I've been trawling the Net, looking for Foster Tractor photos when I came across a referance about the transporting overland in Africa 2 Thornycroft motor boats to attack 3 German ships, including Graf von Goetzen on Lake Tanganykia.
Goetzen was scuttled by the German Navy, engines etc. were greased as they expected to refloat it later. The Royal Navy recovered it in the 20's and it still exists as MV Liemba.
There was a film based upon this not so long ago, and also of course 'The african Queen'
I also have a document saved from a now defunct geocitys site the text and pics from: TANGANJIKASEE, A Gunboat War in Deutsch-Ostafrika,1914 - 1916 By Dennis L. Bishop and Holger Dobold.
Its saved as a 14 page word doc but is readable but needs editing, if you would like it let me know... this is referred to by D Fernetti in the thread above.. Thanks D http://www.geocities.com/cdferree/tanganjikasee/tangan.html
Cheers
-- Edited by Ironsides on Saturday 5th of June 2010 07:27:00 AM
Well Belgian Lt Behaeghe with his Short Seaplane managed one hit on the von Goetzen. German sources tend to dispute this but as the von Goetzen never left port again he must have hit something !
ps Both governor Schnee and the Governor of the Belgian Congo wanted to follow the Berlin treaty which called for neutrality if European countries went to war. Local german military commanders thought otherwise and sent an armed vessel against the then unarmed Alexandre Delcommune.
Hi Chris, not much help may be, but isn't there a picture in Keegans The Great War of a mobile tugging Mimi and Toutou? It's in my workshop now but if of any interest I can post it tomorrow
Thanks Kiefer, I'd like to see that. I'm determined to stay land based in my Great war interests, but it is difficult when such interesting info distracts me.
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ChrisG
The cure for boredom is curiosity. There is no cure for curiosity(Dorothy Parker)
one picture from Keegan, The Great War. Caption says 'Mimi and Tou-Tou passing over one of the bridges during the Tanganyika expedition 1915. Alas no more. Second pic: a water-drilling installation in West-Africa, from a war magazine. I don't know what the machine is, but I think it's British