"Herero War - More Blog Updates" Topic

Appearing now on the blog:

link

Reading over your blog I noticed the question about the use of flags. The Linke Museum of the German Colonies in Rödelsee, Germany has a flag that is identified as belonging to the 7th South West African Schutztruppe Field Company. It is the German tricolor with the Imperial Eagle in the center. I'm doubtful as to their use in the field.

I am doubtful as well about flags in the field, but I think I will still use one or two, as I have flagbearers and it will add some color to a rather drab field of battle. :)

Thanks for the info! Looks like the museum's flag is for the First World War as I believe there were no camels used during the Herero Revolt.

The flag could be from the First World War, but it might also originally trace back to the last campaign of the Nama Wars of 1904-1908. In the fall of 1907 Simon Kopper was the last major Nama leader still in the field. Kopper and his troops were based in the Kalahari, whose dry desert sands protected the Nama from an assault by standard horse-mounted Schutztruppen.

In order to get at Kopper in his desert fastness, the Germans formed a special camel-mounted Expeditionskorps (expeditionary corps) under the command of Hauptmann Friedrich von Erckert. The 7th was one of three camel-mounted Schutztruppe companies that comprised the Expeditionskorps; the other two were the 1st and the 16th. The Expeditionskorps also had two camel-mounted scouting detachments and a camel-mounted machine gun detachment.

On March 16, 1908 at the Battle of Seatsub Simon Kopper and his Nama troops clashed with Hauptmann von Erckert and his Schutztruppen (fighting on foot, dismounted from their camels) in the last battle of the Nama Wars.

So while that flag from the 7th Feldkompagnie might date from World War I, it might have an earlier provenance and date from the 1907-08 Nama Wars campaign against Simon Kopper. Although I doubt it was actually carried into the field at the battle.

By the way, the expedition was essentially 100% camel-mounted. The Expeditionskorps had 2 horses, 5 mules, 11 rider oxen – and 710 camels! That's 98% camels! The human contingent comprised 27 German officers, 373 German enlisted men, and 129 African support troops (mostly labor and logistics) – a total of 529 men.

I ran a Seatsub scenario at Cold Wars in March of this year. There were 100 camels on the table. So not 710, but 100 camels is nothing to sneeze at. And most importantly, the players had fun.

"100 camels is nothing to sneeze at." no but you might want to hold your nose.

You may find this of interest, it is a photo of volunteers from IR 75 (Infantry Regiment Bremen) in SW Africa 1904-1906
link

What if you're allergic to camels?

I know… change your diet.

Fascinating link about Gefreiter Otto Gerdes of IR 75. In the official histories, memoirs, etc., covering the Herero and Nama Wars, the Germans very often mentioned individual officers and enlisted men who distinguished themselves in action or who were killed or wounded. I checked to see whether Gefreiter Otto Gerdes was mentioned in any of these accounts, but I didn't find any instances.

The volunteers from a given home regiment who went to German Southwest Africa didn't fight together as a contingent of that home regiment. They were instead dispersed amongst different Schutztruppe infantry companies, machine gun detachments and artillery batteries. So there's no mention of IR 75 as a group. However several members of IR 75 were casualties during the wars in German Southwest Africa:

HERERO WAR
Gefreiter Willers (wounded in action)

NAMA WARS
Gefreiter Könnecke (killed in action)
Reiter Pestrup (killed in action)
Major von Kamptz (wounded in action)
Gefreiter Sahling (wounded in action)
Gefreiter Rosenhagen (died of malaria)
Reiter Ehlers (died of malaria)

The dedication to Otto Gerdes in the link is dated December 13, 1907. If the photograph was taken around that time then clearly only Major von Kamptz or Gefreiter Sahling could possibly be in it, and that presumes they returned to their home regiment sometime after being wounded in 1905 (on March 19 in the case of von Kamptz and on December 19 in the case of Sahling).

However if this photo was taken BEFORE Otto Gerdes left for German Southwest Africa, and shows the comrades in IR 75 he knew at that time, then some or all of the men listed above may have been in that photograph. I would love to be able to put a face to some of these names, but I doubt that information is available.

As a bit of a curiosity, there is a "Gefreiter Gerdes" listed as having died of dysentery on July 28, 1906. However his home regiment is listed as IR 56 not IR 75, and given also that Gefreiter Otto Gerdes appears to have survived the war (since no mention is made of his death in the dedication) this is probably a different Gefreiter Gerdes.