Qualla: Battle for Lake Tanganyika

Battle for Lake Tanganyika: Introduction

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit unknown (from army), Public domain. The Admiralty wanted to name them something sensible. Lieutenant-Commander Geoffrey Spicer-Simson had suggested Cat and Dog. The Admiralty said no, and HMS Mimi and HMS Toutou -- two forty-foot motor boats armed with three-pounder guns -- received names that sounded, to the officers who would crew them, like a music-hall joke. The mission was no joke. German warships controlled Lake Tanganyika, the vast inland sea dividing the Belgian Congo from German East Africa, and neither the British nor the Belgians could advance without neutralizing them. Spicer-Simson's plan was to transport the boats from England to South Africa, then by rail, river, ox-team, and steam tractor through three thousand miles of African interior to the lake. That the man chosen for this improbable assignment had previously nearly sunk a submarine, run a ship aground testing Portsmouth Harbour's defences, and killed a man in a collision says something about the desperation of the enterprise -- or perhaps about the Royal Navy's faith that eccentrics sometimes deliver.

Image: unknown (from army) | Public domain

Battle for Lake Tanganyika: Ten Thousand Miles to a Lake

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit unknown (from army), Public domain. Mimi and Toutou left England on 15 June 1915, loaded on special trailers alongside the expedition's equipment. After seventeen days at sea, they reached Cape Town. From there, the boats travelled by rail through Bulawayo to Elisabethville, arriving on 26 July. At the railhead at ...

Image: unknown (from army) | Public domain

Battle for Lake Tanganyika: Christmas Morning Ambush

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit unknown (from army), Public domain. The Germans held three vessels on the lake. The smallest, Kingani, was commanded by Sub-Lieutenant Junge after her previous commander, Lieutenant Job Rosenthal, had been captured while personally swimming ashore to scout the British positions at Lukuga. On 26 December 1915, Kinga...

Image: unknown (from army) | Public domain

Battle for Lake Tanganyika: Fifi's Last Two Shells

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Unknown author, Public domain. Six weeks passed before the Germans sent Hedwig von Wissmann to investigate Kingani's disappearance. On 9 February 1916, the Anglo-Belgian flotilla -- Mimi, Fifi, the Belgian barge Dix-Tonne, and a whaleboat -- sortied to intercept her. Commander Odebrecht initially mistook the a...

Image: Unknown author | Public domain

Battle for Lake Tanganyika: The Ship That Refused to Die

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit unknown (from army), Public domain. The largest German vessel, Graf von Gotzen, was a formidable opponent. Constructed at the Meyer shipyard in Papenburg, she had been disassembled, packed into five thousand crates, shipped to Dar es Salaam, railed to Kigoma, and assembled in secret. She mounted a 105mm quick-firin...

Image: unknown (from army) | Public domain

Battle for Lake Tanganyika: An Eccentric's Legacy

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit unknown (from army), Public domain. Spicer-Simson received the Distinguished Service Order and a Belgian Croix de Guerre, but he was also reprimanded for antagonizing his allies and never given another command. His reluctance to engage Gotzen and his failure to prevent the German garrison at Bismarckburg from escap...

Image: unknown (from army) | Public domain