Peruvian Officer in GEA Schutztruppe during WW1????

[Cristiano de S.O Campos]

I Found one weird history of a Peruvian officer who joined in East Africa Schutztruppe.

Your name is Julio Cesar Guerrero

Write in spanish
https://lsiabala.wordpress.com/tag/ludendorff/

Is this story true? I think it's unbelievable.

Cheers

Cristiano

[Tanzania]

Hi Cristiano,

Many thanks for this very interesting sounding link. I like this `small´ individual personal stories

I translated (in a very rough way, by Google) the Spanish explanations also for other readers. I hope the content is
understandable into English, because I didn´t reviewed it further. The German translation is qualitatively very similar.

Majestic and legendary is the figure and character of this Peruvian officer of the artillery gun, master in the art of guerrilla warfare.
The greater the oblivion of national history, the fame of it, hidden by curtains of ingratitude, inopia, and stupidity, grows with the years within the few circles of those who are present to it and we respect its memory. There is a debt to him.
Neither his stupendous military training, the severe combat experience gained in remarkable international campaigns, his mastery of the German language, and didactic gifts would suffice for him to be recognized merits he never sought; Nor the infrequent but unique fact that during his stay in Prussia as an adjutant of the Peruvian diplomatic minister, General Andrés A. Cáceres, so admired by Kaiser Wilhelm II and at the behest of this emperor, he took the lead of the German military magazine In addition, he was acting as coordinator of the German general staff, under the command of General Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbecken, who had been entrusted with the defense of the German colonies in Central Africa, Cameroon and Tanganyika, present-day Tanzania, in the Great War; These facts would be insufficient or the cause, we add, so that posterity does not want to recognize its singular importance.
His experience in attack and resistance with guerrillas includes a vast campaign scene, which for the most exciting, there is not enough room to pay homage; Nor is it necessary to pretend to make history of them all: Russian front of the Masurian Lakes; His contact with the generals Hindenburg and Ludendorff and the victory of Tannenberg; His participation as an adviser in the Bolivian War against Paraguay, called the Chaco War; Maneuvers of the German army in Europe, in the guerrillas of China; etc.; etc.
I wish to concretise my valuable activity in Prussia during the Great War.

World War I, Central Africa
Major Julio C. Guerrero joined the troops of the Deutsche-Afrika Schutztruppe (German Protection Force of Africa) who in 1914 were already in German East Africa under the colonel's command, then General Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck, Who counted only on the few forces of the zone, about 3000 soldiers supported by 12 companies of native warriors or askaris.
The British colonial forces of Rhodesia, reinforced by heavily equipped expeditionary troops from the metropolis, were a severe threat. Germany was striving for a long front in Europe and it was not possible to distract elements; By these considerations and using the practical sense of the German economy and efficiency would operate von Lettow-Vorbecken.
The participation of the Peruvian military in his capacity as coordinator of the staff was important then, since he had learned the school acquired in Peru and taught by General Andrés A. Cáceres in his resistance of the Breña during the War of the Saltpeter (1879- 1883), an experience rich in organization, logistical conception and shock of surprise that made him famous against the Chilean invader in the highlands of Central Peru, very useful therefore to the skilled von Lettow, penetrated by the audacious tactics of General Andrés A. Cáceres, as you can see in the following link. (Resistance and assault on Conception)

Von Lettow-Vorbeck, at the outbreak of the war in Europe, is deaf to the Berlin Mandates of being on the defensive, for in the field of military operations he was convinced that the only possibility of victory was a certain attack on the enemy Which surrounded the German possessions, before he was prepared to repel it, that is to say, an application of decisive concepts of foresight, anticipation, and speed.
In November 1914, British colonial troops began an amphibious attack on the city of Tanga, at the foot of the famous Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa, which would become the greatest battle of World War I on African soil but were Defeated by those few German troops that victorious happened to the attack of the lines of the railroad constructed by the British.
On January 18, 1915, this highly effective corps, though scarce of men and supplies, defeated the British again at the Battle of Jassin. These initial victories allowed him to capture new weapons and provisions to the enemy with which he could better supply the small army, but at the cost of considerable casualties.
At the Battle of Tanga in 1914 - Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck's greatest victory in Africa - that German body was seriously diminished in men and equipment, forcing it to change its strategy, replacing direct fighting by the guerrilla war against The British from their colonies in Kenya and Rhodesia. Here Major Julio Guerrero would recommend, put into practice, collaborate with the plans and acquire, by reciprocity, a greater experience in the science of guerrilla warfare, composed also of native soldiers, taken, of course, from the great Peruvian experience , Scarcely 32 years before against the Chilean invader in the heights of the central highlands.
With the clear purpose of giving relief and facilitating the German victory on the Western European front, the successful General von Lettow, made numerous and surprising attacks against fortifications, rail lines and communications to force also the British to send more men and arms To Africa at the cost of removing them from Europe.
In March 1916, when the British launched a new offensive with 45,000 men, the Germans again took advantage of their knowledge of the terrain to ambush the enemy, inflicting severe defeat on Mahiwa in October 1917; There the British lost 1600 men and the Germans only 100, proving how effective it is, despite the contingencies, a handful of soldiers skilfully led with a super staff support.
On November 13, 1918, two days after the surrender of Germany, unconditionally, these veteran guerrilla soldiers returned to defeat the British in Kasama. Finally, informed Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck that the German surrender was a fact his troops surrendered the arms in Abercorn, at the moment Zambia.

Corollary
His old age was spent in his modest home in Cajamarca, surrounded by his family and a considerable library that included, among valuable books, over sixty edited and unpublished works, Guerrilla Warfare and Belicology that offered them to the Army as a donation, gesture Treated with disdain by those who in the 1970s were in charge of Army affairs, a clear sign of envy and pettiness, under the pretext of intonous lack of money; Finally the Central American publisher Carlos Milla Batres bought the books and copyrights of our biography, with no known editorial result. Great library that should belong to the nation.
The same negative sentiment caused that the illustrious Guerrero, author among other works: Memoirs of General Andrés A. Cáceres and The War of the Lost Occasions, and celebrated lecturer in matter of resistance and guerrilla, would not be recognized his degrees of colonel of the army German and general of the Bolivian army.
He died in the modesty of his home, within poverty, at the age of 95 years and until the last of his days his pension of general was honored by the Congress of Bolivia.
It was, of course, a select Schwarzen Adler, (Black Eagle) of the Kaiser.

There are some cases in which foreign citizens stayed at the beginning of the war in German East Africa and later
also entered the Schutztruppe. The Austrians, Hungarians and South Africans were the most common, but also Turks
and Spanish, as well as locals from other colonies. A Peruvian military officer in the rank of a major, who was 1914 in
German East Africa was, in any case, not known to me.

Cheers Holger