Part 4 (1/2)
There was none worthy the name.
Everyone was guarded. A few hours after the places were entered the orders were issued threatening severe and instant penalties should any looting be done by the hungry troops; officers, etc., were quietly billeted; and to the houses occupied by women and marged with a white cross no one unauthorised was allowed any approach whatsoever.
It was magnanimous, it was magnificent. But I wonder if the chivalrous Teuton would call it war!
Karibib, the practical junction of the railway running north to Grootfontein, the enemy's new ”capital,” was made Army Headquarters.
General Botha hoisted the flag at Karibib and proclaimed it on the 6th of May, spent a few days settling matters at Karibib, and on the afternoon of the 11th set out for Windhuk by motor, formally to enter the capital. With him the Commander-in-Chief took his Chief of Staff (Colonel Collyer), Lieut.-Colonel de Waal (Provost Marshal), Major Bok (Military Secretary), Major Trew (Officer Commanding Bodyguard), Major Liepoldt (Chief Intelligence Officer), Major Esselen (Staff), an escort from the 4th Battery South African Mounted Riflemen and Bodyguard.
Overnight the Headquarters party ”outspanned” at Okasise on a beautiful camping-ground, and, meeting the Burgomaster of Windhuk under some trees outside the town, ran into the South-West capital towards noon.
Later in the day the ceremony of formal taking over was performed before a big crowd at the Rathaus. It was in every way a historic scene. The mounted troops lined all about the square that fronts the Rathaus from the roadway, their weary horses and stained uniforms showing up in the background, with the throng of civilians crowded amongst the motor-cars and carts in the square itself. A warrant-officer of the Commander-in-Chief's Bodyguard had the honour of hoisting the Union Jack over the Rathaus at Windhuk, the capital of Germany's erstwhile colonial possessions.
A cheer went up as the flag fluttered up in the noon sunlight. Windhuk was naturally regarded as the Mecca, so to speak, of the invading army.
[Ill.u.s.tration: At the Gate of Windhuk. Headquarters Staff Motors awaiting entry]
[Ill.u.s.tration: At the Gate of Windhuk. General Botha discusses matters with the Governor of Windhuk]
[Ill.u.s.tration: At the Gate of Windhuk. The Interpreter]
[Ill.u.s.tration: At the Gate of Windhuk. General Botha emphasises]
With the interests of the civilised world fixed on the vast slaughter-grounds of Europe, I shall not spend much time describing Windhuk. It is a pretty, picturesque little town, built amongst brown and purple hills. In most ways it is highly finished; reflects the spirit of German thoroughness that is an admitted attribute of the race. As usual in South-West Africa, it has nothing of the _colonial_ town about it; it might be another suburb of Berlin. Many of the houses are thoroughly built into the sides of the surrounding kopjes--perched like great red-roofed cages on the hillsides. The place doesn't seem to have a single industry of its own; but then, as I said elsewhere, there is hardly an established industry in the Protectorate.
There is one thing about Windhuk that grips your attention--and holds it in no uncertain manner, too. One of the great objectives of the South-West campaign was to secure the Windhuk wireless station. When you see this--catch a glimpse of it suddenly where it stands on the veld outside the town--you get a thrill of sheer astonishment. The thing seems monstrous there. It is foreign to our ideas--a wireless colossus in such a place. Had I seen this vast piece of work in a humming city that stands warden to the seas it would have fitted in.
But where it is--well, it just surprised. Fancy a pretty bijou veld town, red roofs, neat church, pepper trees, aeromotors, sleepy people and everything--and across the veld, a mile and a half away, darkening the sky with great vertical lines, five terrific steel lattice pillars, nearly four hundred feet high, tied by cables with stay bolts as big as a man; their aerials sweep from pillar to pillar, answer to the wind the deepest note of a giant 'cello, and eavesdrop and conjure amongst the news markets of the world. Now there is no electric light in this village of Windhuk, or Windy Corner, yet. What was the idea with this stupendous thing? And there are not enough Germans in the place--or in the whole territory, if it comes to that--to populate a good-sized town. There is also the usual telegraphic communication to the coast, etc. Yet--the wireless.
Its significance could be of one kind only: a military one.
Leaving the town in the hands of Colonel Mentz, Military Governor, and Lieut.-Colonel de Waal, the Commander-in-Chief returned to Headquarters at Karibib on the 14th of May.
[Ill.u.s.tration: The great Wireless Station at Windhuk]
[Ill.u.s.tration: Conference at Omaruru. General Staff lunching]
[Ill.u.s.tration: The Last Phase. The BE2 tuning up in shed before flight over German positions]
[Ill.u.s.tration: At the Provost Marshal's office at Windhuk--all in Law and order]
[Ill.u.s.tration: The Union Jack just hoisted at the Governor's office, Windhuk]
[Ill.u.s.tration: The Great Military Barracks at Windhuk]
SECTION IV
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 pa.s.sed 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 a.s.sistance for the future.