Armies in East Africa 1914-18

Men-At-Arms 379
By Peter Abbott
Colour Plates by Raffaele Ruggeri
Osprey Publishing Ltd, 2002
1-84176-489-2
48 pages, softbound

Reviewed by John Prigent

This is definitely "African Queen" territory – or "Shout at the Devil" if you’ve never seen the Bogart film. The Great War was fought in East Africa, but not quite as shown in the movies. Here is a splendid reference to a little-known campaign, in which Paul von Lettow Vorbeck tied down British, Portuguese, Belgian and Indian troops for the whole duration of the war, only surrendering after the Armistice in Europe.

So we’re looking at a major campaign area, stretching over a large slice of the African continent and involving troops from many units. The famous Kings African Rifles, of course, plus their German, Belgian and Portuguese equivalents as well as European, Indian and even West Indian units. The course of the fighting is described, and the uniforms are shown in photographs as well as in colour plates that are almost photographic in quality. Figure modellers will find a lot of new subjects here – highly recommended for pure originality!