A better holiday

Not many people know about the Konigsberg. She was a German battleship, based in East Africa in the first world war. Bigger and better than anything the British had, she was a threat to stability in the East African region. She holed up in the Rufiji River delta due to engine troubles. The English found her and blocked the river - it took several months, 21 ships and a number of battles before she was finally sunk in the muddy water of the Rufiji. Animated maps of the battle you can see here.







But the story doesn't end there. Some enterprising German major called von Lettow-Vorbeck took the main deck guns off her. He added some wheels and dragged them around the east african bush for four year. He beat the crap out of the South African, British and Indian troops. We had 125,000 troops looking for him - he had 2,500, of which I think only 600 were German. The rest were Africans. Ran rings around us he did. Innovative man he was - promoted African troops above his German soldiers if they were good. Unheard of in his day. One of those guns now stands in front of the Union Buildings in Pretoria.



The Konigsberg was last seen in 1965. Most of it was cut up for scrap metal by people over the years. The Rufiji delta is as remote today as it was 90 years ago. Few people go there - swamps, malaria, crocodiles - they all keep the riff raff out.



Sometime next year I want to take some sidescan sonar equipment and see if i can find the bits that are left. Who's coming with? The beer will be cold..