Actually we all know that World War I ended with the armistice on 11 November 1918 at the "11th hour". However, I wanted to see the monument where the hostilities actually ended, in the "war to end all wars". We headed north through beautiful Zambia until we came to the Chambeshi River.
Today there is a railway bridge and a highway bridge, and in between there used to be an "old" highway bridge. Along the old highway a monument was built to commemorate the end of the fight of World War I.
After driving down a trail and past a few homes we found the monument.
The German army and the Rhodesian armies were chasing each other trying to gain more ground and advantage over the other. The Germans had stopped on this river when the British general got word and sent word to the general on the German side under a white flag that the Germans had surrendered unconditionally three days before and the fighting should now stop.
This is General Von Lettow Vorbeck who seemed to have a colorful life in the best of ways. He was never defeated in his military career. As a commander of mostly African troops he had the reputation of treating them as equals with his German troops. Upon his surrender he would not leave Africa until he was assured that his African troops would still be treated the same as the Germans. After his military career he worked to oppose the Nazi party and when Hitler offered him an appointment to "King James Court" as an ambassador to Great Britain, he told Adolf to commit an unnatural act with himself. This of course raised his standing in the Allied world. He died in 1964 and several of his African troops attended his funeral.
This monument is hard to find but an interesting part of Zambia's history.
After paying our park fee and chatting with the locals we again turned north.
Work is never done, especially if you need wood to cook dinner.
Railroad tracks are straight and the things hiding in the grass are not so close if you use them.
We need to find our boatmen before the sun sets on Lake Tanganyika.
