n defeating the enemy, at a cost of a dozen casualties,
Brigadier-General Manie Botha succeeded in securing the finest water
supply the Union Forces had yet seen, and so swift and resolute was the
fighting of the burghers that the enemy fled to their last strong-hold
northward towards Tsumeb. Before striking the enemy in this action the
Free State Brigade, and their accompanying batteries from the 2nd South
African Mounted Riflemen, had trekked forty-two miles in sixteen hours
without halt for any kind of a rest. Behind them, in support, came the
force, consisting of the 6th Mounted Brigade, with the 1st South
African Mounted Riflemen Batteries, who did a similar trek, through
thickest bush, covering almost fifty miles in twenty hours. And the
animals had come through from Karibib--almost two and a half degrees of
latitude south.

At the same time as Brigadier-General Manie Botha had left Okaputa,
Brigadier-General Lukin, with the 6th Mounted S.A.M.R. Brigade, had
left Omarasa. We had therefore a perfect network of highly mobile
forces advancing on the German position somewhere north. Away on the
right, from Windhuk and Okahandja through the Waterberg,
was Brigadier-General Albert's column. On his left was Brigadier-General
Myburgh. Nearer the railway was Brigadier-General Manie Botha. Next came
the Commander-in-Chief with Headquarters Staff and Bodyguard; and,
further, General Lukin. For the time being Brigadier-General Brits, on
the extreme left, had disappeared.

[Illustration: The Last Phase. Difficulties with General Botha's car
through the thick sand]
[Illustration: The Last Phase. The Germans had a hobby of blowing up
bridges. Here is a fine specimen]

[Illustration: General Frank's house, Windhuk. Photo of the two first
men there taken under the flag hauled down by us]
[Illustration: Windhuk. The first British station-master and one of his
staff]

Brigadier-General Manie Botha now advanced right into the bush,
supported by Brigadier-General Lukin, who occupied Eisenberg Nek, on
the right flank. Brigadier-General Myburgh, trekking by forced marches,
in the course of his flanking movement on the right cut the line
between Otavi and Grootfontein, and, swerving north, encountered the
enemy at Asis and Gaub. This column, having captured seventy Germans,
marched straight on to Tsumeb, the extreme northerly limit of the
railway, forty miles north of Otavi. Here the enemy was attacked so
resolutely that they surre