WI Lettow-Vorbeck in German Southwest Africa?

WI German Southwest Africa had been the arena for Lettow-Vorbeck’s extraordinary military abilities instead of German East Africa? Would he have been a greater potential threat to the British than in OTL?

By being next door to South Africa, Lettow-Vorbeck could possibly have coordinated with the many disgruntled Boers (the Boer War had only been over for 12 years and resentment against the British was still high) who had recent experience fighting the British army. IN OTL there was a brief Boer revolt which the British quickly put down for comparison.

Could South Africa have possibly been destabilized enough to divert an even greater number of British troops and ships to this theatre than was the case in OTL German East Africa?

Conversely, due to the Herero war, could Lettow-Vorbeck have generated the same degree of loyalty and effectiveness from the native inhabitants of German Southwest Africa as he did OTL from the Askaris in German East Africa which enabled the Germans to hold out against incredible odds?

Could Germany have possibly more easily supplied their colonial forces in German Southwest Africa (on the Atlantic) via U-Boats than the much further (on the Indian Ocean) German East Africa? The definite lack of adequate harbors in the Atlantic colony and the strong British naval control of them would seem to suggest no.

Anyway, this one man made a significant difference in German East Africa, not only the only German colony whose fighting forces remained in combat to the end of the war but even outlasting the German forces in Europe. Could Lettow-Vorbeck have accomplished the same feat in German Southwest Africa?
 

MacCaulay

Banned
Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck is AWESOME.

It always seemed to me that his abilities lay in being able to take the war to the enemy, and keep it in the enemy's back yard, so to speak.

By the time the war ended, his troops didn't even have any German weapons left. They were all British, Belgian, and Portuguese. But myself, I kind of think that the jungle worked to his advantage more than the veldt would have.

Remember that when the South African Army operated in South-West Africa in the 1970s and 80s, they were able to navigate fairly well, and were able to deal with the wildlife.

The diseases and such that attacked the British and Indian troops that followed Lettow-Vorbeck's German and Territorial forces into the Congolese jungle were present in South-West Africa, but not in such massive amounts, primarily because of the massively different terrain.
The kind of war that he fought, and the kinds of tools he had to fight it with, were exquistely suited to where he was.
 
By being next door to South Africa, Lettow-Vorbeck could possibly have coordinated with the many disgruntled Boers (the Boer War had only been over for 12 years and resentment against the British was still high) who had recent experience fighting the British army. IN OTL there was a brief Boer revolt which the British quickly put down for comparison.

The British had nothing to do with putting down the revolt. The revolt was put down by the South African government, which was led by two Afrikaners, or Boers if you like, Louis Botha and Jan Smuts.
 
The British had nothing to do with putting down the revolt. The revolt was put down by the South African government, which was led by two Afrikaners, or Boers if you like, Louis Botha and Jan Smuts.

Beat me to it.

Now, as far as Lettow-Vorbeck goes, in a TL I have, Germany keeps its colonies post-WWI, and Lettow-Vorbeck goes on to become the governor of German Southwest Africa, with dramatically different results than OTL. Heck, that TL has very different results for all of Sub-Saharan Africa. :D
 
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