nder-in-Chief left Swakopmund at 2.30 a.m. on the 18th of March.
We outspanned at Goanikontes, thirty-four kilos, at 10.30 that night.
Goanikontes was left at 6.30 a.m., and the Husab Outspan was made at
10.20 that morning. The rest of the day was spent at Husab; at 6.30 in
the evening the Commander-in-Chief, and with him General Brits, left
for Riet, outspanned for a few hours and attacked the German position
at Riet at dawn on the 20th. The general action which was fought on the
Pforte-Jakalswater-Riet front on this day was conceivably the most
important move of the campaign. It was essential that the water-holes
should be secured.

[Illustration: Main Guard aboard--en route to hunt the Huns]
[Illustration: On the Great Trek--the Chief of the Staff has a
hair-cut]

[Illustration: Action at Riet]

Around Riet, the principal point of attack and defence, the disposition
of the Germans was as strong as it is possible to imagine. My sketch of
the place should give a fair idea of things. In the technical sense it
is not a true plan; but accuracy is not sacrificed to clearness. The
veld around the Riet water-holes is just a mass of small kopjes and
rocks; it narrows to a small defile that opens suddenly on to the
coverless Husab Road. This defile is the only main approach to the Riet
wells, and it is commanded close up on both flanks--on the right by the
great bare kopje, Langer Heinreich, on the other by small kopjes and a
line of ridges.

In attacking this position General Botha had to consider not only the
enemy's strength of position, but also the fact that his troops had to
go into action after a waterless twenty-odd mile trek over the desert.
As the Commander-in-Chief got up to his front on the 20th the big guns
had started. The artillery duel continued well into the afternoon.
Every credit is due to the other units, but it was our artillery that
cracked the nut at Riet. The range was 2,700 yards; but the Germans
never got it. Why it is difficult to say; they had every advantage, and
one understands that the Germans are nothing if not artillerists. But
they were a wash-out at Riet; they were over-firing the whole time. On
the other hand, the Union gunners got the range at once and were all
over the enemy. They put an ammunition wagon out of action after three
shots, and did further deadly work. That afternoon General Botha sent a
detachment out to attempt an enveloping movement. But they came back
later, reporti