Beer Monster
08-31-2005, 03:13 PM
Having visited Tanzania at the beginning of the year and hearing about the afore mentioned gentleman I have just finished reading his book "My Reminiscences of East Africa (1920)".
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e1/Lettow_vorbeck.jpg
As a brief run down on the book and man. Lettow-Vorbeck was a German Colonel who led a vastly outnumbered combined German and indigenous (Askari) force against British, French and Belgian forces in several parts of Africa during WW1 (he basically walked and fought a guerrilla war from Tanzania to Rhodesia!). He is commonly referred to as the German Lawrence of Arabia. His forces were never defeated and he finally surrendered several days after the Armistice. This book was written by the man himself and although the prose is a bit stale (it was written in the 1920's!), and some of it should be taken with a pinch of salt (he does on occasion "big himself up" a bit ;) ) it is none the less a fascinating read.
A superior tactician he was still considered a threat during WW2 (even though he hated the Nazi's) ...... Churchill tried to persuade him to assassinate Hitler. He didn't and in the end retired completely from public life and eventually became destitute :| . Jan Smuts (who fought against Lettow-Vorbeck), along with former South African and British officers, respected him so much they eventually arranged for a small pension to be paid to Lettow-Vorbeck until his death. Apparently after his death the German government arranged for a small sum of money to be given to his former Askaris ...... the test was to see if they could respond to German marching orders, if they could they were given the money! :)
For those interested in the development of guerrilla warfare I recommend you read any and all books concerning this guy and the forgotten front in WW1 (as well as that of Jan Smuts during the Boer War!).
Here are acouple of links to some more information:-
http://www.firstworldwar.com/bio/lettowvorbeck.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_von_Lettow-Vorbeck
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/e/e1/Lettow_vorbeck.jpg
As a brief run down on the book and man. Lettow-Vorbeck was a German Colonel who led a vastly outnumbered combined German and indigenous (Askari) force against British, French and Belgian forces in several parts of Africa during WW1 (he basically walked and fought a guerrilla war from Tanzania to Rhodesia!). He is commonly referred to as the German Lawrence of Arabia. His forces were never defeated and he finally surrendered several days after the Armistice. This book was written by the man himself and although the prose is a bit stale (it was written in the 1920's!), and some of it should be taken with a pinch of salt (he does on occasion "big himself up" a bit ;) ) it is none the less a fascinating read.
A superior tactician he was still considered a threat during WW2 (even though he hated the Nazi's) ...... Churchill tried to persuade him to assassinate Hitler. He didn't and in the end retired completely from public life and eventually became destitute :| . Jan Smuts (who fought against Lettow-Vorbeck), along with former South African and British officers, respected him so much they eventually arranged for a small pension to be paid to Lettow-Vorbeck until his death. Apparently after his death the German government arranged for a small sum of money to be given to his former Askaris ...... the test was to see if they could respond to German marching orders, if they could they were given the money! :)
For those interested in the development of guerrilla warfare I recommend you read any and all books concerning this guy and the forgotten front in WW1 (as well as that of Jan Smuts during the Boer War!).
Here are acouple of links to some more information:-
http://www.firstworldwar.com/bio/lettowvorbeck.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_von_Lettow-Vorbeck