The Battle of Ohamakari took place on 11 August 1904 after General Lothar von Trotha spent the months before the engagement building supply lines and moving German forces into position around the Waterberg. The German attack sought to bring all available forces against the Herero positions at once. The operation reflected von Trotha’s commitment to a form of warfare aimed not merely at negotiation or containment, but at decisive military destruction.

The German force approached in several sections and included roughly 4,000 men, thirty-six artillery pieces and fourteen machine guns. Colonel von Deimling advanced from the west and took the Waterberg plateau, while troops approaching from the north and east met little opposition. In the south and south-east, however, Herero troops resisted strongly and nearly overwhelmed the German force commanded by Lieutenant Colonel von Mueller toward the end of the day.

By nightfall the German victory was clear, in part because women, men and children accompanying the Herero forces were left unprotected from German fire. Those who escaped moved south-east into the omaheke, a desert region extending east of the Waterberg toward British Bechuanaland. The battle therefore became not only a military defeat but also the opening of a catastrophic flight, during which access to water was restricted and many people died.