The Forgotten Front: The East African Campaign 1914-1918

World War I began in East Africa in July, 1914, and did not end until November 13, 1918. In its scale and impact, it was the largest conflict yet to take place on African soil. Four empires and their subject peoples were engaged in a conflict that ranged from modern Kenya in the north to Mozambique in the south. The campaign combined heroic human endeavor and terrible suffering set in some of the most difficult terrain in the world. The troops had to cope with extremes that ranged from arid deserts to tropical jungles, to formidable mountains, and almost always on inadequate rations. Yet the East African Front has languished in undeserved obscurity over the years, with many people only vaguely aware of its course of events. Ross Anderson details the strategic and political aims of the protagonists—it should be remembered that while it was part of WWI, this was also a colonial war.