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This summer, the summer of 1916, Belgian, British, and South African forces did a fairly
good job of taking territory in German East Africa.
They even captured the Dar-es-Salaam railway, which cut off most connection with Lake Tanganyika,
which made up the bulk of the western border of the colony, but you know what?
For months before that some seriously bizarre and interesting action had been going on on
the lake itself, and that’s what I’m gonna talk about today.
I’m Indy Neidell; welcome to a Great War special episode about the Battle for Lake
Tanganyika.
This was a series of naval engagements between German, British, and Belgian naval forces
for control of the lake.
It went down in late 1915 and the first half of 1916.
German East Africa was surrounded by Belgian, Portuguese, and British possessions, and if
Germany was to hold on to the colony they kind of had to hold the lake, which controlled
the border and would allow raids and the quick transport of troops, while preventing the
enemy from doing the same.
However, to control the lake, Germany would need armed vessels on the lake, and when the
war broke out she had none.
But when the British attacked Dar-es-Salaam August 8th, 1914, the Germans scuttled an
armed survey ship they had there, and sent its guns and crew to the lake, arriving in
Kigoma, on the lake’s eastern shore, the 12th.
Captain Gustav Zimmer became German commander of the lake region.
In addition to the many tiny craft on the lake, Germany had the 45 ton Kingani, the
60 ton Hedwig von Wissmann, and was constructing the 1200 ton Graf von Goetzen, which had actually
been built once already in Papenburg in 1913, then taken apart, packed in 5,000 crates,
sent to Dar-es-Salaam, westward as far as possible on the railway, then carried by porters
to Kigoma.
It was assembled there and eventually launched June 9th, 1915.
The Germans had already established control of the lake, though, in 1914, putting the
Belgian steamer Alexandre Delcommune out of action and sinking the British Good News and
Cecil Rhodes.
They now had the only two working steamers on the lake and were undisputed masters.
The Belgian commander in the area requested airplanes, a sub, and torpedo boats to fight
back.
He got a torpedo boat but no torpedoes, and four airplanes from the British admiralty,
but they wouldn’t arrive till May 1916.
In April 1915 came a plan to give the British control of the lake.
A professional hunter named John Lee, who knew the lake region well, traveled from South
Africa to Britain with a proposal for the Admiralty.
He wanted to send two motorboats, faster and better armed than the Hedwig and the Kingani,
to change the balance of power.
This is kind of easier said than done, but Lee had worked out the overland route to get
the boats there and the general logistics.
British Admiral Sir Henry Jackson said, “It is both the duty and the tradition of the
Royal Navy to engage the enemy wherever there is water to float a ship.”
Two suitable boats were found.
Forty foot, twin engines boats fitted with 3-pound Hotchkiss guns at the front.
Okay, enter possibly the weirdest guy of the war, Lieutenant-Commander Geoffrey Spicer-Simson,
the oldest Lieutenant-Commander in the Royal Navy.
He had been suspended twice for incompetence, but he was the only guy available.
He was also a serious braggart and invented fantastic lies about himself.
He also wanted to name the boats Cat and Dog, but the navy wouldn’t let him, so he christened
them Mimi and Tou-Tou.
The expedition departed London June 15th, 1915 and arrived in Cape Town July 2nd.
En route, Spicer-Simpson regaled the other passengers with his fraudulent exploits in
Africa and the Far East, like shooting rhinos on the Gold Coast, where there are no rhinos.
He also threatened to commandeer the ship when he was told not to smoke near the gasoline
engines.
When they got to Cape Town, the boats were carried by railway as far as Fungurume in
the Belgian Congo; the next stage was the tricky part.
240 km overland to Sanikisia, with heights up to 2,000 meters in the Mitumba Mountains.
Lee had gone in advance to prepare the way, and a track was being cut through the bush,
and bridges to cross the 140 rivers and gorges on the way were being built.
Lee had also brought in a tractor engine from Southern Rhodesia to drag the boats and supplies
from Fungurume, and moving just a few kilometers a day, they reached Sanikisia September 28th.
From there they were either taken by rail, or floated along to the Belgian harbor Lukuga
on Lake Tanganyika, arriving December 23rd after a six month journey.
Spicer-Simpson insulted the Belgians and promptly began wearing a skirt - not a kilt, a skirt
- and bare arms and shoulders, which were covered with tattoos of things like snakes
and butterflies.
The ships went into action three days after arriving.
The Kingani was spotted and Mimi and Toutou gave chase.
The Kingani didn’t realize the danger it was in until very late, and it tried to turn
to bring its forward gun to bear on them.
This didn’t work.
Mimi was faster and attacked from astern, and Toutou did from port.
The Kingani tacked from side to side to try to use its gun, but the British ships were
too agile.
Eventually the Kingani took a few shots, was rammed by Mimi, its captain was killed, and
it surrendered.
The whole action had taken 11 minutes.
Once ashore, Spicer-Simpson told everyone he had fired the crippling shot; he hadn’t.
The British repaired the damage to the Kingani and renamed her Fifi.
Mimi, Toutou, and Fifi.
Fifi’s front gun was moved to the back and at the front she was outfitted with a big
12 pounder gun.
The Germans didn’t investigate the Kingani’s disappearance until early February 1916, when
Zimmer, sailing in the now-completed Goetzen, which the British didn’t know about, ordered
the Hedwig to find her.
By this time, Spicer-Simson was a fell Commander, though the locals called him Lord Belly-Cloth.
The Hedwig was then spotted off Lukuga.
Fifi and Mimi attacked and the Hedwig tried to run, but Mimi was too fast, though Fifi
fell behind, being burdened with the 12 pound gun.
Mimi kept up harassing fire, while the Hedwig kept tacking to try and use its front gun,
and that allowed Fifi to catch up.
The chase lasted three hours until Fifi could finally close range and open up with the 12
pounder, eventually hitting the Hedwig’s boiler.
The Hedwig’s captain had the ship scuttled.
Spicer-Simpson stopped to pick up a floating locker before picking up survivors.
Inside it was the German Naval Ensign, the first one captured by the British in world
war one.
The day after all this, Zimmer went out to see what had happened.
When Spicer-Simson saw the Goetzen, many times Fifi’s size and much better armed, he turned
around and went back to bed.
He realized he needed something heavier to fight her.
The Belgians were building the Baron Dhanis, which could’ve challenged the Goetzen, but
it was taking forever so he went in search of another ship, returning from Leopoldville
in May.
During his absence, the Goetzen’s guns were removed since the German land forces needed
them.
They were replaced with wooden dummies.
Now, Spicer-Simson wouldn’t attack since he didn’t know the guns were dummies, and
Zimmer couldn’t attack without guns, though, on June 12th, those four planes I mentioned
finally made their appearance, bombing the Goetzen but causing only light damage.
When the Dar-es-Salaam rail -way was captured in mid-July, Zimmer was
ordered to leave the lake.
He scuttled the Goetzen, and the Belgians occupied Kigoma July 27th.
The battle for the lake was over.
Belgian King Albert awarded Spicer-Simpson the Croix de Guerre, but when the truth of
his performance reached the British Admiralty, he never held a naval command again.
We’ll definitely do a special on this nutcase, but go look him up because I’ve barely scratched
the surface of his antics.
But give him some credit, for a contemporary writer did write this, “No single achievement
during World War One was distinguished by more bizarre features than the successfully
executed undertaking of 28 daring men who transported a ready made navy overland through
the wilds of Africa to destroy an enemy flotilla on lake Tanganyika.”
That, I think, says it all.
I talk every week of the horrors of the trenches, and the gas, and the death and destruction,
but I thought this week I’d give some time to one of the perhaps lighter side stories
of the war.
If you’re wondering, the British raised the Goetzen in 1924 and re-launched it as
the Liemba in 1927.
That’s a local name for the lake.
That ship is still in service today, working as a commercial and passenger boat.
From what I understand, C.S. Forster used the story of the battle as a basis for his
novel, “The African Queen”, and you’ve probably seen the movie version starring Humphrey Bogart.
This episode was sponsored by Audible, one of the leading providers of audiobooks online.
It’s a great way to listen to some of the best audiobooks on the go like on your smartphone
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We want to thank Dave Hunter for his research on this episode.
If you want to know more about the African Theatre of World War 1, check out our episode
about German East Africa right here.
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