Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck, Date of Birth, Place of Birth, Date of Death

Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck

German army officer

Date of Birth: 20-Mar-1870

Place of Birth: Saarlouis, Saarland, Germany

Date of Death: 09-Mar-1964

Profession: writer, politician, military officer

Nationality: Germany

Zodiac Sign: Pisces

Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck (20 March 1870 – 9 March 1964), also called the Lion of Africa (German: Löwe von Afrika), was a general in the German Army and the commander of its forces in the German East Africa campaign.
For four years, with a force of about 14,000 (3,000 Germans and 11,000 Africans), he held in check a much larger force of 300,000 British, Indian, Belgian, and Portuguese troops.
Essentially undefeated in the field, Lettow-Vorbeck was the only German commander to successfully invade imperial British soil during the First World War.
His exploits in the campaign have been described by Edwin Palmer Hoyt "as the greatest single guerrilla operation in history, and the most successful." Others have opined that it was "a campaign of supreme ruthlessness where a small, well trained force extorted supplies from civilians to whom it felt no responsibility...it was the climax of Africa's exploitation".
Lettow-Vorbeck's tactics led to a famine that killed thousands of Africans and weakened the population, leaving it vulnerable to the influenza epidemic in 1919.