An Italian postcard map of central and southern Africa with insets for New Guinea and Kiautschau, China, with the colonies of Italy, Britain, France, Portugal, Spain, Germany, and Belgium.

Il tramonto dell'impero coloniale tedesco

The sunset of the German colonial empire



Reverse:

Censura sottoprefettura Terni del 25-5-17 Censorship of the Terni sub-prefecture 25/05/17



Logo: IPA CT Gromo

130



Added stamped text:

Sammlung J. Thomas, Sachrang/Obb.

Collection of J. Thomas, Sachrang / Bavaria.

Other views: Larger, Larger, Back

Friday, April 9, 1915

"The men gathered on the platform [at Waterloo Station, London] make up the main body of a battalion of volunteers, the 25th Royal Fusiliers, and they are just setting off on their long journey to East Africa. They already know that it is not easy for European units to work in that part of Africa but the majority of the uniformed men here already have experience in hot climates and difficult terrain. 'This old Legion of Frontiersmen' come from places as varied as Hong Kong, China and Ceylon, Malacca, India and New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and Egypt; the battalion includes both former polar explorers and former cowboys. . . .

At two o'clock the train rolls out of Waterloo Station. The destination is Plymouth, where a steamer, HMTS Neuralia, is waiting. It will take them all the way to East Africa."

Quotation Context

Soldiers and civilians waiting for a train a Waterloo Station, London. The 25th Royal Fusiliers includes big-game hunters, men who have deserted other units to join, men who are over-aged, veterans of the Boer War, and one who had been in the Canadian wilderness and learned of the war three months after it started. The unit is considered so experienced, it is never given military training. As evening turns to night, and no trains come, the civilians depart. When the train does come, it brings with it police seeking the deserters, who hide, but then depart with the train. The men were bound for British East Africa where Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck led a guerilla campaign from German East Africa. 'HMTS' is 'His Majesty's Troop Ship'.

Source

The Beauty and the Sorrow: An Intimate History of the First World War by Peter Englund, pp. 100, 102, copyright © 2009 by Peter England, publisher: Vintage Books, publication date: 2012

Tags

1915-04-09, 1915, April, British East Africa, East Africa, Africa, London, Waterloo Station