"One of the most chivalrous, humorous, and kindly German officers of high rank who took part in the war." -Athenaeum
Known as the Lion of Africa, General Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck (1870–1964), commanded a small German force against the overwhelming British forces in the German East Africa campaign during World War One.
With a force that never exceeded about 14,000 (3,000 Germans and 11,000 Africans), Lettow-Vorbeck would seek to hold in check a much larger force of 300,000 British, Indian, Belgian, and Portuguese troops. Lettow-Vorbeck was the only German commander to successfully invade imperial British soil during the First World War.
In 1920, Lettow-Vorbeck published in English "My Reminiscences of East Africa." (The book does not include any reference to being a translation or having a translator.)
In introducing his book, Lettow-Vorbeck writes of the important role of the native Askari troops:
"Without immediate payment, this force, with its numerous native followers, faithfully followed its German leaders throughout the whole of the prolonged war against a more than hundredfold superiority. When the armistice came it was still fit to fight, and imbued with the best soldierly spirit."
In looking back at his remarkable campaign on the way back to Europe, Lettow-Vorbeck writes:
"In cold truth our small band, which at the most comprised some 300 Europeans and about 11,000 Askari, had occupied a very superior enemy force for the whole war. According to what English officers told me, 137 Generals had been in the field, and in all about 300,000 men had been employed against us. The enemy's losses in dead would not be put too high at 60,000, for an English Press notice stated that about 20,000 Europeans and Indians alone had died or been killed, and to that must be added the large number of black soldiers who fell.
"The enemy had left 140,000 horses and mules behind in the battle area. Yet in spite of the enormously superior numbers at the disposal of the enemy, our small force, the rifle strength of which was only about 1,400 at the time of the armistice, had remained in the field always ready for action and possessed of the highest determination."
