by Adam Cruise
Winston Churchill and Botha had become close friends after the Anglo-Boer War. The two often joked about how the future prime minister of South Africa had personally captured the future undersecretary of state for the colonies during that war. Although not entirely true – Botha was nowhere near the armoured train that Churchill was travelling in when it was captured, although the captors certainly had been men under his command – Churchill nonetheless took the romantic view of the incident. He had grown quite fond of Botha and refused to accept any alternative version of events.
The two former foes saw a good deal of each other when Churchill was undersecretary between 1905 and 1908, a job that was dominated by South African affairs in the aftermath of the Boer War. In 1907, Churchill successfully lobbied Henry Campbell-Bannerman’s Liberal government to grant responsible rather than representative government to the two former Boer colonies, something that must have left Botha deeply indebted to his friend. Churchill’s act was possibly the primary reason Botha, as the newly elected prime minister of the independent Transvaal Colony, adopted such unwavering loyalty towards Britain, which he continued to exercise after the formation of the Union three years later.
After Botha’s death, it was Churchill who venerated him as the father of South Africa. He affectionately remembered the ‘grand rugged figure’, and described Botha as a ‘a wise and profound statesman, the farmer warrior, the crafty hunter of the wilderness, the deep, sure man of solitude’.7 Of Botha’s military prowess, Churchill wrote in Great Contemporaries, ‘The three most famous generals I have known in my life … all begin with a “B”. They are General Booth, General Botha and General Baden-Powell.’8 Of the three, Churchill would often say that Louis Botha was the greatest he ever knew.
Notes
CHAPTER 1: THE EMPIRE WRITES BACK
1Johannes Meintjes, General Louis Botha (London: Cassel & Company Ltd, 1970), p. 207.
2Hew Strachan, The First World War in Africa (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), p. 65.
3J.J. Collyer, The Campaign in German South West Africa, 1914–1915 (London: Imperial War Museum Department of Printed Books, 1937), p. 17.
4Ibid., p. 18.
5B.C. Judd, ‘Major General Sir Henry Timson Lukin KCB, CMG, DSO’ (South African Military History Society, Military History Journal 7 (3), June 1987).
6Ibid.
7Collyer, The Campaign in German South West Africa, 1914–1915, pp. 18–19.
8Ibid., p. 19.
9Strachan, The First World War in Africa, p. 63.
10Meintjes, General Louis Botha: A Biography, p. 205.
11Collyer, The Campaign in German South West Africa, 1914–1915, p. 64.
12Meintjes, General Louis Botha: A Biography, p. 208.
13Ibid., p. 209.
14Ibid., p. 214.
15Ibid., p. 216.
16Ibid., p. 216.
17Ibid., p. 215.
18Strachan, The First World War in Africa, p. 64.
19Meintjes, General Louis Botha: A Biography, p. 207.
20Ibid., p. 218.
21Strachan, The First World War in Africa, p. 71.
CHAPTER 2: GROUNDWORK
1Collyer, The Campaign in German South West Africa, 1914–1915, p. 36.
2Maria Fisch, The Caprivi Strip During the German Colonial Period 1890 to 1914 (Windhoek: Out of Africa Publishers, 1999), pp. 123–5.
3Ibid., p. 140.
4Ibid., p. 137.
5Ibid., pp. 137–41.
6Ibid., p. 144.
7Strachan, The First World War in Africa, p. 78.
8Ibid., p. 79.
9Ibid., p. 79.
10Meintjes, General Louis Botha: A Biography, pp. 232–3.
11Deneys Reitz, Commando: Of Horses and Men (Edinburgh: House of Emslie, 2012), pp. 295–6.
12Ibid., p. 352.
13Collyer, The Campaign in German South West Africa, 1914–1915, p. 29.
14Ibid., p. 29.
CHAPTER 3: THE SANDFONTEIN REVERSAL
1Collyer, The Campaign in German South West Africa, 1914–1915, p. 35.
2Meintjes, General Louis Botha: A Biography, p. 234.
3Collyer, The Campaign in German South West Africa, 1914–1915, p. 34.
4Ibid., p. 31.
5Ibid., p. 36.
6Ibid., p. 37.
7Ibid., pp. 39–40.
8Ibid., pp. 39–40.
9Ibid., pp. 37–8.
10Ibid., p. 40.
11Ibid., p. 40.
12J.E.M. Atwell, ‘The Zandfontein disaster 1914’ (Imperial Research Circle, available at http://www.imperial-research.net/sandfontein.htm, last accessed 28 May 2014).
13Collyer, The Campaign in German South West Africa, 1914–1915, pp. 40–1.
14Atwell, ‘The Zandfontein disaster 1914’.
15Collyer, The Campaign in German South West Africa, 1914–1915, pp. 41–2.
16Atwell, ‘The Zandfontein disaster 1914’.
17Ibid.
18Ibid.
19Collyer, The Campaign in German South West Africa, 1914–1915, p. 47.
20Ibid., p. 48.
CHAPTER 4: INSURRECTION
1Deneys Reitz, Trekking On: In the Company of Brave Men (Edinburgh: House of Emslie, 2012), p. 18.
2Ibid., p. 18.
3Meintjes, General Louis Botha: A Biography, p. 235.
4Ibid., p. 235.
5Reitz, Trekking On: In the Company of Brave Men, pp. 20–1.
6Meintjes, General Louis Botha: A Biography, p. 235–6.
7Strachan, The First World War in Africa, p. 71.
8Meintjes, General Louis Botha: A Biography, p. 237.
9Ibid., p. 240.
10Eric Moore-Ritchie, With Botha in the Field (London & New York: Longmans, Green & Co., 1915), Project Gutenberg eBook, Part I, Section I.
11Meintjes, General Louis Botha: A Biography, pp. 242–3.
12Moore-Ritchie, With Botha in the Field, Part I, Section II.
13Meintjes, General Louis Botha: A Biography, p. 243.
14Moore-Ritchie, With Botha in the Field, Part I, Section II.
15Reitz, Trekking On: In the Company of Brave Men, p. 35.
16Meintjes, General Louis Botha: A Biography, p. 245.
17Reitz, Trekking On: In the Company of Brave Men, p. 36.
18Reitz, Commando: Of Horses and Men, p. 279.
19Collyer, The Campaign in German South West Africa, 1914–1915, p. 49.
20‘Kakamas: Recon Abteiling von Hadeln’ (The Soldier’s Burden, available at http://www.trenchfighter.com/40029/150601.html, last accessed 28 May 2014).
21Ibid.
22Ibid.
23Ibid.
24Ibid.
25Ibid.
26Meintjes, General Louis Botha: A Biography, p. 249.
CHAPTER 5: INTERLUDE
1Strachan, The First World War in Africa, p. 79.
2Fisch, The Caprivi Strip During the German Colonial Period 1890 to 1914, p. 143.
3Strachan, The First World War in Africa, p. 80.
CHAPTER 6: CENTRAL FORCE
1J.O.E.O. Mahnke, ‘Aircraft operations in the German colonies 1911–1916’ (South African Military History Society, Military History Journal 12 (2), December 2001).
2Collyer, The Campaign in German South West Africa, 1914–1915, p. 93.
3Ibid., pp. 54–6.
4Ibid., p. 56.
5‘The man on the spot’ (Kalgoorlie Miner, 8 January 1908, available at http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article90380013, last accessed 28 May 2014).
6R.E. Stevenson, ‘A carbineer remembers’ (South African Military History Society, Military History Journal 2 (2), December 1971).
7‘The man on the spot’.
8Stevenson, ‘A carbineer remembers’.
9Collyer, The Campaign in German South West Africa, 1914–1915, p. 52.
10Ibid., pp. 53–4.
11Meintjes, General Louis Botha: A Biography, p. 249.
12Mahnke, ‘Aircraft operations in the German colonies 1911–1916
’.
13Collyer, The Campaign in German South West Africa, 1914–1915, pp. 79–80.
14Reitz, Trekking On: In the Company of Brave Men, p. 43.
CHAPTER 7: EASTERN FORCE AND MCKENZIE’S PURSUIT
1Walter H. Wills (ed.), The Anglo-African Who’s Who and Biographical Sketchbook (London: L. Upscott Gill, 1907), p. 441.
2Anne Samson, ‘South African mining magnates and World War One’ (unpublished academic paper presented as a lecture at Brenthurst Library to the Boksburg Historical Association, November 2012), p. 4.
3Ibid., p. 4.
4Ibid., p. 4.
5Collyer, The Campaign in German South West Africa, 1914–1915, pp. 80–1.
6Ibid., p. 81.
7‘Disaster at Gibeon Station’ (The Soldier’s Burden, available at http://www.trenchfighter.com/41815/205801.html, last accessed 28 May 2014).
8Collyer, The Campaign in German South West Africa, 1914–1915, pp. 89–90.
9Ibid., p. 81.
10Reitz, Trekking On: In the Company of Brave Men, p. 49.
11Ibid., pp. 44–5.
12Ibid., pp. 45–8.
13Collyer, The Campaign in German South West Africa, 1914–1915, p. 82.
CHAPTER 8: NORTHERN FORCE
1Strachan, The First World War in Africa, p. 82.
2Collyer, The Campaign in German South West Africa, 1914–1915, pp. 57–8.
3Strachan, The First World War in Africa, p. 82.
4Moore-Ritchie, With Botha in the Field, Part II, Section I.
5Collyer, The Campaign in German South West Africa, 1914–1915, p. 57.
6Ibid., p. 73.
7Ibid., p. 73.
8Ibid., pp. 57–9.
9Strachan, The First World War in Africa, p. 83.
10Collyer, The Campaign in German South West Africa, 1914–1915, p. 60.
11Ibid., p. 61.
12Ibid., p. 62.
13Ibid., p. 61.
14Moore-Ritchie, With Botha in the Field, Part II, Section I.
15Meintjes, General Louis Botha: A Biography, pp. 256–7.
CHAPTER 9: THE HIPPODROME
1Strachan, The First World War in Africa, p. 83.
2Hartmut O. Fahrbach, Das Swakoptal (Swakopmund: Wissenscaftliche Gesellsschaft, 2011), pp. 10–11.
3Ibid., p. 15.
4Collyer, The Campaign in German South West Africa, 1914–1915, p. 67.
5Ibid., p. 64.
6Ibid., p. 67.
7Moore-Ritchie, With Botha in the Field, Part II, Section II.
8Ibid.
9Collyer, The Campaign in German South West Africa, 1914–1915, p. 65.
10Ibid., pp. 69–76.
11Ibid., pp. 71–2.
CHAPTER 10: COUNTERATTACK
1Collyer, The Campaign in German South West Africa, 1914–1915, p. 77.
2Ibid., p. 77.
3Strachan, The First World War in Africa, p. 86.
4G.J.J. Oosthuizen, ‘The military role of the Rehoboth Basters during the South African invasion of German South West Africa, 1914–1915’ (Scientia Militaria: South African Journal of Military Studies 28 (1), 1998).
5Ibid.
6Ibid.
7Ibid.
8Ibid.
9Strachan, The First World War in Africa, p. 86.
10Doreen Barfield, ‘The Battle of Trekkoppies’ (South African Military History Society, Military History Journal 2 (2), December 1971).
11Ibid.
12W.M. Bisset, ‘South Africa’s first anti-aircraft guns’ (Scientia Militaria: South African Journal of Military Studies 8 (1), 1978).
13Ibid.
14Collyer, The Campaign in German South West Africa, 1914–1915, p. 94.
15Ibid., p. 93.
16Ibid., p. 93.
17Ibid., pp. 93–4.
18Barfield, ‘The Battle of Trekkoppies’.
19Ibid.
20Ibid.
21Ibid.
22Collyer, The Campaign in German South West Africa, 1914–1915, p. 94.
CHAPTER 11: CLOSING IN
1Collyer, The Campaign in German South West Africa, 1914–1915, p. 95.
2Ibid., pp. 96–7.
3Ibid., p. 97.
4Ibid., pp. 99–100.
5Meintjes, General Louis Botha: A Biography, p. 263.
6Collyer, The Campaign in German South West Africa, 1914–1915, p. 103.
7Moore-Ritchie, With Botha in the Field, Part II, Section III.
8Ibid.
9Collyer, The Campaign in German South West Africa, 1914–1915, pp. 100–5.
10Meintjes, General Louis Botha: A Biography, p. 263.
11Collyer, The Campaign in German South West Africa, 1914–1915, p. 105.
12Ibid., p. 105.
13Ibid., p. 107.
14Ibid., p. 107.
15Ibid., p. 109.
16Moore-Ritchie, With Botha in the Field, Part II, Section III.
17Collyer, The Campaign in German South West Africa, 1914–1915, p. 108.
18Ibid., p. 106.
19Ibid., p. 116.
20Ibid., p. 117.
21Reitz, Trekking On: In the Company of Brave Men, p. 50.
22Ibid., p. 51.
23Strachan, The First World War in Africa, p. 89.
24Reitz, Trekking On: In the Company of Brave Men, p. 49.
CHAPTER 12: IN FOR THE KILL
1Strachan, The First World War in Africa, p. 89.
2Ibid., p. 89.
3Collyer, The Campaign in German South West Africa, 1914–1915, p. 117.
4Ibid., pp. 117–8.
5Meintjes, General Louis Botha: A Biography, pp. 265–6.
6Collyer, The Campaign in German South West Africa, 1914–1915, p. 118.
7Ibid., p. 118.
8Ibid., p. 118.
9‘The history of the South African Air Force’ (South African Air Force, available at http://www.af.mil.za/about_us/history.html, last accessed 28 May 2014).
10Ibid.
11Collyer, The Campaign in German South West Africa, 1914–1915, pp. 119–20.
12Moore-Ritchie, With Botha in the Field, Part II, Section IV.
13Collyer, The Campaign in German South West Africa, 1914–1915, p. 130.
14Moore-Ritchie, With Botha in the Field, Part II, Section IV.
15Collyer, The Campaign in German South West Africa, 1914–1915, p. 130.
16Ibid., p. 134.
17Ibid., p. 135.
18Ibid., p. 135.
19Ibid., p. 136.
20Ibid., p. 136.
21Strachan, The First World War in Africa, p. 90.
22Ibid., p. 91.
23Collyer, The Campaign in German South West Africa, 1914–1915, p. 138.
24Ibid., p. 139.
25Ibid., p. 140.
26Ibid., p. 140.
27Ibid., p. 142.
28Ibid., p. 143.
29Strachan, The First World War in Africa, p. 90.
30Collyer, The Campaign in German South West Africa, 1914–1915, p. 144.
31Ibid., pp. 143–4.
CHAPTER 13: KILO 500
1Collyer, The Campaign in German South West Africa, 1914–1915, pp. 145–6.
2Ibid., p. 148.
3Ibid., p. 148.
4Ibid., p. 100.
5Ibid., p. 148.
6Ibid., p. 149.
7Meintjes, General Louis Botha: A Biography, p. 269.
8Collyer, The Campaign in German South West Africa, 1914–1915, pp. 150–1.
9Meintjes, General Louis Botha: A Biography, p. 270.
10Klaus Dierks, ‘South West Africa becomes a League of Nations mandate: 1919–1945’ (Online Namibia Library of Dr Klaus Dierks, available at http://www.klausdierks.com/FrontpageMain.html, last accessed 28 May 2014).
11Chris Dale, ‘Schütztruppe artillery recovered at Lake Otjikoto’ (German Colonial Uniforms, available at http://www.germancolonialuniforms.co.uk, last accessed 28 May 2014).
CHAPTER 14: REVERBERATIONS
1Mahnke, ‘Aircraft operations in the
German colonies 1911–1916’.
2Judd, ‘Major General Sir Henry Timson Lukin KCB, CMG, DSO’.
3Strachan, The First World War in Africa, p. 143.
4Ibid., p. 136.
5Reitz, Trekking On: In the Company of Brave Men, p. 53.
6Ibid., p. 53.
7Celia Sandys, Churchill Wanted Dead or Alive (New York: First Carroll & Graf, 2000), p. 61.
8Winston S. Churchill, Great Contemporaries (London: Odhams & Co. Ltd, 1947), p. 287.
Bibliography
Books
Churchill, Winston S. Great Contemporaries. London: Odhams & Co. Ltd, 1947
Collyer, J.J. The Campaign in German South West Africa, 1914–1915. London: Imperial War Museum Department of Printed Books, 1937
Fahrbach, Hartmut O. Das Swakoptal. Swakopmund: Wissenscaftliche Gesellsschaft, 2011
Fisch, Maria. The Caprivi Strip During the German Colonial Period 1890 to 1914. Windhoek: Out of Africa, 1999
Meintjes, Johannes. General Louis Botha. London: Cassel & Company, 1970
Moore-Ritchie, Eric. With Botha in the Field. London & New York: Longmans, Green & Co., 1915
Reitz, Deneys. Commando: Of Horses and Men. Edinburgh: House of Emslie, 2012
———. Trekking On: In the Company of Brave Men. Edinburgh: House of Emslie, 2012
Sandys, Celia. Churchill Wanted Dead or Alive. New York: First Carroll & Graf, 2000
Strachan, Hew. The First World War in Africa. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004
Wills, Walter H. (ed.) The Anglo-African Who’s Who and Biographical Sketchbook. London: L. Upscott Gill, 1907
Journal articles and unpublished papers
Barfield, Doreen. ‘The Battle of Trekkoppies’. South African Military History Society, Military History Journal 2 (2), December 1971
Bisset, W.M. ‘South Africa’s first anti-aircraft guns’. Scientia Militaria: South African Journal of Military Studies 8 (1), 1978
Judd, B.C. ‘Major General Sir Henry Timson Lukin KCB, CMG, DSO’. South African Military History Society, Military History Journal 7 (3), June 1987
Mahnke, J.O.E.O. ‘Aircraft operations in the German colonies 1911–1916’. South African Military History Society, Military History Journal 12 (2), December 2001
Oosthuizen, G.J.J. ‘The military role of the Rehoboth Basters during the South African invasion of German South West Africa, 1914–1915’. Scientia Militaria: South African Journal of Military Studies 28 (1), 1998 (available at http://scientiamilitaria.journals.ac.za/pub/article/view/201/247, last accessed 18 July 2014