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In 1914, Lettow-Vorbeck was appointed the commander of the small German garrison of 3000 soldiers and twelve Askari companies in German East Africa, modern-day Tanzania.
With the beginning of the war in August, knowing the need to seize initiative, he ignored orders from Berlin and the colony’s governor Dr. Heinrich von Schnee.
He promptly prepared to repel an amphibious assault on the city of Tanga, where between November 2 and 5 of 1914, he fought one of his greatest battles.

He then assembled his men and almost nonexistent supplies to attack the British railways in East Africa.
He scored a second victory over the British at Jassin on January 18, 1915.
While these victories gave him badly-needed modern rifles and other supplies, as well as critical boost to the morale of his men, von Lettow-Vorbeck also lost numerous experienced men in these pitched battles, among them the English expatriate Tom von Prince, whom he could not easily replace.

Lettow-Vorbeck’s plan for World War I was quite simple: knowing that East Africa would never be anything but a sideshow, he determined to tie down as many British troops as he possibly could; this would remove them from the European front, and in this way, might contribute to Germany’s victory.

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