+4 votes
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in Politics & Government ✌ by

https://www.britishcouncil.org/voices-magazine/misremembered-history-first-world-war-east-africa

Especially the great German General Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck. The Lion of Africa. Who also later in life told Hitler to go f##k himself when he was asked to be an Ambassador. Really good reading on a forgotten front in Africa that claimed over 300,000 lives.

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4 Answers

+2 votes
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Rooster, yes I DID know about von Lettow! I read about him prolly 1953, I would have been eight years old (i.e. 65 years ago), and I remembered his name all this time.... But I did not know that about refusing Hitler...

Anyway my father subscribed to a man's magazine called TRUE, and it had wonderful articles like this one about von Lettow. Over the years I have asked people about him, but you are the only one who has known his name, and so I am delighted! Just now I found this:

"Essentially undefeated in the field, Lettow-Vorbeck was the only German commander to successfully invade imperial British soil during the First World War. His exploits in the campaign have been described as the greatest single guerilla operation in history, and the most successful."

* * *

I see that he lived to be almost 94 years old (1870-1964), so he was still alive when that article was published in 1953!

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+2 votes
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No, I didn't know of him, although I was aware of fighting in Africa during WW1.

It seems that Lettow-Vorbeck was a far-right nationalist, taking part in the Freikorps suppression of the communists in 1919, and then taking part in the unsuccessful Kapp Putsch.  I think he was fairly typical of the Prussian aristocracy, many of whom despised the Nazis as being mostly hooligans, which of course is exactly what the street brawlers of the SA were.

+2 votes
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Germany had several colonies in Africa and Pacific. British army fought against Germans in Africa and conquered Namibia and Tanzania. I learnt nothing about fights in Africa in WWI.

+2 votes
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Nope

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