ABSTRACT
During World War I a young German general, Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck, with a small force of Germans and 11,000 native forces known as Askaris, successfully fought the 330,000-strong British imperial forces under South African commander Jan Smuts. At the 1914 Battle of Tanga, von Lettow-Vorbeck defeated a British unit that was eight times larger than his own force. Overall, von Lettow-Vorbeck was responsible for more than 60,000 causalities. After hearing that Germany surrendered, von Lettow-Vorbeck agreed to a cease-fire.
