Qualla: Battle of Trekkopjes https://qualla.com/battle-of-trekkopjes en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:26 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/k/k/4/9/battle-of-trekkopjes-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Battle of Trekkopjes https://qualla.com/battle-of-trekkopjes Battle of Trekkopjes: Introduction https://qualla.com/battle-of-trekkopjes/ Photo credit Louise Kapp, CC BY-SA 4.0. There was almost nothing at Trekkopjes worth fighting for, which is exactly why the fight mattered. A railway siding in the gravel plains of the Namib, a scatter of tents, a water point that the engines and the horses and the men all depended on in country where dehydration killed faster than bullets. Yet on the morning of 26 April 1915, the German army of South West Africa staked its last offensive of the First World War on taking this forgettable spot. They lost it to a weapon the desert had not seen before: machine guns bolted into armoured cars, circling at speed across the open ground.

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Image: Louise Kapp | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/k/4/9/battle-of-trekkopjes-wp/kk49-battle-of-trekkopjes-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Battle of Trekkopjes: Franke's Last Throw https://qualla.com/battle-of-trekkopjes/ Photo credit Louise Kapp, CC BY-SA 4.0. By April 1915 the war in German South West Africa was going badly for Germany. South African forces under Louis Botha had pushed the German army of Colonel Victor Franke off ground it could not afford to lose. Rather than simply retreat, Franke gambled on one more blow, choosing ...

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Image: Louise Kapp | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/k/4/9/battle-of-trekkopjes-wp/kk49-battle-of-trekkopjes-frankes-last-throw.mp3 0:06 2 full Battle of Trekkopjes: Skinner Digs In https://qualla.com/battle-of-trekkopjes/ Photo credit Louise Kapp, CC BY-SA 4.0. The defense fell to the South African Major Skinner, ordered to hold Trekkopjes and quick to make contact with the German column closing on the station. He pulled his men back into the camp and dug them in. He had a problem: no artillery. When the Germans appeared near the siding...

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Image: Louise Kapp | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/k/4/9/battle-of-trekkopjes-wp/kk49-battle-of-trekkopjes-skinner-digs-in.mp3 0:06 3 full Battle of Trekkopjes: The Armoured Cars Turn the Flank https://qualla.com/battle-of-trekkopjes/ Photo credit Louise Kapp, CC BY-SA 4.0. The fighting ran on for some five hours under a hardening desert sun, with heat, dust, and the constant shortage of water grinding at both sides as much as the enemy did. Then the South Africans played their hand. Machine guns mounted in armoured cars swung out against the German...

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Image: Louise Kapp | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/k/4/9/battle-of-trekkopjes-wp/kk49-battle-of-trekkopjes-the-armoured-cars-turn-the-flank.mp3 0:06 4 full Battle of Trekkopjes: The Tide That Never Turned Back https://qualla.com/battle-of-trekkopjes/ Photo credit Louise Kapp, CC BY-SA 4.0. Neither side left many dead on the field, but the meaning of Trekkopjes far outweighed its small butcher's bill. The defeat gutted the morale of Franke's men, who had bet their last offensive here and lost it. From that morning the Germans in South West Africa never attacked agai...

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Image: Louise Kapp | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Mon, 22 Jun 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/k/k/4/9/battle-of-trekkopjes-wp/kk49-battle-of-trekkopjes-the-tide-that-never-turned-back.mp3 0:06 5 full