East Africa & Von Lettow Vorbeck

[TROUFION]

My Reminisence of East Africa, by Lettow Vorbeck. Available on Amazon for @$30.

A good read/a good translation. Compares well to Lawrence's Seven Pillars. The major difference being that he was the Commander of the forces without any real influence from his HHQ in Berlin, not an intel officer-liaison-advisor with an active HHQ in closer Cairo. Further his was the only game in town once the other German colonies fell (all within the first year) he was the only one left. Whereas Allenby's advance on Jerusalem, and the expeditions up the Tigris-Euphrates were the principle efforts of the brits.

WWI.com has a nice biographical sketch and an article on the battle of Tanga available free.

The wikipedia site on him is a good start point for researching.

Of course to really get to know the guy you'd have to know German. My Grandfather (former Luftwaffe Capt. from Hamburg, Vorbeck's home city) was a big fan of the General and used to tell me about him. Including his involvment in Freikorps and the suppression of the Spartacist Rebellion in Hamburg after WWI.

[Granite_State]

My Reminisence of East Africa, by Lettow Vorbeck. Available on Amazon for @$30.

A good read/a good translation. Compares well to Lawrence's Seven Pillars. The major difference being that he was the Commander of the forces without any real influence from his HHQ in Berlin, not an intel officer-liaison-advisor with an active HHQ in closer Cairo. Further his was the only game in town once the other German colonies fell (all within the first year) he was the only one left. Whereas Allenby's advance on Jerusalem, and the expeditions up the Tigris-Euphrates were the principle efforts of the brits.

WWI.com has a nice biographical sketch and an article on the battle of Tanga available free.

The wikipedia site on him is a good start point for researching.

Of course to really get to know the guy you'd have to know German. My Grandfather (former Luftwaffe Capt. from Hamburg, Vorbeck's home city) was a big fan of the General and used to tell me about him. Including his involvment in Freikorps and the suppression of the Spartacist Rebellion in Hamburg after WWI.

You sure he was from Hamburg? Wikipedia says he was born in the Saar, but I remember reading that he was a Pomeranian (like my grandmother).

[TROUFION]

Granite State, I believe youre right. I believe his time in Hamburg was after WWI.

[davidbfpo]

The Western Front Association (WFA) is dedicated to the study and commemoration of WW1 and their latest newsletter had an article on a conventional battle in the East African campaign, in March 1916. Following the e-trail their website has ten articles:http://www.westernfrontassociation.c...-theatres.html

The latest article had a phrase that appeared on SWC this week, referring to the US Army in WW1 & WW2:

..the hastily trained and poorly disciplined South African officers and men were on a steep military learning curve..

[Fuchs]

There's a book about German colonies with a chapter on the episode:
ISBN 978-3-548-36940-2
pp. 349-366

The East African conflict was apparently a major medical and logistical disaster for both sides. Estimates about dead indigenous porters (forced by both sides) are in the six figure range. Germans lacked anti-Malaria medicine badly, had to produce it with indigenous plants. Raining season created mud trails that made movement extremely tiresome and created horrible lower leg infections.

Overall quite messy, but the performance of the defenders was nevertheless one of the most extreme ones in history.

[J Wolfsberger]

My Reminisence of East Africa, by Lettow Vorbeck. Available on Amazon for @$30.

The Kindle version is $7.99.

[Firn]

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.

[ganulv]

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.

whose accomplishment cannot be denied, but who ate many of his dogs along the way.

[davidbfpo]

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:

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.

Link:https://www.spectator.co.uk/2017/08/...n-east-africa/

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:

This 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.

Link:https://www.amazon.co.uk/African-Kai...s=robert+gaudi

[AdamG]

My Reminisence of East Africa, by Lettow Vorbeck. Available on Amazon for @$30.

Freebie version on digits.
https://archive.org/details/myreminiscenceso00lettuoft

[AdamG]

For those of you unfamiliar with the tale of the SMS Konigsberg, the Wiki page is actually a decent summation of how to extract enough salvage out of a defeat to keep your forces fighting for another day (or a few years, in von Lettow's case).

See also GERMAN GUNS OF WORLD WAR I IN SOUTH AFRICA http://samilitaryhistory.org/vol032dh.html