THE LAST PHASE
On the 19th of June Brigadier-General Brits, of the Northern Army,
occupied Omaruru, on the Karibib-Grootfontein line. The enemy had
retreated.
Nearly five weeks had passed since the Commander-in-Chief had
officially proclaimed the capital. During this time much had happened.
An abortive conference had taken place at Omaruru itself, the Germans,
we were informed afterwards, asking for terms that we were in no mind
to give them. The railway line between Swakopmund and Karibib, broken
up by dynamited bridges, had been to a great extent repaired. The
poorly rationed troops were now replenished. The horses, badly knocked
up after the rush through to Windhuk, had had opportunity to mend a
bit. General Botha had proclaimed the country; with refreshed troops
and horses, he was setting out to attempt to spring a final surprise on
the Germans. He had now the Aviation Corps in full working order--had
aerial eyes wherewith to be guided through a subtropical bush country
very full of possible dangers. He had ahead of him an enemy astonished,
yet, if what was rumoured was true, prepared to make a series of fights
and a big stand in country of his own choice. He had with him an army
that had crossed a desert and, arriving in bush country such as you
find in the Rhodesia "low" veld, knew the nature of it as only the
South African can.
On June 24 Headquarters ran into Kalkfeld just after midnight. The
enemy had retreated. It had been predicted with the utmost confidence
that the Germans would here put up a fight. So confidently was this
expected that the Commander-in-Chief would hardly believe it when the
aeroplanes returned and reported that there were about half a dozen
Germans left in the place. Yet that proved to be exactly the fact, and
so greatly impressed was General Botha with the accuracy of the
observations on this occasion that he emphasised that the skymen were
to receive every possible assistance for the future.
[Illustration: Panorama of Windhuk]
[Illustration: Picturesque Windhuk]
[Illustration: Windhuk. Basking in the sun: from the great Wireless
Station]
[Illustration: How the Germans started to try trading with us ten
minutes after we entered the Capital. Note the spelling]
On June 26 Headquarters arrived at Okanjande, and pushed through to
Otjiwarongo, arriving there at 12 noon. The pace of the trekking was
now becoming phenomenal, and though the country was quite good, water
was as scarce as ever, the bush being intensely dense, with thick sweet
grass as much as eight feet high in places. It was a country made for
ambushes. In less than a week General Botha had trekked over one
hundred and twenty miles, the distance from Karibib to Otjiwarongo.
During this trek the army had had water only twice on the stretch from
Omaruru. But delay of any kind was now highly undesirable: the columns
could not afford to pause long owing to the consumption of rations. It
was no part of the Commander-in-Chief's policy to make bases and await
the arrival of large supplies; water was uncertain, and congestion of
columns at the watering places had to be avoided as much as possible.
Near Okanjande the first great development in General Botha's final
strategy occurred. The northern advance was being conducted as follows.
Brigadier-General Brits, on the left, remained at Otjitasu, leaving it
on June 30. General Botha, with his command, in the centre, was holding
to the narrow gauge Karibib-Otavi-Tsumeb-Grootfontein Railway, and
General Myburgh's column to the right. Brigadier-General Brits now
branched away to Otjitasu, making for Outjo, Okanknejo, and across the
Etoscha Pan to Namutoni. The other columns moved on, trekking night and
day, as in the great advance across the Namib Desert.
Headquarters made Okaputa on June 29; paused the next day, and on July
1 the Staff, leaving Okaputa at 8 o'clock in the morning, reached Otavi
and Otaviafontein at 4.30 p.m., close on the heels of an engagement at
Osib between the Germans and Brigadier-General Manie Botha, who had
pushed on with the Orange Free State Brigade at 6.30 the previous
evening, June 30. This engagement took place in the now intensely thick
bush country. In defeating the enemy, at a cost of a dozen casualties,
Brigadier-General Manie Botha succeeded in securing the finest water
supply the Union Forces had yet seen, and so swift and resolute was the
fighting of the burghers that the enemy fled to their last strong-hold
northward towards Tsumeb. Before striking the enemy in this action the
Free State Brigade, and their accompanying batteries from the 2nd South
African Mounted Riflemen, had trekked forty-two miles in sixteen hours
without halt for any kind of a rest. Behind them, in support, came the
force, consisting of the 6th Mounted Brigade, with the 1st South
African Mounted Riflemen Batteries, who did a similar trek, through
thickest bush, covering almost fifty miles in twenty hours. And the
animals had come through from Karibib--almost two and a half degrees of
latitude south.
At the same time as Brigadier-General Manie Botha had left Okaputa,
Brigadier-General Lukin, with the 6th Mounted S.A.M.R. Brigade, had
left Omarasa. We had therefore a perfect network of highly mobile
forces advancing on the German position somewhere north. Away on the
right, from Windhuk and Okahandja through the Waterberg,
was Brigadier-General Albert's column. On his left was Brigadier-General
Myburgh. Nearer the railway was Brigadier-General Manie Botha. Next came
the Commander-in-Chief with Headquarters Staff and Bodyguard; and,
further, General Lukin. For the time being Brigadier-General Brits, on
the extreme left, had disappeared.
[Illustration: The Last Phase. Difficulties with General Botha's car
through the thick sand]
[Illustration: The Last Phase. The Germans had a hobby of blowing up
bridges. Here is a fine specimen]
[Illustration: General Frank's house, Windhuk. Photo of the two first
men there taken under the flag hauled down by us]
[Illustration: Windhuk. The first British station-master and one of his
staff]
Brigadier-General Manie Botha now advanced right into the bush,
supported by Brigadier-General Lukin, who occupied Eisenberg Nek, on
the right flank. Brigadier-General Myburgh, trekking by forced marches,
in the course of his flanking movement on the right cut the line
between Otavi and Grootfontein, and, swerving north, encountered the
enemy at Asis and Gaub. This column, having captured seventy Germans,
marched straight on to Tsumeb, the extreme northerly limit of the
railway, forty miles north of Otavi. Here the enemy was attacked so
resolutely that they surrendered with all arms and four field guns, and
the Union prisoners of war were released. And great was their
rejoicing, too. Other columns marching north had now reached
Rietfontein and Grootfontein.
It so arose now that General Myburgh, having got for a brief space out
of touch with the Commander-in-Chief, was not aware that the Germans
had opened, on July 5, negotiations with General Botha. General Myburgh
was at once communicated with. As a fact, at the time he entered
Tsumeb, a conference was on hand farther south.
Why did the German forces in the Protectorate surrender without making
the big stand they threatened? If any proof be needed that they did
intend to make a stand it is necessary only to glance at the plan of
their final dispositions. And that is just where General Botha and his
forces had done their work. There is not the least doubt, not the very
least, that von Franke might have made a stand. It would have been
nothing more than a quixotically honourable waste of life ending in one
only possible way.
_He was surrounded before he knew it._
So neat and swift had been the scheme prepared by the
Commander-in-Chief that the German was incredulous--until his scouts kept
coming in and telling him what the real state of affairs was. For Brits,
after a two hundred mile detour through the wildest country had swept
right north to Namutoni on the Great Etoscha Pan, had released more
prisoners and was swerving further out. Myburgh was in Tsumeb. Both these
generals were behind the Germans, ready to strike out forthwith; and
von Franke was cut off from all his supplies. He had simply been
caught--caught by remorseless forced marches and strategy as neat as a
trivet--in a great fork with bent prongs. On the sketches in this
little book, to which I have sacrificed everything possible for
clearness, the general simple scheme of the campaign may be apparent.
The final position on July 5 was something like the diagram on page 61
[A].
Even guerilla warfare is an unattainable luxury when you are
surrounded.
[Illustration: [A] The Fork that Caught the Germans]
[Illustration: The Last Phase. Opposite the very spot where surrender
was made. A vast ant-hill at 500 Kilometres]
[Illustration: South-West Africa. Position of enemy before surrender]
At kilometre 500 on the line between Otavi and Korab, at 2 a.m. on the
9th of July 1915, von Franke, the German Commander, and Dr. Seitz, the
Imperial Governor of South-West Africa, discreetly surrendered to Louis
Botha, Commander-in-Chief and Prime Minister of the Union of South
Africa.
[Illustration: The Last Phase. The German white flag train just
arriving]
[Illustration: The Last Phase. General Botha meets Von Franke at 500
Kilometres]
[Illustration: The Last Phase. Troops entraining to return home]
[Illustration: The Last Phase. The famous Rhodesian Regiment that did
so much in the final brilliant movement]
[Illustration: The Last Phase. Isumeh. British prisoners released]
APPENDIX
THE TERMS OF SURRENDER
PRETORIA, _July_ 10.
The terms of surrender of the military forces of the Protectorate of
German South-West Africa, as agreed to by the Government of the Union
of South Africa, and accepted by his Excellency Dr. Seitz, the Imperial
Governor of the Protectorate of German South-West Africa, the commander
of the military forces, which was signed on the 9th of July, 1915, are
that--
(1) The military forces of the Protectorate of German South-West Africa
(hereinafter referred to as the Protectorate) remaining in the field
under arms and at the disposal and the command of the commander of the
said Protectorate forces, are hereby surrendered to General the Right
Hon. Louis Botha, Commander-in-Chief of the Forces of the Union of
South Africa in the field. Brigadier-General H. T. Lukin, C.M.G.,
D.S.O., acting on behalf of General Botha, shall be the officer in
charge with arranging details of the surrender and giving effect to it.
(2) The active troops of the said forces of the said Protectorate
surrendered in terms of paragraph (1) shall, in the case of officers,
retain their arms and may give parole, being allowed to live each under
that parole at such places as he may select. If for any reason the
Government of the Union is unable to meet the wish of any officer as
regards choice of abode, the officer concerned will choose some place
in respect of which no difficulty exists. In the case of other ranks of
the active troops of the said forces of the Protectorate, such other
ranks shall be interned under proper guard at such place in the
Protectorate as the Union Government shall decide upon.
(3) Each non-commissioned officer and man of the ranks last referred to
shall be allowed to retain their rifles, but no ammunition. One officer
shall be permitted to be interned with the other ranks of artillery,
and one with the other ranks of the remainder of the active troops, and
one with the other ranks of the police.
(4) All reservists (Landwehr) of all ranks of the said forces of the
Protectorate now remaining under arms in the field shall, except to the
extent as is provided for in paragraph (6) below, give up their arms
upon being surrendered, in such formations as may be found most
convenient, and after signing the annexed form of parole shall be
allowed to return to their homes and resume civil occupation.
(5) All reservists (Landwehr and Landsturm) of all ranks of the said
forces of the Protectorate who are now held by the Union Government as
prisoners of war taken from the forces of the Protectorate, upon
signing the form of parole above mentioned in paragraph (4), shall be
allowed to resume civil occupation in the Protectorate.
(6) Officers of the Reserve (Landwehr and Landsturm) of the said forces
of the Protectorate who surrender in terms of paragraph (1) above shall
be allowed to retain their arms, provided they sign the parole above
mentioned in paragraph (4).
(7) All the officers of the said forces of the Protectorate who sign
the form of parole above mentioned in paragraph (4) shall be allowed to
retain their horses, which are nominally allotted to them in the
military establishment.
(8) The Police of the Protectorate shall be treated, as far as have
been mobilised, as active troops. Those members of the Police who are
on duty on distant stations shall remain at their posts until relieved
by the Union troops, in order that the lives and property of
non-combatants may be protected.
(9) Civil officials in the employment of the German Government of the
Protectorate shall be allowed to remain in their homes provided they
sign the parole above mentioned in paragraph (4). Nothing, however, in
this statement to be construed as entitling any such official to
exercise the functions of the appointment which he holds in the service
of either of the Governments aforesaid, or to claim from the Union
Government the emoluments of such appointment.
(10)With the exception of the arms retained by the officers of the
Protectorate forces and by other ranks of the active troops, as
provided in paragraph (2), all war material (including all field guns,
mountain guns, small arms and guns, and small arm ammunition), and the
whole of the property of the Government of the Protectorate, shall be
placed at the disposal of the Union Government.
[Illustration: The German Staff before surrender]
[Illustration: General Botha and his brilliant Chief of Staff, Colonel
J.F. Collier, meet Von Franke at 500 Kilometres]
(11) His Excellency the Imperial Governor shall appoint a civil
official of the Protectorate Service who shall hand over and keep a
record of all Government property of the Civil Departments, including
records which are handed over to the Union Government in terms of
paragraph (10), and the Commander of the said forces of the
Protectorate shall appoint military officers, who shall hand over and
keep a similar record of all Government Property of the Military
Department of the Protectorate.
Given under our hand this 19th day of July 1915.
(Signed) Louis BOTHA,
General Commanding-in-Chief of the Union Forces in the Field.
SEITZ,
Imperial Governor of German South-West Africa.
FRANKE,
Lieut.-Colonel, Commander of the Protectorate Forces of German
South-West Africa.
The form of parole, shown as an annexure, begins--
"I, the undersigned, hereby place myself on my honour not to re-engage
in hostilities in the present war between Great Britain and Germany."
[Illustration: The Last Phase. The Commander-in-Chief, General Botha,
receives an ovation from his Bodyguard after disbanding them]
[Illustration: Generals Botha and Smuts, the Great South Africans,
receive a tremendous ovation from the crowd at the Capital on the
successful conclusion of the Rebellion and the Campaign]
[Illustration: Homeward bound! General Botha and Staff returning on the
_Ebari_]
[Illustration: The Great Man and the Chips of the Old Block returning
to the Union after Conquest]
TOTAL UNION CASUALTIES.
The official report shows that the total casualties of the operations
in South-West Africa in connection with the Union Forces are
approximately as follows--
Killed in action 88
Died of wounds 25
Wounded in action 263
Wounded and taken prisoners 48
Unwounded prisoners in hands of enemy 612
Total 1,036
Died of disease 97
Died through accidents and by mis-adventure 56
Total 153
TOTAL ENEMY SURRENDERS
Immediately after the capitulation of the enemy, Brigadier-General
Lukin reported that he had satisfactorily completed the work of
accepting surrenders. The total number of surrenders amounted to
4,410, made up as follows--
Officers of the Active Troops and Police 110
Officers of the Reserve 177
Rank and File of Active Troops and Police 1,548
Rank and File of Reserve 2,575
The Union Forces when at greatest strength numbered 50,000 men.
The Germans when at full strength numbered 9,000, but a proportion of
these consisted of civilians, who eventually refused to serve.
AMENDMENT
In an official _communiqué_ issued at the end of July, figures were
given of the total number of the enemy included in the general
surrender. The total then given was 4,410, and included the
surrender of the main body at Korab, and also troops captured by
Brigadier-General Myburgh at Tsumeb on July 6, the surrenders at
Grootfontein, Otavifontein, Otavi and Tsumeb, and those who surrendered
at Otjiwarongo.
The additional numbers captured or surrendered at various points since
General Botha made his advance northwards after occupation of Windhuk
are--
To Brigadier-General Myburgh's force,
mostly at Gaub 105
To Brigadier-General Manie Botha's
force between Okaputa and Otavifontein 50
To Brigadier-General Lukin's force 12
To Brigadier-General Brits' force,
mostly at Namutoni 163
Total 330
Thus the total number of prisoners taken during the last stage of the
campaign, viz. from June 18 to July 9, was 4,740.