In German South West Africa

Horowhenua Chronicle, 9 November 1915, Page 3

In German South West Africa

LETTER FROM FORMER LEVIN IfcESIBENT. From a port in German South-West Africa, Mr. A. W. Stuckey, a former resident of Levin, writes to Mr. R. D. Wallace as follows:— "Our campaign is over, and Ave are waiting here for our boat to take us back to Capetown, where we will entrain to our homes in the union. We have had the most exciting days, and our machine gun section have had ilia best time of all, as we "were able t<; move about so quickly. The Germans had retreated great distances north, and taken our prisoners, about 1200, with them into country unknown to us. They had had those prisoners since the beginning of the war, and had not treated them too well, so you can imagine how keen we were to release them. After live weeks v hard trekking wo got to Fort Is am atom, took them completely by surprise, andi released the prisoners, it was our motor section that got there first, and you can imagine how pleased we were witii ourselves. We captured enormous quantities of stores, munitions of war, and supplies of all sorts. To give you an idea: there were over two million rounds of mauser ammunition, sixty thousand cases 01 rum and wine, and thousands of oases of German riiles. These were all intended to arm the rebels in the union, an affair which General Botha nipped in you know. Fort Namatoni is up in the furthest corner of Gentian South-"West Africa, on the shores of an enormous inland lake. The country round is swarming with big game of all sorts; in fact the last four hundred miles of our trek from Karibib was through lovely bush-veldt, and mountains full of big game. Wo . managed to capture all the German patrols on our way up as our motors were fail too quick for their horses; this was very exciting and risky work in the bush, and prevented their garrison at Namatoni from knowing we were coming so soon. I have been fortunate enough to come off without hurt or • accident. I had a bullet through the bonnet of my car, but did not know of tihis till Hastings Snow pointed it out to me afterwards. He is a lioutenant in charge of the cars. lam only a sergeant in charge of a section, as I was unable lo get away early m the campaign. Snow is looking fit and well, and it was lucky for ua that we were both in the same se •- tion, being such old friends. We have tod no news of the outside world for over three months, and have no idea how the war in Europe is going on, or any news of our New Zealand forces. The last we heard was tliat they were leaving Egypt for the Dardanelles. These lew lines will give you an ide? of our work,- hut I couldi write pages of our, experiences.' r