Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck (popularly known as the Lion of Africa (; 20 March 1870 – 9 March 1964), was a general in the Imperial German Army and the commander of its forces in the German East Africa campaign. For four years, with a force of about 14,000 (3,000 Germans and 11,000 Africans), he held in check a much larger force of 300,000 British, Indian, Belgian, and Portuguese troops. He is known for never being captured in battle, and for keeping his forces intact throughout the war.
Lettow-Vorbeck was the only German commander to successfully invade a part of the British Empire during the First World War. His exploits in the campaign have been described by historian Edwin Palmer Hoyt as "the greatest single guerrilla operation in history, and the most successful".
Early life
Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck was son of Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck (1832–1919) and Marie von Eisenhart-Rothe (1842–1919). He was born into the Pomeranian minor nobility, while his father was stationed as an army officer at Saarlouis in the Prussian Rhine Province. He was educated in boarding schools in Berlin and joined the cadet corps at Potsdam and Berlin-Lichterfelde. In 1890, he was commissioned a Leutnant into the Imperial German Army.
According to Robert Gaudi, "In Mein Leben von Lettow writes nostalgically of his decade as a junior officer in the Kaiser's Imperial Army: there were Dawn inspections in the biting cold, regimental maneuvers, glimpses of the luminaries of the day – the Kaiser, Crown Prince Friedrich, the "Man of Gold" Field Marshal Count von Moltke, who was Germany's greatest military strategist, and others. There were drinking parties with fellow officers, card games till all hours, and splendid dances in Berlin – the young women shivering in their off-the-shoulder dresses, the new officers in bright stiff uniforms - followed by the mad rush to catch the last train back to Spandau barracks before the last roll call."
Lettow-Vorbeck later wrote, "I recall an older officer scolding a younger one because he failed to ask a young woman who was without a partner to dance. Offenses against chivalry were not tolerated."
Lt. von Lettow-Vorbeck was assigned to the Great German General Staff.
Military career
In 1900, Lettow-Vorbeck was posted to China as a member of the international alliance forces to quell the Boxer Rebellion. Although Lettow-Vorbeck was fascinated by the ancient history and elaborate courtesy of Chinese culture, he intensely disliked fighting against guerrillas and considered the war detrimental to the discipline of the German Army. He returned to the German General Staff from China in 1901.
Beginning in 1904, Lettow-Vorbeck, now a captain, was assigned to German Southwest Africa (now Namibia), during the Herero insurrection and the subsequent genocide.
Lettow-Vorbeck saw combat against the Herero at the Battle of Waterberg, which he later called, "something rarely encountered in guerrilla warfare, a chance to defeat them in a single operation."
When the Nama people also rose against German rule under the leadership of Hendrik Witbooi, Lettow-Vorbeck remained in German Southwest Africa in order to continue fighting. He played a major role in the pursuit of Jacob Morenga. During a 1906 gunfight against Morenga and his men, Lettow-Vorbeck suffered injuries to his left eye, which was left blind, and his chest.
He was then evacuated to South Africa for treatment and recovery.
Leonard Mosley would later write, however, "It was from these brilliant and fantastic Hottentots that Lettow-Vorbeck learned the Bushcraft that was to prove of such value to him in his war against the British in East Africa. When [Hottentot guerrilla leader] Samuel Isaak was captured and brought in for questioning, it was von Lettow who conducted the interrogations... His questions were how to live off a country which offers no apparent sustenance, how to run in conditions when most men barely have the strength to walk, how to condition the body to go without food or water, and most important of all, how to become so much a part, so absorbed into an unfriendly wilderness that survival is possible as the snakes and land crabs and lizards survive".
In 1907 Lettow-Vorbeck was promoted to Major and assigned to the staff of XI Corps at Kassel, Hesse. From March 1909 to January 1913, he was commanding officer of the marines of II. Seebataillon ("2nd Sea Battalion") at Wilhelmshaven, Lower Saxony. In October 1913, the Imperial German army promoted him to Lieutenant Colonel and appointed him to command the German colonial forces, known as the Schutztruppe (protectorate force), in German Kamerun (today's Cameroon, plus a portion of present-day Nigeria). Before he could assume this command, however, his orders were changed and he was posted — with effect from 13 April 1914 — to German East Africa (Tanganyika, the mainland territory of present-day Tanzania).
While travelling to his new assignment, Lettow-Vorbeck formed a lifelong friendship with Danish author Karen Blixen (also known by her pen name of Isak Dinesen), who was travelling aboard the same liner. Decades later, she recalled that, "He belonged to the olden days, and I have never met another German who has given me so strong an impression of what Imperial Germany was and stood for."Farwell, The Great War in Africa, p. 105
First World War
Lettow-Vorbeck's plan for the war was relatively simple: knowing that East Africa would only be a sideshow to other theatres of war, he was determined to tie down as many British troops as he could. He intended to keep them away from the Western Front, and in this way to contribute to the German war effort.
In August 1914 Lettow-Vorbeck was the commander of a military garrison of 2,600 German nationals and 2,472 African soldiers in fourteen Askari field companies.Farwell, p. 109. Feeling the need to seize the initiative, he disregarded orders from Berlin and the colony's Governor, Heinrich Schnee, who had attempted to achieve neutrality for German East Africa, relying on the Congo Act of 1885, by which the European colonial powers had promised to keep their overseas possessions neutral in any European wars. He thus prepared to repel a major British amphibious assault on the city of Tanga. The attack began on 2 November 1914, and for the next four days the German forces fought the Battle of Tanga. Lettow-Vorbeck then assembled his men and their scant supplies to attack the British railways in East Africa. He scored a second victory over the British at Jassin on 19 January 1915. These victories allowed the Germans to capture much needed rifles and other supplies, in addition to boosting the troops' morale. Lettow-Vorbeck also lost many experienced men, however, including the "splendid Captain Tom von Prince", whom he could not easily replace.Prince had a Scots father and German mother and was born on Mauritius. After being orphaned, Prince and his sister had been educated in England. Later, his mother's family brought him to Germany, where he and Lettow-Vorbeck were classmates at the Kassel Military Academy (Kadettenanstalt Kassel). Prince eventually settled in the Usambara region of German East Africa. He was recalled to active duty as Hauptmann (captain) and given command of the Askaris of the 13th Field Company and of the 7th and 8th Schützenkompagnies (rifle companies composed mainly of the sons of German settlers). Prince's exploits earned him the nickname Bwana Sakarani — the wild one — from his Askaris. He was killed at Tanga on 4 November 1914. Gaudi 2017, pp. 35, 145–148, 200
Though casualties were high, Lettow insisted his commanders engage British forces, though they offered few enticing targets. This forced him to conduct raids into British East Africa (later Kenya, Uganda, and Zanzibar), targeting forts, railways, and communications, still hoping to force the Entente to divert manpower from the main theatre of war in Europe. Realizing the critical needs of guerrilla warfare, he used everything available to him to keep his troops supplied.
The Schutztruppe recruited new personnel and expanded its size to some 14,000 soldiers, most of them Askaris. Lettow-Vorbeck's fluency in the Swahili language apparently earned the respect and admiration of his African soldiers. He appointed black officers and reportedly stated that "we are all Africans here". In one historian's opinion, "It is probable that no white commander of the era had so keen an appreciation of the African's worth not only as a fighting man but as a man."Miller, Charles (1974), Battle for the Bundu, The First World War in East Africa p. 38.The historian Michael von Herff says the loyalty of Askaris during the campaign was due to them having formed a military caste within the colonial structure, which had largely separated itself from its members' tribal roots.They Walk Through The Fire Like The Blondest German – African Soldiers Serving the Kaiser in German East Africa 1888–1918. Michael von Herff MA Thesis, McGill University, Montreal 1991
In 1915, he gained the men and artillery of the German cruiser which had been scuttled in the Rufiji River delta. The cruiser had a capable crew under commander Max Looff, and its artillery pieces, converted to land use, became the largest standard guns used in the East African Theatre. In March 1916 British forces under General Jan Smuts and the Belgians under Charles Tombeur launched an offensive with 45,000 men near Tabora. Lettow-Vorbeck used the climate and terrain to his advantage, engaging the British on his terms. British reinforcements forced Lettow-Vorbeck to yield territory. Continuing his resistance, Lettow-Vorbeck fought a crucial battle at Mahiwa in October 1917, where he inflicted 2,700 casualties on the British.Miller, p. 287. Lettow-Vorbeck himself lost 519 men killed, wounded, or missing while also running critically low on ammunition, forcing him to withdraw. The British would proceed to recover their losses and continue to hold an overwhelming advantage in numbers of men. For the Schutztruppe, this was serious, for there were no reserves with which to replenish their ranks. After news of the battle reached Germany, however, Lettow-Vorbeck was promoted to major-general (Generalmajor).Hoyt, p. 175; on a comparison chart this rank was equivalent to brigadier general in the British or American armies: i.e., the lowest general-officer rank.
Lettow-Vorbeck thus withdrew to the south, with his troops on half rations and the British in pursuit. On 25 November 1917, his advance column waded across the Ruvuma River into Portuguese Mozambique.A state of war had existed since 9 March 1916 between Germany and Portugal: when neutral Portugal complied with a British demand to confiscate German ships interned in Portuguese ports, Germany reacted by declaring war on Portugal. Having essentially cut their own supply lines, the Schutztruppe caravan became a completely independent unit. On its first day across the river, the column attacked the newly replenished Portuguese garrison of Ngomano and solved its supply problems for the foreseeable future.Miller, p. 296. The subsequent capture of a river steamer with a load of medical supplies, including quinine, satisfied some of its medical needs as well.Hoyt, p. 214. For almost a year Lettow-Vorbeck's men had lived off whatever was available, mainly provisions captured from the British and Portuguese; they had replaced their old rifles with new equipment and acquired machine guns and mortars after capturing Namakura (Namacurra in modern Mozambique) in July 1918.Willmott, World War One, p. 93.
The war in East Africa set off a chain of events with devastating results for the natives and their German overlords. The invasions caused interruptions throughout the colony, so that the land no longer "basked in a climate of plenty."Miller, p. 22.