Laat ek tog maar hierdie stukkie Afrika-geskiedenis ook hier plaas, hoewel daar nie genoeg prentjies is na Dean se sin nie... Het u geweet daar was n grensoorlog in Suid-Angola presies n honderd jaar gelede? Verskoon die Engels, maar hier is die feite: Tomorrow its the 18th of December 2014. On the 18th of December 1914, exactly a hundred years ago, a bloody battle between Germans and Portuguese took place on the banks of the Kunene in southern Angola, right in the middle of our recent border wars operational area. A German South West African Schutztruppe force of 500 men under Major Victor Franke attacked the garrison of Fort Naulila, a Portuguese fort inside Angola on the eastern bank of the Kunene, between present-day Calueque and Xangongo, - without war having been declared between Germany and Portugal! The Germans stormed the fort from two sides, and when Franke was wounded in the attack, Hauptmann Georg Trainer took command. Although they were outnumbered and exhausted from their trek north, the Germans broke through and the Portuguese soldiers fled after heavy fighting. Around 150 Portuguese soldiers were reportedly killed, as opposed to 12 dead on the side of the Germans, who captured large amounts of small arms ammunition, a machine-gun and a field hospital wagon. The surviving Portuguese fled into the bush, where many of them were allegedly killed by Ovambos opposed to Portuguese rule. On the German side, some Portuguese prisoners-of-war are said to have been executed by angry Germans. Fort Naulila itself was completely destroyed, and none of us that I heard of ever came across any remains (though I would gladly stand to be corrected). How did this battle come about, with the Germans in South West already facing an invasion from the British-aligned South Africa in the south, and war between Germany and Portugal only declared two years later? Most probably it all started in 1907, when an Ovahimba chieftain, one Vita Tom, fled from the Germans and found sanctuary with the Portuguese at Naulila. For whatever real or alleged crime he might have committed inside SWA. On 28 July 1914 the world war started in Europe. When this news reached Governor Seitz in Windhoek, he became a very worried man. Already facing a far strong British South Africa in the south, he probably knew about the unwritten agreement between the old trading allies Portugal and England. But, having no other alternative route, he still ordered a great quantity of needed provisions and food through the officially neutral Angola, then called Portuguese West Africa. These were supposed to be delivered by ox-wagon to the Kunene river, where they were to be met by the Germans on the southern side. In October 1914, a small German delegation set out under Dr. Schultze-Jena, the district officer of Outjo, the then closest South West African town. He was accompanied by two officers, two Schutztruppe riders, and three black policemen. They crossed the border into Angola, probably unannounced and technically illegally. What might have further complicated the issue was the fact that martial law had already been declared in Angola on 12th September 1914. The Germans intention was to confirm the safe passage and arrival of the expected convoy, and also to try and negotiate peace and quiet on this side of the German colony, - Windhoek having very little interest in fighting on two fronts. They were met by the Portuguese commander at Fort Naulila, Officer Alferes Sereno, who apparently first wined and dined them inside the fort, told them how to get to Erikssonsdrift, the present-day Calueque, where they were supposed to find the wagons waiting for them, - and then had his soldiers gun them down when they were leaving the fort. Whether Vita Tom had anything to do with stopping the Germans from meeting up with their provisions, is not clear. He escaped in any case. What is very clear, though, is that an unsuspecting Schultze-Jean, the two German officers, Röder and Lösch, as well as the policemen Andreas and Hugo were shot dead on that fateful day of 19 October 1914. The two Schutztrupplers, one of them wounded, were taken prisoner. Only the police servant August got away, and he must have ridden, or run, all the way to Outjo to report the atrocity five days later. When news of this Meuchelmord (assassination) reached Windhoek, all hell was let loose on the until then quiet northern border. First, Oswald Ostermann from the police post at Nkurenkuru took a force across the Okavango River and on 31 October attacked and flattened Fort Cuangar, killing most of the Portuguese and Angolan inhabitants by machine gun. The Germans then went on to destroy all the other Portuguese forts along the river, from Forts Bunya to Shambyu, Dirico and right up to Mucusso, near present-day Bagani. Meanwhile, Windhoek decided that it could afford to switch a battalion-size force from its southern border to the north to take revenge on Fort Naulila itself. The Boer Rebellion was still keeping the pro-British South African government busy, so the Schutztruppe at Karasburg could spare a few hundred men. Major Franke, who had just taken command, put his soldiers on the train to Otjiwarongo, and from there they walked in a gruelling, heat- and thirst-plagued march further north through Ovamboland. Arriving in front of Fort Naulila on 18 December. After their successful battle, the Franke Regiment were re-named the Naulila Regiment and returned to South West Africa in triumph. A triumph which did not last very long, as only six months later, in July 1915, the Germans had to capitulate when faced with an overwhelming majority of British and South African soldiers near the town of Otavi. Though the Germans killed at Naulila did get a monument at Outjo, which was unveiled twenty years later in Outjo on 12th June 1933, and was declared a national monument by the South African authorities during 1971. It is situated in a small park in the centre of the little town. After the German surrender, the surviving German Schutztrupplers were allowed to return to their farms, but any real or imagined transgressions were heavily punished by the new masters. One Wilhelm Mattenklodt and four others were captured when they tried to move to German East Africa to join Lettow-Vorbeck, who was still holding out there. Wilhelm managed to escape and, with two others, lived as outlaws in the SWA-Angola border region until he somehow arrived back in Germany in the middle of 1920. Though they lost in the end, the Germans of South West had make sure, through their lightning attack on Naulila and the other Portuguese forts, that they were never bothered by Portuguese West Africa until they surrendered anyway. The Portuguese, though on the side of the victors, also had their own problems. Their natives along the Kunene rose up in revolt, and only a strong Portuguese Expeditionary Force finally managed to crush the so-called Huila Revolt by November 1915. wr, 2014. - Sources: Wikipedia, denkmalprojekt.org, namibiana.de, Outjo Town Information, etc. PS: Where I went to school in the Cape we had, amongst the many South West boarders, the Lösch brothers, from Mariental, with their German first names. Maybe they were related to Schutztruppe officer Lösch, who found his death at Naulila in southern Angola a hundred years ago? Its a small world.
Posted on: Wed, 17 Dec 2014 15:47:11 +0000
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