PAUL von LETTOW VORBECK

The Lion of Africa

Paul von Lettow Vorbeck was the commander of Germany's small East Africa Colonial force during the First World War. Throughout the duration of the conflict his units held down much larger Allied forces, preventing them from serving in Europe. At the end of the war he was the only German general who had remained undefeated.

Born in Saarlouis, Prussia on March 20th 1870, at age seventeen Vorbeck joined the Infantry corps at the military school of  Berlin and three years later in 1890 was commissioned a Lieutenant in the German Imperial Army. 

He was then sent to China in 1900 as part of the expedition to put down the Boxer Rebellion, an uprising aimed to drive all European foreigners from the country. When the foreign delegations were surrounded and beleaguered in Peking in June, Vorbeck was part of the international relief force which liberated the city on August 14th.

Vorbeck was then transferred to the German south west colonial forces in Africa were he served putting down the Herero and Hottentot uprisings in Namibia. He then returned to Germany and joined the general staff in Berlin were he taught colonial warfare studies at the officer staff college.

When World War One broke out in 1914, Vorbeck was promoted to Colonel and appointed commander of the German East African colony comprising Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania and Mozambique.

upon arriving in Africa, Vorbeck quickly assembled his small force of 2,700 German officers and 11,500 native Askaris troops and began a series of cross border raids into British controlled Kenya and Uganda to sabotage the railway systems.

His actions panicked the British colonists who sent word to London demanding they send an army to protect them. The British then assembled an Anglo - Indian force of 9,000 troops and disembarked Bombay on October 24th with all secrecy.

However the Germans were well aware the Allies were in transit, for as the supplies for the invasion were being loaded onto the transports, the crates stacked in the dockyards were visibly stamped "Indian Expeditionary Force - Tanga East Africa", thus German spies alerted Vorbeck weeks in advance.

The British task force under General Aitken landed two Infantry Brigades outside the port facilities on November 3rd but the lead Battalions were met with murderous gunfire from the awaiting German forces occupying the heights surrounding the port, sending the Indian and British troops fleeing back into the bay to escape the ambush with hundreds drowning in the surf.

By nightfall the landings were called off and the British task force withdrew in defeat. The attack on Tanga had cost the Allies 1,000 dead, 500 wounded and 300 taken prisoner. German losses amounted to 15 officers and 60 native Askaris killed.

Von Lettow's complete victory also brought the unexpected bounty of hundreds of tons of food stores and ammunition taken from the damaged Allied transports left behind in the bay, enough to equipt and feed his small army for the duration of the war. 

For the duration of the year 1915, the size of Vorbeck's small force limited his actions to guerrilla warfare conducting raids into British East Africa and Zanzibar, targeting forts, railways and communication centers. 

In July, Vorbeck received reinforcements in the form of 320 German sailors from the German light cruiser SMS Konigsberg which had to be scuttled after sustaining heavy damage in the battle of the Rufiji River.  

In March 1916, 40,000 men under South African Field Marshal Jan Christian Smuts invaded Tanzania. Von Lettow Vorbeck using the terrain to his advantage fought a skillful dogged defense at Taveta inflicting heavy casualties on the enemy but was forced to withdrawal due to superior numbers.

For the next few months Vorbeck employed guerilla tactics against his numerically superior foe inflicting a series of local defeats upon the British. On October 15 - 19th, Lettow Vorbeck  fought a fixed battle at Mahiwa where he inflicted 2,700 casualties upon the Allies for the loss of 400 men. He was again however forced to withdrawal into the jungle as South African reinforcements began to arrive threatening his encirclement. 

With the British in hot pursuit for the remainder of the year Lettow Vorbeck scored a tactical victory at Lindi on November 25th 1917 but was forced to abandon German Tanzania. With the Allies now in firm possession of German East Africa, Vorbeck still refused offers to surrender his meager force of 3,000 men and instead shocked the British by crossing the Ruvuma River and invading Portuguese Mozambique.

With news of Lettow Vorbeck's exploits and his invasion of Mozambique reaching Germany, The Kaiser in Berlin, promoted Vorbeck to Major General. With the British holding the frontier with 30,000 men, a large Portuguese army of 80,000 troops scoured the countryside in search of Vorbeck.

For almost a year Lettow Vorbeck and his men evaded the Portuguese with skillful guerilla hit and run tactics until September 28th 1918 when his force of 2,000 men were encircled at Namakura. 

Once again Von Lettow Vorbeck refused Portuguese offers of surrender and effected a breakout escaping once again. He then chose to shake his pursuers by marching south and invading Northern Rhodesia. 

Vorbeck was one hundred and fifty miles inside Rhodesia when on November 12th, his troops captured a British dispatch rider with documents stating to the effect that the war in Europe was over.

It had taken a further two weeks for Von Lettow to receive conformation of Germany's defeat where at which time he surrendered his remaining force of 155 Germans and 1,100 Askaris on November 25th 1918. 

Returning to Germany in 1919 Lettow Vorbeck was given a hero's welcome with the parade marshal stating "His was said to be the capitulation of an army that had not lost to an army that had not won"