The Battle of Lake Tanganyika. The British Royal Navy's African Expedition.
Mimi on the Thames. Spicer-Simson stands at the gun.
Two boats built by the renowned firm Thornycroft for Greece were selected for combat operations on the African lake. Their hulls, 12,2 meters long and 2,4 meters wide, were made of mahogany. Two gasoline engines with a combined output of 200 hp, driving two propellers, provided a speed of up to 19 knots. The boats were slightly modified: the forecastle was removed, the fuel tanks were protected with steel plates, a 47-mm (3-pounder) Hotchkiss gun was installed in the bow, and a Maxim machine gun was mounted in the stern. The high position of the gun reduced stability, so to increase the metacentric height, the gun mount was cut down, forcing the gunner to fire while kneeling.
Spicer-Simson decided to name his cutters "Cat" and "Dog," reflecting their small size. This idea failed to find support in the Admiralty, and the cutters were renamed HMS "Mimi" and HMS "Toutou," which are French for "Meow-meow" and "Woof-woof" in Russian. The crew of the African expedition (four officers and twenty-four petty officers and seamen) was a ragtag bunch, and the vast majority had no naval experience.
On June 8, sea trials of boats and their equipment were carried out on the Thames. artilleryThe very first shot from the three-pounder "Mimi" tossed the gun and its gunner overboard—the deck mounts proved unreliable. The next day, both boats, mounted on trailers specially made by Thornycroft, were loaded aboard the liner "Llanstephen Castle," bound for Cape Town.
On July 2, 1915, the Naval Africa Expedition reached the shores of South Africa, where the trailers carrying the boats were loaded onto railway platforms. After resupplying and making the necessary preparations, a special train headed north to the Fungurume railway station in the extreme south of the Belgian Congo. From here began a short but most difficult section of the journey through the Mitumba mountain range (up to 2000 meters high) and rugged bush and jungle. Tropical diseases common to this area, such as malaria, dysentery, sleeping sickness, and many others, as well as wild animals and venomous snakes, posed a serious threat.
"Toutou" mounted on a trailer for overland transport
Constructing a road for transporting boats and dozens of tons of gasoline, ammunition, food, and other supplies was a truly cyclopean task. Dynamite blasts removed rocks and centuries-old trees from the route, and 150 bridges were built across numerous rivers, streams, and gorges. Two enormous steam tractors were brought from Northern Rhodesia to tow the trailers carrying the boats, and 50 oxen were brought from South Africa. Firewood was stockpiled along the route to fuel the tractors' boilers. 1400 African porters were hired to transport the supplies. Local Belgian authorities assigned a detachment of askaris to guard the expedition.
Construction of a river crossing
A steam tractor tows a trailer with a boat
On August 15, the several-mile procession set out from Fungurume toward Sankisia. The 120-mile journey required incredible efforts from the expedition members, and only on September 28 did the caravan reach the 15-mile narrow-gauge railway linking Sankisia with Bukama on the banks of the Lualaba River. On October 1, the train carrying the expedition arrived at Bukama station, and the boats were launched. The river was shallow and full of sandy riffles, so to reduce the draft, eight empty gasoline drums were secured to the sides of the boats.
Mimi's Refloat
To avoid damage to the propeller-rudder systems on the most difficult sections of the river, the boats were towed by rowboats, while supplies and disassembled trailers were transported in local canoes dug from solid tree trunks, with a carrying capacity of up to three tons. At the final stretch of the route, the boats were loaded aboard a lighter towed by local cargo-passenger steamers. On October 22, 1915, the expedition arrived in Kabalo, where the railway to the Tanganyika coast began. Near the Kabalo railway station, the rusty remains of a large vessel could be seen. This was the "Baron Dhanis," a 1200-ton (or 800-ton, according to other sources) vessel. Its parts had been delivered a year earlier, but assembly had been delayed due to the lack of a steam boiler.
Launching of the Mimi
"Mimi" and "Toutou" after launching
Jeffrey Basil Spicer-Simson with crew members of the Mimi and Toutou
The small port of Katemie, near Albertville, was chosen as the base for the Mimi and Toutou. The Lukuga River, the only outlet of the Great African Lake, began here. A small Belgian garrison with coastal guns was stationed here, and thefleet" - a motor barge with rectangular hulls "Dix-Tonne" armed with two guns (47 and 57 mm), a speedboat "Netta" with a machine gun and a whaleboat with an outboard motor.
Unloaded from their railway platforms, the Mimi and Toutou were hidden in the bush—a pier for them, protected from German ships and the lake's waves, had yet to be built. This work took nearly two months, and in addition to the British sailors, two hundred African workers were also involved. Meanwhile, Spicer-Simson shared tales of his incredible adventures around the globe with his subordinates and local Belgian officers, showing off his tattoo and... the khaki skirt he donned upon arriving on the shores of Tanganyika. All of this evoked overt or covert ridicule from the British and Belgians and undisguised admiration from the Africans, especially the women. One of the expedition's participants wrote: "A crowd of women, children, askaris, and their families, kept at a respectful distance by a local corporal, admired him all day with exclamations of pleasure and admiration."
On October 28, the members of the Naval Africa Expedition saw the enemy for the first time: the steamship Kingani, a quarter mile from shore, paraded with a gun aimed at a crowd of astonished British sailors. This was clearly a surprise to them—the British Admiralty had believed the Germans had only one steamship there, the Hedwig von Wissmann. By this time, the Graf von Götzen had also entered service!
Zimmer quickly learned of the British expedition and its progress toward Tanganyika, but he didn't attach much importance to it—he was more interested in the Baron Dhanis. Reconnaissance parties, repeatedly disembarked from German steamships, attempted to locate its assembly site. They only managed to locate an 80-meter-long slipway under construction on the shore.
Baron Dhanis
At dawn on December 1, the Hedwig von Wissmann (or, according to other sources, the Kingani) set out on another reconnaissance mission. They were just a few hundred meters from Lukuga when the Belgians spotted the ship and opened fire on it with 76- and 105-mm guns. The Germans barely managed to escape the shelling. However, the following night they tried again, and Oberleutnant J. Rosenthal swam to shore (a desperate act of courage, as the lake was teeming with crocodiles), but was fired upon by Belgian sentries just fifty meters away.
On the night of December 3, the lieutenant finally managed to land undetected on the enemy shore near the harbor under construction. There he discovered two military camps, one of which flew the Belgian flag, and the other, to Rosenthal's surprise, the flag of a British vice-admiral. After several hours of searching, the German sailor spotted two boats covered with tarpaulins in the shade of the trees. They were the "Mimi" and the "Toutou."
The scout failed to report his discovery: for some reason, he was unable to find the vessel waiting for him and was captured by local askari. After interrogation, Rosenthal was sent to Kabalo, where he saw the rusted parts of the Baron Dhanis. Armed with such vital information, the captured lieutenant found an ingenious way to convey it to his command. He persuaded his guards to send a note to Kigoma asking for his personal belongings. The seemingly innocuous list of items contained a surprise: on the back of the note, Rosenthal wrote a report of his findings in his own urine, which served as sympathetic ink. Alas, Zimmer received this message only in February 1916, by which time it had no further value.
Seven months had passed since the British Navy's African expedition left home shores, and finally, on December 22, 1915, HMS Toutou rocked in the waves of Tanganyika, followed the next day by Mimi. The boats were ready for battle. On the morning of December 26, the British spotted an approaching steamer 20 miles from their base. It was Kingani, under the command of Lieutenant R. Junge, en route to Lukuga once again to search for Baron Dhanis. Spicer-Simson gave the order to intercept the enemy, taking command of Mimi. Lieutenant Arthur Derville Dudley was appointed commander of Toutou. Following them was the Belgian speedboat Netta, tasked with rescuing people in the event of the boats' destruction.
After waiting for the Kingani to be abeam Lukuga, the boats rushed forward, using their vast speed advantage to cut off the enemy's escape route to their shore. After a two-hour chase, the British managed to close to within 2000 meters of the German ship. The battle took place in the presence of hundreds of spectators gathered on the coastal cliffs—British, Belgians, and Africans from the Kholo Kholo tribe. The advantage was clearly in the British favor: the range of their 47mm guns significantly exceeded that of the Germans' 37mm.
Soon, the Kingani was hit several times by lyddite shells, leaving only two crew members alive—a German mechanic and an African stoker. Seeing the futility of further resistance, the mechanic hauled down the naval ensign. The Kingani fell into enemy hands and, half-submerged, was driven onto a sandbank. The British escaped with only the damaged bow of the Mimi, which had rammed the German steamer. The Germans remained unaware—according to reports from their African spies, the Kingani had fallen victim to Belgian coastal batteries.
Spicer Simpson (in a skirt) after the fight with "Kingani"
Within a few days the trophy was repaired and put into service under the British flag - for the first time in stories German Navy! True to his original principles, Spicer-Simson named it "Fifi," which sounds similar to the Russian "Chick-chirp." The Belgians, in turn, eventually restored the "Alexandre Delcommune" (renamed "Vengeur") and obtained a boiler for the "Baron Dhanis." The former was armed with a gun from the "Kingani," which the Belgians exchanged for one of their 76-mm coastal guns. It was also equipped with a 37-mm gun. Soon, the Belgians received two British seaplanes, armed with four machine guns, 16- and 65-pound bombs, as well as 30000 rounds of ammunition and 950 bombs. From March 13, they were based on a small lake near Albertville.
HMS Fifi
Belgian seaplane
On February 9, 1916, another clash between the opposing vessels occurred. That morning, the Allies spotted the Hedwig von Wissmann, commanded by Lieutenant Odebrecht, off the Congo coast and decided to attack her. Their force consisted of the Mimi, Fifi, Dix Tonne, and a motor whaleboat. During the three-hour battle, the German steamship suffered heavy damage, including a hit to her boiler, and a fire broke out in the engine room. Lieutenant Odebrecht ordered the ship abandoned. To prevent capture, the Hedwig von Wissmann was scuttled with demolition charges. The Germans lost seven men killed and three wounded.
The next day, the British spotted the Graf von Götzen, searching for the missing German vessel. This time, Spicer-Simson refused to engage, despite the demands of his officers. Either he was intimidated by the Graf's powerful artillery, or he considered his mission already accomplished.
Relative sizes of vessels operating on Lake Tanganyika (from top to bottom): Graf von Götzen, Hedwig von Wissmann, Kingani / Fifi, Mimi and Toutou.
The loss of two ships called into question the Germans' continued control of Lake Tanganyika—they now had only the Graf von Götzen at their disposal. Therefore, Zimmer demanded the transfer of two more steamships, the Wami and the Adjutant, which had previously operated in the Rufiji Delta alongside the cruiser Königsberg. The former, a sister ship to the Kingani, was built in 1891 by the Meyer shipyard and delivered to Kigoma by rail in February 1916. The steamship was armed with a 37mm revolver cannon. The Adjutant's large size (150 tons) required its disassembly for transport and subsequent reassembly in Kigoma.
Adjutant
In mid-May, the "Graf von Götzen" lost its 105mm and 88mm guns, which were handed over to the army. To intimidate the enemy, wooden dummies were installed in their place. The remaining 37mm gun was converted to fire at aerial targets—from June 2, Belgian aircraft began raiding Kigoma and the German ships based there. These raids did not cause significant damage.
Active hostilities on the lake ceased. Spicer-Simson used every excuse to avoid engagements with German vessels, even with unarmed dhows carrying askaris, and then returned to England, citing illness. Nevertheless, 16 members of the British African expedition were awarded various military decorations by the British Empire.
In mid-April 1916, Allied forces began an offensive deep into German East Africa. On July 26, Zimmer ordered the evacuation of Kigoma. The Graf von Götzen was scuttled by the Germans, with its machinery carefully mothballed. In 1927, the British raised the vessel and, after minor repairs, recommissioned it as the Liemba. After modernization, including replacing its steam engines with diesels, it continues to transport cargo and passengers on Lake Tanganyika. In 1997, after the end of the Congo Civil War, 75,000 Congolese refugees returned home from Tanzania aboard the Liemba. The Adjutant was disabled by the Germans on the slipway in Kigoma, and on July 27, the crew scuttled the Wami, whose final mission was to transport a detachment of German troops to the southern shores of the lake.
Model of the Liemba. Railway Museum in Nairobi (Kenya).
"Liemba," as it appears today. In 2026, the ship will turn 111 years old!
Mimi and Fifi ended their service in the 20s, and Toutou was taken to Cape Town where she is on display at Victoria Docks with a plaque reading:
This boat served as an armed cruiser during the East African Campaign. With the assistance of her sister boat, the "Mimi," she captured or sank two German warships.
References
1. Stratford, DO Naval Ships Move Overland up Africa. The South African Military History Society. Military History Journal-Vol. 1 No. 4
2. Giles Foden. Mimi and Toutou's Big Adventure: The Bizarre Battle of Lake Tanganyika. New York, 2005
3. Chernikov I.I. Encyclopedia of the river fleet. Moscow-St. Petersburg, 2004
4. Byron Farewell. The Great War in Africa. 1986
5. 5. Dennis L. Bishop, Holger Dobold. Tanganjikasee. A Gunboat War in Deutsch-Ostafrika 1914-1916.
6. Kevin Patience. The Naval Africa Expedition 1915. Naval Historical Collectors & Research Association.
7. Gröner, Erich. Die Deutschen Kriegschiffe 1815-1945, Vol. VII. Koblenz, 1985
8. E Keble Chatterton. Naval Action on Lake Tanganyika
9. Bunich I.L. Kaiser's Corsairs. St. Petersburg, 1998
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