National Geographic: The Jungle Navy Page #4

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on February 9th."

Then together, Zimmer and Odebrecht

will attack 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 attack 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 war in human

history.

Twenty-one Germans survive

the explosion

- seven others are killed...

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 war against

Zimmer is over

- the allies will import a new

weapon... 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 military 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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