The History Book Club discussion
THE FIRST WORLD WAR
>
AFRICAN THEATER: (SOUTH-WEST · WEST · EAST · NORTH)
date
newest »
newest »
Mod
http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/spe...
This is one of the more interesting campaigns of World War One. Here are a few good books covering this area for those who may be interested in reading more on the subject:
by Byron Farwell (although published in the late 1980's this is still a very good account offering a decent overview of this campaign)Reviews:
“As [Farwell:] so artfully reconstructs it, the African front comprised a series of conflicts full of schemes and maneuvers and heroics and disasters, as the Allies sought to conquer four German colonies in the region while contending as well with other problems caused by the inhospitable climate and geography and by the presence of winged pests. History buffs, especially military, will savor every episode on every page.” - Booklist
”Unmatched as the historian of the British imperial military experience, Byron Farwell has written a lively, dependable account of World War I's most exotic campaign. The book is an impressive blend of action and analysis.” - Allan R. Millett, Ohio State University
“[Farwell:] has conceived his history as an adventure story, which he tells with brilliant narrative skill.” - Washington Times
by Edward Paice (recent historical account which is detailed and well researched but I found at times a bit dull)Review:
"Paice, a fellow of the Royal Geographic Society, has written what is by a significant margin the best book to date on the Great War in East Africa. Paice integrates an impressive spectrum of archival and printed sources into a comprehensive analysis based on the premise that, for economic and emotional reasons, Africa mattered to the European powers. Paice accurately and evocatively describes a campaign in which modern technology was consistently frustrated by terrain, climate and disease. He acknowledges the tactical brilliance of German Gen. Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck. He demonstrates as well that the Germans sustained their operations through systematic brutality that has led too many historians to mistake Africans' fear for loyalty. In that respect there was in practice little difference among the combatants. In East Africa horse transport was ineffective; supplies had to be moved by humans. Among more than a million Africans recruited by Britain alone, at least a tenth died. Subsistence economies were wracked by famine and disease, culminating in the influenza epidemic of 1918. While the voices of East Africa's Great War remain largely Western, the burdens were disproportionately borne locally." - Publishers Weekly
by Ross Anderson (not read)Reviews:
Original hardback edition published in 2004 was widely reviewed and received critical acclaim: 'A major contribution... essential' THE JOURNAL OF MILITARY HISTORY; 'Excellent... a very significant contribution fills a yawning gap in the historical record' TLS; 'A compelling and authoritative account of this neglected campaign and the first based on based on archival sources. It cuts the commanders of both sides, Smuts and Lettow-Vorbeck, down to size' HEW STRACHAN; 'An authoritative account' SOLDIER: THE MAGAZINE OF THE BRITISH ARMY.
(no cover) by Edwin P. HoytPublished in 1968 this book provides an account of the sinking of the German Cruiser Konigsberg and her crew salvaging all the guns on onboard and joining forces with German East Africa troops to take on British forces.
by Giles FodenPublishers blurb:
"It's the duty of the Royal Navy to engage the enemy wherever she is afloat" is the order of the day, but their lordships would never have imagined what they would be letting themselves into when they sent Lt. Spicer Simson and his ragtag expedition to sink three German Steamers on Lake Tanganyika in central Africa. Spicer Simon, when he wasn't AWOL, would perform ritual baths for his African bearers, who quickly christened him Lord Belly Cloth. Fitzcarraldo meets Heart of Darkness, this is rich, vivid and flashmanesque in its appeal - military history at its most absorbing and entertaining
Review:
“Another delightful tale sieved from the flotsam of African military history from a writer who is fast creating a niche of his own Arena Foden has brought to life one of the strangest episodes of the first world war'... a real romp through the desert of darkness and extremely funny” - Sunday Times
Mod
The United Kingdom, with near total command of the world's oceans, had the power and resources to conquer the German colonies when the Great War started. Most German colonies in Africa were recently acquired and not well defended (German East Africa was the notable exception). They were also surrounded on all sides by African colonies that belonged to their enemies, the United Kingdom, France, Belgium and, later in the war, Portugal.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African_...
Mod
http://www.richthofen.com/konigsberg/...
Wrecks and Relics:
http://www.richthofen.com/konigsberg/...
Mod
by
Hew StrachanSynopsis:
Now, key sections from this magisterial work are published as individual paperbacks, each complete in itself, and with a new introduction by the author. The First World War was not just fought in the trenches of the western front. It embraced all of Africa. Embracing the perspectives of all the nations who fought there, this is the first ever full account of the Great War in Africa.
Mod
by Anne SamsonSynopsis:
The vast military campaigns in Africa during World War I were among the most ambitious of the Great War. Many histories, however, have regarded these campaigns as side-shows to the war on the Western Front. World War I in Africa looks afresh at the impact of the strategy of the German and Allied campaigns, and at the great rivalry between General Jan Christian Smuts, who took on the German forces in East Africa, and General Lettow-Vorbeck, celebrated as the only German general to occupy British territory and whose troops finished the war undefeated. Using primary material from British and South African archives, this book is a detailed study of the giants of the campaign, and the battles which would shape the outcome of the Great War as well as the future of the African continent and the British Empire.
Mod
by Anne Samson (no photo)Synopsis:
The East African campaign has held little place in national memory--for Britain, it has been a "romantic" side-show while for South Africa, a reminder of its failure to unite the two dominant white races and acquire the port of Delagoa Bay in Portuguese East Africa. Using new material gained from original research, Anne Samson reassesses the importance of the campaign to the young South African dominion in attempting to prove its coming of age and pursue its imperial desires.
Mod
by W. D. Downes (no photo)Synopsis:
This is the story of the Nigerian Regiment-an imperial regiment led by British officers and manned principally by Hausa tribesmen who formed part of the force that fought the Germans in East Africa during the First World War. The account, written by one of those British officers, describes the earliest activities of the regiment in West Africa before travelling with them, across the continent, to new challenges. The author's affection and pride in these troops shines through every page and they were in his estimation some of the finest troops the British Empire had to offer. The reader is shown their perpetual good humour and outstanding courage and skill as soldiers in the field. Distinguished by their green headdress and machete they became a force with whom the enemy admitted 'they would take no liberties.' Their East African allies good humouredly hailed them with the call 'Yum Yum'-so convinced were they that they were cannibals! The pivotal battles of the campaign are described in detail together with many personable anecdotes making this an original and different view of the Great War.
This book is authored by the German General who basically smacked the face of the British Army in Africa during WWI. A must-read for the lover of WWI history, since it covers fighting other than the trench warfare of Europe.My Reminiscences of East Africa
by Paul Emil Von Lettow-VorbeckSynopsis:
For many the Great War means the Western Front, that gruelling, slogging stalemate of attrition that was the mud and blood of trench warfare. Yet this was truly a 'world war' fought between nations, many of whom were imperial powers with footholds, interests or colonies across the globe which were often in close proximity to those who were now their enemies. Conflicts took place on land, sea and in the air; the battlegrounds could be tropical jungle or bleached desert. For many of those interested in the war of 1914-18 these so called 'side-show' campaigns are, liberated from the standstill of the European theatre, of special interest. These were mobile wars where the talents of good commanders found the potential for expression and where often exotic terrain and colonial troops brought unique colour and singular events into being. Never was this more applicable than in East Africa where British and German territories lay 'cheek by jowl'. The men who fought these campaigns included Africans, both black and white, who knew the bush well and were equal to its challenges. The author of this book was one of the most remarkable commanders in the entire war not only in the East African Campaign, for he was never truly beaten in battle though quite often the odds were decidedly against him. This was a German with a genius for guerrilla warfare whose achievements could rival the exploits of Lawrence of Arabia. Inevitably, his account of his experiences during the First World War, originally published shortly thereafter, make essential and riveting reading for all those interested in the subject.
Mod
by Herbert Charles O'Neill (no photo)Synopsis:
The largest battles of World War I were fought in Europe, and it is there where most critical studies focus. The fate of the far-flung colonies of Germany, however, are what gave the war its global scope, with campaigns reaching from China to New Guinea and East to West Africa. While there are detailed accounts of most of these campaigns, The War in Africa and the Far East, 1914-17 is unique in providing a concise history of the entire series of military events in Africa and Asia, giving the reader a better idea of the relationship and chronology of these wide-ranging events. While Germany was stripped of all its overseas colonies, the change in power had unintended consequences, most importantly the rise of Japan in the Pacific, where former German colonies now stood at the territorial boundary between Japan and the United States.
Waged by Allied troops from Britain, Kenya, Zambia, Portugal, Japan, India, Netherlands, and other countries and led by such personalities as General Jan Christian Smuts, the theater of operations crossed modern-day Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi, Togo, Cameroon, Namibia, New Guinea, Qingdau, the Bismarck Archipelago, and other Pacific Island chains. Originally published in 1918 using official dispatches and other sources, and presented here for the first time in paperback, completely retypeset and with the original maps and additional photographs, The War in Africa and the Far East is a compact overview of an important aspect of the First World War.
Mod
by Edmund Dane (no photo)Synopsis:
Historian Edmund Dane wrote some excellent concise histories of various theatres of the First World War and the first work in this unique volume from Leonaur is one of them. There is much interest among students of the period in the campaigns fought in Africa which drew into conflict the regular troops of the principal protagonists together with a colourful array of colonial and imperial troops on both sides.
This book covers Botha's campaign in South-West Africa, the East African Campaign which pitted Smuts against the exemplary generalship of von Lettow-Vorbeck and the campaigns in Togoland and the Cameroons. Dane includes in his book's title the campaign in the Pacific and although the single chapter dedicated to this topic is of undeniable interest the contemporary reader may judge the piece too short. To remedy this we have included an in depth work on the siege and fall of Tsingtau in China by an American journalist who was an eye-witness. This was a vital outpost for the Germans in the region. The Royal Navy was involved and the South Wales Borderers were engaged; the main assault, however, was undertaken by Imperial Japanese forces. The author's forecasts as to Japan's ambitions in the region turned out to be chillingly accurate.
Leonaur editions are newly typeset and are not facsimiles; each title is available in softcover and hardback with dustjacket; our hardbacks are cloth bound and feature gold foil lettering on their spines and fabric head and tail bands.
Mod
Mod
by James Stejskal (no photo)Synopsis:
In December of 1914, veteran Boer commander General Louis Botha landed his forces on the coast of German South West Africa to finish off the colony s Schutztruppe defenders. In August, the South Africans had started off badly with a disastrous battle at Sandfontein and an internal rebellion that could have torn the Union of South Africa apart. Botha s campaign would eventually lead to victory, but it would not be easy. Overshadowed and largely forgotten by the battles in Europe, this was one of the more distant and now almost forgotten episodes of World War I. But from August 1914 to July 1915, a small German force of 4,000 faced nearly 75,000 Allied troops of the Union of South Africa, Britain, and colonial Rhodesia in a fight that was pivotal in the history of southern Africa. This loss on the battlefield would cost Germany her most prized African possession and prove to be an important milestone in the history of the country that would eventually become Namibia.
Britain was so concerned about the threat the German protectorate of South West Africa posed to the Empire that it requested its dominion, the Union of South Africa, occupy the territory s ports and destroy its powerful wireless stations. South African leaders were eager to take on this urgent Imperial service to expand their own territory. When the Germans capitulated nearly a year later, it was the first Allied victory of the war and a rallying point for the United Kingdom. It was a terrible place to fight a war. Invading troops wondered why anyone would want to live in the place, let alone fight over it. Vast deserts barred easy entry to the country; the bones of animals and humans scattered across the surface attested to their lethal nature. The South Africans had to feed and water over 100,000 horses and oxen where little fodder existed and after the Germans had sabotaged many of the water points. Meanwhile, the Germans were looking over their shoulders as the native peoples they had long mistreated tried to settle old scores through ambushes and sniping.
Using primary sources, on the ground research, and accurate maps and charts of the battles, the author sheds new light on the operations of the South African Army in its first foreign war and the Schutztruppe defense of German South West Africa. The book also demonstrates the terrible cost of miscalculations by politicians and military leaders on both sides.
Mod
by Charles Miller (no photo)Synopsis:
Literally fighting through thorns in the East African interior, a quarter of a million Belgian and British forces failed to trap the small but elite Schutztruppe led by Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck. Thus the Kaiser's Army succeeded in diverting the greatest possible number of Allied troops from Europe into four years of dust and disease and endless pursuit through the prickly bundu of enemies composed mainly of natives from the local ""black master race."" Far better supplied, in control of the seas and coastal waters, von Lettow's opponent General Smuts remained an unimaginative strategist, and when the Allies finally got their classic fixed battle, 2,700 men were lost -- and von Lettow escaped to maraud elsewhere.
Mod
by C.P. Fendall (no photo)Synopsis:
The First World War was inevitably a global conflict because the rush by the principal powers of Europe to establish trading bases and colonies, principally during the 19th century, guaranteed it would be so. In Africa, German and British settlers were close neighbours and at the outbreak of hostilities were ready for immediate confrontation. National and imperial forces were dispatched to augment local military operations. This book concerns the struggle for East Africa. It was written, drawing on memory and diary entries, by a British senior staff officer, a brigadier-general, who was central to the organisation of the British campaign and who has left posterity a concise, thorough and detailed historical overview of it from the British perspective. This book qualifies as a campaign history rather than a first hand account and is recommended to readers seeking that perspective on this interesting 'sideshow' theatre of the war.
Mod
by Timothy J. Stapleton (no photo)Synopsis:
No Insignificant Part: The Rhodesia Native Regiment and the East Africa Campaign of the First World War is the first history of the only primarily African military unit from Zimbabwe to fight in the First World War. Recruited from the migrant labour network, most African soldiers in the RNR were originally miners or farm workers from what are now Zimbabwe, Zambia, Mozambique, and Malawi. Like others across the world, they joined the army for a variety of reason, chief among them a desire to escape low pay and horrible working conditions.
The RNR participated in some of the key engagements of the German East Africa campaign's later phase, subsisting on extremely meager rations and suffering from tropical diseases and exhaustion. Because they were commanded by a small group of European officers, most of whom were seconded from the Native Affairs Department and the British South Africa Police, the regiment was dominated by racism. It was not unusual for black soldiers, but never white ones, to be publicly flogged for alleged theft or insubordination. Although it remained in the field longer than all-white units and some of its members received some of Britain's highest decorations, the Rhodesia Native Regiment was quickly disbanded after the war and conveniently forgotten by the colonial establishment. Southern Rhodesias white settler minority, partly on the strength of its wartime sacrifice, was given political control of the territory through a racially exclusive form of self-government, but black RNR veterans received little support or recognition.
No Insignificant Part takes a new look at an old campaign and will appeal to scholars of African or military history interested in the First World War.
Mod
by Ross Anderson (no photo)Synopsis:
The first history of the battle of Tanga, the largest set-piece battle of the neglected East African-Front of the First World War.
On 2nd November 1914, obscured by the greater events in Europe, a British convoy of a light cruiser and 12 merchantmen was lying off the German East African port of Tanga, preparatory to the landing of two brigades of the Indian army. It was to start the main phase of the East African campaign which was ultimately to last until after the Armistice in November 1918. The battle of Tanga was to be the bloody beginning of a long and bitterly fought campaign in tropical Africa conceived as part of a wider plan to conquer Germany’s East African empire and ensure British maritime superiority in the Indian Ocean.
Mod
Mod
(no image) Urgent Imperial Service: South African Forces in German South West Africa, 1914-15 by Gerald L'Ange (no photo)
Synopsis:
South Africa's first entry into war was surreptitious. In 1914, without consulting Parliament or the public, the government of General Louis Botha committed the country to fighting for the British Empire against Germany in South West Africa. In Urgent Imperial Service , the most comprehensive account of this campaign, Gerald L'Ange has woven certain historical threads together, from the declaration of war in 1914, through the rebellion to the German surrender in 1915 and its aftermath. It contains material from previously unpublished diaries and other sources.
Mod
Mod
by Adam CruiseSynopsis:
A mere twelve years after fighting the British in the Anglo-Boer War, Louis Botha went to war again – this time on Britain’s side. As prime minister of the Union of South Africa at the outbreak of the Great War, Botha agreed to lead his country on a campaign against the Germans across the border in South-West Africa. But first he would have to deal with a revolt from fellow Afrikaners who would rather take up arms against him than side with the old enemy.
Louis Botha’s War is the story of how a former Boer War general crushed a rebellion and rallied his country’s first united army to fight a better-equipped enemy in harsh conditions. It is a tale of thirsty men and horses trekking over miles of barren desert; German aviators flying above in rickety aeroplanes; the unusual presence of a prime minister’s wife on the field of battle; and a fabled gold-filled safe at the bottom of a lake.
Adam Cruise recreates these fascinating events from journals, memoirs and documents, and describes how the remote battle sites look today. He also explores the effects of Botha’s campaign, which determined the relationship between South Africa and its northern protectorate until well into the twentieth century.
This is an absorbing chronicle of the exploits of a remarkable man who has been strangely forgotten by history, but whom Winston Churchill described as the greatest general he had ever known.
Mod
Mod
by Corey W. Reigel (no photo)Synopsis:
In The Last Great Safari: East Africa in World War I, military historian Corey W. Reigel explores a fascinating and misunderstood theater of operations in the history of the First World War. Unprepared for the Great War, colonial units combined modern industrial weapons and equipment with traditional African methods to produce a hybrid force. Throughout The Last Great Safari, Reigel challenges myth after myth. Were really one million Allied soldiers pulled up from Europe to toil in the tropical sun only to fall victim to local diseases? Did the Germans truly become masters of guerrilla warfare and humiliate the British Empire in what appeared a David versus Goliath conflict?
Reigel brings together traditional military studies and African history to explore the myths, fables, and stereotypes that have long characterized examinations of this topic, from questions as to how German East Africa contributed to the fate of the war to claims respecting significant diversion of resources. Racism played a significant role in then prevalent definitions of what constituted military success and in how Africans and Indians were recruited, holding more sway in the minds of white armies as a success factor than differences in weapons. Reigel points out how modern methods of medicine and transportation ultimately failed, only to be replaced by a hybrid of industrial Europe and traditional African solutions for dealing with an especially difficult climate. In the end, when necessity came to outweigh then current ideas of professionalism did German forces outfight their opponents.
The Last Great Safari: East Africa in World War I will interest students of military history, African studies, and World War I, as this tale of colonial warfare within a war of attrition shaped part of Africa’s colonial future.
The unsung heroes of the war in Africa.Kariakor: The Carrier Corps: The Story of the Military Labour Forces in the Conquest of German East Africa
by Geoffrey Hodges (no photo)Synopsis:
The Carrier Corps carried everything the soldiers needed to survive during the East African Campaign of the first World War. The Corps suffered heavier casualties than all the other units put together. Originally published in 1986, this second edition has been re-written by the author, keeping much of the original material, but adding new information which has come to light since the work was first published. Much of the original research was based on the reminiscences of the men who took part. Photographs and statistics enhance the six chapters covering African labour; the war strategy; in the battlefields; carrier units; carrier welfare and effects of the war.
Mod
Release date: January 31, 2017
African Kaiser: General Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck and the Great War in Africa, 1914-1918
by Robert Gaudi (no photo)Synopsis:
At the beginning of the twentieth century, the continent of Africa was a hotbed of international trade, colonialism, and political gamesmanship. So when World War I broke out, the European powers were forced to contend with one another not just in the bloody trenches, but in the treacherous jungle. And it was in that unforgiving land that General Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck would make history.
With the now-legendary Schutztruppe (Defensive Force), von Lettow-Vorbeck and a small cadre of hardened German officers fought alongside their fanatically devoted native African allies as equals, creating the first truly integrated army of the modern age.
African Kaiser is the fascinating story of a forgotten guerrilla campaign in a remote corner of Equatorial Africa in World War I; of a small army of ultraloyal African troops led by a smaller cadre of rugged German officers—of white men and black who fought side by side.
It is the story of epic marches through harsh, beautiful landscapes; of German officers riding bicycles to battle through the bush; of rhino charges and artillery duels with scavenged naval guns; of hunted German battleships hidden up unmapped river deltas teeming with crocodiles and snakes; of a desperate army in the wilderness cut off from the world, living off hippo lard and saw grass flowers—enduring starvation, malaria, and dysentery. And of the singular intercontinental voyage of Zeppelin L59, whose improbable four-thousand-mile journey to the equator and back made aviation history.
But mostly it is the story of von Lettow-Vorbeck—the only undefeated German commmander in the field during World War I and the last to surrender his arms.
Mod
The war in East Africa cost the lives of more than 300,000 people. Image © Bundesarchiv, Bild 105-DOA3056 / Walther Dobbertin licensed under CC-BY-SA and adapted from the original.
There are other links and audios attached in article:
The First World War had a seismic impact around the world, including Africa, as the British Council report Remember the World as well as the War reveals. Ahead of the BBC World Service's broadcast of a debate on the war's legacy in East Africa this Sunday, Dr Daniel Steinbach of King's College London explains how the campaign in East Africa has been misremembered.
There are misconceptions about how the First World War affected East Africa
The 'East African Campaign' holds a peculiar position in the public memory of the First World War. Dozens of novels and one of Hollywood’s most famous films – 'African Queen', starring Humphrey Bogart and Katherine Hepburn – keep the cliché of an adventurous and somewhat unimportant side-show to the real war alive. The reality of four years of total warfare, which cost the lives of hundreds of thousands of people and affected many millions more, is largely forgotten.
Remainder of article:
https://www.britishcouncil.org/voices...
Source: British Council
Mod
by R.G. Gladding (no photo)Synopsis:
At the Going Down of the Sun is a comprehensive account of British campaigns in Africa during the Great War (1914-18). Author Rob Gladding is a former serviceman in both the army and navy, and his first-hand experience of the armed forces, alongside his commitment to and academic achievements in history, are evident in his writing which details places, dates, battles and units in impressive detail.
After setting the scene with the assassination of Austria's Archduke Franz Ferdinand that led to the outbreak of World War I, the book gives an account of British military operations up until 1920, including the British conquest of German East Africa on the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro between 1914 and 1917, the Senussi Campaign in North Africa and the Sudan between 1915 and 1917, and the Guerrilla warfare conflicts that erupted in German East Africa (present day Tanzania, Burundi and Rwanda) in 1916.
The reader gains a clear, unadorned account of soldiers' hardships: the burden that lay on these men to change history despite the fact that most of them had little influence over the conflicts they were caught up in; and their courage to fight, die and be wounded for what they believed was right.
Mod
Mod
by Antonio Garcia (no photo)Synopsis:
The First World War moulded the global landscape and had a lasting effect on much of the World. Where the majority of international research focusses on the European theatre, Antonio Garcia explores one of the peripheral campaigns of the Great War. South Africa’s First World War campaign in German South West Africa was a daring military undertaking epitomised by manoeuvre and rapidity.
The author takes a novel approach in comparing the campaign to manoeuvre warfare theory. Manoeuvre theory is based on the principles of mobility, rapidity and surprise which attempts to achieve victory with the least loss of resources and in the shortest time possible. In order to achieve a rapid victory against the German forces, the South African soldiers were pushed to the limits of exhaustion to achieve the Union of South Africa’s strategic objectives.
The campaign in the deserts of German South Africa became the setting for adventure and war, where Briton, Boer and People of Colour served together as a Dominion of the British Empire. Blacks, Coloureds and Indians fought for the hopes of better political franchise, an ambition which was not to be achieved until 80 years later. The book addresses the complex political dynamics in South Africa at the time of the Great War, the deep division between Afrikaners and British South Africans and the Afrikaner Rebellion.
With the backdrop of political difficulties and a lack of overwhelming support for the entry into the Great War, the Botha government needed a quick result so as to maintain the delicate balance of power. The author provides an analysis on the campaign through the lens of military theory so as to determine how the swift victory was achieved. The book answers the question of whether the campaign was won through numerical superiority or through the use of a superior operational strategy. The victory was the first campaign victory led by a British Dominion.
Mod
Mod
Release date: January 15, 2022
General Jan Smuts and his Great War in Africa 1914–1917: Incorporating his German South West and East Africa Campaigns
by David Katz (no photo)Synopsis:
World War I ushered in a renewed scramble for Africa. At its helm, Jan Smuts grabbed the opportunity to realise his ambition of a Greater South Africa. He set his sights upon the vast German colonies of South-West Africa and East Africa - the demise of which would end the Kaiser's grandiose schemes for Mittelafrika. As part of his strategy to shift South Africa's borders inexorably northward, Smuts even cast an eye toward Portuguese and Belgian African possessions.
Smuts, his abilities as a general much denigrated by both his contemporary and then later modern historians, was no armchair soldier. This cabinet minister and statesman donned a uniform and led his men into battle. He learned his soldiery craft under General Koos De la Rey's tutelage, and another soldier-statesman, General Louis Botha during the South African War 1899-1902. He emerged from that war, immersed in the Boer manoeuvre doctrine he devastatingly waged in the guerrilla phase of that conflict. His daring and epic invasion of the Cape at the head of his commando remains legendary. The first phase of the German South West African campaign and the Afrikaner Rebellion in 1914 placed his abilities as a sound strategic thinker and a bold operational planner on display. Champing at the bit, he finally had the opportunity to command the Southern Forces in the second phase of the German South West African campaign.
Placed in command of the Allied forces in East Africa in 1916, he led a mixed bag of South Africans and Imperial troops against the legendary Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck and his Shutztruppe. Using his penchant for Boer manoeuvre warfare together with mounted infantry led and manned by Boer Republican veterans, he proceeded to free the vast German territory from Lettow-Vorbeck's grip. Often leading from the front, his operational concepts were an enigma to the British under his command, remaining so to modern-day historians. Although unable to bring the elusive and wily Lettow-Vorbeck to a final decisive battle, Smuts conquered most of the territory by the end of his tenure in February 1917.
General Jan Smuts and his Great War in Africa makes use of multiple archival sources and the official accounts of all the participants to provide a long-overdue reassessment of Smuts's generalship and his role in furthering the strategic aims of South Africa and the British Empire in Africa during World War I.
Mod
Mod
by R.G. Gladding (no photo)Synopsis:
At the outbreak of World War I, Lieutenant Colonel Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck, military commander of Germany's East African Colony, planned to divert British troops from Europe to East Africa. Knowing he could not defeat them in pitched battle, he led a small force--never more than 15,000 men--familiar with bush-fighting and the harsh environment, on raids into British territory. A gifted tactician, von Lettow-Vorbeck attacked only when odds were in his favor, then fought defensive withdrawals into the German Colony, maintaining short lines of supply while drawing the enemy deeper into hostile territory. The British and their allies committed 160,000 troops in East Africa. He led them in a game of "catch me if you can," punishing them for every mistake. Promoted to major-general by the Kaiser in 1917, von Lettow-Vorbeck led the only undefeated German force to surrender to the Allies, well after the end of hostilities in Europe. This history follows what began as a campaign of conquest and devolved into a hunt for a single general and his small, loyal command.
Mod
Mod
by Tony GarciaSynopsis:
The authors conducted painstaking research in South Africa and the United Kingdom to produce this, first-of-a-kind book on the wartime roles played by the South African prime minister, General Louis Botha, and his deputy, General Jan Smuts. These were very different men and they appealed to different audiences. Botha's nuance and emotional intelligence complemented Smuts's intellectualism. Thrown into a world conflagration in August 1914, Botha and Smuts - facing internal rebellion and the threat posed by German troops on their borders - led South Africa's Union Defence Force, and often commanded from the front.
South Africa's campaigns began badly. The campaigns in German South West and East Africa started with reverses at Sandfontein in September 1914 and Salaitia in January 1916. However, Springbok soldiers of all backgrounds proved resilient, and the later campaigns were marked by near uniform success. The "first-battle" experiences had reshaped thinking and led to better leadership and command at all levels. Both Botha and Smuts commanded in the field. Steadily, the South African army they commanded - benefiting from wartime training, sometimes in the field - gained resilience, experience, and battle-hardiness, adapting to the conditions of the campaigns and the demands of the tasks.
South Africa's campaigns were complex and divergent, starting with the invasion of neighboring German South West Africa - to neutralize the radio stations and so aid security in the South Atlantic. Suddenly suspended following the outbreak of the Afrikaner Rebellion, the campaign recommenced in January 1915. Following its conclusion, an infantry brigade, raised for the Western Front, was diverted to Egypt before facing near annihilation at Delville Wood. Reconstructed more than once, the brigade was accompanied by a field ambulance and general hospital. The South African deployment in France included two brigades of heavy artillery, a signal company, a railway company, and Auxiliary Horse Transport Company, and several South African Native Labour Contingents. At the same time, a large South African force, fighting alongside troops from British Africa and India, broke German resistance in East Africa, and a brigade of field artillery and later the Cape Corps served in Egypt and Palestine. In addition, more than 6 500 South Africans served in the British Army, the Royal Flying Corps, later the Royal Air Force, and on ships of the Royal Navy.
Although lionized during the war by a British public hungry for heroes, there is a different side to Botha and Smuts. Shunned by Afrikaner nationalists at the time, they have remained divisive figures. Responsible for the enactment of the Land Act of 1913, which shaped South Africa's socio-economic and political landscape, Botha's statue in Cape Town was vandalized in 2015 and 2016. Behind his charming, attractive façade, and Smuts's stoic machine, were two very human, imperfect, and quite probably inconsiderate, men. Together they provide a wonderful lens through which to examine the potent forces of the early twentieth-century world and the country they hoped to forge. Myopic compatriots had constrained their plans; but it was the outbreak of war in 1914 that offered the most significant opportunities and brought the most adverse challenges. They fought insurmountable odds, and achieved great victories, at home and abroad, but also made startling errors, and, ultimately, in classical fashion risked being crushed by the weight of the world they tried to create.
My poor, obese TBR List! you shouldn’t write such tempting book reviews, Jerome. Thank you, in spite of everything.Regards,
Andrea
Mod
The History Book Club
Books mentioned in this topic
The First World War (other topics)The First World War in Africa (other topics)
The Forgotten Front: The East African Campaign 1914-1918 (other topics)
The Battle of Tanga, 1914 (other topics)
The Great War in Africa: 1914-1918 (other topics)
More...
Authors mentioned in this topic
Giles Foden (other topics)Charles Miller (other topics)
Ross Anderson (other topics)
Hew Strachan (other topics)
Byron Farwell (other topics)
More...
If you would like to read a good book about World War I: