Osprey Publishing The East Africa Campaign 1914–18: Von Lettow-Vorbeck’s Masterpiece

A solid overview of the campaign. Lavishly illustrated. The bibliography alone makes the book worth buying.

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The beginning of the First World War put Imperial Germany's colonies in Africa at risk from her European opponents. German troops in Africa were outnumbered by their Allied opponents. In addition, the British Royal Navy largely cut off reinforcement and resupply by sea from Europe. But German colonial forces were led by then-Lieutenant Colonel Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck, a seasoned and savvy field commander who was about to lead Allied forces on a merry chase around Africa.This Osprey Campaign series book offers a compelling account of the East Africa campaign of 1914-18. Von Lettow-Vorbeck sought to make the most of his native forces and local resources, while the Allies poured poorly trained and unacclimatized troops into a long chase of their German opponents. The narrative includes a wealth of period photographs and modern illustrations, maps, and battle diagrams. Well recommended as making sense of a challenging theater of the First World War.

The East Africa Campaign 1914-18 was good to read with interesting points during the First World War. The First World War was concentrated mostly on Europe and Asia Minor. East Africa was really overlooked for that campaign, but as for the colonial competition for the Europeans, there were minor fightings in South Africa and Congo. However, the new campaign in East Africa was a surprise to the reader. For the four-year campaign in East Africa, it was long-winded as the Germans kept undefeated against the Allied forces for nearly four years until Commander Von Lettow finally surrendered in late 1918. Thank you to David Smith for writing such unknown campaign in the World War 1.