South Africans occupy Windhoek

The British chronology of the war records under 13 May 1915 the occupation of Windhoek, the capital of German South West Africa, by the troops of the Union of South Africa. The South African official history and participants’ accounts date the event a day earlier: on 12 May the town was handed over without a fight to the Union’s Prime Minister and Commander-in-Chief, General Louis Botha. Some studies even give 5 May, but on that day Botha took Karibib, not the capital.

The march on Karibib

At the end of April Botha’s Northern Force, which since February had been fighting its way from Swakopmund across the Namib Desert, set off on its decisive advance. On 26 April the Germans made one more attack at Trekkopje on the troops covering the railway construction, but were repulsed. A day later the mounted brigades moved forward. Some of them turned through Otjimbingwe towards Okahandja, a junction on the railway to the capital, while Botha himself led a column on Karibib. He entered it on 5 May (according to some sources as early as 4 May), close on the heels of the retreating Germans. In the same days his troops seized the railway stations at Okahandja and nearby and halted close to Windhoek. The soldiers, who had outrun their own supplies, lived for several days on starvation rations.

The South African official history regarded Karibib as the key to the whole colony: its fall sealed the fate of Windhoek and of the whole area to the south of it. The German commander, Lieutenant-Colonel Victor Franke, did not risk a decisive battle and withdrew his troops north along the railway to Otavi and Tsumeb. Governor Theodor Seitz moved the seat of government to Grootfontein. According to German accounts the last soldiers had left Windhoek as early as 1 May.

The flag over the town hall

Botha spent several days at Karibib, which became the army’s headquarters. On the afternoon of 11 May he set off for Windhoek by car with his staff and an escort. He spent the night at Okasise, and the next day the mayor of Windhoek came out to meet him in front of the town (according to the lists of mayors, this was then Peter Müller). At about noon on 12 May Botha rode into the capital. The formal surrender of the town took place in front of the town hall, in the presence of a crowd of inhabitants and a line of mounted troops. A non-commissioned officer of the Commander-in-Chief’s bodyguard hoisted the British flag, and Botha read a proclamation.

The soldiers were strictly forbidden to loot, and houses in which women lived were marked and placed under guard. Botha appointed Colonel Hendrik Mentz military governor of the town. Of particular importance to the victors was the large radio station outside the town, with masts more than a hundred metres high. The capture of the German radio stations in the colony had from the outset been one of the aims of the campaign, one the British Admiralty was especially keen on. On 14 May Botha returned to Karibib.

What next

The capture of the capital did not end the war in the colony. In the north Franke’s troops were still in the field, and German stores had been gathered around Tsumeb. The south of the colony, however, was already in the Union’s hands: columns had advanced there from the coast and from the border, and at the end of April they had routed the Germans at Gibeon. A few days after the fall of Windhoek Governor Seitz proposed an armistice and talks to Botha, but no agreement was reached. The Northern Force needed several weeks to rebuild the railway and accumulate supplies before the final offensive to the north.