National Geographic: The Jungle Navy (1999)

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National Geographic: The Jungle Navy (1999)

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Central Africa. 1915.

A small band of British soldiers

marches through the jungle

on a bizarre and secret mission.

In Europe, the first World w*r has

become a murderous stalemate...

but the clash of kings and empires

reaches far beyond Flanders -

to a pivotal naval battle for

control of the Great Lakes of Africa.

In command of the British

expedition is Lt.

- Commander Geoffrey Basil

Spicer- Simson... an officer

whom the fates of w*r will label

a hero, a madman, and a god.

June 1915.

Under the guidance of South

African John Lee,

hacking a highway

through the unbroken rain forest

- 150 miles of manual labor in

the tropical heat.

Lee's bush road leads across jungles

through swamps and over mountains

to the Great Lakes of Africa

- Tanganyika, Victoria, Nyasa.

Two already are in British hands

- but Tanganyika is the jewel of

the German empire

- a prize that London desperately

needs

to turn the tide of the African w*r.

It is a vital lifeline needed to arm

and supply a jungle army.

Whoever controls the lake,

controls the surrounding

territories.

One man rules her waters.

Kapitan Gustav Zimmer of the

Imperial German Navy

commands a powerful marine

unit of 150 men

- his fleet of three heavily-armed

gunboats

has obliterated the puny armada

of the Belgian Congo

...- to win the battle for Central

Africa,

Zimmer's navy must be defeated.

Yet for the job of destroying him,

the Royal Navy selects a former

m*llitary surveyor

who has never led a brigade

into battle.

Lt. -Commander Geoffrey Basil

Spicer-Simson

is an old Africa hand who has

spent the first year of the w*r

behind a desk in London.

Then chance, not choice, gives

him an opportunity for greatness.

"Why did we go to Tanganyika?

Because the Germans with four

ships on the Lake

- were commanding the lake,

and by means of these steamers

were able to supply their troops

on the frontiers with provisions

and munitions.

It was important that this should

be stopped."

Spicer's orders are almost surreal

- London wants him to tote his

own toy navy

from England to Central Africa

a pair of 40-foot motorboats

- to be dismantled and freighted

to Cape Town

- then tugged overland by steam

tractor to the Congo

- a trek of over nine thousand

miles

- with Zimmer's gunships waiting

at the other end.

Spicer assembles the team.

Former architect of the

Rhodesian railway,

Paddy Wainwright is the

chief engineer

- I'm tropical disease specialist,

Dr. Hother Hanschell,

will be the Medical Officer.

As a casual friend of Spicer's,

Dr. Hanschell knows Spicer is

not your average leader.

"Spicer-Simson was a vain man

worthy of ridicule and on occasion,

great admiration at the same time.

This paradox was only possible

because of the very nature of

Spicer-Simson's own behavior,

which was quite often bizarre."

they are gunners, mechanics,

and engineers

- not one has ever served

under Spicer.

The plan to take Tanganyika from

the Germans is a simple one.

Get to Tanganyika, and destroy

the German fleet

by stealth and surprise.

But their own warships are

converted supply boats.

"The two boats taken to Africa

by the expedition were...

not at all suitable as they were,

but they were the only ones

obtainable at the time.

My orders were to get away at once."

Spicer gives his mahogany warships

names befitting pleasure boats

- HMS Mimi and Toutou are quick

- top speed, 20 miles per hour.

Spicer tests them on the Thames

and has a 3 pound Hotchkiss g*n

mounted in the fore

and a.303 Maxim in the rear.

June 15, 1915.

Stage One.

The Naval Africa Expedition

leaves England

on a 6,100 mile voyage for the

Cape Colony.

While Spicer and his men enjoy

a placid southbound cruise,

John Lee's army of African

tribesmen hacks its way north.

By early July, at Cape Town

in British South Africa,

the caravan transfers from ship

to train.

July 19, 1915.

Stage Two.

The entire expedition

consisting of men, boats

and hundreds of boxes of supplies

are moved north by rail.

At Fungurume, in the Belgian Congo,

they will meet up with Lee.

Two thousand, seven hundred

miles of European-built railways

pierce the heart of a colonized

continent.

After two weeks,

Spicer and his men reach the

village of Fungurume as expected.

Morale is high.

But then, just as his expedition is

about to begin its overland odyssey,

Spicer fires the man who blazed

the trail.

He dismisses John Lee, and offers

no explanation to his men.

He alone will lead his men across

the burning plains

- into a jungle few Europeans

have crossed

since the days of Stanley and

Livingstone.

To prepare the boats for their waterless voyage,

engineer Wainwright orders them

stripped of all fittings

- propellers dismounted... the

axles of the carrying wagons

reinforced to carry the eight and

a half-ton loads.

While final preparations are

being made,

a critical member of the team

arrives by a rather odd means.

Ex-policeman, Arthur Dudley has

pedaled 200 miles over jungle trails

to reach the expedition.

His role,

to organize and lead the African

laborers transporting the supplies.

"Dudley was Royal Navy Reserve.

He'd served in the Boer w*r,

now he was fooling about in Rhodesia

doing transport work.

But he was capable, just the sort

of fellow for that.

Just enough sea knowledge

and just enough m*llitary training

to manage well."

Two months after leaving London,

Spicer's navy-on-wheels is joined

by the steam engines

that will pull the boats through the forest.

The tractors are built for level

country furrows

- but ahead of them lie some of

Africa's most forbidding peaks.

But this strange caravan is

being shadowed

by Zimmer's African spies -

"we knew that the English

intended to challenge

our supremacy of the lake.

We also knew that the Belgians

were building a boat.

Where they were building, or

wanted to build, was unknown."

If Spicer and his men make it to

Lake Tanganyika, Zimmer vows,

they will not leave Africa alive.

August 18, 1915.

Stage Three.

forgiving terrain

on Earth await the British troopers

- a wild land of disease and

sudden death.

At first light, Geoffrey Spicer

leads his men out of camp.

"There were no roads such as we

call roads in this country,

and except for about 25 miles

the whole route ran through the

thick African forest."

The dry season will last only

a few more weeks

- then the autumn rains will come

- if mud swallows the tractors,

Spicer's mission... and his only

sh*t at glory -

will be over before it begins.

The steam tractors are in the lead,

each hauling one of Spicer's

little ships,

and ten tons of wood for the

insatiable engines.

Four hundred Africans... men and

women

- carry water, food, amm*nit*on,

medicine

- a procession that stretches for

nearly two miles.

On the first day, at the first river

crossing,

Mimi and her tractor nearly

tumble into the current.

It is the first test of Spicer's

leadership.

Undaunted, Spicer has chief engineer

Wainwright come up with a plan.

Wainwright has more trees cut,

reinforces the bridge,

and the convoy plods forward.

"The work was completed at 2:30 p.m.

and the trailers were towed across

and a start was made along

the road at 3.

good progress was made along

the road

and at 6 p.m. a camp was formed

for the night."

Spicer knows there are more than

The path they are following

continues uphill for 60 miles,

then they reach the Mitumba

Mountains, a 6,400 foot range.

Day by day, mile by mile, the former

desk officer grows more confident

- his boasts more outrageous...

the men love him.

"...he appealed immensely to

the ratings...

They all appreciate a commanding

officer who's a bit mad, eccentric.

And he was obviously mad.

Therefore he was marvelous.

"I'd say he could not refrain from

telling absurd stories

about his prowess at sh**ting

the lions he'd sh*t,

although I'd never heard of any

lions in Gambia."

The caravan survives on the skill

of its African hunters,

living off wild buck and guinea fowl.

As for water,

Hanschell and a team of Africans

find the nearest water source.

Much of the water is for the steam

tractors.

The rest is filtered, boiled,

then filtered twice more and

used for tea, cooking

and the next day's water rations.

The steam engines are insatiable

consumers of water and firewood

- advance parties prepare

storage caches of lumber.

"The journey through the Bush was

divided up into three 50-mile stages,

and at the end of each stage was

built a depot

to keep the sun off the provisions

and amm*nit*on."

The Englishmen, many of them

new to Africa,

fear lions and crocodiles,

but Doctor Hanschell's duty is

keeping the men healthy

in a region plagued by unseen

K*llers.

"One very valuable thing was the

paymaster.

He began to get some boils on his

shoulders,

and out of the boils popped worms,

big maggots rather.

The men all saw this, I showed it,

and I said, "Now see, here you are

going through a country

where the danger's from insects,

not from wild animals but insects.

You see what they can do."

From the spies, crude telegraph

lines convey fragments of news

to Kapitan Zimmer

- he believes that Spicer has

come to help the Belgians

build new warships at Lake

Tanganyika...

"Around Lukuga and south of

there by Kalemie

there seemed to be only

defensive building going on."

But, about Mimi and Toutou

, Zimmer knows nothing.

While the confident Germans wait,

the English plod on... one

agonizing mile at a time.

"Three and a quarter miles a day

was the average for the boats.

Occasionally we did rather more,

and on one occasion we covered

but there were many days

when we were lucky if we did a

mile and a half.

One day, we did only three-quarters of a mile."

By late August, Spicer knows he needs help

if he is to outrun the rains.

At a village called Mwenda Makosi,

the British commandeer 42 oxen

to help

drag the boats up the Mitumba Range.

When the rains begin,

they will turn the plains into a

quagmire

too shallow for ships, too muddy

for wheels.

Until then, heat is the deadliest

enemy

- the thirst for water is

unquenchable

- water for the engines... water

for the oxen...

a few cupfuls a day for the

men.

Then, in early September... a

sudden storm of fire.

Spicer has his men create a fire

break.

He then orders that the precious

mahogany boats

must be protected from flying embers.

For Doctor Hanshell, it is a day of

sheer terror.

"...we nearly lost the whole thing

by fire...

Here was this w*r train bearing

down on us at a terrific rate.

We'd burnt off, we set fire to it,

only just in time, just in time,

we moved the g*ns, the wagons

and everything onto the burnt place,

and the thing stopped... it was so

damn near it came."

In the weeks that follow, the oxen

prove their worth.

"The top of the plateau was

reached on September 8, 1915,

and this was a very triumphant

moment for the expedition,

for there were some who had said

that it was impossible to get there.

Our difficulties were by no means

at an end,

for on the downward trek from this point to Sankisia

there was some risky work to be done

in lowering the boats down the

sharp spurs of the mountain..."

They are still weeks away from

the combat zone.

Using 42 oxen, 2 road locomotives,

and hundreds of men,

the expedition struggles to get

down the mountain.

"On more than one occasion

the wheels of the boats dropped

into ant-bear holes.

The only way to get out was to fill

up the hole with logs,

gradually jacking the boat up until

it reached the level.

It was only by good luck that they

received no damage."

"There is a great deal of thunder

and it appears the rains are not

far away.

The journey now, has become a

race to get to the railway

before the rains brake and the

roads become impassable."

Finally, the land is level, but the

dangers remain deadly.

This is the country of the tse tse

fly

- carrier of the sleeping sickness

that kills both men and beasts...

villages are nearly deserted

- the ghost towns of central Africa.

No rain falls... this is a dreadful

blessing -

drought scorches the plains.

"At one point the traction

engines came to a standstill

for want of water,

and the members of the expedition

were getting only half a pint a day."

Lt-Commander Spicer offers local

women a bolt of colored cloth

if they will trek eight miles to the

nearest well

- hundreds accept the bargain,

and the convoy moves on.

For the first time since he tested

them on the Thames,

Geoffrey Spicer's two-boat flotilla

reaches water deep enough

to sail upon

- Mimi and Toutou are reassembled

and lowered into the Lualaba River.

October 1, 1915.

Stage Four.

They will float, or drag their boats,

- strange apparitions to the

resident wildlife.

"Progress on the river is very slow.

I think Mimi and Tou-Tou hold the

record for grounding,

as on October 7 they were

aground 14 times

in twelve miles."

Even on water, Spicer's flotilla

manages barely ten miles a day

- then, at the rail depot at Kabalo,

Mimi and Toutou must be

- packaged safely for another

journey by rail.

October 22, 1915.

Stage Five.

The final phase of the long

odyssey

- 173 miles across precarious

trestles and crumbling bridges

- to the Belgian shores of Lake

Tanganyika.

Spicer rivals are already

preparing their reception

- Gustav Zimmer has followed every

mile of Spicer's incredible trek,

still unaware of the unlikely cargo.

"...the effort to find out more

about the area around Lukuga and

Kalemie was resumed in earnest.

...we took down a lot of telegraph

wires,

and blew up telegraph stations.

As soon as the British reach their

final destination,

he will send his gunboats to

destroy Geoffrey Spicer

and his half-mad dreams.

October 28, 1915.

After four months and over 9,000

miles of travel,

the unlikely odyssey of

Lt. -Commander Geoffrey Spicer

reaches the blue heart of Africa...

Lake Tanganyika.

Finally, he has reached his

battleground.

At Kalemie on the western

shoreline,

a defensive network of g*ns,

troop quarters,

and shipbuilding facilities guards

the back door of the Belgian Congo.

For their British allies, the Belgians

have prepared simple dwellings

- Spicer claims the largest to be

his headquarters...

and hoists the banner of the

Royal Navy

- an emblem of his growing lust

for power.

Kalemie has g*ns, but no

harbor.

To protect his boats from the

Germans,

Spicer insists the Belgians

construct a harbor.

"The decision to build the port

was come to owing to the facts

that it is impossible to operate

without a defended port,

and the existing defenses at

Kalemie

will amply protect the port

selected.

Hundreds of tons of rock are

blasted

and positioned into the

crocodile-infested waters

to create an arced jetty.

Atop the rocks, traintracks and a

launching slip are lain

which will allow Spicer to slide his

miniature Navy

into the lake in minutes.

While the jetty is taking shape,

the Belgians give Spicer the

details of the 3 German ships

he must destroy.

The smallest German vessel is

the Kingani.

At 55 feet long and 12 feet wide,

she is far larger and better armed

than Mimi or Toutou.

Her compatriot, the Hedwig von

Wissmann,

is even larger, but slower.

Carrying two powerful g*ns and a

crew of 22 sailors,

she has room for 200 extra troops.

The Graf von Gotzen dwarfs them all.

An 800 ton monster,

she is over 20 times the size of

the British speedboats.

Her massive g*ns can blast

Spicer's boats

to oblivion with one shell.

The little British boats are

seriously outmanned,

outgunned and outsized.

To tilt the balance of power,

Spicer plots a surprise att*ck to

capture the Kingani

- it is an audacious plan...

for a desk officer who has never

led a combat mission.

Across the lake,

Gustav Zimmer plans his own

strategy of strength.

"...we learned from intercepted

Belgian telegram communications

that they were looking for a

building location...

As soon as it was practical, the

reconnaissance work began."

December 1, 1915.

German Lieutenants Walter

Rosenthal and Job Odebrecht

embark on a stealthy mission of

reconnaissance.

In four successive evenings,

the two ships slip in under

darkness, snapping off night

exposures of the harbor.

The next evening,

Lt. Rosenthal risks his life in a

daring solo mission.

"He wanted to swim ashore,

to find out more about the drydock

and the building of the new ship,

despite the danger of crashing

waves and crocodiles...

he reached the drydock, took

notice of two boats,

then swam back to the designated

meeting place."

But a panicky German officer orders

the Kingani to leave without him.

Rosenthal is forced to hide out on

the Allied side of the lake.

At daybreak, abandoned in enemy

waters,

Rosenthal is taken prisoner

- Zimmer is still ignorant of

Spicer's Jungle Navy.

Mid-December, the rains come

- work is impossible -

all they can do is wait.

"We are having heavy rains

almost daily,

and one or two members of the

expedition on an average,

are always down with slight

att*cks of fever."

On December 23, Spicer decides

it is time to go to w*r.

Far from his desk in London,

Africa has freed Spicer's spirit.

His battle dress reflects his

liberation.

"...to the amazement of the crew

and to the Belgians and the natives,

he didn't wear shorts,

he wore a little, tiny little khaki

skirt with. pleats in it."

Spicer and Britain need allies

- the men of the Ba Holo Holo nation

see the eccentric white man

as a natural chief.

Christmas Eve.

The mahogany gunboats undergo

their first trial runs on African

waters.

"On Christmas Day we took a rest,

and it being the first time the whole

expedition had been together,

we had a big celebration.

December 26, 1915.

The Germans come to fight.

Spicer is reading prayers when

an enemy ship is sighted.

Spicer ignores the enemy's

approach

- he alone will decide when his

private w*r will commence.

"I finished prayers and then sent

off the hands to get ready."

Doctor Hanshell and other

non-combatants head to the cliffs

to watch the battle as if it was a

cricket match.

"...The paymaster and I and the

petty officer Murphy and so on,

we had a grandstand view of it.

It all happened right under our

eyes."

At 11:25 a.m.,

Spicer and his fleet set off in

pursuit of the enemy.

Spicer is in the Mimi and

Lieutenant Dudley

- without his bicycle...

is at the helm of the Toutou.

Spicer's plan is to sneak in

behind the Kingani,

and att*ck her from both sides.

The Kingani can only fire on them

with her bow g*ns.

Kapitan Zimmer has sent the Kingani

to blow up the Belgian harbor

installation.

But instead, is confronted by

Spicer's entire navy.

"She was well inside the bay

before she was aware of the existence

of the British boats on the Lake

...and the Mimi and Toutou

rapidly overhauled her

and opened fire."

"An early sh*t from one of our

g*ns carried away her mast,

and she got several hits below

the water line."

In the ensuing half hour, eleven

enemy sailors are rounded up.

Lt. Dudley takes control of the

captured Kingani,

and brings her and the captured

survivors back to base.

At Kalemie, Spicer is showered

with sand... a traditional gesture

that confirms his mastery of the

earth he stands on.

Three German sailors are buried

with m*llitary dignity.

The British have suffered no

casualties

- but the battle for the blue heart

of Africa has barely begun.

In London, he was ignored,

but at Lake Tanganyika,

Geoffrey Spicer is hailed as a hero

for his brilliant ambush

of the Kingani.

He must now repair his damaged

prize.

British and Belgian engineers

patch up the Kingani's 11 holes,

and refit her with a larger

When they are finished, Spicer

re-christens the German gunboat

as if she were a French poodle,

naming her HMS Fifi.

With a bolstered sense of

confidence,

Spicer's behavior becomes

more outrageous, more bizarre.

Twice a week, he performs a

ceremonial public bath,

complete with cigarettes and

vermouth

- his body is decorated with

symbolic tattoos...

Spicer's men suspect he has

gone mad...

but the Ba holo holo warriors

understand the white man's message

- they call him

"bwana chifungatumbo"

- Lord of the Loincloth...

February 8, 1916.

". we got information from

native spies

that the Kingani had been sunk

by a new coastal a*tillery battery.

I decided to check into this myself

and sent along the Gotzen, the

Hedwig von Wissmann,

and a smaller boat."

The Germans still do not know

the Royal Navy has invaded the Lake.

"...The Hedwig von Wissmann

was to get to the Belgian coast

in the early morning and enquire

about the position

from friendly spies,

then head back to Cape Kungwe

where she would meet with the

Gotzen at around noon

on February 9th."

Then together, Zimmer and Odebrecht

will att*ck the harbor.

At dawn on February 9, the

dance begins,

with control of Central Africa at

stake.

It is a humid, hazy morning

- distant vessels shimmer like

mirages in the heat.

Through the haze, Spicer spots

the Germans.

Spicer leads the att*ck in his

new flagship, the Fifi

- chief engineer Wainwright

takes the speedier,

more maneuverable Mimi.

"...the weather conditions

made the estimation of distance

very difficult...

and until the enemy closed to

within 5000 yards,

he appeared to be a dark blob

suspended above the horizon."

For more than an hour,

Spicer's shells fall short of the

fleeing German ship

- but the Mimi cuts off her

escape...

and forces the Germans to turn

and fight.

As if protected from death by his

magic tattoos,

the Lord of the Loincloth refuses

to take cover.

The battle of Lake Tanganyika

lasts 90 furious minutes.

Hemmed in by Wainwright in the Mimi,

Spicer's cannon blasts a fatal wound

in the Wissmann's engine room.

"In a few minutes the Hedwig

von Wissmann burst into flames,

and finally she up-ended and

went down."

From among the wreckage,

Spicer retrieves the German

battle flag.

The first enemy banner captured

in combat... anywhere -

in the most deadly w*r in human

history.

Twenty-one Germans survive

the expl*si*n

- seven others are k*lled...

Again, there is not a single British casualty -

now, only one target remains...

the Gotzen -

the mightiest of all warships on

this deadly inland sea.

To the Ba holo holo people, the

sinking of the Wissmann

confirms Geofrey Spicer's status

as an indestructible warrior...

a man whose magic places him

in the realm of the gods.

For miles up and down the Lake,

elaborate clay fetishes are

shaped in Spicer's image.

"And clay and wood images

grew up all around the place.

The helmet and the beard and

the jupe and the bare arms

with scratches on to make the

tattooing.

He was the great Bwana Ikuba."

At the peak of his powers,

Spicer is told that his w*r against

Zimmer is over

- the allies will import a new

w*apon... airplanes...

to destroy the Gozten from the

sky.

June, 1916.

Allied seaplanes launch a barrage

of bombings on Kigoma.

Zimmer decides to scuttle his

flagship.

"It was hard for us to blow up our

last ships,

but they could not be allowed to

fall into enemy hands,

for they would have construed it

as a kind of victory.

We conceded to the stronger force,

but our willingness to serve and

our enthusiasm was not broken."

Germany's dreams of an African

empire are shattered

- thwarted by an unlikely hero

and his jungle navy.

After almost another year of

protecting the Lake,

Spicer and his men are ordered

back to England.

His warships left behind.

The British Naval Africa

Expedition is a total success.

Its m*llitary objective attained,

its men back home, unharmed.

He has led his men on a bizarre,

nearly impossible mission,

a small step on the long road to

history.

He is awarded the Distinguished

Service Order

and 15 others including

Henschell, Wainwright

and Dudley are also honored.

After the awards and the

ceremonies

the Lord of the Loincloth returns

to the same desk he left in 1915.

As a warrior his duty is done.

"...the expedition was the

smallest ever sent out

- there being only twenty-eight

men all told.

And it was the only expedition

that had come back without

a single casualty."
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