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Page 19
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.
[Illustration: At the Gate of Windhuk. Headquarters Staff Motors
awaiting entry]
[Illustration: At the Gate of Windhuk. General Botha discusses matters
with the Governor of Windhuk]
[Illustration: At the Gate of Windhuk. The Interpreter]
[Illustration: 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.
[Illustration: The great Wireless Station at Windhuk]
[Illustration: Conference at Omaruru. General Staff lunching]
[Illustration: The Last Phase. The BE2 tuning up in shed before flight
over German positions]
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