During World War I, General Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck was the only military commander throughout the German Empire to remain undefeated. This fame was achieved thanks to his strenuous and unexpected resistance in German East Africa, under attack from multiple fronts and by multiple armies simultaneously. Thanks to the unexpected duration of the East African campaign, the General became a hero to the German nation for decades to come, so much so that he was also the only military commander to be greeted with his men in triumph at the Brandenburg Gate in March 1919.

At the outbreak of World War I on July 28, 1914, the European countries of the Entente and the Central Powers mobilised hastily to begin a war that would last four long years and whose major theatre would be Europe. Many forget, however, that theatres of war also existed in colonial territories around the world that were under German rule. In the first months of the war, the German Reich lost its colonies in Togo and the Pacific Islands, while Cameroon held out until 1916 and Southwest Africa until 1915. The anomalous case was German East Africa (present-day Tanzania), where General von Lettow-Vorbeck managed to hold out until the end of the war, undefeated by the combined attacks of the British, Belgians, and Portuguese, who held colonies bordering German territories.

The General's feat appears even more astonishing when we look at the numbers: von Lettow-Vorbeck resisted for four years with only 14,000 men, most of whom were Askaris (troops recruited from the local population), against a total of 160,000 British soldiers, 30,000 South Africans, and various Portuguese and Belgian contingents. All this seems almost absurd when we read a firsthand account by the General stating that it occurred with an almost total lack of supplies from Germany. Indeed, the tactic adopted by German soldiers in Africa was guerrilla warfare, which they consistently used to overwhelm the far larger enemy armies.

Von Lettow-Vorbeck's willingness to commit as many Entente troops as possible for as long as possible, and his awareness of the strategic importance of defended cities, also played a key role. Thus, this General accomplished one of the most remarkable military feats of the First World War, which is unfortunately almost always forgotten.