18 September 1914
A message came on 18 September that Englishmen had landed in Walvis Bay (the message was incorrect, since they had landed in Lüderitzbucht) so a column of men under Leutnant Müller was ordered to Goanikontes.
21 September 1914
On September 21, I received orders to take three officers and eleven men and set up outposts in Salem, about thirty-five kilometres downriver.
22 September 1914
On 22 Sept, we rode off at 7am to Horebis and Dieptal, arriving at Salem at noon. Because the advantage of Salem was not clear, I rode with a small group through Riet, alongside ‘Langen Heinrich’ (an enormous mountain), over the Nabas River to Modderfontein, and finally back to the rest of my men at Salem, fifty-four kilometres all told. Riet seemed the most appropriate place for an outpost because Riet provided a view extending as far as Goanikontes from the river near ‘Langen Heinrich’; and if the enemy approached from Swakopmund, he would have to come through Riet because of the availability of water.
23 September 1914
I received permission from the company to relocate the outpost to Riet, and moved there immediately with my fourteen men; we made camp at not far from the Swakop River, beneath tall trees about six hundred meters from the small farm settlement of the Bielenbergs.
That same afternoon I received orders to identify all potential water sources downriver from Goanikontes in order to quickly render them unusable if the enemy advanced. This was not much use in my view, because wherever there is a dry river bed there is water: you only need to dig down a few metres and you will find fresh running water.
I was at Riet from 24 September to 4 November 1914. It was ordinary company service, as well as constant patrols, building roads, and also identifying potential combat positions in case of attack. Our camp was under trees, and gradually we collected wooden slats and old corrugated iron from Jakelswater train station and an old railway shed in Riet, and built some protective cover against rain and the heat of the sun. We cooked communally in a single pot, and I got beer and schnapps from the Bielenbergs whenever I could, to share with my men. Except for one, they were all good fellows.
In order to be able to escape the enemy over ‘Langen Heinrich’ mountain if necessary, I tried to find a route across the mountain that was feasible for riders. Now this was an almost impossible task but, thanks to Unteroffizier Rucktäschel, after days of patrols we finally succeeded in finding a path which we then expanded (with difficulty) to create a passable road over the mountains to Tinkas. This reduced the time to get around the mountain by more than six hours. I dubbed a small conical hill, about three hundred metres high, Wehleberg, and selected it as an observation post. From there a sentry overlooked the whole river, the land in front of it and the selected combat positions, and could keep in communication through flag signals.
From a detachment of Basters under Hauptmann Hiller Gertrin-Gärtringen which was near Tinkas, I received six Basters and a Baster sergeant (men from Rehoboth)[58] who were mainly to be used as despatch riders, and who undertook night sentry duty at the camp alternating with my own troops. Several times I rode seventeen kilometres to the remote railway station at Jakalswater to communicate with the Company headquarters by telephone; and from there I even managed to telephone my wife in Karibib.
Patrols from other units, and from the detachment based at the Goanikontes outpost passed around here, so I often had many officers as guests at my table—which consisted of an old trunk.
Once a situation occurred which, while hilarious for us, was most embarrassing for the fellow affected. Hauptmann von B., the company doctor, Dr. Mäntz, and Leutnant Werner came by on a patrol and stayed over night with me. I always gave the daily password to the camp guard at 6pm, and since no stranger had any business hanging round in the vicinity of the camp, there were clear instructions to shoot when an intruder would not respond to a challenge and request for the password.
Of course, I always gave my guests the daily password and also told them that our luxurious latrines were two hundred metres away, beyond the river. Leutnant Werner, an effeminate, spoiled little gentleman, a high-ranking government official, had some stomach trouble at night, possibly from my somewhat rough evening meal, and needed the lavatory. He knew the way to the sentry-box, but that night the Basters were on guard, who did not recognise him; they immediately ordered him to halt, and Werner saw a gun aimed at himself. He gave his name and rank. “Anybody could say that,” came the reply. “What’s the password?”
Oh dear.
Werner did not know the password; so the guard grabbed him, and dragged him to me just as Werner’s digestion was rapidly approaching danger-point. I had already been woken by the shouting, and freed W. quickly, but I think it was already too late, as he sped away. The rest of us laughed immoderately and—being somewhat malicious—the next morning I heaped praise on the sentries.
Since we could not get any fresh meat from company HQ, on 13 October I rode with a few men and a waggon to Tinkas to try to shoot a gemsbok. We didn’t see any game at all until I shot a nice fat male zebra in Tinkas Gorge one evening. Our people called zebras ‘trapp-trapp’ because of the rattle of their hard hooves on the rocks. When we came back to the camp we prepared some lovely zebra steaks which all tasted good. Just one man, the only regular artilleryman at the outpost, said that he did not eat horsemeat. He had a large nose, and was the only one who had not brought a horse with him for recreation.[59]
“Relax, my boy,” I said, “all the more for us. Feel free to fill up on corned beef and rice.” Later the same day I noticed that the stables were in a dreadful mess and bawled out the men. When I passed by the stores, which lay about 30 metres from my hut, I heard this zebra-despiser say to the other troops, “There you go, first he eats trapp-trapp, and then he shouts at us.” Somehow the chief magistrate of Karibib, an uncompromising lawyer; a reserve officer (but one who was very happy living in his beautiful home, with comfortable beds and good food) heard of my iniquity. It was forbidden to shoot zebras; I was ordered to headquarters, where the commissariat gave me a letter warning me not to repeat the offence.
The pettiness infuriated me, and I answered that I acknowledged my guilt where this abhorrent crime was concerned. I added that I would like to swap my position with the chief magistrate of Karibib, and then to see if after several weeks lying in the dust instead of a warm bed, and without any meat for him and his men, he would not also be tempted to shoot a zebra. That was roughly my reply; headquarters understood the message correctly, and I later heard that they sent just a brief acknowledgement to the chief magistrate.
On 24 October 1914 I received six days’ leave to go to Karibib to attend to various DKG business matters, and to visit my wife and son. After several bombardments by a cruiser Swakopmund had been evacuated, and the railway line to Rössing torn up. This left large compounds belonging to various companies which they had not been able to empty because of the hasty destruction of the railway line, and in many places these fell into the hands of the enemy. Our company alone had lost about 400,000 marks’ worth of goods in this way. The company office had been transferred to Karibib together with my secretary Fraulein Bügen, and the three employees who were not conscripted. Our important company documents were preserved almost entirely by two employees, especially Buchholz, who concealed them during the evacuation of the offices and over a number of evenings removed the files and transported them at night by mule cart to Rössing and from there by train to Windhoek.
From 25 October to 3 November I spent quiet days in Karibib with Emmy and Werner, once again enjoying a decent life sleeping in a bed. I learned about the punitive expedition our troops undertook to Naulila under Major Franke, and the storming of these forts in retaliation for the treacherous killing of three of our officers by the Portuguese.[60]
On 3 November 1914, I returned to Riet. Leutnant Müller, who relieved me, took over command of the outpost, and on 4 November I returned with my men t
o the main company in Dorstreviermund, arriving back on the morning of 5 November.
The stay at the company bored me: with the eternal monotony, riding, drill, parades, etc. I was bored and I hoped soon to get my own command again.
On November 12, we received the news that our commander, Oberstleutnant von Heydebrek, had been killed during a test firing of rifle grenades, after one exploded prematurely. This was a great loss for the troops, because von Heydebrek was an excellent leader, while some of those who succeeded him in the years following would perhaps not be. His successor was Major Franke (promoted to Oberstleutnant). Franke had been the most intrepid officer in the Herero campaign (Pour le Merité[61]); a brilliant company commander and battalion commander, but was no strategist.
On 14 November, came news from Windhoek that Leutnant Werner had been transferred from the company to the garrison at Johann-Albrechtshöhe; a quiet, comfortable, undemanding position in well-appointed quarters, very much to Werner’s taste. Werner had been posted to the outpost in Goanikontes before me, and I replaced him there in turn. On 15 November at four in the morning I marched off to Salem with two officers, 14 mounted troops and a military waggon, via Horebis and Dieptal. We stayed overnight in Salem and then continued the following day through Riet, Gawieb and Witport to Husab, and then on 17 November by Haigambghab to Goanikontes, where I arrived at 7am after a ride of 118 kilometers.
Goanikontes was the closest outpost to Walvis Bay. Located between Rössing and Swakopmund, Hauptmann Scultetus[62] was based with a small contingent to guard the coast. At the end of September Scultetus had gone at night to Walvis Bay, where he captured the police sergeants, and destroyed their steam launch. The only reason Scultetus could not capture the magistrate was that each night he retreated out to the cruiser, moored in safety off the shore. The Hottentots of Sandfontein (five kilometres west of Walvis Bay) were constantly attracted to the abandoned town of Swakopmund and looted the shops. Scultetus captured thirty of the wretches and had them hanged in Rössing. Now there were still in Walvis Bay four leading villains— whites—who made common cause with the Hottentots, and we wanted to get them.
On 19 November at 6pm I rode along with all the off-duty troops, Leutnant Hundsdörfer[63] and Dr Reuning to the eight-kilometre mark, where we met Hauptmann Scultetus. At 5am the following morning we were joined by reinforcements from Rössing, and rode to Swakopmund, to Kayser’s market gardens. Then after dark we rode along the shore, past the whaling station towards Walvis Bay in the direction of Sandfontein until the first big dune. There we met Leutnants von Milkau[64] and Könitz, from Ururas, with seven more men.
At dusk on 20 November, in thick fog, I galloped furiously towards the rambling old wooden houses (Bollmann & Kemp) situated on the lagoon in Walvis Bay. I surrounded the houses with six men from the south, Scultetus from the north and von Milkau from the east, and in the two houses we found the four we were looking for (one former American, one Portuguese, an African and a Cape boy). They surrendered at the end of a Browning and were captured. These men went back with our people towards Sandfontein.
While Scultetus, von Milkau and I were riding, we were joined by a missionary, who told us that the cruiser was lying in Walvis Bay, so we could not ride back along the shore. And meanwhile the fog lifted and the cruiser became visible, so we thought it was about time we left Walvis Bay. As we rode away, the cruiser fired a grenade towards the area, but it did not hit us.
After we ate some breakfast and watered the horses in Sandfontein, we set out on journey way back along the Pluem river. In Rooibank we parted, von Milkau took the prisoners first from Ururas because they had to walk on foot, and I rode straight to Goanikontes where we arrived dead tired at five in the morning after a 140 kilometre journey. The next day Leutnant Hundsdörfer marched back to headquarters with his troops.
On 23 November I rode with one trooper to Swakopmund. I left at 8am; at 11am I was at the eight-kilometre line, an English battle cruiser was anchored in front of Swakopmund, so I could not ride any further until 2am. Our house in Swakopmund was still intact. I brought two large suitcases packed with clothes and laundry down to the door, and then later that night the owner of the farm at Goanikontes picked them up and transported them to Emmy in Windhoek. I did a similar thing in later rides, usually at night, and so saved at least some of our belongings.
Until 4 January I commanded the outpost in Goanikontes, and kept just brief daily notes of the little incidents in this period that happened besides the usual services, patrols etc.
24 November 1914
Leutnant von Milkau brought me six Baster soldiers as dispatch riders.
25 November 1914
A big visit: Oberleutnant Venuleth[65] and his wife; Leutnant Schmatz and his wife (the latter both turned out later to be traitors, he was reportedly later shot for it in Germany), Scultetus, Winkelmann and Brauer, all stayed overnight and in the evening we celebrated vigorously with a few drinks.
27 November 1914.
With Scultetus, Winkelmann and Brauer to Swakopmund for the troops to requisition everything possible. Pulled back to eight kilometres outside Swakopmund, and were back in Goanikontes on 28 November.
29 November 1914 to 5 December 1914
Constant guarding, watch and patrols.
7 December 1914
I was back in Swakopmund, and met the four prisoners from Walvis Bay at Goanikontes in the evening.
9 December 1914
Leutnant von Könitz brought seventy-two Hottentot prisoners from Ururas. I had to watch them for a couple of days, and then we took them through Rössing to Windhoek together with the four whites, and delivered them.
11 December 1914.
On the orders of Hauptmann Scultetus, I left at 7am with nine mounted troopers, with the aim of meeting him in Walvis Bay before riding south to survey the area for hostile natives. We broke at Rooikop to water the horses and allow them to rest, and arrived in Walvis Bay at 6pm. The place was deserted except for some Hottentot women, who told us that Scultetus had already gone back to Swakopmund. We stayed the night at the whaling station.
12 December 1914
We rode south along the coast to Wortel and Frederiksdam, leaving at 5am, but found neither water sources nor natives. In the evening we went back to the whaling station.
13 December 1914
There was no sign of the cruiser, so we moved along the shore to Swakopmund, arriving there at 10am. At noon the cruiser appeared off Swakopmund, so I sent my men to wait for me six kilomtres outside town, while one trooper and I remained to observe from the street corner by the Hotel Bismarck. The cruiser launched a boat with a white flag. The boat crew came ashore and set the wood store of Wörmann, Brock & Co. on fire. In fury, we fired after the retreating boat before heading at speed out of the cloud of smoke to the rendezvous, where the troops and I stayed overnight.
14 December 2014
Since the cruiser had disappeared from the coast at Swakopmund, we rode back early to Goanikontes. We spent the following few days with non-stop patrols to Ururas and towards Walvis Bay, keeping watch and requisitioning and loading fresh vegetables, up to eighty cents per week, for the troops. We received our food in Goanikontes from the commissariat, and even though our location was surrounded by vegetable farms, who sent a constant supply of fresh food to the commissariat, we always received wizened potatoes and wilted vegetables. It was pointless to complain, and even my official memo about it was unsuccessful.
20 December 1914
Emmy and Werner arrived for a Christmas visit to Goanikontes, I fetched them from Rössing by waggon.
24 December 1914
Christmas celebration with Emmy and Werner, and I had a party for my men before that.
25 December 1914
Several more officers visiting, along with Frau Venuleth, and a Christmas meal in the evening all together.
26 December 1914
I went out for a ride with all the troopers who were not posted to duty, just
to blow away the last traces of Christmas spirits. We had ridden about two kilometres, and were near Endklippe when suddenly a rider came galloping to us with the message that thirteen steamships were lying off Walvis Bay, and about four hundred men and many horses had already landed. Back galloping to Goanikontes to speak to headquarters by telephone; Emmy and Werner straightaway to Rössing by waggon and from there by train to Karibib. All women from the farms in the district were ordered to evacuate to Karibib, several farmers conscripted into the militia and, and we carried out patrols towards Walvis Bay and Ururas.
I got a message that in Walvis Bay they had already erected more than four hundred tents and at least 1,500 men had been landed. We were on full alert, with all positions fortified, as of course we expected an attack any moment and I and my fourteen men had to hold the post as long as possible. We waited in vain; there were five days with nothing happening, but the Tommies were in no hurry and were probably poorly informed about our strength.
The Autobiography of Eugen Mansfeld Page 10