George W. Bush breaks all records! 18% Approval Rating

[The Duchess of Zeon]

Shep, you're making the point it was a global war, and yet four of the ten pieces of supporting evidence you give are limited to Europe, while another four are very close to Europe, and the rest are simply land grabs and a single battle in China.

Part of it is that he failed to illustrate just how big the fighting in Africa was through at least the end of 1915 and possibly the begining of 1916. The German efforts to disrupt British positions in Africa led to one of the longest sustained gurellia campaings, or at least low intensity campagins, until the Chindin forces went into Japanese possesion in Burma during the next great upheaval. Moreover the Naval Campaign was truly worldwide and the fighting in both the Balck and Caspian seas regions (not to mention in the Middle East between the Ottoman's and Brits) certianly qualifies as an extension beyond Europe itself.

That said N and S America played essentially no part aside from Empire troops coming to British lines.

General Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck was actually in the process of launching a major invasion of British South Africa when he was informed that Germany had surrendered, in the middle of November of 1918. Not only had the fighting not finished, but he was strong enough to counterattack deep into the enemy territory--as he had done several times before. He was such an electric figure, fighting the British as the preeminent colonial power when the rule of Germany over East Africa had been humane and enlightened in comparison, and his use of black Askari troops and his excellent treatment of them, meant that the entire city of Dar-es-Salaam turned out in a great crowd to meet him, cheering through the streets, when he visited them post-independence in 1960 somewhat before his death to secure pensions for his combat veterans in the Askari forces, who showed up for the event turned out in their old German Army uniforms, lovingly maintained in the decades of British rule that had followed.

[Adrian Laguna]

In contrast, the British efforts in Africa were quite literally supported on the backs of native blacks. We're talking here about a supply train consisting entirely of black Africans carrying heavy gear on their backs across all sorts of hostile terrain and were rewarded with shit pay and shit treatment. The attrition rate among these laborers was staggering, about 1 in 4 didn't make it. For comparison, 20% casualties is often enough to severely cripple a front-line combat unit.

[Surlethe]

Huh. I did not know about the extent of the war in Africa; thanks, guys.