The Kindle version is $7.99.Originally Posted by TROUFION
The Kindle version is $7.99.
John Wolfsberger, Jr.
An unruffled person with some useful skills.
Lettow, his officers and his men did certainly fight a brilliant campaign with very limited means against vastly superior allied forces. A guerilla war has at least one major intrinsic flaw, it has to expose the population or water into which the fish wants to swim to great harm and violence. There are just limited ways to protect the (own) people and depending on the war and the methods of the enemy even victory can be extremely costly.
From a German (Western) view waging such a guerilla war in East Africa was thus of course easier as the it was the native African population who shouldered and carried literally the war effort and did most of the dying.
Last edited by Firn; 04-26-2012 at 11:43 AM.
... "We need officers capable of following systematically the path of logical argument to its conclusion, with disciplined intellect, strong in character and nerve to execute what the intellect dictates"
General Ludwig Beck (1880-1944);
Speech at the Kriegsakademie, 1935
Von Lettow-Vorbeck seems reminiscent of Amundsen to me,
whose accomplishment cannot be denied, but who ate many of his dogs along the way.
Last edited by davidbfpo; 02-12-2018 at 08:36 PM. Reason: 7,842v when reopened for next post
If you don’t read the newspaper, you are uninformed; if you do read the newspaper, you are misinformed. – Mark Twain (attributed)
A new book with very mixed reviews: you choose
In the summer of 2017 a new book was published ''African Kaiser: General Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck and the Great War in Africa, 1914-1918' by Robert Gaudi and was savaged in a British review. Here is a taster:Link:https://www.spectator.co.uk/2017/08/...n-east-africa/His story has often been told, and Gaudi — an American ‘freelance writer and historian’ — appears to have consulted only these secondary sources, so reveals nothing new. Furthermore, he frequently misunderstands the sources and repeats their errors. He is certainly not au fait with military detail.
On Amazon.com there are eighty-two reviews, the majority are 5*. See:https://www.amazon.com/African-Kaise...s=Robert+Gaudi
Amazon.co.uk has three reviews and one states:Link:https://www.amazon.co.uk/African-Kai...s=robert+gaudiThis account is based on a synthesis of existing works. Hence there is little that is new. The author resorts at times to guesswork and speculation. Nevertheless, it is an engaging book about a superb soldier who led the Allies a merry dance over four years. His troops loved him. He was a genius in the art of bush warfare.
davidbfpo
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks