Battle for Lake Tanganyika Part of the First World War, East African Campaign Lake Tanganyika, contested by the British and Germans Date December 1915 – February 1916 Location Lake Tanganyika Result British victory Belligerents United Kingdom  Belgian Congo Germany Commanders Geoffrey Spicer-Simson Gustav Zimmer Strength 3 motor boats 1 armed barge 1 whaler (and a steamer from January 1916) 3 steamers various minor craft Casualties and losses None 1 ship captured 1 ship sunk

v • d • e East African Campaign Zanzibar - Rufiji Delta - Kilimanjaro - Tanga - Jassin - Bukoba - Lake Tanganyika - Salaita - Latema Nek - Kahe - Kondoa Irangi - Dodoma - Mkalamo - Lukigura - Matamondo - Wami - Kilosa - Mlali - Morogoro - Kidodi - Dutumi - Kisaki - Njinjo - Kimbaramba - Kibata (1916) - Behobeho - Kibata (1917) - Mpotona - Utete - Nambanje - Kiawe Bridge - Rumbo - Narungombe - Mahiwa - Ngomano v • d • e The Command of the Oceans, 1914-1915 Battle of Zanzibar - Battle of Papeete – Bombardment of Madras - Bombardment of Fanning - Battle of Penang – Battle of Coronel – Battle of Cocos – Battle of Rufiji Delta – Battle of the Falkland Islands - Battle of Más a Tierra – Lake Tanganyika

The Battle for Lake Tanganyika was a series of naval engagements that took place between elements of the Royal Navy, Force Publique and the Kaiserliche Marine between December 1915 and February 1916, during the First World War. The intention was to secure control of the strategically important Lake Tanganyika, which had been dominated by German naval units since the beginning of the war. The British forces, consisting of two motor boats named HMS Mimi and HMS Toutou under the command of the eccentric Lieutenant-Commander Geoffrey Spicer-Simson, were transported to South Africa and from there by railway, river and by being dragged through the African jungle to the lake.

In two short engagements the small motor boats attacked and defeated two of their German opponents. In the first action, on 26 December 1915 the Kingani was damaged and captured, becoming HMS Fifi. In the second, the small flotilla overwhelmed and sank the Hedwig von Wissman. The Germans maintained a third large and heavily armed craft on the lake, the Graf von Götzen, but the two forces never met in battle. Developments in the land-based conflict caused the Germans to withdraw from the lake, and control of the surface of Lake Tanganyika passed to the British and Belgians.

[edit] Strategic situation

Lake Tanganyika lay between the Belgian Congo on the western side and German East Africa on the eastern side. By the start of the war the Germans had two warships on Lake Tanganyika, the 60-ton Hedwig von Wissman, and the 45-ton Kingani.^[1][2] The Hedwig von Wissman was quickly armed with four pom-pom guns taken from the scuttled survey ship Möwe and sailed out to the port of Lukuga on the Belgian side of the lake, where on 22 August she attacked the Belgian steamer Alexandre Del Commune, sinking her after two further raids.^[1] This gave the Germans unchallenged superiority on the lake, with their position strengthened further with the sinking of the British African Lakes Corporation's steamer Cecil Rhodes in a raid in November 1914.^[3] The Germans used their control of the lake to launch an attack on North Rhodesia, led by Major-General Kurt Wahle. This was beaten back, but further raids on Belgian territory and bombardments of Lukuga convinced the Belgians to support the British.^[4] Despite this undertaking there was little the Belgians or British could do to challenge the Germans. The Belgians had the components for a large steamer, the Baron Dhanis, which if it could be assembled would be considerably larger than either the Kingani or the Hedwig von Wissman, but did not dare to start construction on her while the Germans patrolled the lake for fear that she would destroyed before she could be launched.^[5] The British had sent two twelve-pounder guns to arm her with, but with little prospect of being able to launch her, the Belgians were instead using them as shore batteries to defend Lukuga.^[6]

German control of the lake was significant for the whole campaign in the central African theatre. While the British could muster troops to the south of the lake, and the Belgians had troops to the north, neither could push into German East Africa because of the risk that the Germans would use their boats to transport troops across the lake, and use them to cut their supply and communications lines.^[2]

[edit] Lee's plan

On 21 April 1915 John R. Lee, a big game hunter and veteran of the Second Boer War arrived at the Admiralty to meet with Admiral Sir Henry Jackson.^[7] Lee had been in Eastern Africa and had personally observed the German ships on Lake Tanganyika. He also brought the news that the Germans were preparing to launch a new ship from their fortified port of Kigoma.^[8][a] Named the Graf von Götzen she had been constructed at the Meyer shipyard at Papenburg, disassembled and packed into 5,000 crates and transported to Dar-es-Salaam. From there she had been brought by rail to Kigoma and assembled in secret.^[8] 220 feet long and displacing 1,575 tons she would cement German control of the lake and allow between 800 and 900 troops to be rapidly transported to any point on the lakeshore to raid into allied territory.^[9]

The Graf von Götzen, in her modern guise as the MV Liemba. She was considerably larger than any other vessel on the lake.

To counter this threat Lee proposed that motor gunboats be sent to Africa and transported through the interior to the lake.^[7] They would be small and highly manoeuvrable, and if armed with a gun of 7,000 yards range, could both outrun and outgun the larger German ships.^[10] Using small vessels that could be transported intact meant that they could be launched immediately onto the lake, without the risk of their being discovered by the Germans while they were being constructed, and being destroyed before they could be completed.^[11] Sir Henry considered the plan, and approved it with the words 'It is both the duty and the tradition of the Royal Navy to engage the enemy wherever there is water to float a ship.'^[5][12] Jackson passed the task of finalising the details of the operation to his junior, Admiral David Gamble. Gamble placed Lee in second in command of the expedition, and appointed Lieutenant-Commander Geoffrey Spicer-Simson in charge.^[2][10][12]

Spicer-Simson was a man described by Giles Foden as 'a man court-martialled for wrecking his own ships, an inveterate liar and a wearer of skirts.'^[13] He had reached the rank of lieutenant-commander but had not progressed further owing to a number of mistakes and disasters, which left him in a small office in the Admiralty assigned to helping with the process of transferring merchant seamen into the navy. In 1905 he had come up with the idea of stringing a cable between two destroyers to sweep for periscopes and nearly sank a submarine.^[14] He ran another ship aground while testing the defences of Portsmouth Harbour, and later collided with and sank a small boat, killing a man.^[14] By the outbreak of war he was in command of HMS Niger and a small flotilla at Ramsgate. He went ashore to entertain guests at a nearby hotel, from whose windows he watched Niger being torpedoed and sunk.^[12][14] He had nevertheless commanded a survey vessel on the Gambia River, and due a shortage of officers, was selected to take command.^[12] Lee went out to prepare the way through Africa, while Spicer-Simson assembled twenty-seven men and two motor boats that had been built by John I. Thornycroft & Company to fulfil an order made by the Greek government before the war.^[2][15]

[edit] Mimi and Toutou go forth

The British naval force consisted of two forty-foot motor boats. Spicer-Simson suggested they be named Cat and Dog, but the names were rejected by the Admiralty.^[15] Spicer-Simson then suggested Mimi and Toutou as alternatives, which were accepted. As he later explained these meant 'Miaow' and 'Bow-wow' in French.^[12][16] Their crews were assembled from acquaintances of Spicer-Simson, or from the ranks of the Royal Naval Reserve. Spicer-Simson proposed a number of improvements to the original design; they were cut down to improve their speed, Maxim guns and a 3-pdr Hotchkiss gun were fitted, though the Hotchkiss had to be fired from a kneeling position, and extra steel linings were added to the petrol tanks.^[16] The boats were tested on the Thames on 8 June, where arrangements had been made for Mimi to fire a practice shell from her 3-pounder. The shell hit the target, but both gun and gunner flew into the river, as the gun had not been properly bolted to the deck.^[17] The boats were loaded aboard the SS Llanstephen Castle on 15 June, along with special trailers and cradles to allow them to be transported by rail or overland, and the expedition's equipment and supplies.^[18] Once they arrived in South Africa they would have to be carried over 3,000 miles inland, including the traversing of an 1,800 meter high mountain range.^[7] Meanwhile on 8 June the Graf von Götzen was launched on Lake Tanganikya.^[19]

The first leg of Mimi and Toutou's 10,000 mile journey was completed after 17 days at sea and their arrival at the Cape. From Cape Town they and the men of the expedition travelled north by railway through Bulawayo to Elisabethville, where they arrived on 26 July.^[20][21] After travelling to the railhead at Fungurume, they were detrained and dragged 146 miles through the bush by teams of oxen and steam tractors to the beginnings of the railway from Sankisia to Bukama.^[22][23] At Bukama the boats and stores were unloaded and prepared for a voyage down the Lualaba River, which despite running aground several times and being forced to take passage on a Belgian river steamer they completed after sailing through Lake Kisale and arrived at Kabalo on 22 October.^[24][25] From there a small railway took them to just short of the Belgian port of Lukuga, on the shore of Lake Tanganyika.^[24] Here Spicer-Simson met the Belgian army commander, Commandant Stinghlamber, and the naval commander, Commandant Goor, and preparations were made to launch Mimi and Toutou and to seek out the Germans.^[26]

[edit] Belgian and German preparations

A map of German East Africa, with Lake Tanganyika at the extreme left

The Germans had made use of the loss of the survey ship Möwe by taking some of her crew, and men from the merchant ships of the Deutsch Ostafrika-Linie, and using them to man their ships.^[27] The German position on the lake had been further strengthened with the loss of the SMS Königsberg in the Rufiji River in July. Guns from the Königsberg arrived at the German base at Kigoma, and one was mounted on the Götzen by the German naval commander on the lake Captain Gustav Zimmer.^[28] Members of Königsberg's crew also made their way to join his forces, and Zimmer placed former crewmember Lieutenant Job Rosenthal in command of Kingani.^[29] Job Odebrecht commanded the Hedwig, while Zimmer himself commanded the Götzen.^[30]

Against this formidable force the Belgians could only muster a petrol-driven barge armed with two cannon named Dix-Tonne, a motor boat named Netta, and a whaler fitted with an outboard motor. Goor hoped to bring into commission the as-yet unassembled Baron Dhanis, and the hulk of the Alexandre del Commune, which had been sunk early in the war by the Hedwig.^[31] Zimmer may have been aware that the British were planning to launch ships on the lake, but he was also concerned that the Baron Dhanis might be assembled and launched.^[32] The 1,500-ton Baron Dhanis was not necessarily a threat to the Götzen in port, but he was determined to maintain his freedom of movement on the lake.^[28] Lacking concrete information he sent Rosenthal aboard the Kingani to reconnoitre Lukuga.^[33]

[edit] Rosenthal investigates

He made several passes and observed work underway on a new harbour at Kalemie, south of Lukuga, where Spicer-Simson intended to make his base.^[33][34] Still lacking detailed information on the enemy's movements, Kingani returned early on the morning of 1 December and attempted to approach the harbour. Rosenthal's vessel was spotted by the shore batteries and driven away, but returned the following night and Rosenthal himself swam to Lukuga to examine the slipways under construction.^[35] He also discovered the camps, where the British flag revealed the presence of Spicer-Simson and his expedition. Rosenthal travelled down the railway line and discovered both Mimi and Toutou, and the disassembled parts of the Baron Dhanis.^[35] Realising that the threat actually lay in the British vessels, he attempted to return to Kingani, but was unable to locate her in the dark. He attempted to conceal himself and hoped that Kingani would return at nightfall, but was discovered by a Belgian patrol and taken captive.^[33][36] While a prisoner he succeeded in sending a message, with a secret addendum written in urine to Zimmer warning him of what he had seen, but the message did not reach Kigoma for several months.^[33]

[edit] Mimi and Toutou are launched

The slipways at Kalemie were ready by mid-December and on 22 December Toutou was launched onto Lake Tanganyika, with Mimi following the next day.^[2][37][38] Final preparations were made on 24 December, including the fuelling and the fitting of guns, after which brief trials were made. On 26 December 1915 the Kingani approached Kalemie. Rosenthal's successor, Sub-Lieutenant Junge, had orders to gather information on naval preparations, and at 6 in the morning, as Spicer-Simson was conducting morning prayers, she was sighted offshore.^[37][39]

[edit] Kingani is captured

Mimi and Toutou set out of the harbour after Kingani had passed by. Unexpectedly finding himself pursued by two motor boats flying the white ensign, Junge ordered that the speed be increased.^[40][41] The Kingani's six-pounder gun could only fire forwards however, and the faster and more nimble motor boats were able to close the range and open fire with their three-pounder guns, while avoiding the German's fire. After a short action lasting eleven minutes the Kingani was hit on her gun, the shell passing through the gunshield and killing Junge and two petty officers. After several more hits, her chief engineer hauled down the colours and the British took possession of her.^[42][43] Junge and four dead crewmembers were buried, and after a hole in Kingani's hull had been patched, she was taken into service as HMS Fifi.^[2][44][45] Spicer-Simson explained that Fifi meant 'tweet-tweet' in French, and was suggested by the wife of a Belgian officer who had a small caged bird.^[45]

Her six-pounder gun was moved to her stern, while one of the 12-pounder guns that had been mounted as a shore battery was fixed to the bows.^[46] The Admiralty were impressed by the expedition's achievements, Spicer-Simson was specially promoted to commander from the date of the action, and a message was sent which read "His Majesty The King desires to express his appreciation of the wonderful work carried out by his most remote expedition"; The Colonial Office also expressed its approbation.^[46][47][48] Zimmer did not immediately send the Hedwig to investigate the disappearance of the Kingani, possibly being too busy transporting troops and supplies. The storm season in January also made navigation of the lake dangerous for vessels smaller than the Götzen, and it was not until mid-January that the Hedwig came to Lukuga to investigate.^[46] By now Spicer-Simson had been given the repaired Dutch vessel Del Commune, now renamed the Vengeur to add to his flotilla.^[49] Odebrecht scouted close to the shore, keeping clear of the shore batteries that were assumed to have sunk the Kingani, but could not see anything worth reporting. He was ordered back to Lukuga on 8 February, and told to rendezvous with Zimmer on the Götzen the following day.^[50] The Hedwig was spotted early in the morning and the expedition's forces sallied forth to intercept her. The combined Anglo-Belgian flotilla consisted of Mimi, Fifi, the Dix-Tonne, and the whaleboat, Toutou having been damaged and still under repair.^[51][b]

[edit] Hedwig is sunk

Odebrecht spotted the approaching vessels, but continued to advance. Initially mistaking them for Belgian craft, the white ensigns revealed that they were British. He continued towards the shore until making a sharp turn to port at 9.30am, either attempting to lure them toward the Götzen, or having been fooled by an optical illusion into thinking the approaching vessels were larger than he had first thought.^[52] The pursuing vessels chased the Hedwig, with Fifi opening fire with her bow mounted twelve-pounder. The recoil stopped her dead in her tracks, Odebrecht used this to pull away. The Hedwig could do 9 knots to Fifi's 8, but as Fifi fell behind, Mimi sped past, firing on the retreating German vessel with her three-pounder gun.^[42][53] The shots missed, but the Hedwig's stern guns did not have the range of Mimi's weapon, and Odebrecht was forced to come about and try to hit her with his bow-mounted six-pounder.^[53] The two circled for a time, unable to score hits, until Fifi closed. Spicer-Simson, commanding aboard Fifi, was down to three shells on his twelve-pounder, and risked being outclassed if the Hedwig could bring her own six-pounder to bear.^[42] At this moment, the shell jammed in Fifi's gun, and in the twenty minutes that it took to clear it, Hedwig again pulled away, searching for the Götzen.^[54] With her second to last shot, Fifi fired again. The shell hit the Hedwig's hull, causing flooding, while moments later her last shell hit the engine room, bursting the boiler and killing five African sailors and two Germans.^[55] As fires began to spread through the stricken craft Odebrecht gave the order to abandon ship, and set explosive charges to destroy the sinking vessel.^[55] The British picked up the survivors, and also captured a large German naval ensign, the first to be taken in the war.^[56]

[edit] The end of the Götzen

The flotilla returned to shore with their prisoners, and the following day the Götzen appeard offshore, steaming slowly past in search of the missing Hedwig. Alerted, the crews rushed to man their boats, but Spicer-Simson forbade an attack.^[57] Shortly afterwards Spicer-Simson left the lake for Stanleyville, in search of a boat to rival the Götzen. He found one in the shape of the St George, a steel boat belonging to the British consul at Banana, and had her dismantled, dragged to Lake Tanganyika and reassembled.^[58] By the time he returned in May, the German position on the lake had deteriorated further. The Belgians were about to capture Kigoma and a British force was pushing north towards Bismarckburg. The expedition were to support the land operations from the lake, and the flotilla, consisting of Mimi, Toutou, Fifi and Vengeur arrived off Bismarckburg on 5 June. Finding the harbour defended by a fort, Spicer-Simson decided not to attack, and withdrew to Kituta. This allowed the German forces to escape in a fleet of dhows, an act which provoked the anger of the army commander, Lieutenant-Colonel Murray.^[54][59] The naval expeditionary force remained at Bismarckburg, where Spicer-Simson was chastened to learn that the fort's guns were in fact wooden dummies.^[59]

Meanwhile the British had provided the Belgians with four Short Type 827 seaplanes to attack the Götzen at Kigoma. Several bombing runs were made, but unbeknownst to either the British or the Belgians, Zimmer had been ordered by his commanding officer Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck, to remove most of the Götzen's armament, including the 4.1inch gun taken from the Königsberg, and send them to be used by the army in the field.^[60] Wooden dummies were mounted to maintain the illusion of a heavily armed ship. Kigoma fell to General Charles Tombeur's forces on 28 July, but the Götzen was already gone. Zimmer had sailed her to the mouth of the Malagarasi River, and after having her engines thoroughly greased in case there should be need to make use of her again, filled her with concrete and scuttled her.^[61][62]

[edit] Legacy

Anglo-Belgian control of Lake Tanganyika was secured by mid-1916, though the war in Africa dragged on for another two years. Most of the men of the naval expedition returned to Britain, where Spicer-Simson was awarded the Distinguished Service Order but was reprimanded for some of his antagonistic behaviour towards his Belgian allies and was not given another command.^[2][63] The Belgians for their part appointed him a Commander of the Order of the Crown, and awarded him the Croix de guerre.^[63] The exploits on Lake Tanganyika caught the public imagination, and were adapted by C. S. Forester for his book The African Queen, later made into the film The African Queen, directed by John Huston.^[64] A British naval force features in the book, consisting of two motor boats named HMS Amelia and HMS Matilda.^[65] The legacy of the Battle for Lake Tanganyika also continues in the survival of Spicer-Simson's nemesis, the Graf von Götzen. She was raised by the Belgians and towed to Kigoma, but sank at her moorings in a storm.^[66] She was raised by the British in 1921 under their mandate for Tanganyika, where it was found that she was so well preserved by the greasing, that little work needed to be done to repair her. She returned to service on 16 May 1927 under the name Liemba, and still sails Lake Tanganyika.^[66]

[edit] Notes

[edit] Citations

[edit] References

• Campbell, Gordon (2008). Sailormen All. READ BOOKS. ISBN 1443781533. 
• Foden, Giles (2005). Mimi and Toutou Go Forth: The Bizarre Battle for Lake Tanganyika. Penguin. ISBN 1-141-00984-5. 
• Kiester, Edwin (2007). An Incomplete History of World War I. Murdoch Books. ISBN 1740459709. 
• Paice, Edward (2008). Tip & Run: The Untold Tragedy of the Great War in Africa. Phoenix. ISBN 978-0-7538-2349-1. 
• Tucker, Spencer; Roberts, Priscilla Mary (2005). Volume 3 of The Encyclopedia of World War I: A Political, Social, and Military History. ABC-CLIO. ISBN 1851094202. 

[edit] External links

• London Gazette: (Supplement) no. 30182, pp. 7070–7072, 13 July 1917. Spicer-Simson's despatch on the progress of the expedition.