In the late 1800s, Imperial Germany attempted to catch up with England and France in acquiring overseas colonies. What they wound up with was: a small slice of China (Tsingtao), the Bismarck Islands in the Pacific, and in Africa, Cameroon, German South-West Africa (known today as Namibia), and German East Africa, better known today as Tanzania. Mount Kilimanjaro is just north and features heavily in the earlier portions of the story.
By 1914, the drums of war were beating in Europe – and by August, the war had begun. PvLV found himself stranded in GEA, and knowing the mastery of the seas which the Royal Navy had earned, and notwithstanding an aggressive ship-building crusade by the Kaiser leading up to WWI, had maintained, he realized that GEA would not likely receive any supplies or reinforcements.
I had mentioned in my Malaysian blog recently about the strategic impact of the guerillas vs. the Japanese. In this case, PvLV specifically realized that it would take heroic efforts to keep GEA from being overrun by the British – indeed, Cameroon and GSWA were easily taken by Commonwealth forces. So his idea was: if we can keep the British pinned down here in East Africa, forcing them to devote forces chasing after us, that means that many fewer men can be fighting our comrades in the trenches of France.
His forces usually consisted of a small but substantial core of German soldiers, leavened out with Askaris – native Africans. Whereas the Germans of WWII were highly racist, even attempting to eradicate assimilated German Jews, PvLV had nothing but praise for his African troops and much admiration for the local people. Due to supply issues, many of his troops were equipped with earlier 1871 model Mauser rifles which used black powder, and only a small number of the new Gewehr 98 models using modern smokeless powder. They also took naval guns off the Konigsberg and mounted them on wheels. But over half their weapons were captured from their enemies.
Initially he succeeded at making raids into Kenya and Uganda, and fighting off various invasions from those countries, and Belgian attacks from the Congo (now known as Zaire). Part of the irony was that many Commonwealth forces were from South Africa, led by General Smuts – former Boer guerillas now chasing down German guerilla forces. Other Commonwealth forces were Indians, the King’s African Rifles, regular British units, British Askaris, and Allied units of Belgians and Portuguese.
Eventually the Commonwealth forces squeezed his forces out of GEA altogether: in 1917 PvLV abandoned any fixed bases, trimmed off excess forces leaving them behind in GEA, and ventured south into Portuguese East Africa (now known as Mozambique). He romped around, capturing Portuguese supply bases, food, rifles, ammunition, artillery, and basically causing havoc wherever he went. PvLV found the Portuguese to be rarely well led and usually having poor morale. But the British went into Mozambique after him. The Brits would frequently have their own column marching parallel to his. Like Rommel in North Africa, PvLV often found that the best defense was a good offense, so he would pick off British units he found understrength and leave the area before any reinforcements could arrive; and like Rommel he was pretty much stuck working with what he already had, while the British could resupply their forces at will, pulling out decimated units and replacing them with fresh troops – a luxury the Germans could not afford in either war.
PvLV turned north, returning to GEA, then west into northern Rhodesia (now known as Zambia), which was British territory. At this time his forces, though considerably reduced by attrition, were still at large and undefeated, when the Brits sent him notice of the Armistice (November 11, 1918). He surrendered and was returned to Germany, one of its few heroes – very much Germany’s own Lawrence of Arabia.
The African Queen. I decided to check out this 1951 film with Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn. Far from the suave character of “Casablanca”, Bogart here plays Charlie Allnut, a colorful and boozing ship captain with whom Hepburn teams up after her brother dies. She and him were missionaries until a German colonial unit invaded early in the war and caused all sorts of problems. Yet another “uptight lady meets irresistible manly rogue” movie (see “Australia” and “Gone With the Wind”), but here the romance blossoms rather early. Rose Sayer (Hepburn) is burning with desire for revenge against the Germans, so she cooks up a bizarre scheme to rig the African Queen with torpedoes to blow up a German steamer, the Louisa, which had been dominating the lake. Of course, getting TO the lake requires a dangerous journey through the river and rapids, which Allnut is ill-inclined to attempt, until he’s shamed into obedience by this courageous (or is she just plain crazy?) woman. I got the impression that Rose had been bored shitless as a missionary and relishes this opportunity for adventure. The Germans are ruthless and cruel, with no mention or sign of Lettow-Vorbeck. He does, however, appear in some episodes of “The Young Indiana Jones”.
Tha'ts very interesting!
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