National Geographic: The Jungle Navy

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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 War 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 war 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 war.

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

military 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 war

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 gun

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 War,

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 military 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

shot 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, ammunition,

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

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