The Great War in Africa: 1914-1918 [Paperback]

Byron Farwell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 17, 1989

"A lively, fast-moving narrative."—Publishers Weekly

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

General readers will enjoy this comprehensive narrative of operations against imperial Germany's African colonies, including Togo, the Cameroons, and Southwest Africa, as well as the more familiar East African campaign. Its anecdotes convey the flavor of war in theaters dominated by disease and logistics. But in contrast to his works on the Victorian army, Farwell limits his perspective to the battlefield. Overwhelmed by the number of good stories at his disposal, he eschews systematic discussion of the polyglot forces engaged, or of the war's impact on subsaharan Africa's fragile colonial structures. The tales of bush fighting become repetitive, adding little to such earlier works as Charles Miller's Battle for the Bundu (1974), and limiting the book's value for specialists. Dennis E. Showalter, History Dept., Colorado Coll., Colorado Springs
Copyright 1986 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

“Unmatched as the historian of the British imperial military experience, Byron Farwell has written a lively, dependable account of World War I's most exotic campaign. The book is an impressive blend of action and analysis.” (Allan R. Millett, Ohio State University )

“[Farwell] has conceived his history as an adventure story, which he tells with brilliant narrative skill.” (Washington Times )

“As [Farwell] so artfully reconstructs it, the African front comprised a series of conflicts full of schemes and maneuvers and heroics and disasters, as the Allies sought to conquer four German colonies in the region while contending as well with other problems caused by the inhospitable climate and geography and by the presence of winged pests. History buffs, especially military, will savor every episode on every page.” (Booklist )

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Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company (July 17, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0393305643
• ISBN-13: 978-0393305647
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #324,133 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome!, June 2, 2004

By 

isala "Isabel and Lars" (London, England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Great War in Africa: 1914-1918 (Paperback)

This is the only book I know of that deals exclusively with this odd theatre of operations. WWI in Africa did not have any impact on the war in Europe or on world history, but the stories are so fantastic that they deserve to be rmembered and retold. The first and last shots of WWI were actually fired in Africa, by unknown black soldiers. The author describes the colonial setting, and points out how unnecessary the war in Africa really was. All four major campaings are described in chronological order.
The courage and loyality of the black soldiers fighting for the Germans were amazing. Most of the book is dedicated to the longest campaign, in German East Africa. Here, wastly outnumbered German troops fought with rifles and knob-kerries, time and time again outsmarting the British enemy. Idiotic racism led the British to first import Indian recruits to fight, rather than arming the black population. Oddly enough, it was the South African general, Smuts, who actually first starting using black troops for the British. Thus turning the tide.
Von Lettow-Vorbeck must rank as one of the foremost generals of history. He is sadly unknown, even by military buffs, and deserves to be remembered. The book is filled with larger-than-life charaters and their exploits. This book reads like a "boys-own" adventure. One must remind oneself constantly that the pain and suffering described are real.

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent account of this WW1 campaign, July 26, 1998

By 

Aussie Reader ""Rick"" (Canberra, Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Great War in Africa: 1914-1918 (Paperback)

Byron Farwell offers the reader a well researched and well presented account of this often forgotten campaign of WW1. In just over 380 pages (hardback version) he covers all aspects of this little known campaign covering such incidents as L-59, the German Zeppelin which made the world's longest sustained flight, from Bulgaria to Central Africa and back! Hunting a German Cruiser on the Rufiji River by an elephant hunter (The African Queen?). Accounts of some of the terrible battels on land, one where both armies were routed by killer bees! Men fighting with spears, knobberries, machine-guns, planes and armoured cars. The author also offers an interesting account of that famous German commander who had the allied forces chasing themselves for so long; Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck. This is a great story which I recommend to anybody who enjoys a well written history book.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Farwell at his best, February 21, 2001

By 

"limespider" (Littleton, CO USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Great War in Africa: 1914-1918 (Paperback)

Farwell is my favorite British military historian and this book might be his best. Growing bored with the same old discussions about the war in the trenches, and never finding more than a footnote or two in most history books about the war in the colonies, I searched for anyone who gave this theater of the Great War the attention it deserves. Farwell does not write dry history but tells a tale that keeps one wanting to read just one more chapter before putting the book down. I read this book in one sitting because it tied together many of the fragmented items I associated with this period of time in Africa:"Out of Africa","Young Indiana Jones","African Queen", etc.

One of my favorite sections of the book is the story of the hunt for the Konigsberg. My father told my the story as a child: the German cruiser was bottled up on the Rufiji River with its engine in need of repairs. Thousands of native laborers hauled the engine, en masse, a hundred miles overland to a machine shop in Dar-es-Salaam and then back again.

This book reads more like a novel than a history book and is, I believe, the best place to start if one is interested in the African theater of WW1. If you still want more, try "A History of the King's African Rifles..." by Malcolm Page and "My Reminiscences of East Africa" by Lettow-Vorbeck himself.