The Horns of the Beast: The Swakop River Campaign and World War I in South-West Africa 1914-15 by James Stejskal

Author:James Stejskal [Stejskal, James]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Africa, General, Military, World War I, Wars & Conflicts (Other)
ISBN: 9781909982789
Google: Ua-hoAEACAAJ
Goodreads: 22228108
Publisher: Helion Limited
Published: 2014-09-19T00:00:00+00:00

Pforte, Riet, and Jakalswater

Botha’s able Chief of Staff Colonel J.J. Collyer wrote the operations order for the successful advance on Heimgamchab and Goanikontes that took place on 22 February and placed the South African combat brigades in position for their subsequent moves.

Botha had a fairly clear picture of what he faced based on intelligence gleaned from poor German radio security coupled with the interrogation of prisoners. He believed the Germans had two 190-man mounted companies and a two-gun section of artillery at Pforte, along with four mounted companies and a battery of artillery at Riet. The reserve was thought to consist of two artillery batteries and four or five companies at Jakalswater and Modderfontein.25 His estimates were generous, giving the Germans about 50 percent more strength than actually existed. Nevertheless, Botha was confident of success.

The German defense was actually three individual positions, each separated by a minimum of eight kilometers of difficult terrain. The most forward was at Pforte Mountain, a long, high ridge running generally north to south that was cut by three passes, called Eisenbahnpforte in the north, Weiße Pforte in the middle, and Husab Pforte in the south. The Staatsbahn rail line ran through the Eisenbahnpforte climbing the side of the mountain in a series of steep, tortuous switchbacks that required the train’s passengers to dismount and climb to the top of the pass on foot. That was before the war when the station on the west side of the pass sold beer and sausages.

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