Tip and Run [Paperback]

Edward Paice (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 14, 2008

In the aftermath of the Great War the East Africa campaign was destined to be dismissed by many in Britain as a remote 'sideshow' in which only a handful of names and episodes - the Konigsberg, von Lettow-Vorbeck, the 'Naval Expedition to Lake Tanganyika' - achieved any lasting notoriety. But to the other combatant powers - Germany, South Africa, India, Belgium and Portugal - it was, and would remain, a campaign of huge importance. A 'small war', consisting of a few 'local affairs', was all that was expected in August 1914 as Britain moved to eliminate the threat to the high seas of German naval bases in Africa. But two weeks after the Armistice was signed in Europe British and German troops were still fighting in Africa after four years of what one campaign historian described as 'a war of extermination and attrition without parallel in modern times'. The expense of the campaign to the British Empire was immense, the Allied and German 'butchers bills' even greater. But the most tragic consequence of the two sides' deadly game of 'tip and run' was the devastation of an area five times the size of Germany, and civilian suffering on a scale unimaginable in Europe. Such was the cost of 'The White Man's Palaver', the final phase of the European conquest of Africa.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"[Paice] brillaintly chronicles a conflict as gruelling in its different way as that in Gallipoli or France" SUNDAY TELEGRAPH "A fascinating account of a largely forgotten episode" -- Simon Shaw MAIL ON SUNDAY "superb... [Paice] explains in vivid, relentless detail much of what makes Africa what it is today" Daily Telegraph

About the Author

Edward Paice was a History Scholar at Cambridge and winner of the Leman prize. After a decade working in the City he spent four years living and writing in East Africa. He was awarded a Visting Fellowship by Magdalene College, Cambridge in 2003-4.

Product Details

• Paperback: 560 pages
• Publisher: Phoenix (February 14, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0753823497
• ISBN-13: 978-0753823491
• Product Dimensions: 5.3 x 1.5 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,716,964 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bloody Events in World War I That Changed Little, February 9, 2007

By 

John Matlock "Gunny" (Winnemucca, NV) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Tip and Run - the Untold Tragedy of the Great War in Africa (Hardcover)

Mention World War I in Africa to most people, even most military historians, in the United States and about all that comes to mind is 'The African Queen.'

In reality, the struggle between the Germans trying to expand their colonies and the British trying to stop them was a long, messy, bloody mess. This was a time when the Europeans thought that an overseas empire was going to bring the home countries unimagined wealth, glory, and happiness.

In 1914, the Germans had three major African possessions: German South West Africa (now mostly Namibia), German East Africa (Tanzania) and Cameroon. It was their intent to conquer the territory inbetween the three colonies and create a huge colony. The British, of course, had other plans. The result was a series of battles fought by mostly local troops with just enough modern equipment such as rifles, machine guns and warships to increase the killing but not the results.

The trajedy of it all is that the events in Africa really didn't matter. The outcome was all dependent on what happened in Europe.

Supurbly researched and well written, this is a history of events little known in the United States.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ground Breaking, June 25, 2007

By 

Brendan T. Mckenna "Brenox" (Dublin, ireland) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Tip and Run (Hardcover)

I found this book exciting, fascinating and incredibly well written. I do not agree with the criticisms that the book gets too bogged down in facts and not enough examination of individual personalities. This book is a serious historical work and it maintains that maturity throughout. Paice is conscious that he is leading the field in this area of history and he retains the responsibility of that ground breaking studiousness. Those who are used to military history or African history by writers like Pakenham or Holland, will love it. Those who like a bit of gossip with their history will be dissapointed. This book will prove to be a classic and we can only see a better understanding of African History because of it. This will stand with Pakenham's 'The Boer War' and Rothberg's 'The Founder' as one of the seminal works in African Colonial History.

Despite the books seriousness it is not a difficult read and I would recomend it to anyone.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Useful account of an appalling war, October 18, 2008

By 

William Podmore (London United Kingdom) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Tip and Run (Paperback)

The First World War wrecked not only vast areas of Europe, Russia and the Middle East, but also huge tracts of Africa. Edward Paice's book studies this almost ignored disaster.

In Africa, the First World War was fought between Britain and Germany across German East Africa, an area five times the size of Germany, which became in 1919 British Tanganyika, later modern Tanzania.

On the British side, at least 100,000 people were killed, including 95,000 African carriers. Britain had recruited a million carriers from the five British-owned territories bordering German East Africa - the majority of the adult males. As one Colonial Office official noted, the campaign "only stopped short of a scandal because the people who suffered most were the carriers - and after all, who cares about native carriers?"

Germany recruited an estimated 350,000 carriers, who probably also suffered a one in ten death rate. At least 300,000 civilians died in Ruanda, Urundi and German East Africa.

As Paice notes, German East Africa's "most productive areas had been fought over and ravaged by both sides." Both sides stole grain and cattle as well as men. The war devastated the whole of East Africa, weakening the population so that they suffered a great famine in 1918, then the `Spanish flu', and then another famine.

The imperialist war between the British and German ruling classes laid waste some of Africa's most fertile land and killed probably half a million Africans, wrecking East Africa's prospects for decades to come.