Frontier Partisans

The Adventurers, Rangers and Scouts Who Fought the Battles of Empire

The Great War In East Africa

December 6, 2016, by JimC

paul-emil-von-lettow-vorbeck1_originalThree of the 12 chapters in Warriors of the Wildlands touch on the Great War campaign in East Africa. Deneys Reitz fought there under his mentor Jan Smuts, and P.J. Pretorius served as Chief of Scouts for the British forces. Frederick Courteney Selous met his end there, killed by a German sniper. This “sideshow” campaign was grueling frontier partisan warfare writ large, and it gave rise to a legendary warrior: Col. (later General) Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck. The German commander led an astonishing campaign of guerrilla warfare, managing to keep his force intact and in the field against mounting odds till well past the Armistice that ended the war.

Lettow was a hero in post-war Germany. He became involved in right-wing efforts to undermine the Weimar Republic, but he never got along with the Nazis. He reportedly actually told Hitler to fuck himself, which I’d like to believe is true.

The Great War channel on Youtube offers several quick video primers on the campaign that will get you oriented — and doubtless whet your appetite to learn more (which you can start — shameless plug alert! — by reading WoW).

 

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Comments

  1. Fletcher Vredenburgh says

    December 6, 2016 at 4:22 pm

    In Farwell’s The Great War in East Africa, he tells how decades later, the BDR decided to make good on the askari’s pensions. With poor records, the decided the only way to determine if any of the old men in Tanzania who claimed they were veterans was to see if they remembered the old Imperial manual of arms. Not one of the 350 vets failed. Here’s a video of some “alter askaris” on Lettow-Vorbeck’s death

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CuM8AxJTpbo

    Reply
    • JimC says

      December 6, 2016 at 4:41 pm

      Excellent! Thank you.

      Reply
  2. Jim Devor says

    December 7, 2016 at 3:59 am

    I’ve subscribed to this YouTube page for awhile. They do a great job. You can spend literally hours watching their channel.

    Reply
    • JimC says

      December 7, 2016 at 7:47 am

      Yep. They’re doing good work for the Centennial of a war too few know anything about.

      Reply
  3. Matthew says

    December 7, 2016 at 9:56 am

    Lettow-Vorbeck is mentioned in Philip Jose Farmer’s Tarzan: Alive. The conceit of the book is that tales the true story of the person Burroughs based Tarzan on working him in to real world history. He notes that the German officers who “kill” Jane (Burroughs brings her back in a later book) were bad apples and Lettow-Vorbeck would not have stood for this.

    Reply
    • JimC says

      December 7, 2016 at 10:31 am

      Deuce would love this.

      Reply
      • deuce says

        December 7, 2016 at 11:25 am

        Oh, I already know about it. I read TARZAN ALIVE! 30+yrs ago. Lotsa fun. Thanks for the shout out, Matthew.

        Reply
        • Matthew says

          December 7, 2016 at 3:37 pm

          I read a tattered copy from the library years ago. It was where I first heard of Lettow-Vorbect. Years later I got a new copy. I also have copies of Farmer’s biography of Doc Savage and William Baring-Gould’s biographies of Sherlock Holmes and Nero Wolfe. I think Tarzan Alive was the best of the four.

          Also, I read your posts on Two Gun Raconteur on various Howard characters.

          Reply
  4. Eccentric Cowboy says

    December 9, 2016 at 12:38 am

    Mr. Vorbeck was most certainly an interesting character. Most men after being ordered by command to sit on their hands and not fight might have decided to take it easy. Especially when supplies were short and greatly outmanned and outgunned. He did a bloody good job with the hand he was given.

    Although his activites caused all sorts of strife for the unfortunate citizens of Africa in the areas he operated in, I can’t help but be endeared to anyone who told Hitler where to stuff his mustache.
    I’m not positive if it’s true or not, but I heard that in an interview with his son the reporter asked “Is it true that your father told Hitler to go f*** himself?”
    To which his son replied “Yes, except he wasn’t nearly so polite about it.”

    I hope to Odin that’s true. That must have right rankled the little upstart! >:)

    Reply
  5. Richard Jewell says

    February 26, 2017 at 4:17 am

    Just to check that readers are aware of the recent book On Call in Africa 1910-1932 with some unique new photographic material and memoirs from the front throughout that campaign – see http://www.oncallinafrica.com for information and additional links (including the excellent videos linked above! :-)).

    Reply
    • JimC says

      February 26, 2017 at 8:03 am

      Thank you for that.

      Reply

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