ng that the slopes of Langer Heinreich on the right and
the sharp kopjes on the left made the thing impossible.

As the afternoon came on I may say I don't think we knew too much about
the state of affairs with the enemy, and when he ceased artillery fire
about 3.30 p.m. everyone seemed pleased enough. Few knew then that the
German Commander had begun to evacuate the position; his supply of
shells was said to have run short. On account of our numbers, also, he
feared an enfilading movement on his left flank should our mounted
infantry advance to the defile Q.

In the meantime the authorities had decided we must find water in the
rear; for that purpose a party was at once despatched to Gawieb, in the
Swakop River bed. It was found by a party from the Commander-in-Chief's
Bodyguard, and at the Gawieb Hole the greater part of the forces
watered that night. And they took seven hours to do it.

Before sundown General Botha, with Staff and Bodyguard, fell back two
miles on the Husab-Riet Road and camped there for the night. Scarcely
had the Headquarters party arrived before news came that the enemy was
in precipitate flight, had evacuated Riet and had blown up his small
ammunition and railway water-tanks at the Riet terminus of the narrow
gauge railway line to Jakalswater. Bodies of the Union troops had
occupied Riet on the evening of the 20th.

The actions at the Jakalswater and Pforte fronts, to fight which the
columns had swept away to our left the night before, were equally
successful.

That is the general story of the fight of the 20th March on the inland
edge of the Namib Desert. But how to picture vividly the scene before
Riet that day? At dawn in those parts conditions are bearable enough;
the sun has little strength; the night wind refreshes. From 6.30 till
10 o'clock the desert is endurable. Then comes the change. All along
the front the stark yellow sand is taking on a different hue under the
climbing sun rays. It turns almost to glaring whiteness all around--to
where it stops short at the foot of those scorched and smothered rocks
on the left flank. To our right the members of the Headquarters Staff
are standing--sitting--resting. An officer brings his glasses down
slowly, blinks, feels for a pipe, lights it. Another moves head and
extended arm to the right and makes a remark to a colleague. Along the
ridge we occupy the Bodyguard are standing-to and watching the action;
you see that fellow wearily ease a hea