Obviously being in the UK I won't be there but interesting stuff. Out of interest did the Germans take any lessons from the 2nd Boer war it seems like they would have faced many of the same issues the British faced.
The Germans did take some lessons from the 2nd Boer War. But many lessons of the 2nd Boer War were not applicable because of differences in the fighting styles of the Hereros and the Boers.
Both the Hereros and the Boers would deliver withering volumes of rifle fire from concealed positions, either entrenchments and other field fortifications or (in the case of the Hereros only, because of the topography of the South-West-African battlefield) from thick thorn bush country. This withering storm of Herero or Boer rifle fire would not just inflict casualties on the enemy (German or British, respectively) but also pin down his columns, preventing forward movement.
The Boers, however, were generally reluctant to engage in offensive close combat on the open battlefield, and thus decimating and immobilizing British field forces while the Boers remained protected in field fortifications was their style of war.
Herero riflemen, on the other hand, used their trenches and stone field works both for defense and as a base for offensive tactics, charging out of their trenches against the Germans' flanks.
Once the Germans were pinned down, the Hereros would launch massive assaults against the immobilized German forces, with the aim of enveloping and encircling them. The Hereros would press aggressively and determinedly towards the Germans from all directions and deliver rifle fire at the closest of distances (as close as 10 to 20 meters). I describe this pressing forward and shooting at the Germans at ultra-close range as "melee by gunfire".
The Hereros used identical tactics when charging out of their protective thorn bush cover.
These charges were well-organized. The Hereros were organized in companies and platoons, with clearly identifiable officers, often wearing captured German officer uniforms; this was not a disorganized mob of "natives". A description from the memoirs of Hauptmann (i.e., Captain) Maximilian Bayer, a German participant in several Herero War battles, captures the impression of these assaults well:
"Simultaneously the Hereros burst forth; they left the protective thorn abatis and trenches and ran towards [the Germans]; but not in a wild, thick mass, like the Dervishes at Omdurman, but on the contrary in a long skirmishing line, crouching down and bounding, with great skill and exploitation of all cover. Finally, they charged with hurrahs, at the head of them a Herero with drawn sword and in a German officer's uniform. They were the men of Captain Assa Riàrua. Behind the skirmishing line the Herero wives shouted and danced, and fired up the fighters for the battle." (Translation by Roy Jones)
"Gleichzeitig brachen die Hereros schon hervor; sie verließen den sicheren Dornverhau und die Schützengräben und liefen heran; doch nicht als eine wilde, dichte Masse, wie die Derwische bei Omdurman, sondern in langer Schützenlinie, geduckt und in Sprüngen, mit großer Geschicklichkeit und unter Ausnutzung jeder Deckung. Schließlich stürmten sie mit Hurra, voran ein Herero mit gezogenem Degen und in deutscher Offiziers-Uniform. Es waren Leute des Kapitäns Assa Riàrua. Hinter der Schützenlinie schrien und tanzten die Hereroweiber und feuerten die Krieger zum Kampfe an." (Bayer, pg. 38)
Should these charges not succeed in penetrating German lines, the Hereros would retreat to their field fortifications or thorn bush cover and resume firing at the Germans from concealment, until another opportunity to charge out and assault the Germans at close range presented itself.
These kind of determined close-range rifle assaults by the Boers charging out of their fortified positions were rare, if they occurred at all.
In their General Staff ("Generalstab") official history of the Herero War, the Germans explicitly compared the Hereros and the Boers regarding their capabilities:
"In skill and marksmanship our enemy [i.e., the Hereros] matched the Boers fought by the English, in military worth and determination in action they in fact surpassed the Boers by far."
(Translation by Roy Jones)
"Unsere Gegner standen an Gewandtheit und Schießfertigkeit den von den Engländern bekämpften Buren nicht nach, An kriegerischem Wert und Entschlossenheit des Handelns übertrafen sie diese sogar bei weitem." (Generalstab, pg. 19)
takes another stab at building a more perfect flight stand.
