HMS Mimi and HMS Toutou
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HMS Mimi and HMS Toutou were two speedboats that were used against German ships on Lake Tanganyika during the First World War .
prehistory
In April 1915, the big game hunter John Lee proposed to Fleet Admiral Henry Bradwardine Jackson to break the German superiority on Lake Tanganyika so that the Germans could then be pushed back ashore. However, this meant that appropriate warships had to be sent to Africa. Jackson was convinced and Lee was commissioned to prepare accordingly the part of the route in Africa that the ships had to be transported overland. Accompanied by the reporter Frank J. Magee , who was to document the expedition in writing and photographically, and supported by Douglas Hope and Reginald Mullin, who transported a truck and other material, he traveled ahead on May 22, 1915. Equipment and transport of the ships were entrusted to Naval Lieutenant Geoffrey Basil Spicer Simson .
equipment
The two mahogany boats selected for the Tanganyika mission had been built at Thorneycroft in Twickenham on the Thames and were part of a series of eight boats that were originally intended as escort vehicles for seaplane missions in Greece . After the battle of Gallipoli , however, these plans were abandoned. One of the boats was therefore still at the shipyard, the other was brought back from Dundee .
Since the boats were the smallest vehicles ever made to the HMS , Spicer Simson suggested the names Cat and Dog - in memory of the cats and dogs of elegant Parisian ladies who were being taken for walks - but was denied. Then he gave them the French names Mimi and Toutou , which translated means something like Miez-Miez and Wau-Wau . The launches had to be rebuilt for their use in Africa. The height of their superstructures was reduced, the fuel tanks were lined with a bulletproof steel layer, and Maxim rapid-fire rifles were mounted on the stern and Hotchkiss cannons on the bow . For their transport, tub-like containers and special trailers were also built on which they were to be pulled.
On June 8, a test drive took place on the Thames, during which a shot was also to be fired from one of the Hotchkiss three-pounders. Spicer Simson had received the approval to fire on a no longer needed docking facility of the Thorneycroft shipyard. A hit was landed from on board the Mimi . However, the cannon and the rifleman Waterhouse were thrown into the Thames because the fastening was not properly locked. Guns and gunners could be recovered, however, and on June 15 the Mimi and the Toutou were loaded onto the Llanstephan Castle , which was supposed to bring them to Cape Town .
Spicer Samson's crew included doctor Hother McCormack Hanschell , James Waterhouse from Birmingham as supreme gunner and his mate Flynn, Lieutenant Tyrer, a former aviator who used to dye his hair canary yellow and always wore a monocle, a red-haired sailor whose name was not narrated, paymaster Tubby Eastwood, a Methodist animal lover, Lieutenant Cross, a retired racing driver, as the first machinist, the engine experts John Lamont and William Cobb, transport officer Wainwright, who, as the former engine driver, was to be responsible for the two steam tractors, of which the Mimi and the Toutou were to be dragged through the bush, and the two Scots Tait and Mollison, who had heard of the project in a pub and volunteered. Tait and Mollison almost always wore a kilt .
The luggage included a Union Jack , camp beds and sleeping bags, a tin bathtub, a tent for Spicer Simson, rifles and shotguns, tropical helmets and tarpaulins, canned beef and tomatoes, the latter as a precaution against beriberi , some bicycles with odometers, storm lamps, compasses and flashlights, but also razor blades, fabrics and glass beads to swap with the locals and personal items such as Tyrer's supply of Worcester sauce and hair dye or slippers for after work.
The trip to Lake Tanganyika
When the Mimi and the Toutou were brought on board, accompanied by the rather conspicuous group, the civilian passengers of the Llanstephen Castle raised objections. They feared that their passenger ship could be attacked as a troop transport, but could not prevail.
The ship arrived in Cape Town on July 2, 1915. Spicer Simson and Dr. Hanschell stayed at the Mount Nelson Hotel . The next day official visits were made and the supplies of medicines replenished, and on July 6, Spicer Simson took the train to Salisbury to see for himself the success of John Lee's track work, whom he apparently did not trust. On the same day, the German cruiser Königsberg , which had long been hidden from the British ships, was shot at in the Rufiji , which ended shortly afterwards with its sinking.
On July 16, Spicer Simson telegraphed the order for the group to leave Cape Town. Via Kimberley , Mafeking , Johannesburg and Bechuanaland , she traveled to Bulawayo , where she met Spicer Simson again, and then went on by train to the border of Northern Rhodesia and Elisabethville in Belgium . They arrived there on July 26, 1915 and met John Lee, whom Spicer Simson dismissed immediately after he had handed over his plans for allegedly speaking in public about the top-secret mission of the British. Except for Spicer Simson, Hanschell and Eastwood, the expedition members moved on to Fungurume . After recruiting local helpers Rupia, Tom and Marapandi, Spicer Simson, Hanschell and Eastwood joined their group again on August 5, 1915. The two boats were unloaded from their freight cars to be towed over the Mitumba Mountains on the runway prepared by John Lee . It turned out that both the boats and the trailers had already suffered considerable damage. The repairs took a week to complete. Meanwhile, the two steam tractors arrived to pull the trailers. Food supplies for the local porters were transported in their ten-ton trailers, which were actually intended for the firewood. The tractors came from Burrels in Thetford and from Fowlers in Leeds .
The convoy started on August 18th. But the very first bridge that John Lee had prepared collapsed under the weight of the front tractor unit, and the river bed that was to be crossed had to be filled in with logs. Six miles from the train station, the Mimi tractor began to tip over and had to be raised again using the other tractor. From now on the expedition had to struggle with such problems on a daily basis. It took her ten days to make the 30 miles to Mwenda Mkosi . There the boat trailers finally collapsed and the substructure of the firewood trailer had to be cannibalized in order to have a means of transport for Mimi and Toutou again. During this work in the kraal , Tyrer was sent ahead to explore the further way. The group had grown to include Josephine, a chimpanzee boy who had run into Eastwood. After five days one could set off again and on September 2, 1915, the promised ox teams joined the expedition to help pull the boat trailer. At the head of the column was the truck, which was also responsible for the procurement of water for the tractors, followed by the African porters, then a group of askaris , then the families of the locals and finally the oxen and the tractors with the two boats . Bushfires - one of which was probably triggered by a hygiene action by the attending doctor - and water shortage were among the problems that arose, along with the difficulties of the slope. Part of the route was accompanied by the Belgian lieutenant Freisleben with other Askaris, who wanted to avert the dangers of the "British amateurs", as he called them, from his area. On September 4th, they reached Mobile Kabantu . The next day the ascent through the Mitumbas began. On September 7th, on the largest bridge that Lee had built and which crossed a dry river bed at a height of ten meters, a pulling rope broke and the trailer with the Mimi almost fell down. He could be rescued, but to negotiate the slope of the embankment, 32 oxen and both tractors were needed. They started using winches to pull the 8-ton trailers uphill for fifty meters and finally reached the plateau of the Mitumbak range, which is about 2,000 meters above sea level. On September 12, 1915, the descent to the Lualaba River began , which proved to be just as difficult. The boat trailers had to be roped down in small stages.
On September 28th they arrived in Sankisia , where the boats were reloaded onto the railroad, and on October 1st they were in Bukama . When the boats were launched there to continue under the guidance of a Dane named Mauritzen, it turned out that the mahogany wood of their hulls had warped in the heat. It took a week to stop the leaks. Tait was sent ahead with some askaris to set up food depots on the route and to move the tubs for the boats ahead. On the first day of the river trip, the boats hit sand and mud banks 14 times. Nevertheless, the next day it was decided to temporarily run the boat's engines to escape the swarms of insects. On the voyage upriver, the convoy caught up with the Belgian steamer Constantin de Burlay , whose captain was soon more or less forced to support the expedition. On October 11, 1915, the confluence with the Lufira was reached . From October 16, the Mimi and the Toutou were transported in the barges of the Constantin de Burlay to protect their hulls from rocks and rapids. In Mulango the steamer ran aground, but could be refloated. After he ran aground again soon afterwards, the Constantin de Burlay's barges were attached to the river boat Baron Janssen , which came to meet the appropriate time and changed its route for a fee. On October 22nd, 1915 one passed Kabalo , where the Belgian steamer Baron Dhanis was stored in pieces and waited to be assembled. On October 26th, the train journey continued to the end of the line at Lukuga . There they met Tyrians again and marched on to the lake, where they were accepted into the Belgian camp.
The mission on Lake Tanganyika
The Mimi and the Toutou initially stayed in hiding by the railroad tracks until a port was built for them. At that time, the Belgians had a flagship named Dix Tonne with two cannons and a motorboat named Netta, as well as a Boston Whaler with an outboard motor named La Vedette , and the Alexandre Delcommune , which was shot at by the Germans and was not operational. The Germans, on the other hand, had the two steamers Hedwig von Wissmann and Kingani and a few other boats on the lake. It was the job of Mimi and Toutou to turn them off . The Kingani was spotted outside the camp on October 28, but there was no exchange of fire. At the beginning of December 1915, the German captain Job Rosenthal drove the Kingani across the lake, swam to the bank and spied on the hiding place of the Mimi and the Toutou . However, he was captured before he could return to his ship and report to his superiors. He was transported inland.
On the Christmas days of 1915, the Mimi and the Toutou were launched and tested in a number of test drives. Meanwhile, the Germans sent the lieutenant to the sea boy with the Kingani across the lake to investigate Rosenthal's whereabouts. During the morning service on December 26, 1915, he came into the focus of the British. These took up the pursuit of the Kingani with Mimi and Toutou . Boy who did not have a pivoting cannon on board had to maneuver in order to open fire on the Mimi . Finally, a shell penetrated the protective shield of his on-board cannon. Junge and his two mates were fatally wounded. The Kingani received another hit and was then rammed by the Mimi , whose bow suffered considerable damage. Now under Flynn's command, the boat that had been hit and leaned sharply to starboard had to be steered ashore. The dead Germans were buried, and the prisoners were taken over by the Askaris.
Lieutenant Cross repaired the Kingani and Spicer Simson renamed her Fifi ( beep-beep ) to match his other two boats . She received a cannon from Belgian-owned, while the six-pounders that were previously on the Kingani had been mounted on the finally repaired and Vengeur renamed Alexandre Delcommune were transferred. Spicer Simson was given command of the Vengeur . However, both the Fifi and the Vengeur were badly damaged during a violent storm on January 14, 1916. The Mimi and the Toutou had not been repaired after the fight with the Kingani , and the Netta was also damaged. Exactly at this point in time, Hedwig von Wissmann came into view under Commander Job Odebrecht , who was supposed to investigate the whereabouts of the Kingani . He returned without result and was sent out again on February 8 to go on a search. On February 9th, he was supposed to meet SMS Goetzen , of which the English and Belgians had little idea. That morning around 7.45 a.m., Odebrecht spotted a steamer and a motorboat chasing him. A little later he also saw the Dix Tonne and a Boston Whaler driving behind. The Toutou was not operational at this time, she was sunk in the port after a storm.
Odebrecht maintained his course until about 9.30 a.m. and then turned sharply to port. What he was aiming for with this maneuver is not entirely clear. Maybe he wanted to lure the enemy ships within range of the SMS Goetzen , maybe he was confused by a mirage that was showing up over the lake at that time. The Fifi , commanded by Spicer Simson, tried to catch up with Hedwig von Wissmann , but was too slow and was overtaken by the Mimi under Wainwright's command. Wainwright opened fire on Hedwig von Wissmann from a distance of three kilometers . Odebrecht shot back with grenades from his bow cannons. The two ships circled each other for about half an hour without causing any major damage. Spicer Simson tried to fire at the enemy ship from the Fifi , but his twelve-pounder misfired. On the second attempt, however, he managed to hit Hedwig von Wissmann in the fuselage with a grenade. Immediately afterwards it also hit the engine room. Odebrecht ordered his crew to leave the struck ship, laid an explosive device with his machinist in the Hedwig von Wissmann and sank her.
The surviving Germans were taken on board by the Fifi and the Mimi . That actually ended the Mimi and Toutou mission . Commenting on the victory news, Sir Jackson in London said: "I doubt whether a tactical operation on such a tiny scale has ever had such a great effect on the activities of the enemy."
But the day after the sinking of Hedwig von Wissmann , the SMS Goetzen could be seen from the Belgian camp . The crews made the Mimi and the Fifi ready for action, but Spicer Simson refused the order to attack the big ship. He reacted no differently to further sightings of the SMS Goetzen . Soon after, he left the camp for months. He also refused a telegraphic order to attack the SMS Goetzen . He did not return to the lake until May 12, 1916. At this point the British were planning the attack on Bismarckburg under Lieutenant Colonel Murray. The Mimi , the Toutou , the Fifi and the Vengeur were supposed to support the action from the water, but when they arrived at Bismarckburg on June 5th, Spicer Simson only let two shells at the fortress and then brought the flotilla to Kituta . As a result, there was probably a bitter argument with Murray because the Germans were able to flee across the lake. Spicer Simson also denied the Belgians, who attacked SMS Goetzen with seaplanes on June 11th, from using the Mimi and Toutou and their own fleet. On August 23, 1916, he was declared incapacitated and sent back to London.
The end of the mission
Some members of the Tanganyika expedition stayed in Africa, others left via the Luapula River . The Mimi and the Toutou were given to the army as transport ships. Dr. Hanschell, injured by shrapnel and suffering from malaria, used the Mimi again to drive across the lake. He was then evacuated to Northern Rhodesia and returned to England in 1917.
The British government presented the course of the war on Lake Tanganyika with special mention of the Mimi and Toutou mission in the London Gazette of July 13, 1917.
While it is known that the Fifi was sunk in Lake Tanganyika in 1924, no longer seaworthy, the track of the two speedboats is largely lost. Nobody seems to know anything about Mimi's whereabouts . The port manager of Kigoma , Musa Hathemani, reported to Giles Foden in 2003 that the wreck of the Toutou was off Kabalangabo . Foden attempted diving at the point indicated for him, which was about seven meters from the shore, but could not find anything. According to statements from villagers, a wreck was still visible a few years before Foden's visit, which actually came from the First World War.
The story of the expedition with Mimi and Toutou has been used literarily several times, most recently by Alex Capus in his novel A Question of Time .
literature
- Giles Foden: The True Story of the African Queen. Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2006, ISBN 3-596-16837-6 .
Individual evidence
- ^ Frank J. Magee: Transporting a navy through the jungles of Africa in war time. In: The National Geographic Magazine. Vol. 42, No. 4, 1922, ISSN 0027-9358 , pp. 331-362 .
- ↑ Reinhard K. Lochner: Battle in the Rufiji Delta. The end of the small cruiser "Königsberg". The German Navy and Schutztruppe in World War I in East Africa (= Heyne books 1, Heyne general series. No. 6809). Wilhelm Heyne, Munich 1987, ISBN 3-453-02420-6 , p. 311.
- ↑ Reinhard K. Lochner: Battle in the Rufiji Delta. The end of the small cruiser "Königsberg". The German Navy and Schutztruppe in World War I in East Africa (= Heyne books 1, Heyne general series. No. 6809). Wilhelm Heyne, Munich 1987, ISBN 3-453-02420-6 , p. 324.
- ^ London Gazette (Supplement). No. 30182, HMSO, London, July 13, 1917, pp. 7067–7072 ( PDF , accessed October 1, 2013, English).