BATTLE OF DORODOOM PASS page 2

At this point I saw what appeared to be a European among the natives shouting commands!  At his command several natives rushed to the back of the Mark IV and attempted to board the ship.  This was hotly contested by several shutztruppen on the rear fighting deck.  During this melee I saw one of the natives attempting to place at keg of explosives on the rear deck!  Fortunately he was not very adept at using matches and was shot off while failing to light the explosive.

The rest of the Prussian column was now starting to deploy behind the MARK IV  and attempting to bring their guns to bear.  At this point a commotion on my right again attracted my attention, another group of what appeared to be Arab slavers that laid hidden in ambush attacked a British steam spider that had been rash enough to advance through the brush alone ahead of its infantry.  Again these natives appeared to be equipped with barrels of explosives.  They rushed the spider and attempted to attach the explosives to one of its legs.  It seems that one of the crew inside noticed this as the leg snapped up and the lighted explosive ripped off flying through the air and exploding directly in front of the spiders main gun port.  This must of damaged the spider’s gun, as it did not fire for the rest of the engagement.  The British infantry with typical pluck now proceeded to close with the Arabs.  The Arabs let loose a great cry and ran Pell Mel into the British line.  The resulting struggle was a bloodbath for both sides; in the end which only took a few minutes I can see only a few figures left standing.  One of these was a young corporal name TE Lawrence which I and later had the pleasure of discussing the battle over tea. He related the intense struggle between the Brit’s and the Arabs led by Omar the second, son of the famous Baghdad tent maker Omar I.

My attention now went back to the Prussian sight of the battle where Prussian firepower was taking its toll on the brave but poorly armed natives.  As the battle and moved closer to my position I could now recognize the European figure with the natives he was none other than that scoundrel of back water ports “mad Jack Porter” who once served with his Majesty's Navy until desertion led to a life of underhanded dealings around the globe. Mad Jack was firing his pistol and directing the natives in their attack when the exchange some several shots with Captain von luck resulted in von Luck's luck running out!  The Captain fell to the ground stunned with a bullet in his shoulder (he later recovered) No one ever being able to accuse mad Jack of being a coward he swung himself onto the rear deck of the Mark IV killing one shutztruppen in the process.  He then began to climb up to the main fighting deck.  He reached the deck that was occupied by three more shutztruppen and after several rounds of melee tossed one to the ground and ran through a second. At this point Col. Stopengoof who was up in the command section of the Mark IV jump down to the main deck to help the remaining shutztruppen in their battle with mad Jack.