WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.040 Welcome to The Deep Dive. We are really thrilled 00:00:03.040 --> 00:00:04.919 you're here with us today. Absolutely. Because 00:00:04.919 --> 00:00:07.519 today we are handing you a shortcut to becoming 00:00:07.519 --> 00:00:09.699 exceptionally well informed about a piece of 00:00:09.699 --> 00:00:13.220 history that genuinely sounds like, I don't know, 00:00:13.279 --> 00:00:15.619 the plot of an unbelievable Hollywood epic. It 00:00:15.619 --> 00:00:18.640 really does. It's wild. Yeah. We are working 00:00:18.640 --> 00:00:21.480 through a comprehensive Wikipedia article detailing 00:00:21.480 --> 00:00:24.339 the life of Paul von Lettow -Vorbeck. He was 00:00:24.339 --> 00:00:27.440 a German army officer. And his life is just, 00:00:27.440 --> 00:00:30.379 it's a staggering study in extremes. It really 00:00:30.379 --> 00:00:33.299 is an incredible narrative to unpack. And the 00:00:33.299 --> 00:00:35.539 mission for our deep dive today is to explore 00:00:35.539 --> 00:00:37.740 how this single individual orchestrated what 00:00:37.740 --> 00:00:40.140 military historians widely consider the greatest 00:00:40.140 --> 00:00:43.640 single guerrilla operation in history. But we 00:00:43.640 --> 00:00:46.799 are also here to untangle a deeply complex, very 00:00:46.799 --> 00:00:49.039 controversial legacy. Because this isn't merely 00:00:49.039 --> 00:00:51.659 a story about troop movements and battles. It 00:00:51.659 --> 00:00:55.219 is a profound study of human endurance, of absolute 00:00:55.219 --> 00:00:58.600 loyalty, and crucially, of the devastating just 00:00:58.600 --> 00:01:02.219 catastrophic human costs of imperialism. Yeah, 00:01:02.500 --> 00:01:04.359 the numbers alone are just hard to wrap your 00:01:04.359 --> 00:01:06.359 head around. Picture this scenario for a second. 00:01:06.900 --> 00:01:09.719 You have a force of roughly 14 ,000 men. Right. 00:01:10.019 --> 00:01:12.939 Only 3 ,000 of them are German nationals. The 00:01:12.939 --> 00:01:15.659 other 11 ,000 are African soldiers. Exactly. 00:01:15.780 --> 00:01:18.780 And for four entire years, spanning the whole 00:01:18.780 --> 00:01:22.760 of World War I, this relatively tiny isolated 00:01:22.760 --> 00:01:27.170 force tied down 300 ,000 British Indian, Belgian, 00:01:27.469 --> 00:01:29.689 and Portuguese troops. It's unbelievable. They 00:01:29.689 --> 00:01:32.269 were outmanned 20 to 1, completely cut off from 00:01:32.269 --> 00:01:34.450 their homeland, and yet they were never defeated 00:01:34.450 --> 00:01:37.209 or captured in battle. It is a complete logistical 00:01:37.209 --> 00:01:39.730 and tactical anomaly. I mean, when you look at 00:01:39.730 --> 00:01:42.450 military history, armies of that size facing 00:01:42.450 --> 00:01:45.189 those odds simply do not survive. And to understand 00:01:45.189 --> 00:01:47.230 how he pulled that off, you really have to look 00:01:47.230 --> 00:01:49.810 closely at his crucible, those early experiences 00:01:49.810 --> 00:01:52.549 that completely dismantle his traditional worldview 00:01:52.549 --> 00:01:55.109 and forged his entire approach to unconventional 00:01:55.109 --> 00:01:57.530 warfare. OK, let's unpack this. Yeah. Because 00:01:57.530 --> 00:01:59.390 his beginnings are about as far from guerrilla 00:01:59.390 --> 00:02:01.310 warfare as you can get. Oh, absolutely. He was 00:02:01.310 --> 00:02:04.510 born in 1870 into the Pimeranian minor nobility. 00:02:04.909 --> 00:02:07.329 His father is an army officer. He goes to the 00:02:07.329 --> 00:02:09.530 standard boarding schools, joins the cadet corps, 00:02:09.689 --> 00:02:12.530 and by 1890, he's commissioned as a lieutenant 00:02:12.530 --> 00:02:15.310 in the Imperial German Army. Very standard track. 00:02:15.490 --> 00:02:18.870 Yeah. And the picture our sources paint of this 00:02:18.870 --> 00:02:22.250 early life is incredibly rigid, but, you know. 00:02:22.379 --> 00:02:25.020 glamorous. We're talking about dawn inspections 00:02:25.020 --> 00:02:27.139 in the freezing cold formal drinking parties 00:02:27.139 --> 00:02:30.560 and splendid dances in Berlin with young women 00:02:30.560 --> 00:02:33.080 in off -the -shoulder dresses. all followed by 00:02:33.080 --> 00:02:36.340 this mad rush to catch the last train back to 00:02:36.340 --> 00:02:39.419 the barracks. It was the absolute epitome of 00:02:39.419 --> 00:02:42.219 the highly formalized European military tradition. 00:02:42.800 --> 00:02:45.080 The Prussian military mindset of that era was 00:02:45.080 --> 00:02:47.659 just obsessed with form. You stood in neat rows, 00:02:47.740 --> 00:02:50.500 you marched in precise columns, and warfare was 00:02:50.500 --> 00:02:53.219 seen as, well, a gentleman's clash of organized 00:02:53.219 --> 00:02:55.680 maneuvers. There are actually anecdotes from 00:02:55.680 --> 00:02:58.960 his early days of older officers severely scolding 00:02:58.960 --> 00:03:01.219 younger ones just for failing to ask a young 00:03:01.219 --> 00:03:03.750 woman without a partner to dance. Wow. Yeah, 00:03:03.789 --> 00:03:06.210 it was an environment governed by strict chivalry 00:03:06.210 --> 00:03:09.349 and unyielding rules. Which makes his first overseas 00:03:09.349 --> 00:03:12.550 deployment so ironic, I think. Because in 1900, 00:03:12.969 --> 00:03:15.810 he is sent to China as part of the international 00:03:15.810 --> 00:03:19.150 forces quilling the Boxer Rebellion. Right, the 00:03:19.150 --> 00:03:21.189 Boxer Rebellion. And our sources note that while 00:03:21.189 --> 00:03:23.669 he was completely fascinated by Chinese culture 00:03:23.669 --> 00:03:26.629 and the landscape, he absolutely hated fighting 00:03:26.629 --> 00:03:29.340 against guerrillas. I understand it. Right. He 00:03:29.340 --> 00:03:31.800 felt that unconventional hit -and -run warfare 00:03:31.800 --> 00:03:34.300 was detrimental to the discipline of a proper 00:03:34.300 --> 00:03:36.479 German army. It's the ultimate irony, isn't it? 00:03:36.500 --> 00:03:39.340 He despises the very style of combat that will 00:03:39.340 --> 00:03:41.539 eventually define his place in history. Yeah. 00:03:41.800 --> 00:03:44.259 But the real turning point, the crucible that 00:03:44.259 --> 00:03:47.599 shatters that pristine, rigid military mindset, 00:03:48.120 --> 00:03:50.520 happens when he is assigned to German southwest 00:03:50.520 --> 00:03:52.960 Africa, which is modern -day Namibia, starting 00:03:52.960 --> 00:03:55.860 in 1904. Right. And this is during the Herero 00:03:55.860 --> 00:03:58.319 insurrection and the subsequent genocide, which 00:03:58.159 --> 00:04:01.199 which is a profoundly dark period of colonial 00:04:01.199 --> 00:04:03.000 history. Yeah, he's a captain at this point, 00:04:03.219 --> 00:04:06.560 thrust into this blistering, unforgiving landscape. 00:04:07.039 --> 00:04:09.780 He sees combat early on at the Battle of Waterburg, 00:04:10.139 --> 00:04:12.560 which he initially considered a rare chance to 00:04:12.560 --> 00:04:14.979 actually defeat an enemy in his single, organized 00:04:14.979 --> 00:04:17.399 operation. But it doesn't stay that way. No, 00:04:17.439 --> 00:04:19.939 it doesn't. Because then the Nama people rise 00:04:19.939 --> 00:04:22.800 up under their leader, Hendrik Whitboy, and Leto 00:04:22.800 --> 00:04:25.500 Vorbeck stays to fight. and the conflict becomes 00:04:25.500 --> 00:04:29.639 deeply personal and physical. During a 1906 gunfight 00:04:29.639 --> 00:04:32.180 against a leader named Jacob Marenga, he gets 00:04:32.180 --> 00:04:34.259 shot in the chest and he takes a bullet to the 00:04:34.259 --> 00:04:37.149 left eye. And that injury leaves him permanently 00:04:37.149 --> 00:04:39.649 blind in that left eye for the rest of his life. 00:04:39.930 --> 00:04:43.009 Permanently blind. Exactly. But as significant 00:04:43.009 --> 00:04:45.769 as the physical trauma was, the mental shift 00:04:45.769 --> 00:04:48.670 that occurs during his recovery is what actually 00:04:48.670 --> 00:04:51.529 alters the course of history here. How so? Well, 00:04:51.670 --> 00:04:54.649 he realizes that standing in neat rows, wearing 00:04:54.649 --> 00:04:57.069 heavy uniforms, and relying on massive supply 00:04:57.069 --> 00:04:59.910 trains simply does not work in the African bush. 00:05:00.110 --> 00:05:02.149 Right. Our sources actually point out a very 00:05:02.149 --> 00:05:04.959 specific interaction that completely rewired 00:05:04.959 --> 00:05:08.000 his tactical playbook. It involves a captured, 00:05:08.000 --> 00:05:10.339 hot -and -taught guerrilla leader named Samuel 00:05:10.339 --> 00:05:14.000 Isaac. Yes, the interrogations. Exactly. Leto 00:05:14.000 --> 00:05:16.600 Vorbeck personally conducted these interrogations, 00:05:16.920 --> 00:05:18.860 but it doesn't sound like a standard military 00:05:18.860 --> 00:05:23.279 debriefing. How does a rigid European officer 00:05:23.279 --> 00:05:26.579 actually unlearn his entire background from a 00:05:26.579 --> 00:05:29.579 prisoner? By recognizing pure survival mastery 00:05:29.579 --> 00:05:31.980 when he sees it. He wasn't interrogating Isaac 00:05:31.980 --> 00:05:34.319 for troop movements or secret weapon caches. 00:05:34.600 --> 00:05:37.399 He was treating this captured leader as a master 00:05:37.399 --> 00:05:40.300 class instructor in bushcraft. Wow. He essentially 00:05:40.300 --> 00:05:42.740 asked Isaac, how do you live off a country that 00:05:42.740 --> 00:05:45.720 seemingly offers zero sustenance? How do you 00:05:45.720 --> 00:05:48.379 keep your men running when most European soldiers 00:05:48.379 --> 00:05:50.620 barely have the strength to walk in this heat. 00:05:51.040 --> 00:05:52.920 It's about fundamentally changing your relationship 00:05:52.920 --> 00:05:54.860 with the environment really. He wanted to know 00:05:54.860 --> 00:05:56.759 how to condition the human body to go without 00:05:56.759 --> 00:05:59.620 food or water for days. Precisely. He was learning 00:05:59.620 --> 00:06:02.040 how to become so completely absorbed into an 00:06:02.040 --> 00:06:04.959 unfriendly barren wilderness that survival itself 00:06:04.959 --> 00:06:07.920 becomes your primary weapon. He explicitly wanted 00:06:07.920 --> 00:06:10.240 to learn how to survive just like the native 00:06:10.240 --> 00:06:12.819 snakes and lizards survived in the desert. He 00:06:12.819 --> 00:06:15.500 was shedding the European rule book and adopting 00:06:15.500 --> 00:06:18.339 an entirely new deeply pragmatic way of thinking 00:06:18.339 --> 00:06:20.819 about warfare. Which brings us to the outbreak 00:06:20.819 --> 00:06:24.779 of World War I and this grand, seemingly impossible 00:06:24.779 --> 00:06:29.000 strategy he develops. So by August 1914, he is 00:06:29.000 --> 00:06:31.560 military garrison commander in German East Africa, 00:06:31.779 --> 00:06:34.519 which is present day Tanzania. He has a tiny 00:06:34.519 --> 00:06:38.060 isolated force, about 2 ,600 German nationals 00:06:38.060 --> 00:06:42.860 and 2 ,472 African soldiers organized into 14 00:06:42.860 --> 00:06:45.680 Ascari field companies. Now his own governor, 00:06:45.920 --> 00:06:48.540 a man named Heinrich Schnee, desperately wanted 00:06:48.540 --> 00:06:50.180 the colony to remain neutral, trying to rely 00:06:50.180 --> 00:06:52.839 on an old 1885 treaty to keep the war out of 00:06:52.839 --> 00:06:55.199 Africa. But Leto Vorbeck completely disregards 00:06:55.199 --> 00:06:57.259 his own governor. Just ignores him. Totally. 00:06:57.459 --> 00:06:59.920 He recognized immediately that East Africa was 00:06:59.920 --> 00:07:02.040 never going to be the main stage. It was always 00:07:02.040 --> 00:07:03.959 going to be a sideshow to the massive trench 00:07:03.959 --> 00:07:06.560 warfare in Europe. But his strategy was brilliant 00:07:06.560 --> 00:07:09.550 in its simplicity. He decided to tie down as 00:07:09.550 --> 00:07:11.790 many allied troops in Africa as humanly possible, 00:07:12.149 --> 00:07:14.750 drawing them into an endless chase specifically 00:07:14.750 --> 00:07:17.050 to keep those men and resources away from the 00:07:17.050 --> 00:07:21.310 Western Front. And he wastes no time. He immediately 00:07:21.310 --> 00:07:24.449 prepares to repel a massive British amphibious 00:07:24.449 --> 00:07:27.529 assault on the city of Tonga in November 1914, 00:07:27.889 --> 00:07:30.449 and he actually wins. Against massive odds. Yeah. 00:07:30.560 --> 00:07:32.720 Then he just starts attacking British railways 00:07:32.720 --> 00:07:35.379 in East Africa, launching sun rays into Kenya, 00:07:35.540 --> 00:07:38.399 Uganda, and Zanzibar. He hits their forts. He 00:07:38.399 --> 00:07:40.680 destroys their communications. He becomes the 00:07:40.680 --> 00:07:43.050 ultimate disruptor. He does. But you can't do 00:07:43.050 --> 00:07:45.269 that with a traditional army. I mean, how did 00:07:45.269 --> 00:07:48.290 he build a force capable of that kind of rapid, 00:07:48.550 --> 00:07:50.629 relentless movement? He had to completely rethink 00:07:50.629 --> 00:07:53.449 unit cohesion. He expands his military, known 00:07:53.449 --> 00:07:55.410 as the Strupp, which was the official name for 00:07:55.410 --> 00:07:58.170 the German colonial forces to those 14 ,000 soldiers 00:07:58.170 --> 00:08:00.170 we mentioned earlier. Right, the 14 ,000. And 00:08:00.170 --> 00:08:02.829 his leadership style was incredibly unique for 00:08:02.829 --> 00:08:05.850 a European commander in that era. He spoke fluent 00:08:05.850 --> 00:08:08.250 Swahili, which earned him a tremendous amount 00:08:08.250 --> 00:08:10.970 of respect from his African soldiers. He appointed 00:08:10.889 --> 00:08:14.250 black officers. He reportedly stated to his men, 00:08:14.529 --> 00:08:16.829 we are all Africans here. That's a fascinating 00:08:16.829 --> 00:08:19.610 psychological tactic. Our sources emphasize that 00:08:19.610 --> 00:08:23.029 he didn't just recruit locals. He forged an intensely 00:08:23.029 --> 00:08:26.209 loyal military caste. He created a structure 00:08:26.209 --> 00:08:28.670 that intentionally separated the soldiers from 00:08:28.670 --> 00:08:31.569 their original tribal roots. And that is a crucial 00:08:31.569 --> 00:08:34.120 insight into his strategy. By severing those 00:08:34.120 --> 00:08:37.779 tribal ties, he created a new distinct unit where 00:08:37.779 --> 00:08:40.500 their primary identity was tied directly to the 00:08:40.500 --> 00:08:42.659 Schutztruppe and to him. Right. They were bound 00:08:42.659 --> 00:08:45.440 by Leto Vorbeck's very specific brand of extreme 00:08:45.440 --> 00:08:48.120 discipline, which he applied equally across the 00:08:48.120 --> 00:08:50.580 board. German officers and black soldiers were 00:08:50.580 --> 00:08:53.019 subjected to the same grueling standards. Interesting. 00:08:53.220 --> 00:08:55.600 Yeah, this created an ultimate dependency and 00:08:55.600 --> 00:08:58.120 a profound, almost terrifying level of loyalty. 00:08:58.460 --> 00:09:00.360 And the resourcefulness of this new cast was 00:09:00.360 --> 00:09:03.110 just off the charts. The supply chain logistics 00:09:03.110 --> 00:09:05.110 alone are mind -blowing. Oh, they really are. 00:09:05.309 --> 00:09:08.750 In 1915, there's a German cruiser, the SMS Königsberg, 00:09:09.149 --> 00:09:11.389 that gets cornered and scuttled in the Rufigi 00:09:11.389 --> 00:09:13.889 River Delta. You would think that's a total loss. 00:09:13.909 --> 00:09:16.710 You would. But Linda Vorbeck doesn't just abandon 00:09:16.710 --> 00:09:20.120 it. He recruits the stranded crew and they actually 00:09:20.120 --> 00:09:22.519 dismantle the massive artillery pieces from the 00:09:22.519 --> 00:09:24.840 sunken ship, drag them through the jungle, convert 00:09:24.840 --> 00:09:27.659 them for land use, and those salvaged naval guns 00:09:27.659 --> 00:09:30.080 become the largest standard artillery used in 00:09:30.080 --> 00:09:33.519 the entire East African theater. It is the definition 00:09:33.519 --> 00:09:36.259 of making something out of nothing. But, you 00:09:36.259 --> 00:09:38.659 know, as the war dragged on and the Allied blockade 00:09:38.659 --> 00:09:41.779 tightened, their supply situation became incredibly 00:09:41.779 --> 00:09:44.840 dire. Yeah. And that desperation leads to one 00:09:44.840 --> 00:09:47.379 of the most bizarre logistical attempts in military 00:09:47.379 --> 00:09:49.659 history. I know you were fascinated by the airlift 00:09:49.659 --> 00:09:51.120 attempt in the research. Oh, this absolutely 00:09:51.120 --> 00:09:54.639 blew my mind. But November 1917, the German military 00:09:54.639 --> 00:09:56.919 back in Europe realizes they have to resupply 00:09:56.919 --> 00:09:59.080 him, but they can't get past the naval blockades. 00:09:59.120 --> 00:10:01.830 Right. So they try an airlift. But what kind 00:10:01.830 --> 00:10:05.330 of aircraft in 1917 could possibly fly from Europe 00:10:05.330 --> 00:10:07.809 to Central Africa carrying a meaningful amount 00:10:07.809 --> 00:10:11.210 of cargo? They sent a zeppelin. A zeppelin! Specifically 00:10:11.210 --> 00:10:15.029 the LZ -104. They launched it all the way from 00:10:15.029 --> 00:10:18.149 Bulgaria for a single uninterrupted flight toward 00:10:18.149 --> 00:10:21.570 Africa. But the genius of this plan wasn't just 00:10:21.570 --> 00:10:23.570 what the zeppelin was carrying inside its cargo 00:10:23.570 --> 00:10:26.389 bay. The zeppelin itself was the supply drop. 00:10:26.549 --> 00:10:29.629 Right. The plan was to fly it there, land it. 00:10:29.840 --> 00:10:32.580 and immediately dismantle the entire airship 00:10:32.580 --> 00:10:35.480 so every single part could be cannibalized. The 00:10:35.480 --> 00:10:37.519 massive canvas hull of the Zeppelin was going 00:10:37.519 --> 00:10:40.639 to be cut up and used to make tents and uniforms 00:10:40.639 --> 00:10:43.059 for the troops. The frame was going to be used 00:10:43.059 --> 00:10:45.620 for structures. It was literally a flying care 00:10:45.620 --> 00:10:48.240 package where the plan is to unpack the contents 00:10:48.240 --> 00:10:50.700 and then use the box to build a village. That's 00:10:50.700 --> 00:10:53.039 incredible. But the mission failed. The airship 00:10:53.039 --> 00:10:55.559 reached the airspace over Sudan and suddenly 00:10:55.559 --> 00:10:58.919 received a radio message claiming Leto Vorbeck's 00:10:58.919 --> 00:11:01.000 landing area had been captured by the British. 00:11:01.620 --> 00:11:03.820 So the Zeppelin turned around and flew all the 00:11:03.820 --> 00:11:06.120 way back. Wow. There is actually still historical 00:11:06.120 --> 00:11:08.299 debate suggesting the British intelligence services 00:11:08.299 --> 00:11:11.379 in Cairo faked that radio transmission to trick 00:11:11.379 --> 00:11:13.960 the Zeppelin into turning back. Which just highlights 00:11:13.960 --> 00:11:16.200 how desperate the survival element was becoming 00:11:16.200 --> 00:11:19.399 on the ground. And as we transition into this 00:11:19.399 --> 00:11:21.759 next phase of the campaign, we really need to 00:11:21.759 --> 00:11:24.259 pause here. Yes, we do. Because it's really important 00:11:24.259 --> 00:11:26.580 for us to look objectively at the facts laid 00:11:26.580 --> 00:11:29.759 out in our sources. We are unpacking the reality 00:11:29.759 --> 00:11:33.299 of a brutal colonial conflict, and our goal is 00:11:33.299 --> 00:11:35.240 to understand the history of what happened on 00:11:35.240 --> 00:11:38.090 the ground. without endorsing the devastating 00:11:38.090 --> 00:11:40.470 methods that were used. Absolutely. Because the 00:11:40.470 --> 00:11:42.629 human cost here is staggering. If we connect 00:11:42.629 --> 00:11:45.549 this to the bigger picture, the reality of Leto 00:11:45.549 --> 00:11:47.889 Vorbeck's strategy, constantly giving ground, 00:11:48.029 --> 00:11:50.190 living off the land, and escaping massive allied 00:11:50.190 --> 00:11:52.730 forces came at a horrific toll for the civilian 00:11:52.730 --> 00:11:55.970 population. Yeah. He believed his first and only 00:11:55.970 --> 00:11:58.870 obligation was to the survival of his army. His 00:11:58.870 --> 00:12:02.049 own governor, Schnee, constantly objected, arguing 00:12:02.049 --> 00:12:04.309 that this endless guerrilla war was completely 00:12:04.309 --> 00:12:07.009 destroying decades of social and economic infrastructure. 00:12:07.649 --> 00:12:10.090 But the sources describe Leto Vorbeck's tactics 00:12:10.090 --> 00:12:13.529 as a campaign of supreme ruthlessness. To keep 00:12:13.529 --> 00:12:16.429 his small, highly trained force moving and fighting, 00:12:17.190 --> 00:12:19.350 they basically extorted supplies from native 00:12:19.350 --> 00:12:22.110 villages. He established temporary food depots 00:12:22.110 --> 00:12:24.809 along his marching routes, effectively taking 00:12:24.809 --> 00:12:27.549 whatever they needed and riding off the massive 00:12:27.549 --> 00:12:30.299 widespread famine he caused as just a misfortune 00:12:30.299 --> 00:12:33.159 of war. And remember how we talked about him 00:12:33.159 --> 00:12:35.019 severing his soldiers from their tribal roots? 00:12:35.080 --> 00:12:37.759 Yeah. To prevent his Asgari soldiers from deserting, 00:12:38.220 --> 00:12:40.960 he deliberately bypassed their tribal homelands 00:12:40.960 --> 00:12:44.000 during these grueling marches. It was a brutal, 00:12:44.220 --> 00:12:47.279 pragmatic calculus. And the situation compounded 00:12:47.279 --> 00:12:50.200 when General Jan Smuts, the Allied commander 00:12:50.200 --> 00:12:52.820 pursuing him, realized that trying to fight Leto 00:12:52.820 --> 00:12:55.500 Vorbeck in direct combat was useless. Right. 00:12:55.799 --> 00:12:58.460 So Smuts changed the Allied strategy to go after 00:12:58.460 --> 00:13:01.860 the German food supply instead. created a massive, 00:13:02.059 --> 00:13:05.039 devastating squeeze from both sides that absolutely 00:13:05.039 --> 00:13:07.240 decimated the local African population. I want 00:13:07.240 --> 00:13:09.039 to read a quote from the source that really forces 00:13:09.039 --> 00:13:11.480 you to pause and digest the sheer human cost 00:13:11.480 --> 00:13:14.279 of this. It's from a German military doctor named 00:13:14.279 --> 00:13:17.320 Ludwig Depp who marched alongside Lido Vorbeck. 00:13:17.399 --> 00:13:20.200 It's a heavy quote. It really is. He looked around 00:13:20.200 --> 00:13:22.399 at what their survival required and he wrote, 00:13:23.059 --> 00:13:25.679 behind us we leave destroyed fields, ransacked 00:13:25.679 --> 00:13:28.519 magazines and for the immediate future, starvation. 00:13:29.039 --> 00:13:31.580 We are no longer the agents of culture. Our track 00:13:31.580 --> 00:13:34.559 is marked by death, plundered and evacuated villages, 00:13:34.919 --> 00:13:37.500 just like the progress of our own and enemy armies 00:13:37.500 --> 00:13:41.080 in the 30 years war. It is a profound and devastating 00:13:41.080 --> 00:13:44.039 self -assessment. to recognize that your sheer 00:13:44.039 --> 00:13:46.759 will to survive has turned you into an agent 00:13:46.759 --> 00:13:49.799 of destruction. Yeah. And that plundering weakened 00:13:49.799 --> 00:13:52.779 the native African population so severely that 00:13:52.779 --> 00:13:55.120 when the worldwide Spanish influenza epidemic 00:13:55.120 --> 00:13:57.779 swept into Eastern Africa in 1918, the people 00:13:57.779 --> 00:14:00.519 had zero resilience left. Zero. They were highly 00:14:00.519 --> 00:14:03.539 susceptible and thousands upon thousands of innocent 00:14:03.539 --> 00:14:06.299 people died as a direct secondary consequence 00:14:06.299 --> 00:14:08.679 of this military campaign. It's just a tragic 00:14:08.679 --> 00:14:10.639 reality of how war consumes everything around 00:14:10.639 --> 00:14:13.610 it. And yet amidst that total devastation, the 00:14:13.610 --> 00:14:15.570 military campaign itself kept going. The Allied 00:14:15.570 --> 00:14:18.169 forces kept tightening the noose. They did. They 00:14:18.169 --> 00:14:20.110 had taken the coast. They controlled the central 00:14:20.110 --> 00:14:22.649 railway and they pushed into the west of the 00:14:22.649 --> 00:14:25.990 colony. German East Africa was officially declared 00:14:25.990 --> 00:14:28.929 an Allied protectorate. Here's where it gets 00:14:28.929 --> 00:14:31.269 really interesting. Definitely. Because Leto 00:14:31.269 --> 00:14:34.990 Vorbeck looks at a map where he has zero friendly 00:14:34.990 --> 00:14:38.210 territory left and he decides to literally march 00:14:38.210 --> 00:14:41.519 off the grid. In November 1917, with his remaining 00:14:41.519 --> 00:14:44.059 troops on half rations and effectively surrounded, 00:14:44.220 --> 00:14:47.059 he doesn't surrender. Instead, he wades across 00:14:47.059 --> 00:14:50.539 the Ruvuma River and invades Portuguese Mozambique. 00:14:50.539 --> 00:14:52.879 He just marches right in. He completely severs 00:14:52.879 --> 00:14:55.350 his own supply lines. You have to understand 00:14:55.350 --> 00:14:57.389 the scale of this movement. This wasn't a standard 00:14:57.389 --> 00:15:00.190 army anymore. It was a completely independent, 00:15:00.509 --> 00:15:03.970 rogue, caravan of European officers, Ascari soldiers, 00:15:04.210 --> 00:15:06.450 porters, women and children marching hundreds 00:15:06.450 --> 00:15:09.330 of miles into hostile, unmapped territory. On 00:15:09.330 --> 00:15:11.649 their very first day across the river, they attack 00:15:11.649 --> 00:15:14.330 the Portuguese garrison of Nugomano for no other 00:15:14.330 --> 00:15:16.649 reason than to steal their food. Just to eat. 00:15:16.769 --> 00:15:19.100 They become a roaming nation of survivors. They 00:15:19.100 --> 00:15:21.740 lived entirely off what they could capture. When 00:15:21.740 --> 00:15:23.639 malaria threatened to wipe them out, they tracked 00:15:23.639 --> 00:15:26.720 down and captured a river steamer specifically 00:15:26.720 --> 00:15:29.500 to raid its medical supplies for quinine. Wow. 00:15:29.779 --> 00:15:32.179 They captured new rifles, heavy machine guns, 00:15:32.580 --> 00:15:34.779 and mortars from the forces hunting them. They 00:15:34.779 --> 00:15:37.860 just kept moving, striking out of the bush, taking 00:15:37.860 --> 00:15:40.179 what they needed, and melting back into the jungle. 00:15:40.429 --> 00:15:43.289 And they moved so relentlessly and so far off 00:15:43.289 --> 00:15:45.370 the communications grid that he was actually 00:15:45.370 --> 00:15:47.730 still fighting after World War One ended in Europe. 00:15:48.230 --> 00:15:50.509 Yes. The global armistice was signed on November 00:15:50.509 --> 00:15:55.470 11th, 1918. Two days later, on November 13th, 00:15:55.590 --> 00:15:58.429 Leto Vorbeck is still on the offensive, capturing 00:15:58.429 --> 00:16:01.309 the town of Kasama in northern Rhodesia. He had 00:16:01.309 --> 00:16:04.250 evaded a massive British ambush, crossed all 00:16:04.250 --> 00:16:06.529 the way back into Germany, East Africa, pivoted 00:16:06.529 --> 00:16:08.929 west and just kept attacking. He had no idea. 00:16:09.100 --> 00:16:11.200 The communication lines in the deep bush were 00:16:11.200 --> 00:16:13.340 so slow that he had absolutely no idea the German 00:16:13.340 --> 00:16:15.779 Empire had already collapsed. He only finally 00:16:15.779 --> 00:16:18.779 stops his war on the morning of November 14th 00:16:18.779 --> 00:16:21.639 when he reaches the Chambechee River. A British 00:16:21.639 --> 00:16:24.179 magistrate named Hector Crowde actually has to 00:16:24.179 --> 00:16:26.860 walk out to him under a white flag just to inform 00:16:26.860 --> 00:16:29.120 him that the global conflict was over. Finally. 00:16:29.299 --> 00:16:31.340 Yeah. He formally surrendered his army, which 00:16:31.340 --> 00:16:33.940 by that point was withered down to just 30 German 00:16:33.940 --> 00:16:37.960 officers, 125 non -commissioned officers, 11 00:16:37.960 --> 00:16:41.679 on turn 68 Ascari's and about three or 500 porters 00:16:41.679 --> 00:16:44.230 a few weeks later. Which brings us back to that 00:16:44.230 --> 00:16:46.809 intense, almost terrifying loyalty we discussed 00:16:46.809 --> 00:16:49.590 earlier. When the British transferred the disarmed 00:16:49.590 --> 00:16:53.070 German prisoners to a POW camp in Dar es Salaam, 00:16:53.230 --> 00:16:55.590 Leto Vorbeck fought tirelessly with the British 00:16:55.590 --> 00:16:57.769 command to get his Iskaris released early so 00:16:57.769 --> 00:16:59.789 they could return to their remaining families. 00:17:00.190 --> 00:17:02.309 And the parting between him and his troops is 00:17:02.309 --> 00:17:04.289 described in the sources as deeply emotional. 00:17:05.040 --> 00:17:07.599 before they were separated and a scary soldier 00:17:07.599 --> 00:17:09.619 reportedly cried out to him, where do you go 00:17:09.619 --> 00:17:12.079 now? Where you go, we will go with you. And if 00:17:12.079 --> 00:17:13.819 this is not the time, then wait until my son 00:17:13.819 --> 00:17:15.819 grows up to be a warrior and he will take my 00:17:15.819 --> 00:17:18.220 place and go with you. It's powerful. He had 00:17:18.220 --> 00:17:20.400 fundamentally changed how these men viewed their 00:17:20.400 --> 00:17:22.670 allegiance. The historical accounts note that 00:17:22.670 --> 00:17:25.250 almost to a man, the Asgari stepped forward, 00:17:25.309 --> 00:17:27.849 ready to follow him into permanent exile if necessary. 00:17:28.609 --> 00:17:31.049 But Leto Vorbeck held them back with a simple 00:17:31.049 --> 00:17:34.289 gesture, turned and kept marching into captivity. 00:17:35.049 --> 00:17:36.910 So what does this all mean for him when he finally 00:17:36.910 --> 00:17:40.130 returns home? Well, it's complicated. In early 00:17:40.130 --> 00:17:43.690 March 1919, he arrives in Germany to an absolutely 00:17:43.690 --> 00:17:46.960 massive hero's welcome. He is famously the only 00:17:46.960 --> 00:17:49.539 German commander to successfully invade the British 00:17:49.539 --> 00:17:52.019 Empire during the entire war. Right. He leads 00:17:52.019 --> 00:17:54.700 his veterans still wearing their tattered tropical 00:17:54.700 --> 00:17:58.019 uniforms on a massive victory parade right through 00:17:58.019 --> 00:18:00.779 the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. But the Germany 00:18:00.779 --> 00:18:03.920 he returns to is entirely fractured. The Weimar 00:18:03.920 --> 00:18:06.779 Republic is volatile, chaotic and teetering on 00:18:06.779 --> 00:18:09.180 the edge of civil war. He stays in the military 00:18:09.180 --> 00:18:11.960 briefly, commanding troops that brutally put 00:18:11.960 --> 00:18:14.839 down the Spartacist uprising, which was a major 00:18:14.839 --> 00:18:17.519 communist strike in Hamburg. But shortly after, 00:18:17.599 --> 00:18:20.420 he gets involved in the Cap Putsch in 1920. This 00:18:20.420 --> 00:18:22.980 was an intense right wing attempt to overthrow 00:18:22.980 --> 00:18:26.670 the Weimar government. The push fails, and his 00:18:26.670 --> 00:18:28.829 involvement ends up costing him his military 00:18:28.829 --> 00:18:31.410 commission. He's forced out and ends up working 00:18:31.410 --> 00:18:34.369 as an import -export manager in Bremen. And during 00:18:34.369 --> 00:18:36.650 this interwar period, he makes these incredibly 00:18:36.650 --> 00:18:40.509 strange bedfellas. He really does. In 1926, he 00:18:40.509 --> 00:18:42.690 has a cordial meeting with British intelligence 00:18:42.690 --> 00:18:46.480 Colonel Richard Minertogen, the exact guy. who 00:18:46.480 --> 00:18:49.200 spent years hunting him through the African bush. 00:18:49.539 --> 00:18:52.299 It's wild. A few years later, he goes to London 00:18:52.299 --> 00:18:55.460 and sits down face -to -face with General Jan 00:18:55.460 --> 00:18:58.619 Smuts, the primary Allied commander who orchestrated 00:18:58.619 --> 00:19:01.319 that devastating squeeze on his forces. They 00:19:01.319 --> 00:19:03.420 actually form a lasting, lifelong friendship. 00:19:03.480 --> 00:19:05.720 They do. When Lettow -Vorbeck was completely 00:19:05.720 --> 00:19:08.119 destitute after World War II, his house having 00:19:08.119 --> 00:19:10.640 been destroyed by Allied bombs, it was Smuts 00:19:10.640 --> 00:19:13.420 and Minertogen who secretly sent him food packages 00:19:13.420 --> 00:19:16.170 and money to keep him alive. It is a striking 00:19:16.170 --> 00:19:19.170 example of how the mutual respect among these 00:19:19.170 --> 00:19:21.730 elite military commanders completely transcended 00:19:21.730 --> 00:19:23.869 the physical borders and the brutal wars they 00:19:23.869 --> 00:19:27.130 fought. They viewed each other as honorable adversaries. 00:19:27.690 --> 00:19:30.069 But his political life inside Germany becomes 00:19:30.069 --> 00:19:33.410 incredibly fraught, especially as the 1930s approach 00:19:33.410 --> 00:19:35.970 and the shadow of the Third Reich begins to rise. 00:19:36.450 --> 00:19:38.529 Now, again, just to reiterate, we are simply 00:19:38.529 --> 00:19:40.450 reporting the facts from the historical sources 00:19:40.450 --> 00:19:45.269 here. Yes. In 1933, Adolf Hitler actively courted 00:19:45.269 --> 00:19:48.450 Leto Vorbeck. Hitler recognized the PR value 00:19:48.450 --> 00:19:51.390 as a famous lion of Africa and wanted him to 00:19:51.390 --> 00:19:54.470 legitimize the growing Nazi movement. Hitler 00:19:54.470 --> 00:19:56.750 actually offered him the position of head of 00:19:56.750 --> 00:20:00.180 the right colonial ministry. But Leto Warbeck 00:20:00.180 --> 00:20:02.839 declined the offer. He served as a conservative 00:20:02.839 --> 00:20:05.359 Reichstag deputy for a while, but left his political 00:20:05.359 --> 00:20:08.160 party when he felt it veered too far right. The 00:20:08.160 --> 00:20:10.660 research indicates he intensely distrusted Hitler 00:20:10.660 --> 00:20:13.680 in the broader movement. He even formally protested 00:20:13.680 --> 00:20:16.160 to President Hindenburg against the Nazi dismissal 00:20:16.160 --> 00:20:18.420 of a police colonel in his home city of Bremen. 00:20:18.660 --> 00:20:20.859 However, our sources make it clear that he didn't 00:20:20.859 --> 00:20:23.259 entirely distance himself from the regime. He 00:20:23.259 --> 00:20:26.119 became a member of the SA in 1933 after a dispute 00:20:26.119 --> 00:20:28.660 over Veterans Association, and he frequently 00:20:28.660 --> 00:20:31.240 appeared at colonial rallies where his conduct 00:20:31.240 --> 00:20:33.799 in East Africa was held up as an exemplary model 00:20:33.799 --> 00:20:36.359 of German soldiery. He was celebrated by the 00:20:36.359 --> 00:20:38.980 state propaganda machine for a time, and Hitler 00:20:38.980 --> 00:20:41.619 even awarded him an honorary general's rank in 00:20:41.619 --> 00:20:44.500 1939. What's fascinating here, though, is the 00:20:44.500 --> 00:20:47.319 deep ideological core of his conflict with the 00:20:47.319 --> 00:20:49.779 Nazi elite, particularly Joseph Goebbels. Oh, 00:20:49.859 --> 00:20:51.779 this part is really interesting. Yeah, Letta 00:20:51.779 --> 00:20:54.480 Vorbeck was constantly promoting what historians 00:20:54.480 --> 00:20:57.890 call the Ascari myth. In his speeches and writings, 00:20:58.269 --> 00:21:01.230 he loudly and continuously emphasized the extreme 00:21:01.230 --> 00:21:04.589 loyalty, the intelligence, and the military capability 00:21:04.589 --> 00:21:07.970 of his African soldiers. He genuinely believed 00:21:07.970 --> 00:21:10.029 that the Iskari could undergo what he called 00:21:10.029 --> 00:21:12.730 Germanization and stand shoulder to shoulder 00:21:12.730 --> 00:21:16.299 with European troops. And that belief violently 00:21:16.299 --> 00:21:19.740 collided with rigid Nazi racial doctrine. Absolutely. 00:21:20.160 --> 00:21:22.539 The Nazi ideology outright denied that Africans 00:21:22.539 --> 00:21:25.160 had any inherent adaptability or educability. 00:21:25.819 --> 00:21:28.140 Because Leto Vorbeck aggressively refused to 00:21:28.140 --> 00:21:31.039 stop praising his black soldiers, he simply didn't 00:21:31.039 --> 00:21:33.200 embody the racial conformity the Nazis demanded. 00:21:33.420 --> 00:21:35.700 They couldn't use him. Goebbels absolutely hated 00:21:35.700 --> 00:21:39.180 him. Goebbels wrote in his diary in 1938, calling 00:21:39.180 --> 00:21:41.500 him a reactionary who was stirring up trouble. 00:21:41.660 --> 00:21:44.740 and actually had Lechel Vorbeck banned from public 00:21:44.740 --> 00:21:47.400 speaking. By the time World War II started, he 00:21:47.400 --> 00:21:49.440 was considered politically useless to the party. 00:21:50.160 --> 00:21:52.799 He survives the Second World War, going from 00:21:52.799 --> 00:21:55.740 absolute destitution back to comfortable circumstances 00:21:55.740 --> 00:21:58.099 during the post -war West German economic boom. 00:21:58.779 --> 00:22:01.359 He lives a remarkably long life, passing away 00:22:01.359 --> 00:22:04.880 in 1964, just 11 days shy of his 94th birthday. 00:22:05.099 --> 00:22:06.920 And his funeral in West Germany was a massive 00:22:06.920 --> 00:22:09.430 state affair. The West German Minister of Defense 00:22:09.430 --> 00:22:12.289 gave the eulogy, declaring he was truly undefeated 00:22:12.289 --> 00:22:14.430 in the field. Right. The government actually 00:22:14.430 --> 00:22:16.849 flew in two of his former Askaris from Africa 00:22:16.849 --> 00:22:19.990 as official state guests to attend. Which serves 00:22:19.990 --> 00:22:22.430 as a perfect bridge to the most incredible coda 00:22:22.430 --> 00:22:24.710 of this entire story, an event that happened 00:22:24.710 --> 00:22:28.990 that exact same year in 1964. The 1964 Broom 00:22:28.990 --> 00:22:31.109 Drill. Yes. The West German government finally 00:22:31.109 --> 00:22:33.750 votes to issue backdated military pay to all 00:22:33.750 --> 00:22:35.710 the surviving Askaris who fought for Germany 00:22:35.710 --> 00:22:38.930 during World War I. They set up a temporary cashier's 00:22:38.930 --> 00:22:40.970 office in Wanza, right on the shores of Lake 00:22:40.970 --> 00:22:45.309 Victoria in Africa. About 350 elderly former 00:22:45.309 --> 00:22:48.109 soldiers gather there to claim their pensions. 00:22:48.470 --> 00:22:51.430 But the German bankers hit a massive administrative 00:22:51.430 --> 00:22:54.410 wall. Almost none of these men have official 00:22:54.410 --> 00:22:57.450 paperwork. Of course not. A few have frayed certificates 00:22:57.450 --> 00:23:00.430 from 1918, but most are just holding up scraps 00:23:00.430 --> 00:23:02.950 of faded uniforms, trying to prove they actually 00:23:02.950 --> 00:23:05.579 served. How do you verify the service of an army 00:23:05.579 --> 00:23:08.240 that hasn't existed for nearly 50 years? The 00:23:08.240 --> 00:23:10.680 German banker in charge comes up with an incredibly 00:23:10.680 --> 00:23:13.700 unorthodox, entirely physical test. Right. He 00:23:13.700 --> 00:23:16.960 hands each elderly claimant a standard sweeping 00:23:16.960 --> 00:23:20.079 broom. And he orders them, barking the commands 00:23:20.079 --> 00:23:22.900 in German, to perform the manual of arms drills. 00:23:22.980 --> 00:23:25.420 With a broom. With a broom. These are the highly 00:23:25.420 --> 00:23:28.200 precise, complex military rifle exercises they 00:23:28.200 --> 00:23:30.000 would have been taught in the bush a half century 00:23:30.000 --> 00:23:33.500 earlier. Out of 350 men, not a single one failed 00:23:33.500 --> 00:23:36.539 the test. That is just, wow. Over 40 years later, 00:23:36.640 --> 00:23:38.599 the muscle memory, the German commands, and the 00:23:38.599 --> 00:23:40.759 intense discipline instilled by Letao Vorbeck 00:23:40.759 --> 00:23:43.339 were entirely intact. They all received their 00:23:43.339 --> 00:23:45.220 back pay. It's an image that just stays with 00:23:45.220 --> 00:23:47.579 you. This raises an important question, though, 00:23:47.619 --> 00:23:50.759 about how we contextualize his legacy. On one 00:23:50.759 --> 00:23:53.579 hand, you have a tactical genius who undeniably 00:23:53.579 --> 00:23:55.859 respected the men who served directly under him, 00:23:56.319 --> 00:23:58.359 crossing racial and cultural boundaries in ways 00:23:58.359 --> 00:24:00.799 his European contemporaries simply didn't even 00:24:00.799 --> 00:24:04.099 consider. Right. Yet on the other hand, his absolute 00:24:04.099 --> 00:24:07.539 unyielding ambition to tie down allied forces 00:24:07.539 --> 00:24:10.460 devastated the very homeland of the men who followed 00:24:10.460 --> 00:24:13.480 him, causing famine, disease, and death on a 00:24:13.480 --> 00:24:16.660 catastrophic scale. It is the ultimate historical 00:24:16.660 --> 00:24:19.380 case study in the profound power of adaptability 00:24:19.380 --> 00:24:22.180 and loyalty balanced heavily against the terrible, 00:24:22.559 --> 00:24:25.140 indecriminate, collateral damage of war. It is 00:24:25.140 --> 00:24:27.500 a lot to process. As we wrap up, we want to leave 00:24:27.500 --> 00:24:29.880 you, the listener, with one final incredibly 00:24:29.880 --> 00:24:31.519 provocative thought from the source material 00:24:31.519 --> 00:24:34.660 to mull over on your own. During the end of colonialism 00:24:34.660 --> 00:24:37.119 in Africa, several political activists who were 00:24:37.119 --> 00:24:38.920 fighting for the independence of Tanganyika, 00:24:39.000 --> 00:24:40.839 the very land the Leto of Warbeck had fought 00:24:40.839 --> 00:24:43.700 so ruthlessly to keep under German control, actually 00:24:43.700 --> 00:24:46.400 traveled to Germany to seek his advice. Incredible. 00:24:46.680 --> 00:24:48.980 And these independence activists were the actual 00:24:48.720 --> 00:24:52.200 sons of his original Ascari soldiers. Wow. So 00:24:52.200 --> 00:24:55.660 the question is this, how does the intense discipline, 00:24:56.039 --> 00:24:58.579 the brutal self -reliance, and the mutual respect 00:24:58.579 --> 00:25:02.059 forged by a colonial military commander paradoxically 00:25:02.059 --> 00:25:04.700 plant the seeds for the very movements that eventually 00:25:04.700 --> 00:25:07.299 rise up to dismantle that same colonial rule? 00:25:07.500 --> 00:25:09.980 It's a fascinating paradox. Think about that. 00:25:10.240 --> 00:25:11.759 Thanks for joining us on this deep dive. We'll 00:25:11.759 --> 00:25:12.339 see you next time.