My Reminiscences of East Africa: The German East Africa Campaign in World War One - A General’s Memoir

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General Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck of the German East-Africa campaign shares his narrative of the war, and his effective use of guerilla warfare to keep a far larger Allied army in check.

Unlike his counterparts in Europe, whose war degenerated to infamous trench warfare, Lettow-Vorbeck led a highly effective campaign that impressed commanders on both sides. His campaign took place over modern-day Rwanda, Burundi and Tanzania, with parts of Britain's colonial holdings eventually also subject to skirmishing. The cunning use of terrain, weather, ambush, guns from the sunken ship Koenigsberg, and local auxiliaries meant Lettow-Vorbeck's small force kept an Allied army roughly ten times as large occupied.

Lettow-Vorbeck and other military figures in Germany had calculated how effective a guerilla campaign could be in Africa prior to the war commencing in 1914. Frustrated by his successes, the British sent reinforcements totaling over 70,000 men in 1916 - these too failed to gain a decisive victory.