proved to be exactly the fact, and
so greatly impressed was General Botha with the accuracy of the
observations on this occasion that he emphasised that the skymen were
to receive every possible assistance for the future.

[Illustration: Panorama of Windhuk]

[Illustration: Picturesque Windhuk]
[Illustration: Windhuk. Basking in the sun: from the great Wireless
Station]
[Illustration: How the Germans started to try trading with us ten
minutes after we entered the Capital. Note the spelling]

On June 26 Headquarters arrived at Okanjande, and pushed through to
Otjiwarongo, arriving there at 12 noon. The pace of the trekking was
now becoming phenomenal, and though the country was quite good, water
was as scarce as ever, the bush being intensely dense, with thick sweet
grass as much as eight feet high in places. It was a country made for
ambushes. In less than a week General Botha had trekked over one
hundred and twenty miles, the distance from Karibib to Otjiwarongo.
During this trek the army had had water only twice on the stretch from
Omaruru. But delay of any kind was now highly undesirable: the columns
could not afford to pause long owing to the consumption of rations. It
was no part of the Commander-in-Chief's policy to make bases and await
the arrival of large supplies; water was uncertain, and congestion of
columns at the watering places had to be avoided as much as possible.

Near Okanjande the first great development in General Botha's final
strategy occurred. The northern advance was being conducted as follows.
Brigadier-General Brits, on the left, remained at Otjitasu, leaving it
on June 30. General Botha, with his command, in the centre, was holding
to the narrow gauge Karibib-Otavi-Tsumeb-Grootfontein Railway, and
General Myburgh's column to the right. Brigadier-General Brits now
branched away to Otjitasu, making for Outjo, Okanknejo, and across the
Etoscha Pan to Namutoni. The other columns moved on, trekking night and
day, as in the great advance across the Namib Desert.

Headquarters made Okaputa on June 29; paused the next day, and on July
1 the Staff, leaving Okaputa at 8 o'clock in the morning, reached Otavi
and Otaviafontein at 4.30 p.m., close on the heels of an engagement at
Osib between the Germans and Brigadier-General Manie Botha, who had
pushed on with the Orange Free State Brigade at 6.30 the previous
evening, June 30. This engagement took place in the now intensely thick
bush country. I