FIRST WORLD WAR HORSE BURIAL SITE, Swakopmund During the first world war the South African Union Defence force shipped 30 000 horses to South West Africa via Walvis Bay and Swakopmund. They were used during the campaign under Genl Louis Botha between February and August 1915. Once the German imperial Schutztruppe had capitulated at Otavi in August the Union forces occupied Windhoek to await the outcome of the war in Europe and in North and East Africa. Since the interior was stricken in drought and there was no grazing, many thousand horses were taken on a 300 km trek to Nonidas near Swakopmund during October and November 1915, where it was easier to feed them with supplies brought in by ship via Walvis Bay harbor. There were huge horse depots at Nonidas and in the area of Rhode Allee in Swakopmund. Farmers at the Swakop smallholdings instantly had a supply of horse manure that would last them into the 1930’s. Swakopmunders suddenly had an enormous problem with flies. Many thousand horses that had been severely stressed were now confined to crowded corrals. The cold foggy breezes at night also did not help conditions, and within weeks 1695 horses and 944 mules were infected with the bacterial disease glanders (‘snotsiekte’)(December 1915). Since glanders can also be fatal to humans, all these infected animals were taken into the dune field outside Swakopmund and shot and buried beneath the sand. One cannot imagine what labour it had been to dig 2600 animals into the sand!! As decades of wind had swept over the site, the horrific extent of this massacre had been almost forgotten. Yet, slowly, winds had swept the sand right over, exposing a very few of the horses’ graves over the past few decades. When a skull is freshly exposed, it might still have traces of hair on the nose and beneath the jaws. The sand itself is quite sterile and does not hold much in the way of bacteria or organic life. One would find many old pieces of leather straps amongst the sand, and many of the skull bones had turned green on the sides; discoloration by the brass buckles of the bridles the horses were buried with. The horses did not die of glanders. They were all shot at short range, with a bullet through the forehead - to avoid further spread of the disease. (Georg Erb - Swakop Tour Company)
Posted on: Wed, 14 Jan 2015 22:23:04 +0000
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