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Friday, November 12, 2004
Page 5.
5.
Captain Looff decides to destroy the British Cruiser.
The afternoon tide of the 19th. of September carried
Konigsberg out to sea, and she set a course for Zanzibar. The following morning she destroyed
the Channel Pilot Boat off the harbour entrance, and Pegasus came within range at 9,000
yards, and the German ship opened fire. Within 20 minutes the British cruiser was
down by her bows and giving off heavy smoke. Looff made good his escape heading back out
to sea, and a broken piston rod crosshead in one of the ship's main engines forced her
Captain to return to the Rufiji Delta, where, together with Somali she was camouflaged, if a
quick escape became necessary, there were several navigable channels that might be used.
The British react.
Two days after Konigsberg had sunk Pegasus, the German
cruiser Emden ( a sister ship to Konigsberg ) had boldly steamed into the harbour of
British Madras and bombarded it. The British had now had enough, and the 5,400 ton Royal
Navy cruisers Chatham, Weymouth, and Dartmouth, were all sent out on a find and
destroy mission seeking out Konigsberg.
When Chatham stopped and searched the German ship
Prasident, she found orders to ship coal out to the Rufiji Delta, then on the afternoon of the
20th. of October a landing party from the British cruiser was combing this Delta area. A
sailor shinned up a tree, and was able to detect the disguised masts of both Konigsberg and
Somali poking up through the forest canopy. Chatham promptly called up her sister
ships, and the blockade began.
The attack begins.
On the 2nd. of November the three British ships commenced
their bombardment, but Looff promptly moved his two ships 2 miles further upstream. A
few days later, Somali was hit by Chatham's gunfire, set alight, to soon become a total
loss, one down and one to go! On the 9th. a British freighter Newbridge was sunk as a
block ship in the mouth of the Ssuninga channel, but really to no effect, as Konigsberg
never was able to obtain enough coal for her to make a dash for the open sea.
A long impasse.
A stalemate period of some eight months now ensued, the
German ship could not escape, nor could the British cruisers get close enough to
effectively bombard her. A fortified zone was created around the Delta by German forces, and no
British push could penetrate it. British aircraft tried spotting the fall of shot, but
Captain Looff set up an Anti-Aircraft defence which shot down one of them, and his move proved
effective.
The Blockade Runner Ruebens.
By April 1915, the Germans were desperate to break out
Konigsberg, a supply ship Ruebens carrying 1,600 tons of coal for the cruiser, plus a host
of ammunition and much needed supplies arrived in the Indian Ocean. The ship disguised
as a Danish freighter was known to the British authorities, and when she arrived at Manza
Bay, the British cruiser Hyacinth came up from the South at full speed, Rueben's Captain was
so panic stricken, he ran his ship aground, evacuated his crew, and torched his ship.
He was unaware that Hycanith then broke down, with only
half speed available to her, but she shelled Ruebens, and her timid Captain scuttled her.
When the British returned to the scene some weeks later, the Germans had salvaged all the
cargo except the coal.
Konigsberg was stranded.
With the loss of Ruebens, Konigsberg was now stranded high
and dry. The British went about very systematrically charting all
of the cruiser's defences, and two shallow draft River Monitors, Severn and Mersey were sent
off on their way to the Delta where they finally arrived in June of 1915.
The end is nigh for Konigsberg.
The British plan which they had worked toward for months
was now implemented. The Monitoirs headed up the Kikunja arm of the River Delta,
opposed only by sporadic small arms fire. As they closed in, two British operational
aircraft dropped bombs close to the German ship to act as a diversion.
At 0645 ( 6.45 AM ) the Monitors opened fire at a range of
10,000 yards, and soon after the German cruiser responded with return fire, and by 0740 (
7.40 AM ) she had gained two hits on Mersey who was forced to retire, leaving Severn to
continue the assault, she opened the range another 1,000 yards. Although the rather
incredible number of British rounds fired added up to 635 from their 6 inch guns, only 3 of
them actually struck Konigsberg.
Four days of peace.
Now four days of quietness descended on the scene, but
early on Sunday morning of the 11th. of July, British aircraft circled Konigsberg, to
announce a renewal of the action.
By 1115 ( 11.15 AM ) the Monitors had entered the River,
and within 30 minutes the German ship opened fire with four guns of her main
armament, but she could not match the rate of fire from the Monitors who began to score hits
along her entire length. In addition, the German was short of ammunition, her
middle funnel was brought down, smoke poured from her hollow mast, a fire started close to
the forward magazine, by 1300
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