Clash at Gibeon

The British chronology of the war records under 25–26 April 1915 a clash at Gibeon, a railway station and settlement in the southern part of German South West Africa. According to the South African official account, however, the fighting began on the night of 26–27 April and was decided on the morning of 27 April. Some accounts give 28 April. The mounted brigades of Brigadier-General Sir Duncan McKenzie routed German units there that were withdrawing northwards from the south of the colony.

The pursuit

After the occupation of Aus McKenzie was ordered to reconnoitre towards Bethanien. He set out with three mounted brigades from Natal and an artillery battery, about 1,500 men in all with six guns. Meanwhile other forces of the Union of South Africa were advancing from the south and east. The Germans could not defend the whole of the south. They abandoned Keetmanshoop, and all the units from that part of the colony, some 700–800 men with two field guns and machine guns, set off northwards under Major von Kleist, along the railway to Windhuk.

On 22 April McKenzie reached Berseba, and at dawn the next day his outposts spotted a German column passing the settlement. The pursuit lasted several days, across stony, waterless country. On 26 April, near Grundorns station, McKenzie’s men tapped into the German telegraph line and learned that the Germans at Gibeon were to move on that night. Scouts saw a train at the station and clouds of dust above columns converging on it.

Failure in the night

McKenzie decided to block the Germans’ way. In the evening he sent out a demolition party, which at 11 p.m. blew up the track about three kilometres north of the station so that the train could not leave. He sent a strong group under Lieutenant-Colonel Royston, one brigade and a regiment from another, in a wide arc north of Gibeon to stand astride the line of retreat. At dawn McKenzie himself was to attack from the south.

Royston reached the railway at about one in the morning, some four kilometres north of the station. His men took up a position by the embankment on flat, open ground, but in the moonlight they failed to notice a culvert under the track a few dozen metres away. At about two in the morning German scouts ran into them, and immediately afterwards the Germans set up machine guns by the culvert and began to rake the embankment along its length. Losses mounted quickly and Royston ordered a withdrawal. The order did not reach everyone: more than 70 soldiers remained on the embankment and at dawn, surrounded, had to surrender.

Victory at dawn

At five in the morning McKenzie, not knowing where Royston was, advanced to the attack with the rest of his force. Accurate fire from his battery and rapid outflanking by the mounted regiments forced the Germans to fall back, first onto hills further north and then across country towards the road to Mariental. In the pursuit the prisoners taken during the night were recovered. The Germans left on the battlefield 11 dead, 30 wounded and 188 prisoners, as well as the train, both field guns, four machine guns, ammunition, wagons and cattle. The South Africans lost 24 killed, including 3 officers, and 66 wounded.

Kleist nevertheless managed to escape with most of his men and, in a wide arc east of Windhuk, reached the north, where the main German forces were concentrated. The South African official account praised McKenzie’s march: in 12 days the men of Natal covered about 320 kilometres across difficult country short of water. At the same time it admitted that the clash had no effect on the course of the campaign, since Kleist was withdrawing northwards anyway. The clash at Gibeon was the last fight in the south of the colony. A small cemetery remained at the station, in which the fallen of both sides were buried. McKenzie’s forces soon returned home, and the fate of the colony was decided by Louis Botha’s advance from the west, on Windhuk.