Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1908-01-28
GERMANY IN AFRICA.
Great Military System That Makes No
/ Provision For Wounded.

Provision, For Wounded.
The Germans were the most severe
of all the critics of the British during
the late Boer war, but what must the
great general staff Of the German
army think when their own army Is
kept in the field for over three years
by a handful of Hottentots? Blunder
succeeded blunder without any at
tempt to profit by the lessons taught.
The whole time I was in the field
with the German forces never had l
seen an advance guard Of flankers
placed at a sufficient protective dis
tance from the main. body Of troops
so as to insure its safety. Columns
marching through the enemy's coun-
try advanced in close order Of double
files; the headquarter staff usually
acting as advance guard, and If fan
kers were placed out they were only
a few yards from the column. Scouts
have been we'll named the eyes OF an
army, and an army without eyes must
suffer from its blindness, and to this
blindness is due the great loss suf-
fered by the Germans in their cam
paign against the Hottentots, a loss
out Of proportion to the nature Of
the campaign and the loss sustained
by the natives.
Advancing blindly, column after
column have marched right into an
ambuscade, the first warning the Ger
mans received of the presence OF the
enemy being a volley fired into the
main body; not only once has this
happened but time after time, and
yet column commanders refused to
profit by past experiences. A particu-
larly glaring instance Of this lack OF
using elementary protective measures
Is afforded by a column commanded
by Major Won Kamptz which was re-
turning to Keetmanshoop in March,
1905, with cattle captured from jacob
Morenga The column was about two
and a quarter miles long and was
marching through very dangerous
country; having entered a gorge, a
halt was called and as soon as the col
umn had settled down to rest from
both sides of the ridges Of the gorge
overhead a withering fire was poured
upon the hapless Germans, and 1t was
only saved by the desperate bravery
Of a young lieutenant named Won
Stocke, who, without waiting for or
ders, scaled the sides Of the gorge,
and put the enemy to flight. Two days
later the same column was again am
bushed, the Germans losing sixteen
men on this occasion and the native
loss being nil. The disaster on both
these occasions could easily have been
avoided had proper precautions been
taken by scouting.
The German army is looked upon
as the model army and the greatest
military machine in the world, but in
many points the Germans are far be-
hind other powers; especially is this
fact noticeable in their treatment, or
I should say neglect, Of their own
anu lliC iSiN' va
many occasions the killed have been
left for days unburied, and in many
instances the bodies have not been
buried at all, but left to bleach in the
sun and become food for vultures. In
the operations in the Karras Noun
tains against Jacob Morenga, the Hot
tentot outposts fired on the advancing
Germans, killing one man and wound
ing an officer and two men. The col
umn continued to advance, the
wounded being left behind with only
two men to protect them from the en-
emy, and it was not until twenty-four
hours later that the wounded were
brought into camp. Had the Germans
been fighting a civilized power, leav-
ing the wounded behind on the field
would not have mattered much, as
they would have been we'll treated
had they fallen into the enemy
hands, but with the Hottentots II Is
altogether different, as they would
have slaughtered unmercifully any
German who fell into their hands.