The whole plan of campaign was very much this.  The Protectorate was to be invaded from several angles, the route of these various forces being quite clear, I hope, in the diagram given.  Roughly speaking there were three forces:  the Northern (General Botha, Commander-in-Chief), working inland from Swakopmund; the Central (Brigadier-General Mackenzie) working inland from Luderitzbucht; and the Southern and South-Eastern converging on Keetmanshoop from Raman’s Drift-Warmbad-Kalkfontein (Hartigan’s Horse), from Upington (Brigadier-General van Deventer and Colonel Celliers) and from Kimberley-Hasuur (Colonel Berrange’s column).  As a result of this great concentration on Keetmanshoop and northwards from all sides, the Germans would be forced to decisive action, to retreat northwards, or be cut off.  Upon these forces reaching a certain distance inland a general move would be made in the direction of Windhuk—­and again the enemy would have to fight or retreat to the limits of his railway system.

[Illustration:  Typical captured German Infantry]

[Illustration:  The Great Trek.  Otjimbingwe:  its Palms and Wells] [Illustration:  The Great Trek.  Otjimbingwe:  the Commander-in-Chief at the old German capital] [Illustration:  The Great Trek.  Getting Milk from a Goat.  Milk was priced beyond Silver]

On the 30th of March the Commander-in-Chief returned to Swakopmund, and the same day news came of the occupation of Aus by the Central Force.  It was now that we heard definitely that General Smuts was in the field with the forces south of us.

With the Central and Southern advances, General Mackenzie, from Luderitzbucht, occupied Garub on the 22nd of February, and Aus on March 31.  Colonel Berrange’s column, having left Hasuur on the 3rd of March, reached Kabus, by Keetmanshoop, on the 19th.  Leaving Raman’s Drift on the 2nd of April, Colonel Hartigan’s column occupied Kalkfontein on the 14th of April, and reached Keetmanshoop on the 20th of April.  Seeheim was occupied on the 18th of April.  The advance to these towns was achieved by a series of fast treks in which frightful conditions of thirst and fatigue were encountered.  General Mackenzie’s troops in their advance north occupied Bethany on the 13th of April, and continued northward to Berseba, Gibeon, etc., on the way to Windhuk.

We now come to the feat that broke all known marching records and caused two hemispheres to talk.  On Sunday and Monday, the 25th and 26th of April, General Botha’s forces left the coast:  on the 5th of May they were outside Windhuk.  Striking right across the desert through every kind of country, General Botha’s army marched night and day, and in five of those days covered a minimum distance of a hundred and ninety miles.  Many units did much more than two hundred miles—­over forty miles per day.

It was some trekking.