Battle for the Bundu: The First World War in East Africa

by Charles Miller

Book Overview

The first world war in East Africa. The last gentlemans war. Illustrated This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0025849301
• ISBN13: 9780025849303
• Release Date: January 1974
• Publisher: MacMillan Publishing Company
• Length: 353 Pages
• Weight: 1.85 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Best Book about War in East Africa

This is the best book about the war in East Africa. The author gives such a vivid picture of what is it like facing death and disease, you feel like you were there. The author does a good job in talking about how various diseases and ailments affect the British ability to operate in a combat theater of operations without modern day medicine.

my son's opinion

I didn't read the book but mny ph.d. son thinks it's one of the best he has EVER read. that's enough of a recommendation for me!

An amazing story, brilliantly told

In this book, Miller tells the story of the first World War in east Africa, and he tells it well. While shells flew and men died at the Western Front, the perfect Prussian officer, Paul Von Lettow Vorbeck led his vastly outnumbered band of German and African infantry across thousands of miles of East Africa, and come Armistice Day in 1918, his was the only German army that had not been forced to surrender. It is a fascinating book, and particularly well researched. Miller has brought together materials from memoirs and diaries of those who took part, to military archives, making it both accurate and detailed as well as funny in parts and quite human. The story abounds with stuffed-shirt generals, wily elephant hunters, cynical intelligence officers and singing porters. For a large part, all these characters go about prosecuting a war as if it were a game of cricket. Yes, they killed an awful lot of each other, but they always seemed remarkably gentlemanly about it. There are many side plots, including the history of the German raider Konigsberg, which was mirrored in World War Two with the Graf Spee in the River Plate, an amazing rescue attempt by zeppelin, and a bizarre campaign to control the great lakes of Africa, which later inspired the film African Queen. Whereas many historians and chroniclers tend to get bogged down in their subject matter, producing a somewhat dry, flat book, the reader will be pleasantly surprised with this offering, as it is full of life. Whether you are interested in history, or just like a good read, I recommend this book to you.

A fascinating account of an extraordinary event

When the First World War broke out, the British government believed that seizing Germany's African colonies would be accomplished quickly and painlessly. One man decided to ensure that this would not be the case. That man was Colonel von Lettow-Vorbeck, commanding officer of the German army in the colony of German East Africa. From the very start of the war until after the Armistice was signed in Europe, von Lettow led his mixed army of Germans and native Africans (mostly the latter!) on an odyssey around East Africa, tying down a large British army, and refusing to be beaten. This is the story of the Kaiser's African soldiers, and their brilliant leader. This is a great book! The author takes what is a forgotten chapter of world history, and spins a fascinating tale of action and adventure. The book is thick and quite informative, but more than that the author succeeds in making the story interesting and even periodically humorous. So, if you want to read a fascinating account of an extraordinary event in world history, then you must get this book. I give this book an enthusiastic two thumbs up!

A well written book about a facinating chapter of WWI

An incredible story about German resistence to British invasion in East Africa during the 1st world war. What started as a beach landing calculated to force the German to surrender overnight, ended four years later with an undefeated German army surrendering to a British army that had not defeated them! This book is full of hard-to-believe stories. Once you start reading you will not put it down.