A History of the First World War in 100 Moments: Guerrilla in the mist - a great German military maverick outwits the British again

There was only one German general in the First World War who managed to occupy British territory.
Not Hindenburg, Ludendorff, Falkenhayn or any of the more celebrated, or notorious, figures. The only one who did, albeit a long way away from the Western Front, was Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck, commander of the Germans in their East Africa possessions, Tanganyika (now Tanzania) and present-day Rwanda and Burundi.

It was he who led a remarkable guerrilla war against British, South African, Nigerian, Gambian, Kenyan, Portuguese and Belgian forces in the region, managing to score a series of remarkable successes – and remaining at large when the Armistice arrived in 1918. Alone among Germany’s overseas possessions, Deutsche Ostafrika never surrendered. Indeed, Lettow-Vorbeck would have a special clause in the Armistice of November 1918 specifically devoted to the arrangements for the safe conduct of himself and his men at the end of the war.

At the outbreak of war, Lettow-Vorbeck had been commander of a small garrison in Tanganyika, which came under British attack at Tanga in November 1914. He denied the British victory on that occasion, and continued to do so, through brilliant guerrilla tactics, for the rest of the war. When he finally returned to Germany, in March 1919, he was treated as a hero. An old-school soldier, he told Hitler to “get lost” (or stronger) when approached to become ambassador to London in the 1930s; and it is thought he heartily disliked the Nazis.

When Lettow-Vorbeck died in 1964, at the ripe old age of 93, the Federal Republic laid on a formal ceremony, and invited some of his surviving Askari troops to attend the funeral. He’d had a tearful reunion with them in 1953, and, indeed, is remembered for running his army on (relatively) non-racial lines. “We are all Africans,” was reportedly one of his mottos. Lettow-Vorbeck’s “army” comprised some 14,000 men, at most: 11,000 African Askaris, and about 3,000 Germans, of whom some were “proper” soldiers, others recycled sailors rescued from a scuttled cruiser, the Konigsberg. Cut off even from radio contact with the fatherland, they were left to their own devices. They lived off the land and whatever supplies they managed to capture from their foes – notably the Portuguese, based in Mozambique.

The German/Askari army were pitted against larger forces from the British, Belgian and Portuguese empires, but brilliant soldiering meant that he evaded capture every time.


http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/world-history/history-of-the-first-world-war-in-100-moments/a-history-of-the-first-world-war-in-100-moments-guerrilla-in-the-mist--a-great-german-military-maverick-outwits-the-british-again-9547030.html

cheers - something I never knew about!

we are planning a big display in August - 100 years - so I will look into this further.

xx

Cass wrote:cheers - something I never knew about!

we are planning a big display in August - 100 years - so I will look into this further.

xx

No worries me Lady, sadly lacking some history on here, we need a thread for history all on its own.

This is what is so interesting about WW1, there was so many different areas that were brought into this conflict.

xx