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African Kaiser: General Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck and the Great War in Africa, 1914-1918

Download Ebook African Kaiser: General Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck and the Great War in Africa, 1914-1918

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Audible Audiobook

Listening Length: 18 hours and 7 minutes

Program Type: Audiobook

Version: Unabridged

Publisher: Audible Studios

Audible.com Release Date: January 31, 2017

Whispersync for Voice: Ready

Language: English

ASIN: B01NCZEEB5

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Gaudi has found a forgotten war within a war we are forgetting—and brought it vividly to life. In this bizarro campaign of the First World War you find yourself rooting for the racially tolerant and adaptive Germans against the racist and hierarchical Brits. In what one might consider one of the most backward campaigns Gaudi identifies a number of “firsts”: first intercontinental flight (by zeppelin!), first bombardment by air of a naval vessel. I hadn’t heard of von Lettow-Vorbeck—only undefeated German general of WWI—before reading African Kaiser, but he drew some pretty famous names into his wake of his story: Churchill of course, but also Isak Dinesen (did they or didn’t they?), Botha, Jan Smuts, Lord Beaverbrooke (the model, as Gaudi reminds us, for Lord Cooper in Waugh’s Scoop), Herman Goring’s father, Hitler himself (who did not make a good impression on von Lettow). The fact that this story is so obscure makes it fascinating, but Gaudi’s knack for telling it makes it hugely enjoyable, a page turner, and well-worth reading in these centennial years of that war which, Gaudi makes us realize, is in many ways rather contemporary.

I agree with every word of the review that let me to read this book, by Michael Dirda of The Washington Post on March 15, 2017:The Washington PostBooks‘African Kaiser’: A sweeping military history that reads like a novelBy Michael Dirda March 15Let me say straight out that if all military histories were as thrilling and well written as Robert Gaudi’s “African Kaiser,” I might give up reading fiction and literary bio­graphy.Anyone interested in 20th-century culture is bound to spend some time thinking about World War I. Yet while most of us are aware of the horrors of trench combat and the thousands lying dead in Flanders fields where poppies blow, what about the war outside Europe? What about German East Africa? Until I read Gaudi’s book, almost all I knew was that Lord Greystoke fought “Huns” in “Tarzan the Untamed” and that the sinking of an enemy warship provided the climax for the movie “The African Queen.”Still, the war in Africa was more than a sideshow. A brilliant guerrilla strategist, Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck forged his fanatically loyal Schutztruppe — a small colonial infantry consisting of largely black soldiers — into “a highly efficient fighting force, aggressive and completely self-supporting,” and one that was “the first racially integrated army in modern history.” As von Lettow bluntly said, “Here in Africa we are all equal. The better man will always outwit the inferior and the color of his skin does not matter.” These words were not mere lip service, either: His actions show that he genuinely believed them.On his very first page Gaudi reveals his own awe of what von Lettow and his men accomplished:“Cut off from the world by the British blockade in what remained of Germany’s last colony . . . they marched through bush and jungle and swamp and thorn scrub pori. They clambered up mountains and across arid, rocky plateaus, mostly without shoes. Their rifles were ancient or captured from the enemy; their artillery a few naval guns scavenged off a gutted battleship in the fetid sluice of the Rufiji [River]. They attacked, retreated, advanced, attacked, retreated to fight again. And though vastly outnumbered by British, South African, Belgian, and Portuguese armies, they could not be caught or beaten.”“African Kaiser,” however, doesn’t just focus on these ragtag troops and their general. Gaudi tells us about Room 40 — center for British cryptography — and the history of zeppelins. We are given a brief account of the colonial wars in southern Africa. We learn myriad odd facts, such as the widespread belief that drinking sweet vermouth offered protection from malaria. Periodically, Gaudi veers off to recount the daring exploits of con artists, great white hunters and battleship commanders.To illustrate his hero’s character he even retells the story of Gylippus from Thucydides’ “History of the Peloponnesian War.” Under attack and blockade by the Athenians, Syracuse called on its ally Sparta for help. But the Spartans were themselves hard-pressed and could spare only one man, Gylippus. But that one man “by sheer force of personality and military skill” reorganized Syracuse’s army and “choosing the right moment to attack, turned the tide of the war against the Athenians.” As Gaudi points out and von Lettow’s operations repeatedly demonstrated, “in battle, numbers don’t matter as much as resolve.”Described only as a freelance writer living in Virginia, Gaudi writes with the flair of a latter-day Macaulay. He sets his scenes carefully and describes naval and military action like a novelist. His sentences are models of clarity and vivacity, sometimes further enlivened with wry authorial comments. The academically inclined, however, may fault his decision to eschew source notes. Caught up by Gaudi’s skillful story­telling, most readers aren’t likely to care.Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck came from a long line of soldiers. He was brought up with Prussian discipline, attended the military academy at Kassel, enjoyed reading philosophy and literature, mastered English, French and several African languages, and tasted first blood in China during mop-up operations following the Boxer Rebellion.After his service in Asia, von Lettow was assigned to German South West Africa during fierce uprisings by the Herero and Hottentots. In 1906, an exploding shell cost him the use of his left eye. But his experiences taught him that Africans “fought with the country rather than against it; they generally eschewed pitched battles and were extremely mobile, drawing heavily laden, plodding German soldiers on long, exhausting marches through waterless bush tangled with thorn scrub where German firepower could not be used with effectiveness.” He would later apply these lessons against the British.Back in Germany because of his eye injury, von Lettow worried that his career as a field officer was over. Eventually, though, he was given command of the 2nd Sea Battalion on the North Sea. Four years later, by now in his mid-40s, he was finally ordered to lead the small Schutztruppe in German East Africa, a colony that had earned the allegiance of its indigenous people through respectfulness and education. Typically, von Lettow immediately began to learn Swahili. En route to Dar es Salaam, he encountered a charming young Danish woman named Karen Blixen, with whom he shared a shipboard romance. Later during the war, Blixen — better known as Isak Dinesen, author of “Out of Africa”— used her admirer’s inscribed picture as a talisman against violence by German partisans.The second half of “African Kaiser” follows von Lettow’s guerrilla operations, as he outfoxes the British time and again. His aim was almost always tactical — through his commando raids he could assist the Fatherland’s larger war effort by compelling Britain to divert men and material to Africa. In the end, he would be the only undefeated German general of World War I and a recipient of his nation’s equivalent of the Medal of Honor. Amazingly, Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck lived on to oppose Hitler, survive another world war and die in 1964, just short of his 95th birthday.

Robert Gaudi has written a very readable popular biography of General Paul von Lettow, the German commander who led his colonial forces against a British colonial army in Africa during World War I. Using guerrilla tactics von Lettow tied up tens of thousands of British forces that could have otherwise been used, or at least supported, British war efforts in Europe of the Middle East.Like many books about important military men, the book is as much a biography as it is a historical account of the battles in which von Lettow fought. The book begins by examining von Lettow’s upbringing and his early military experience in Germany, against the Boxers in China, and against the Herero in German South West Africa. In many ways these experiences laid the groundwork for his later success in German East Africa where his background in logistics, unconventional warfare, and his ability to understand other cultures allowed him to fight the British for four years with minimal outside support.After reviewing von Lettow’s peace time career and life in between the time he left South West Africa until the beginning of World War I, the rest of the book covers the key events of the African theater of war. This includes his initial success at Tanga, the capture of the Konigsberg and his use of its former crew and guns to reinforce his land war, his guerrilla war against Britain’s colonial railway system in Kenya, his long fighting retreat into Africa’s interior until war’s end. Of interest is the friction between the German colony’s governor, who wanted to keep the colony neutral and out of the war, and von Lettow who believed the best way to serve Germany’s war efforts was to tie down as many British resources as possible in Africa; obviously von Lettow won that argument.The only issue I have with the book, keeping in mind the author is a freelance writer, is he sometimes is more interested in telling the story than he is in getting the facts straight. For example, he refers to the November 11, 1918 armistice as an unconditional surrender by Germany which magnifies his follow on phrase that von Lettow’s world, that he had loved, and his “astonishing” military career were gone forever. Also, at one point in the book Gaudi speculates that von Lettow had created a false report about the Konigsberg, but two pages later this speculation becomes a fact and the reason von Lettow’s ploy had worked. More interesting is the author’s use of Richard Meinertzhagen, a British officer, as a source periodically throughout the book, especially since Gaudi refers to him as “a colossal fraud” and spends time noting that Meinertzhagen has been discredited as a historical source. But Meinertzhagen had the ability to turn a colorful phrase, which obviously appealed to Gaudi.Having said that, I still recommend the book. It’s an enjoyable read, adds biographical information about von Lettow to the narrative, which is often overlooked in histories of his African efforts, and provides a good review of the war in Africa, particularly from the German perspective. This is an author who believes he's discovered something new, and his enthusiasm is evident in the book.

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