riced beyond Silver]

On the 30th of March the Commander-in-Chief returned to Swakopmund, and
the same day news came of the occupation of Aus by the Central Force.
It was now that we heard definitely that General Smuts was in the field
with the forces south of us.

With the Central and Southern advances, General Mackenzie, from
Luderitzbucht, occupied Garub on the 22nd of February, and Aus on March
31. Colonel Berrange's column, having left Hasuur on the 3rd of March,
reached Kabus, by Keetmanshoop, on the 19th. Leaving Raman's Drift on
the 2nd of April, Colonel Hartigan's column occupied Kalkfontein on the
14th of April, and reached Keetmanshoop on the 20th of April. Seeheim
was occupied on the 18th of April. The advance to these towns was
achieved by a series of fast treks in which frightful conditions of
thirst and fatigue were encountered. General Mackenzie's troops in
their advance north occupied Bethany on the 13th of April, and
continued northward to Berseba, Gibeon, etc., on the way to Windhuk.

We now come to the feat that broke all known marching records and
caused two hemispheres to talk. On Sunday and Monday, the 25th and 26th
of April, General Botha's forces left the coast: on the 5th of May they
were outside Windhuk. Striking right across the desert through every
kind of country, General Botha's army marched night and day, and in
five of those days covered a minimum distance of a hundred and ninety
miles. Many units did much more than two hundred miles--over forty
miles per day.

It was some trekking.

Swakopmund was left on the 26th of April at dawn. Haigkamchab was
reached by I on the same afternoon, and Husab supply base at 6.30 p.m.
Next day Husab was left at 2.15 p.m.; the column halted for a few
minutes at 5 p.m., and pushed right through to Riet, which was made at
10.20 that evening. Headquarters rested all day on the 28th at Riet,
left it at 8 p.m., trekked by moonlight along the Swakop River for
three hours, outspanned till an hour before dawn, and made Salem at
6.45 a.m. on March 29. At 9.30 that morning the column moved on again,
reached outspan at twenty miles by 1.35 in the afternoon, rested for an
hour and a half and pushed on again till a quarter before midnight,
when it rode into Wilhelmsfeste. But the water was at Kaltenhausen,
some miles further ahead of this military post. We reached it at 1.15
on the morning of the 30th. Animals took two hours to water in the
bitterly cold morning