The Battle of Waterberg on 11 August 1904 was the final battle of the Herero Wars in what was then German South West Africa. Following the defeat of the Herero force, the surviving Hereros fled into the Kalahari Desert under the leadership of Samuel Maharero. Of the estimated 4–6,000 Herero warriors, only 1,175 reached their destination of British Bechuanaland, the rest died of thirst, hunger, and diseases.