
of Zambia
commemorates the final cessation of hostilities of World War I
, three days after the Armistice
in Europe
.
The Memorial
bears a plaque which reads:
On this spot at 7.30 am on Thursday 14th November 1918, General von Lettow-Vorbeck, commanding the German forces in East AfricaGerman East AfricaGerman East Africa was a German colony in East Africa, which included what are now :Burundi, :Rwanda and Tanganyika . Its area was , nearly three times the size of Germany today....
, heard from Mr Hector Croad, then District Commissioner KasamaKasama, ZambiaKasama is the capital of the Northern Province of Zambia, situated on the central-southern African plateau at an elevation of about 1400 m. Its population, according to the 2000 census, is approximately 200,000. It grew considerably in the 1970s and 1980s after construction of the TAZARA Railway...
of the signing of the ArmisticeArmisticeAn armistice is a situation in a war where the warring parties agree to stop fighting. It is not necessarily the end of a war, but may be just a cessation of hostilities while an attempt is made to negotiate a lasting peace...
by the German government, which provided for the unconditional evacuation of all German forces from East Africa.
A second plaque in the Bemba language
ends with the words
Twapela umuchinshi kuli bonse abashipa abalwile mu nkondo iyi
which means we honour all brave soldiers in this war.
When I read something saying I've not done anything as good as Catch-22 I'm tempted to reply, "Who has?"
It was love at first sight. The first time Yossarian saw the chaplain he fell madly in love with him.
The Texan turned out to be good-natured, generous and likeable. In three days no one could stand him.
"Open your eyes, Clevinger. It doesn't make a damned bit of difference who wins the war to someone who's dead."
Clevinger was dead. That was the basic flaw in his philosophy.
"The enemy is anybody who's going to get you killed, no matter which side he's on."
He had decided to live forever or die in the attempt, and his only mission each time he went up was to come down alive.
of Zambia
commemorates the final cessation of hostilities of World War I
, three days after the Armistice
in Europe
.
The reasons for the Memorial
The Memorialbears a plaque which reads:
On this spot at 7.30 am on Thursday 14th November 1918, General von Lettow-Vorbeck, commanding the German forces in East AfricaGerman East AfricaGerman East Africa was a German colony in East Africa, which included what are now :Burundi, :Rwanda and Tanganyika . Its area was , nearly three times the size of Germany today....
, heard from Mr Hector Croad, then District Commissioner KasamaKasama, ZambiaKasama is the capital of the Northern Province of Zambia, situated on the central-southern African plateau at an elevation of about 1400 m. Its population, according to the 2000 census, is approximately 200,000. It grew considerably in the 1970s and 1980s after construction of the TAZARA Railway...
of the signing of the ArmisticeArmisticeAn armistice is a situation in a war where the warring parties agree to stop fighting. It is not necessarily the end of a war, but may be just a cessation of hostilities while an attempt is made to negotiate a lasting peace...
by the German government, which provided for the unconditional evacuation of all German forces from East Africa.
A second plaque in the Bemba language
ends with the words
Twapela umuchinshi kuli bonse abashipa abalwile mu nkondo iyi
which means we honour all brave soldiers in this war. (More Africans than Europeans fought and died on both sides in the East African campaign
, thousands more Africans who served as porters (sometimes under force) also died, and the civilian population suffered tremendously).
The message given to General von Lettow-Vorbeck was a telegram sent to Croad which read:
Hence the Memorial marks the cessation of hostilities, not the surrender itself.
'Please send the following to General von Lettow-Vorbeck under a white flag - The English Prime Minister sent notice that on 11th November an Armistice was signed and that the fighting on all fronts should cease on 11th November at 11 o'clock. I order my troops to end hostilities as from now and I expect you to do the same. General van Deventer'.
Location
The location of the Memorial is near the north end of the Chambeshi Bridge (which was built later) on the Mpika-Kasama
road. Most accounts of the war say that Lettow-Vorbeck surrendered at Abercorn (now Mbala
), 250 km to the north, giving the impression that he penetrated just the few kilometres to Abercorn from German East Africa
, but that is only because he was instructed by the British
imperial commanders in Northern Rhodesia
to march his undefeated troops there for the official surrender on 23 November 1918.
Historical background
The British force had been waiting in the Abercorn area to attack the German forces coming from northern Mozambique, thinking they would make for Lake Tanganyika, but General von Lettow-Vorbeck had evaded them by turning south-west towards Kasama. Its tiny British population evacuated to Mpika, except for nine who set up two Maxim guns at the Chambeshi, but they did not know how to work them. One, Charlie Simpson, had with him about £10,000 which was all the cash from the government offices and buinesses in Kasama, which he buried in a goat pen near the rubber factory he ran, thinking that the goats' hoofprints would hide evidence of digging, and that the Germans would probably be more interested in the goats than looking for the money. On arrival at the Chambeshi the Germans machine-gunned the rubber factory before Croad arrived with the telegram.
If the war had gone on a few weeks longer, von Lettow-Vorbeck's rapid, light force could probably have reached the mines and railway in Katanga
or at Broken Hill (now Kabwe
) and all their supplies before General van Deventer could have caught up with him from the north.