Masila wa Myuion enlisted with the 3rd King’s African Rifles battalion on 4 June 1912. He was of the Mkamba tribe, whose chief was Mboli wa Mzambia, in the village of Kahani and district of Machakos (Kenya). Masila’s attestation papers do not tell us the age he was when he enlisted with the army. Masila was recorded as being 5-foot 4½ inches, with a 34 – 37-inch chest.

Being enlisted in the 3rd KAR, Masila would have been stationed in Nairobi, the headquarters of the battalion, for the first few years of his service.

Although we don’t know much about his early service, what we do know suggests he didn’t start of as a model soldier. In 1912, Masila was graded as being a bad shot in his musketry course training. Whilst in 1913, he unfortunately failed to qualify for the 3rd class pass. He was also punished on a few occasions between 1913 and 14 for talking during parades and interfering with the regimental police.

The Battle of Bukoba is the first recorded instance of Masila’s frontline experience in the East Africa campaign, as he was wounded in this engagement. 

Since Major-General Tighe had established control over Lake Victoria, a plan had been approved by the War Office to launch a surprise offensive against the enemy. It was decided that Bukoba would be chosen due to its strategic importance to the Germans, as it housed a wireless communication station south of the Kagera (Hordern, 1941, p. 150-151).

Under Lieut Colonel B.R. Graham, a party of 3rd KAR left Nairobi for Bukoba on the 18th June 1915, joining up with other British regiments in Lake Victoria. Masila would have been part of this detachment. On the 20th June, the force comprising of a half battalion of 25/Royal Fusiliers, 2/Loyal North Lancashire Regiment, 29th Punjabis and 3rd KAR embarked on ships and headed towards Bukoba.

Following the morning of the 22nd, vessels began to disembark soldiers 3 ½ miles north of the town, whilst the Nyanza threatened the township from the lake. During the initial period of disembarkation, German guns fired upon the British vessels. This, in turn, forced the KAR to land north of the town instead at the customs house shore. Although the black smoke gave away the German positions it would nevertheless take a while for the British forces to silence them.

It is entirely likely that Masila and his comrades would have had to deal with incoming direct fire towards their ship, making their landing particularly perilous.

As the 3rd KAR was deploying close to the Fusiliers, a force of 200 Germans with a machine gun held up the 2/Loyal North Lancashire on a rocky ridge known as ‘Arab Ridge’ (Hordern, 1941, p.152). Mountain guns were then used against the machine gun position which forced the Germans to move locations, enabling the regiment to advance and take out the enemy at Arab Ridge.

Around late afternoon, the Fusiliers moved up to the southern end of the German position, which was fully evacuated by the time they reached there. British forces spent the rest of the day slowly advancing before resting on high grounds for the night. Upon daylight, the Fusiliers were ordered to advance directly into the town whilst the Loyal North Lancashire would approach from the north-west alongside the KAR and 29th Punjabis in reserve.

Heavy machine gun fire, an attempted but ultimately aborted German counterattack, and torrential rain fall delayed progress in the early morning for the advancing regiments. However, by 9 a.m. the rain had ceased and both the Loyal North Lancashire and the 29th Punjabis pushed forward, overcoming the enemy defences.

Within a few hours British forces had entered the town, scattering the last remnants of the German defenders. Being overcome, the wireless station and fort was destroyed, and everything of military value stripped, leaving Bukoba sacked and in the hands of nearby tribes.

Masila received 60 rupees as a gratuity for the wound he suffered during the battle, alongside first hand campaign experience. We do not know how serious the wound was, but just over a year later, on the 26th August 1916 Masila would be given the acting position of Lance Corporal, perhaps driven by his prior campaign experience in Bukoba.

Not much is known about what Masila was up to between his time at the Great Lakes region and The Battle of Narungombe, where he was killed in action.

However, looking through Masila’s defaulter sheet (military offences record) we know that Masila was stationed at Mbuyuni in April/May 1916 and Tulo in November 1916. We also know that Masila’s unit faced a particularly tough time, as after leaving Mbuyuni on the 20th May, the battalion had been switched to half rations, and despite fighting ‘day after day’, sickness and increasing numbers of casualties had depleted their strength (TNA, WO 106/273, p.55).

Low rations, weak diets, harsh weather conditions and various diseases, not to mention mismanagement by British command, exacerbated sickness amongst the military. As an example of this mismanagement, Smuts and his staff wanted to wrap up the campaign quickly, so they drove a sick-ridden and exhausted force beyond existing supply lines and, into the wilderness (Anderson, 2001, p.166-171).

Advances through the Rufiji Valley (Tanzania) were dangerous due to the nearly impassable terrain and low-lying swampy malarious areas, however the advance south was continued in September and October. Clothing and protective equipment for the troops also tended to be in poor condition, adding to the troops already long list of sanitary problems.

The resolve and fortitude needed to survive the difficulties of the East African campaign was immense, which speaks to the resilience of the 3rd battalion and Masila who kept pushing forward.

Another issue faced by the KAR at this time was recruitment, and the quality of the training that soldiers received. Given the requirement for new troops to fill gaps in the ranks, the regimental war diary provides an interesting observation that African soldiers during this period received 5 months of training, compared to the Indian army’s 9-month training window. Sometimes the 5-month training window was only an ideal, as the regimental war diary states that troops could be deployed after only 6 weeks, most likely due to the urgency of the campaign. Moreover, another entry states that new recruits arriving from Nairobi were not up to the regimental standards of older soldiers, due to insufficient training and the short time they were enlisted.

Unfortunately, the inexperience of the 3rd KAR would be a key issue in The Battle of Narungombe, where Masila was killed in action.

The Battle of Narungombe was one of the deadliest battles to occur during the East Africa campaign. This was also the battle where Masila wa Myuion was killed alongside a sizeable chunk of his regiment. Narungombe was of vital strategic location in the war effort (Tanzania) as it provided large sources of water in the middle of unforgivable, parched land.

A substantial German presence commanded Narungombe, led by Von Lieberman who had 8 companies, two Portuguese artillery pieces and 48 machine guns. Not only was the defence substantial, but a very thick bush resided on the left flank of the German defence, and a swamp on the right. Whilst in front of the defence the Germans had cleared away long grass, leaving virtually no cover for potential attackers.

On the 19th July, three British columns, composing of around 1,700 men and 20 machine guns, advanced towards the German defences and started their offensive at 10:30 A.M. Leading the assault was the first column comprised of Punjabi companies, a South African regiment and the Gold Coast Regiment. No 2 column would attack the German’s left flank, whilst Masila and the 3/3rd KAR being situated in No 3 column, attacked the right. A slow advance was made by the No 1 column during the first few hours of the battle, due to heavy enemy machine gun fire.

As No 1 column advanced in the centre, Nos 2 and 3 were also ordered to breakthrough the German’s flanks. Being at the centre of No 3 column, Masila and his regiment initially made good progress during their advance, however, around midday the ‘heavy and accurate fire of the enemy’ halted their attack. They held their position and protected their right flank, whilst waiting for No 1 col to move up and reinforce their left flank.

Around 13:00, the No 1 col managed to put a dent on the German’s position, encouraging the 3/3rd to carry on advancing also. Disaster struck the 3/3rd offensive however, as British guns set ablaze the long grass surrounding them, causing the 3/3rd to flee. The regimental war diary paints a particularly tragic scene: ‘The 3/3 were compelled to clear out, many of its wounded unfortunately having to be left behind, where they must have perished in the flames’ (TNA, WTO 106/273).

To make matters worse, witnessing the precarious predicament that the 3/3rd were in, German forces launched a heavy counterattack, cheering and blowing bugles. The 1/3rd KAR, under No 2 column, gathered all available troops and fended off the German counterattack, before leading their own offensive into the enemy trenches and driving them off using their bayonets.

Some war diary reports attribute the victory of the British in Narungombe to the 1/3rd KAR who, ‘changed the whole aspect of the fight’ with their charge'. As the sun began to set, fighting settled down with the various regiments settling into the newly occupied German trenches for the night.

Upon daylight it was found that the Germans had evacuated their positions, fearing that they were being outnumbered by a much larger British force.

Losses for the 3rd KAR were substantial, with the fire being so severe during the battle that ‘every officer was either hit or had his clothes punctured with a bullet’. Moreover, several war diaries also highlight the inexperience of the 3/3rd KAR as a factor that contributed to the regiment’s deterioration during the battle (Anderson, 2001, p.237).

Despite failing to pass the musketry tests in the beginning of his military career, Masila wa Myuion campaigned in the Great Lakes, rose to the position of Lance Corporal, traversed hostile swampy landscapes on little rations, survived episodes of regimental sickness, before finally being killed in one of the deadliest battles of the campaign.

Masila’s story gives us a glimpse of what his regiment and African soldiers went through during World War One, and the fortitude, courage, and sacrifices they displayed during their military service.

Sources:

1) British Library, KAR 1912/1/71/4087.

2)  Charles Hordern, History of the Great War: Military Operations East Africa, Vol. 1 August 1914 - September 1916, (London: HMSO, 1941).

3) Hubert Moyse-Bartlett, The King’s African Rifles: A Study in the Military History of East and Central Africa, 1890-1945, (East Sussex: Naval & Military Press, 2014), pp. 364-6.

4) WO 106/273, Record of the 3rd Battalion during the campaign in East Africa, 1914-18.

5) WO 300/371, German East Africa: Military Road Map [without further title], Aug 1916.

6) WO 95/5321/7, Hanforce No 1 Column; 2/2 Battalion Kings African Rifles, May – Nov 1917.

7) WO 95/5322/9, Hanforce No 3 Column; 40 Battalion Pathans, Jun – Jul 1917.

8) Ross Anderson. (2001). World War One in East Africa. Ph. D. Thesis. University of Glasgow.