General Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck was commander of German forces in Africa, and successfully battled Allied forces for four years. Postcard from a painting by Fritz Grotemeyer.
Kolonial-Krieger-Spende - Colonial Warrior donationvon Lettow-VorbeckSigned: Grotemeyer 191?Reverse:Kolonial Krieger-SpendeBerlin W. 8 Mauerßtr. 45.Fritz Grotemeyer: von Lettow-Vorbeck an der Spitze seiner Truppen (Diakat[?] Kolonial Krieger-Spende)Colonial Warrior donationFritz Grotemeyer: von Lettow-Vorbeck leading his troops (Diakat Piakat colonial warrior-donation)
"What the Allied commanders under the leadership of Smuts have failed to understand is that von Lettow-Vorbeck, their tough, intelligent and cynical opponent, does not give a damn about the colony. Right from the start, this master of guerrilla warfare has seen it as his task to draw in as many enemy troops as possible, because every man, every gun, every bullet shipped to East Africa means one man, one gun, one bullet fewer on the Western Front. And the German has succeeded in this beyond his wildest dream: Smuts now has five times as many soldiers as von Lettow-Vorbeck, but has come nowhere near defeating the German."
On January 4, 1917, the British attacked a German unit at the village of Beho Beho in German East Africa. As in other encounters, the German forces inflicted heavy losses before slipping away from an attempted encirclement to fight on another day. The British were under the command of Jan Smuts of the Union of South Africa. The Germans were commanded by Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck.
The Beauty and the Sorrow: An Intimate History of the First World War by Peter Englund, page 320, copyright © 2009 by Peter England, publisher: Vintage Books, publication date: 2012
1917-01-04, 1917, January, von Lettow-Vorbeck, von Lettow-Vorbeck, Lettow-Vorbeck, Smuts, Jan Smuts, German East Africa, Africa
