Helpful Score: 1
From the inside dust jacket cover: "This compelling adventure, with its haunting love story, is a saga based on the savage struggle in East Africa during World War I. Lieutenant-Colonel Paul von Lettow, the military commander of a small German force, disobeyng the orders of the colonial governor and disregarding Berlin's imperial policy, commits himself to a personal war. He cannot accept a craven neutrality while his country is locked in devastating combat in Europe.
With only a few hundred civilians and professional soldiers, and with the essential aid of black rebels, Lettow sets out to create and lead the first modern guerrilla army. These hardy men and women, lacking supplies and weapons, must confront the dangers of war, harsh surroundings, and psychological stress. Lettow plans to harry, to entrap, and-despite crushing odds-to defeat the thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of British troops that can be unleashed against him. Yet he hopes to shatter not only the enemy but also the brutally enforced concept of white supremacy.
Lettow has need of the ingenuity and fierce independence that impel him. He becomes involved with a young American woman, deeply in love with him but strongly opposed to the madness and violence of war; he engages in weird diplomacy to offset the intrigues of rival native tribes; he pits his insights against the brilliant and ruthless chief of British intelligence; and he devises bizarre techniques to wage an extraordinary conflict that leads to a strange, ironic conclusion. Along the way he will become a legend in Africa and ultimately will change the course of history."
With only a few hundred civilians and professional soldiers, and with the essential aid of black rebels, Lettow sets out to create and lead the first modern guerrilla army. These hardy men and women, lacking supplies and weapons, must confront the dangers of war, harsh surroundings, and psychological stress. Lettow plans to harry, to entrap, and-despite crushing odds-to defeat the thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of British troops that can be unleashed against him. Yet he hopes to shatter not only the enemy but also the brutally enforced concept of white supremacy.
Lettow has need of the ingenuity and fierce independence that impel him. He becomes involved with a young American woman, deeply in love with him but strongly opposed to the madness and violence of war; he engages in weird diplomacy to offset the intrigues of rival native tribes; he pits his insights against the brilliant and ruthless chief of British intelligence; and he devises bizarre techniques to wage an extraordinary conflict that leads to a strange, ironic conclusion. Along the way he will become a legend in Africa and ultimately will change the course of history."
