On ANZAC day we remember the lives lost at Gallipoli, and nowadays, those lost in all wars where Kiwis have been involved. I reflect on my school day history lessons about the causes of World War One, and of course it was political, but there were two fundamental causes; the arms race and the scramble for Africa. The European powers had the ability to build big battleships such as the dreadnoughts and while the British ‘ruled the seas’ other powers wanted the ability to contest. The European powers liked to assume Africa was there for the taking and full of resources, and now they had the ability to contest for some of it, each power wanting their share of the cake.
If you think about it, right now, the same is happening, arms are being strengthened and the race is on for the Pacific and the resources of Central Europe. Politicians tend not to be quick learners.
Between 1915 and 1916, while other theatres of the world war were going on, there was a little battle going on in central Africa over those very same causes of war. The Battle of Lake Tanganyika. If you look at the map, Lake Tanganyika is to the left or the west, and German East Africa is in the centre where Tanzania now sits. To the North was British East Africa, now Kenya, to the south, Portuguese East Africa, now Malawi. Rhodesia sat to the southwest, another British territory, now Zimbabwe, and to the northwest was the Belgian Congo, now the Democratic Republic of the Congo (where they are scrapping at the moment). Therefore, with Germany’s expansion ideas, the lake was a stepping place for an attack on British holdings, so they wanted to dominate lake.
At the start of World War One, the Germans had two small war boats, Hedwig and Kingani on the lake and when war broke out, they sank an unarmed Belgian boat and an unarmed British lake steamer. This gave the Germans control of the lake, which they used to attack Rhodesia, but they were beaten back. Undaunted, the Germans made raids on the Belgians, which encouraged them to align with Britian. The Belgians could have built a steamer, they had the parts, but feared that she would be destroyed in the building process by the Germans. Meanwhile the Germans secretly dismantled a larger warship, Gotzen into 5000 crates and transported her from Dar es Salaam to the fortified port of Kigoma, on the eastern shore of Lake Tanganyika by rail, and began to rebuilt her.
One John Lee, who was a big game hunter and a veteran of the second Boer War, had seen what was going on and suggested to the British Admiralty that a couple of appropriately armed, manoeuvrable smaller gunboats could be transported across land from South Africa to Lake Tanganyika, to encounter the German boats. The Admiralty, who reckoned they could win any battle on water agreed with the idea and appointed Lieutenant-commander Geoffery Spicer-Simson in charge of the operation. It’s questionable why, because he’d made so many mistakes and disasters, that he’d been called, ‘a man court martially for wreaking his own ships, and an inveterate liar and wearer of skirts!’
Spicer-Simson named the two 40-ton boats Mimi and Toutou, French for ‘meow’ and ‘bow-wow’. Maxim guns and a 3-pounder Hotchkiss gun were mounted on them, but when the boats were tested on the Thames River, Mimi’s gun was test-fired and the gun, together with the gunner ended in the river because the gun wasn’t bolted to the deck properly! The boats were ferried to Capetown, South Africa, and railed as far as Elizabethville, so for the last 146 miles, they had to be towed over rough terrain by oxen and steam tractors. At Bukama, along with stores and equipment the boats were floated in the Lualaba River, and later to be transported by Belgian steamer, and after a short rail journey they ended a Lukuga on the shores of Lake Tanganyika where Spicer-Simson met with his Belgian counterparts.
A fella called Rosenthal commanded the German boat Kingani, to reconnoitre the Belgian port of Lukuga but was driven back by the shore batteries, but she returned by cover of darkness. Rosenthal swam into the newly constructed port and realised the Kingani was likely in danger but he couldn’t find his ship in the dark to raise the alarm. He was captured and tried to send a note of warning written in urine, but it took months to reach the Germans and too later. Three weeks later the Mini and Toutou were launched and tested in the harbour. A few days later the Kingani returned, now under the command of Junge but was sighted while Spice-Simson was conducting morning prayers. Junge had been charged with information gathering, but was surprised by the two gunboats flying the White Ensign. Unfortunately for them, Kingani’s 7-pound gun was mounted on her bow, so running away from the two motorboats, she could not fire a shot. Mimi and Toutou easily caught up and a shell hit the 7-pounder killing Junge and two petty officers. The Kingani was seized, her hull patched, she was rearmed bow and stern with larger guns and she became HMS Fifi.
Her sistership, Hedwig wasn’t sent to find the whereabouts of Kingani because she was tied up with moving troops and supplies; the other factor was that the storm season was approaching and Hedwig couldn’t cope with story waters. Meanwhile Spicer-Simson had repaired a Belgian boat now named Venugeur, giving another boat at his disposal. After the storm season Hedwig did pass by the port, but was unable to gain intelligence, so was ordered to rendezvous with the new ship, Gotzen. However, Hedwig was spotted so the Anglo-Belgian flotilla minus Toutou, which had been damaged, sailed out to intercept her. Hedwig tried to lure the flotilla towards the Gotzen because the commander had thought the boats were bigger than they actually were. Fifi couldn’t keep up with Hedwig but Mimi was much faster and caught up but sailing in circles, neither boat could score a hit. Fifii’s gun jammed and during the 20 minutes it took to clear it, Hedwig fled looking for the support of Gotzen, but with Fifii’s second to last shell, Hedwig’s hull was hit which caused her to flood and the last shell hit the boiler, which exploded. As well as capturing the 20 survivors, they also captured the German naval ensign… the first of the whole war. The flotilla returned to port.
A few days later, Gotzen was sighted offshore looking for Hedwig but Spicer-Simson forbade an attack, probably on account of her size. Instead, he went off to search for a larger boat and found St George a steel-hulled vessel; he had her dismantled, carried to Lake Tanganyika and reassembled. By the time the boat was ready, the German situation had deteriorated by ground troop movements. A flotilla including Mimi, Toutou, Fifi and Venugeur approached the German harbour but Spicer-Simson thought it too-well defended, so pulled back, which gave the Germans time to escape on dhows. They found later that the defences were simple mock-ups.
Meanwhile, the British had given the Belgians four floatplanes to attack the Gotzen which was berthed in the Kigoma harbour, but the Germans, had already removed her armour, plastered her with grease and filled her with sand. They sank her in 20 metres of water… in the hope they might return and salvage her. Spicer-Simson received the Distinguished Service Order and the Belgians presented him with the Commander of the Order of the Crown and the Crous de Guerre. Others also were decorated, but John Lee didn’t get a mention.
As for the Gotzen, the Belgians raised her and towed her to Kigoma where she sank in a storm, but in 1921, the British raised her and in 1927 she returned to service of the British under the name of Liemba, and she still sails in the waters of Tanganyika.
My version of the events doesn’t cover the real hardship of getting Mimi and Toutou to Lake Tanganyika through the jungle and over mountainous country, traction engine, oxen and all… the gathering of water and fuel for the traction engines, water and the purification of for the people or the good work of the physician who kept everyone remarkably heathy. Nor did I go into the mindset of Spicer-Simson, the 400 or so African porters-cum-allies thought of him as a god-like marvel, but others say he was overly flamboyant, even out of his tree, but the fact is, he won the battle. In general, the Tanzanians were pleased to see the back of the Germans and later, they welcomed their independence from Britian. The call it uhuru, freedom.
