Two Views of the South-West Africa Campaign 1914-15

Imperial horse soldiers at war



When the First World War broke out in the summer of 1914, the eyes of the world turned towards the great events which were unfolding in Europe as the Imperial German Army swept across Belgium and France and the allied armies of France, Belgium and the British B.E.F retreated towards Paris. This was, however, a truly global conflict which would also embrace the colonies of all the warring nations. In eastern and western Africa, British and German colonists found themselves on different sides and hostilities immediately broke out over terrain that was wild, difficult to traverse and inhabited by dangerous animals. In the west, Germany occupied the country now known as Namibia-a dry, barren desert landscape that favoured neither army. The outset of this campaign was complicated by a doomed rebellion by radical Boers who sought to ally themselves with the German cause in hopes of regaining some of the autonomy lost as a consequence of the Anglo-Boer War concluded a decade or more previously. Eventually, an expeditionary force was mounted under the command of former Boer leader Louis Botha (now a British army general) which was transported by sea to the German colony. This Leonaur Original book contains two first hand accounts by soldiers who served and fought in German South-West Africa; the first, by a former South African policeman who became a member of Botha's Mounted Bodyguard and the second an account of the activities of the Imperial Light Horse. Together these accounts offer an essential view of mounted troops in this little reported but fascinating side-show theatre of the greater conflict.

Leonaur editions are newly typeset and are not facsimiles; each title is available in softcover and hardback with dustjacket; our hardbacks are cloth bound and feature gold foil lettering on their spines and fabric head and tail bands.