[MEINERTZHAGEN, Col. Richard]. Intelligence Notes on British and German East Africa. Prepared by the Intelligence Department, British East Africa. [Nairobi, Command Headquarters], December 1915.
8vo. Original cloth-backed printed boards; pp. [4], iv, 129 (including pp. 46A-46E on three additional leaves), page 16 with printed errata slip; binding a little spotted and worn as usual; wire-stitching a little oxidized; a good copy of a very rare title with three loosely inserted contemporary original photographs (Hotel Kigoma, Indian Temple Nairobi and Indian Bazaar in Nairobi), a few ms. annotations concerning the presence of lions to text.
First edition of this restricted military publication, based on Meinertzhagen's reconnaissance operations behind enemy lines. At the start of the First World War in 1914 he was made intelligence officer to the Tanga expeditionary force. In his Army Diary Meinertzhagen described his DPM (Dirty Paper Method) of intelligence gathering. 'I found that the contents of German officers' latrines were a constant source of filthy though accurate information as odd pieces of paper containing messages, notes on enciphering and decoding, and private letters were often used where lavatory paper did not exist. By June 1915 I had collected, through captured documents and DPM, the signatures and occupations of almost every German employed in German East. These were reproduced and distributed to every officer, so that when a paper with a signature came into their hands they would know who it was and what his job was' (p. 127).
COPAC locates only digitized versions, based on the copy housed in the National Archives; the Imperial War Museum holds a 'laminate copy'.
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