We started at 3pm, back up overlooking a wide sandy river for four kilometres, a very difficult path for waggons but good pasture. Then over a long limestone ridge, no grass, hard stony ground; over two small pans until we saw a wide river, beautiful grass, set camp at 7pm for the night.
1 March 1910
Away at 5.15, cross country to the waterhole at Arisis, could only drink, no pasture until we outstpanned at 9am at Amisse Pan. Pan empty, but by digging we got so much water that we could water the horses and fill our water barrels. Set off again at 3.40, and joined the Okombahe-Spitzkopje road at 4.50 about 5 kilometres west of large black domes, which run along the western edge of Tubussis. From there we followed the road to Spitzkopje until 6:50 in the evening when we outspanned for the night in good pasture.
2 March 1910
Began early at 4.30am, reached Kettelrivier at 5.10am; outspanned on the road and took the horses and oxen on a further 35 minutes beyond the river and over three hilly ridges to Gamgamka Pan to drink. Back at 6.50am.
Beautiful pasture all the way along, past Buruuburub Pan, two small vleis; at 9am outspanned at Kummikenbank Pan, lots of good water. There are many natives with large and small animals. After 2.30pm, we rode on for about 12 kilometres where we found the last small river and decent pasture, but from then on largely hard, dry ground. We rode up to the gates of Gross-Spitzkopje, but could not find a single blade of grass. We therefore retraced our steps and took the track leading east around Spitzkopje, riding until nine-thirty at night without finding grass. After the wagon had halted, we outspanned and immediately tied the oxen for the night. Strong wind during the night.
3 March 1910
At 5.15am we rode ahead for Spitzkopje, with the waggon going directly on the road to Sandamap. Spitzkopje dismal, not a blade of fresh grass; dam three-quarters full. Buildings dilapidated, roof coverings gone, all stolen. Even by the big river trees have dried up and withered away, apparently it has not rained here for three years. We rode to the waggon and caught up with them 10am at Job Job by the river between the two black koppies, where there are boreholes and good grass. We outspanned there for an hour and a half and let the animals graze, then went on five kilometres to Sandamap, beautiful fresh grass and the pans full of water. No game in the entire area, the following morning we found fresh lion tracks near the camp.
4 March 1910
We stayed in Sandamap during the morning and then at about 3.15pm went on further towards Guabib, about 16 kilometres to the fork on the track to Okombahe, we followed it for about 4 kilometres but at 8.15pm outspanned for the night by a river.
5 March 1910
Up at 5.20am, at 6am at the waterhole at Guimenas. At Kudubis at 8.20am, and the cart followed us there at 9.20am. At Kudubis while surveyor Jacobs measured up the Schmidt farms. Very beautiful countryside, two dams full of water.
6 March 1910
Cart remains at Kudubis, Steinhausen and I ride at 6am to Tumib, Springbokfontein, to the last dam bordering Tubussis. Countryside everywhere very beautiful, plenty of water in the two big dams at Tumib, some small dams by the road, no water at the big dam at Springbokfontein, but about a kilometre north-east lies the dam at Daunabis which again has plenty of water. On our way back two hours in the saddle to Tumib and back in the laager at Kudubis at 2.30pm.
7 March 1910
Cart at 5.30am, we set out 6.30am, watered 8.10am at Guimenas and on to a large dam about 7 kilometres before Guabib (the farm of G. Struys). Tolerably good pasture; outspanned by noon. Great heat, an incredible number of bushticks and biting flies that drove us away again around 3pm this afternoon. We went by Guabib at 6pm and outspan for the night about 5 kilometres further out.
8 March 1910
Rode out 6am, we arrive at Usakos 8am, cart follows, 10am.
Final destination of our trip.
9 March 1910
7am train back to Swakopmund.
Distances:
Omaruru – Okombahe72 kilometres
Okobahe – Aubinhonis32 kilometres
Aubinhonis – cross-country to the
Okombahe-Spitzkopje road35 kilometres
Okombahe-Spitzkopje road to Spitzkopje45 kilometres
Spitzkopje – Sendamap16 kilometres
Sandamap – fork on road16 kilometres
Fork on road – Kudubis15 kilometres
Kudubis – Springbokfontein and back50 kilometres
Kudubis – Guabib24 kilometres
Guabib – Usakos12 kilometres
Total 318 kilometres
Working for the Company
In July 1910, the Company celebrated its twenty-fifth anniversary, and at our suggestion we observed the day in an appropriate manner in Berlin as well as in Swakopmund. We held in Hotel Kaiserhof a huge banquet for the heads of departments, heads of companies and also the craftsmen of Swakopmund, inviting altogether more than one hundred people, and for a long time afterwards everyone was talking about this celebration, the sort of feast that Swakopmund had never seen before.
As I have already mentioned, the Company had interests in guano and seal hunting in Cape Cross, and kept a white man there (a Swede) and the necessary natives. Water was not available in Cape Cross, and the Englishman’s condenser was no longer usable; so in order to convey the necessary provisions and fresh water in casks, we chartered one of the Wörmann steamers travelling to Swakopmund, which then took a return load of guano and seal-skins each time. I always travelled on these steamers as ‘supercargo’, usually twice a year.
On 9 April 1911 our first son Werner was born in Swakopmund, and all Swakopmund celebrated the joyful event with us.
Swakopmund had now grown into a nice town; our house, which to start with had been on its own—at least 150 metres away from the nearest buildings to the east—was soon surrounded by other buildings. The big beautiful church and the school building emerged in the immediate vicinity, and opposite us Dr. Brenner,[54] who was a close and sincere friend, built his family home.
At home in the stable we kept a pair of beautiful horses which we rode for an hour every morning and on longer trips on Sundays; and a light two-wheeled carriage we had bought. Great conviviality prevailed between the traders and officials and their families, with many entertainments and dances, and there were often periods where not a day in the week passed without dinner guests in the house. Emmy went on about how she managed it with only native staff to help!
1911 brought many more unpleasant negotiations and even court cases with the government because of the diamond area and tax matters, and as a consequence Dr. Reuning and I often had to travel to Windhoek and Lüderitzbucht. The managing director of the Lüderitzbucht Company, Stolz, was sacked from his post for unauthorized diamond dealing; and since after a short time his successor was proven to be unreliable, by early 1913 there was yet another change in this position—each time requiring me to stay longer in Lüderitzbucht.
By the beginning of 1912 the time had come for a furlough for me again. We left the house in the care of reliable employees of the company, and travelled in March, this time in third class with one-year-old Werner, via the west coast.
Of course we thoroughly exploited this holiday at home, enjoying city life and taking advantage of everything that we were deprived of overseas: in Hamburg with my in-laws; in Dresden with my parents; and a lot of travelling in between. I had repeatedly to make reports for the Directorate in Berlin, and before you knew it, the time was up and we had to prepare to return to Africa. At the end of August 1912 we travelled back from Hamburg. We took with us a girl as a housekeeper, who stayed with us right up until the outbreak of war, but then broke her contract, leaving us in the lurch in an unpleasant way right at the time when Emmy (who was then expecting our second child) most needed her help.
As soon as I arrived in Swakopmund, Dr. Reuning took his home leave, so of course my work doubled again. I was travelling a lot to Windhoek and Lüderitzbucht to council meetings and supervising our branches in Tsumeb, Gu
hab and Okombahe.
During the holiday in Germany, I had a wisdom tooth removed through surgery, which had grown transversely. Shortly after arriving in Swakopmund I developed a painful tumour on the lower jaw, which was removed in hospital in Windhoek through surgery under anaesthetic. As the wound did not heal, it had to be repeatedly opened and scraped until finally at another, bigger operation in Windhoek, the doctor chiselled away at my jawbone from the outside and pulled from beneath the jaw the root of the tooth which the two idiots of surgeons had left in following the first operation in Dresden. Dr. Brenner then treated the wound, but for weeks afterwards it would not heal, and I was tormented terribly for almost two years.
The Company was building a massive, two-storey administration building, fully equipped with all mod cons, and at the same time a bigger building in Windhoek as a branch of the Company. We made proposals and drew up plans, which were then developed in Berlin by an architect, and the board in Berlin approved them. By 1914 the project had reached a stage when construction would begin later that year. And then war broke out. Dr. Reuning returned mid-1913 from Germany and return, became engaged while overseas and married a few weeks later in Swakopmund, and at the end of the year the manager of the Banking Department, Kamieth, also came back married from his home leave.
One of my best employees, the manager of the goods department, Gogarten, went on leave at the beginning of 1914, could not come back due to the outbreak of war, and fell on the field of honour for his Fatherland.
German South-West Africa in the war
At the outbreak of World War I in 1914, I found myself as a director of the Deutsche Kolonial Gesellschaft für Süd West Afrika in Swakopmund.
Previously, Reserve and Territorial forces in the colony, conscription, leave applications and extensions were all under the control of the responsible unit in Germany. In order to ease and simplify the previous cumbersome system, in 1913 the authorities at home assigned this control to the Schutztruppen-Kommando in Windhoek.
The Reserve and Territorial officers from military units based in Germany were encouraged to resign and transfer to the Schutztruppe Reserve. I followed that process, and was as a result at the time of the outbreak of war a Leutnant in the Kaiserlichen Schutztruppe für Südwest Afrika. Only in 1919, when regulated postal traffic was again possible with Germany, did I learn that I had been promoted to Oberleutnant in July 1914, and to Hauptmann in April 1915.
We received the war declarations of Britain and France against Germany on 5 August 1914, and at the same time a cable from the foreign ministry to the government: ‘The colonies are not included in the state of war.’ Since the attitude of the Union of South Africa was doubtful anyway, the government and troop headquarters ordered a general mobilization.
All too soon this measure turned out to be correct, because General Louis Botha[55] felt committed in the interest of England to go to war with the neighbouring German colonies. Since Botha’s intention brought him into direct conflict with a large proportion of the Boer population, he did not hesitate to submit a forged map to Parliament. In it, Botha showed the German military post of Nakop, which was permanently manned and lay on the northern bank of the Orange River; however, Botha marked it as being situated on the southern side of the Orange River, and thereby gave the impression that the Germans had already invaded Union territory. The Orange River was the border. A rebellion by Botha’s opponents was soon ruthlessly suppressed by force of arms; Botha had achieved his purpose and was master of the situation.
On 6 August, I received my draft notice, to report immediately to the Sixth Field Company in Okanjande. All Reserve and Landwehr troops were simultaneously called up, and began moving out to their destinations within the country the next morning. By the evening of the same day a government order came out calling up members of the militia, so that only women, children, and a couple of old men unfit for service were left in Swakopmund. In contrast, at the time in Swakopmund there were five hundred natives and in particular two hundred Cape boys engaged in bridge construction, who immediately declared themselves as Union citizens. The Mayor of Swakopmund was in Windhoek and the nervous district magistrate did not consider it within his power to take action against this ill-considered action of the government. Therefore we did, my colleague Dr. Reuning, deputy mayor Günther, and I: bypassing the district magistrate to telegraph at night to the Governor that, for the protection of women and children and property, at least the Reserve troops should be allowed back to Swakopmund. At 2am, then, the orders concerning the militia were cancelled by telegraph.
On 8 August at 7am we departed by train from Swakopmund. My wife and my little 3½ year-old son Werner remained in Swakopmund.
I made it to Utjiwarongo on the evening of 9 August, and joined the company on the morning of 10 August at Okanjande. The company was on manoeuvres at the time war was declared, and had remained in Windhoek, so just the company commander, Hauptmann Petter, and another two officers were available to evacuate all the stores and ammunition.
I was to remain as commander at Okanjande. Naturally I was very displeased, and I hoped to find an opportunity soon to leave such a boring post and join the troops at the front line. The very next day a telegram came from the headquarters in Windhoek ordering me to report immediately to the transport division in Karibib. When I arrived there it appeared that this was wrong, and that I was posted to the 2nd Reserve Company under Hauptmann Erich Müller (‘Jumbo’ Müller), where I started my service as a leader of the first cavalry column on the morning of 13 August.
The following events are set out partly just in the form of diary entries. On 15 August, Major Ritter arrived to visit the company and brought as new company commander Hauptmann (retired)—and farmer—von Bennigsen, so Müller (a gunner) had to take over the 2nd Field Battery. At the same time my company received orders to occupy Okawayo as a new base the following day.
16 August 1914
Pastor Heyse held a very tedious morning field service in Karibib for the company. In his sermon he held up the Boers to our men as an example of good soldiers, because each Boer advanced into the field with the Bible in his pocket. He aroused the general displeasure of the company, and we officers were even then making plans to avoid any further sermons by the good pastor. He was later captured during the skirmish at Pforte and sat out the rest of the conflict. At three the next morning the company left for Okawayo under my command as senior officer. (Hauptmann von Bennigsen had over-enthusiastically celebrated his arrival and was somewhat indisposed, so he followed us the next day in a carriage).
17-19 August 1914
Setting up the base at Okawayo, care of horses, riding, close-order drill by squad, shooting and parades.
20 August 1914
On 20 August, I was ordered to investigate the water and grazing resources on the farms Gross- and Klein-Aukas and Tsawisis, about sixty-four kilometres from the coast; that is, to determine whether the company could be moved there. In Usakos I spent several hours with Emmy and Werner, who had come along from Swakopmund, then rode to each farm in turn, returning to Okawayo at noon on 23 August.
24-25 August 1914
Major Ritter held a company inspection near Johann Albrecht Höhe and a combat exercise, testing the officers; my squad performed particularly well.
26-29 August 1914
Service in the company, riding, shooting, drill.
30 August 1914
Following my positive report on water and pasture in Aukas, an order came that the company should transfer its outpost there. All preparations have been made.
1 September 1914
As there were two wells to be repaired at Aukas (the place was uninhabited) I went there via Karibib and Usakos with an advance-party of twenty specially-chosen troops (engineers, well-drillers etc) and a waggon. In Usakos I could requisition the necessary hand tools, wire ropes, well buckets and drinking troughs for the horses, and by 3 September we had the wells in order. The company arrived in Aukas on t
he evening of the same day.
4-11 September 1914
Finished setting up the laager, building small huts from bushes because it was very cold, cross-country riding, training the horses, and various patrols in the area.
12 September 1914
Emmy and Werner came back from Swakopmund, visited the camp at Aukas. I got to spend two days’ leave with them in Usakos.
14-17 September 1914
On 14 September Müller-Artois, the director of Otavibahn,[56] told me in a deafening telephone call that an English cruiser had appeared off Swakopmund, and had shelled the radio tower. Swakopmund was evacuated by the civilian population, so Emmy, expecting our second child, could not return to Swakopmund with Werner, and travelled from Usakos on to Karibib, taking only a small bag containing enough essential clothing for two to three days. I galloped back to Aukas with a message to alert the company, and the order from headquarters to be ready to march. Hauptmann von B. rode to Usakos for a meeting by telephone with headquarters, and came back on the morning of 15 September with orders that the company march immediately to near Dorstreviermund, to complete our departure at 10pm, watering the horses in Ubib at 1.30am and then riding on for a further eight kilometres before unsaddling our horses to graze on sweet grass.
At 10pm the company set off to Dorstrevier station, and at the same time Major Wehle[57] departed by train. The whole way to Ubib was over very poor terrain, so we had to ride very slowly, ambling our way, and since the road from Ubib was even worse, the company remained at Dorstrevier for the night. It was horribly cold, the ground was rocky, there was no fire or water. On 16 September at 7am, the company pressed on towards Dorstreviermund, while I rode for Kubas with Reserve Vicefeldwebel Dr Reuning and six men, to set up a telephone connection with headquarters. The wires were simply draped down over trees and bushes. There was no water anywhere, so at one point in order to ground the cable, we simply dug a hole and all eight men pissed in it, and the grounding worked then. We arrived in Dorstreviermund at seven o’clock in the evening. The company had set up camp under high trees (there were no tents during the entire war, we always camped out in the bush under ‘Mother Nature’) there was a delightful echo, good water in the area and excellent pasture for the animals; but many awful, dry, sandy pans and—which was worse— millions of disgusting green caterpillars crawled everywhere under the blankets and uniforms, causing terrible itching and blisters all over our bodies.
The Autobiography of Eugen Mansfeld Page 9