them from the safety of the elephant grass, but made no attempt to stop them as they cautiously edged their way along the trail.
Boarding the Dormas, the survivors knew they had been lucky to get away.
Welcome, Guest. Please 
April 23, 2024, 08:24:53 PM
