"22 April 1903 a British column was attacked at Daratoleh (Somali) by dervishes: the British, as so often happened in Africa, were vastly outnumbered and the Imperial troops did the only sensible thing they could in these circumstances. They formed into a square and put their maxims to best use. Superior weapons did for superior numbers and, four hours later, the dervishes retreated and the British limped away, having survived the onslaught.
Daratoleh was a celebrated name in Edwardian times: three Victoria Crosses had been given for acts of bravery that day. It would later be forgotten, though, as embarrassment at colonial expeditions and the shadows of other greater conflicts fell over those years. However, Beach has it in his files because of a strange report. A number of British soldiers claimed that a ‘white man' in a topee was seen fighting with a whistle and directing the Dervish attack. See the paragraph above as an example.
There is probably a straightforward explanation. The ‘white man' may have been an African albino or, more likely, an Arab or Turk who had come to make jihad. It is unlikely that, as the British soldiers there believed, another European power was secretly involved. The Dervishes had recently annihilated a British force at Gumburu and many of their troops were carrying British weapons and wearing British clothes, which would have added to a general sense of disorientation…"
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