Britain Belgium German Empire 1915 1916 1917 1918 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 July 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 Toutou – were under the command of the eccentric Lieutenant-Commander Geoffrey Spicer-Simson.

The Belgians had the components for a large steamer, Baron Dhanis, which if it could be assembled would be considerably larger than either Kingani or Hedwig von Wissmann, but did not dare to start construction on her while the Germans patrolled the lake for fear that she would be destroyed before she could be launched.

[2] On 21 April 1915, John R. Lee—a big game hunter and veteran of the Second Boer War—arrived at the Admiralty to meet Admiral Sir Henry Jackson.

[8][a] Named 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.

[10] Using small vessels that could be transported intact meant that they could be launched immediately onto the lake, eliminating the risk of their discovery and destruction while being assembled.

[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.

"[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.

[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.

[12] Lee went out to prepare the way through Africa, while Spicer-Simson assembled 27 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.

[17] The boats were loaded aboard 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.

[20][21] After travelling to the railhead at Fungurume, they were detrained and dragged 146 mi (235 km) through the bush by teams of oxen and steam tractors to the beginnings of the railway from Sankisia to Bukama.

[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.

Goor hoped to bring into commission the as-yet unassembled Baron Dhanis, and the hulk of Alexandre del Commune, which had been sunk early in the war by Hedwig von Wissmann.

[32] The 1,500 long tons (1,500 t) Baron Dhanis was not necessarily a threat to Götzen in port, but he was determined to maintain his freedom of movement on the lake.

[35] Lieutenant Job Rosenthal, commanding Kingani, 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][36] Still lacking detailed information on the enemy's movements, Kingani returned early on the morning of 1 December and attempted to approach the harbour.

After a short action lasting 11 minutes, Kingani was hit on her gun, the shell passing through the gunshield and killing Junge and two petty officers, Penne and Schwarz.

[2][48][49] 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.

He continued toward the shore until making a sharp turn to port at 09:30, either attempting to lure them toward Götzen, or having been fooled by an optical illusion into thinking the approaching vessels were larger than he had first thought.

[59] 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.

The flotilla returned to shore with their prisoners, and the following day Götzen appeared offshore, steaming slowly past in search of the missing Hedwig.

The expedition was to support land operations from the lake, and the flotilla, consisting of Mimi, Toutou, Fifi and Vengeur arrived off Bismarckburg on 5 June.

[citation needed] 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.

[58][65] The naval expeditionary force remained at Bismarckburg, where Spicer-Simson was chastened to learn that the fort's guns were in fact wooden dummies.

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 Götzen′s armament, including the 105 mm (4.1 in) autocannon taken from Königsberg, and send them to be used by the army in the field.

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 toward his Belgian allies and was not given another command.

Paice instead claims that Lee was aware of the Götzen from February, when structural work on her was nearing completion, and that he informed the Admiralty of her when he reported to them in April.