Battle for the Bundu; The First World War in East Africa

New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1974. First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. Good/Good. x, [2], 353, [3] pages. Illustrations. Endpaper maps. Bibliography. Index. DJ has some wear and soiling. Charles Miller (1918 - after 1977) was an American author of history books on East Africa such as The Lunatic Express, An Entertainment in Imperialism (1971) and Battle for the Bundu, The First World War in East Africa (1974). Miller lived in New York City and also wrote feature articles and book reviews for The Saturday Evening Post, Reader's Digest,The New Republic, and Saturday Review. Derived from a Kirkus review: Literally fighting through thorns in the East African interior, a quarter of a million Belgian and British forces failed to trap the small but elite Schutztruppe led by Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck. Thus the Kaiser's Army succeeded in diverting the greatest possible number of Allied troops from Europe into four years of dust and disease and endless pursuit through the prickly bundu of enemies composed mainly of natives from the local ""black master race."" Far better supplied, in control of the seas and coastal waters, von Lettow's opponent General Smuts remained an unimaginative strategist, and when the Allies finally got their classic fixed battle, 2,700 men were lost -- and von Lettow escaped to maraud elsewhere. This account is militarily sophisticated and also nostalgic for the old days of formal warfare.