Liners to troopships

摘要

Founded in 1891,Deutsche Ost-Afrika-Linie (DOAL) had been operating round-Africa passenger services since 1894 and by the early 1900s had built up a sizeable business. However, as was the case with most German shipping lines, the demands of the Treaty of Versailles meant that in 1919 it had to forfeit almost its entire fleet of 72 ships. To make matters worse, the German colonies in Africa were handed to France and Britain as League of Nations mandates.