June 21, 1917 
LAND & WATER 
fHM 
Story of the Koenigsberg 
By Arthur Pollen 
THE story of the destruction of the Koenigsberg by 
the monitors Severn and sMer^cy, in the Kuftji Delta, 
on July II, 1915, has an interest that far transcends 
the intrinsic mihtary importance of depriving the 
enemy of a cruiser already useless in sea war. For the nar- 
rative of events bring to our attention at once the extreme 
complexity and the diversity of the tasks that the Royal 
Navy in war is called upon to discharge. 
The Koenigsberg was a light unarmourcd cruiser of about 
3,400 ton.s displacement, and was laid down in December 1905. 
She carried an armament of ten 4.1-inch guns, and was pro- 
tected by a 2-inch armoured deck. On the eve of the outbreak 
of war, she was seen by three ships of the Cape Squadron off 
Daar-es-Salaam, the principal port of German East Africa. 
She was then travelling due north at top speed, and was not 
seen or heard of again until, a week later, she sank the British 
steamer the City of Westminskr near the island of Socotra. 
Again followed three weeks in which no news of her where- 
abouts reached us. At the end of the month it was known 
that she had returned south and was in the neighbourhood of 
Madagascar. At the end of the third week in September she 
came upon H.M.S. Pegasus off Zanzibar. Pegasus was taken 
completely unawares while she was cleaning furnaces and 
boilers and engaged in general repairs. It was not possible 
then for her to make any effective reply to the Koenigsberg's 
assault, and a few hours after the Koenigsberg left she sank. 
Some time between the end of September and the end of 
October, the Koenigsberg entered one of the mouths of the 
Kuhji River, and was discovered near tlie entrance on October 
31st by H.M.S. Chatham. . From then onwards, all the mouths 
of the river were blocked and escape became impossible. Her 
captain seemingly determined, in these circumstances, to make 
the ship absolutely safe. He therefore took advantage of the 
high water tides, and relying partly on his own engines, partly 
on beidg towed, and possibly partly on polling, forced his vessel 
some twehe or more miles up the river. Here she was located 
by aeroplane at the end of November. 
The problems which the existence of the Koenigsberg pro- 
pounded were, first, was it worth while to attempt to destroy 
her ? Second, how would her destruction be effected ? The 
importance of destroying her was great. If she was not des- 
troyed, a close blockade would have to be rigidly maintained, 
and it was a question whe ther the maintenance of the blockade 
would not involve, in the end, more trouble than her 
destruction. 
If the ship was to be destroyed, what was to be the method 
of her destruction ? She could not be reached by ship's guns. 
For no normal warship of superior power would be of less 
draught than the Koenigsberg, and unless this draught were 
very materially less, it would be impossible to get within 
range, except by processes as slow and laborious as those by 
which she had attained her anchorage. Was it worth while 
attempting a cutting-out expedition ? The boats would 
(irocced under steam and would not be lowed ; they 
would not sally out to board the enemy. and light his crew 
hand to hand, but to get near enough to start a torpedo at him, 
discliarged from dropping g<;ar in a picket boat. The 
enemy, it was known, iiad not only considerable military forces 
in the colony, but those well supplied witli field artillery. And 
there was on board the Koenigsberg not only the 4.1-inch guns 
of her main armament, but a considerable battery of eight, 
or perhaps twelve, 3-inch guns — a weapon amply large enough 
to sink a ship's picket boat, and with a single shot. The attack 
by boats then promised no success at all, for tlie simple reason 
that it would be the simplest thing on earth for the enemy to 
defeat it long before the expedition had reached the point 
from whicli it could strike a blow at its prey. 
There was then only one possible solution of the problem. 
It was to emjjloy armed vessels of sufficient gun-power to do 
the work quickly, and of shallow enough draught to get to a 
lighting range quickly. If the thing were not done quickly, an 
attack from the masked banks mignt be fatal. If these guns 
could have their fire corrected by observers in aeroplanes, 
they might be enabled to do the trick. Fortunately, at the 
very opening of the war, the Admiralty had purchased from 
the builders three river monitors. They drew but a few feet. 
Their free board was low, their centre structure ^forded but a 
small mark ; the big guns they carried were protected by steel 
shields. They had been employed with marked success against 
the Germans in their first advance to tlie coast of Belgium. 
When the enemy, having established himscU' in the nciglibour- 
hood of Nieuport, had time to bring up and cmplace long-range 
guns of large calibre, the further employment of these river 
monitors on this, their first job, was no longer possible. 
F'or the moment, then, they seemed to be out of work, and 
here was an undertaking exactly suited to their capacity- 
Of the three monitors, Mersey and Severn were therefore sent 
out to Mafia Island, which lies just off the Rufiji Delta, 
and had been seized by us early in the proceedings. 
The first aeroplanes available proved to be unequal to the 
task, because of the inadequacy of their lifting power. The 
atmosphere in the tropics gives a totally different buoyancy 
from that in colder latitudes, and a machine whose engines 
enable it to mount quite easily to a height of 4,000 or 
5,000 feet in Northern Europe, cannot in Central Africa rise 
more than a few hundred feet from the ground. N^ew types of 
machines, therefore, had to be sent, and these had to be tested 
and got ready for work. I-'or many weeks then, before the 
actual attack was undertaken, we piust pictrure to ourselves 
the Island of Mafia, hitherto unoccupied and indeed un- 
touched by Europeans, in the process of conversion into an 
effective base for some highly complicated, combined opera- 
tions ofaircraft and sea force. The virgin forest had to be 
cleared away and the ground levelled for an aerodrome. The 
flying men had to study and master machines of a type of 
which they had no previous experience. The monitors had 
to have their guns tested and their structural arrangement 
altered and strengthened to fit them for their new undertak- 
ing. And indeed preparii^g the monitors was a serious matter. 
The whole delta of the Kufiji is covered with forest and 
thick bush — nowhere are the trees less than sixty feet high, 
and in places they rise to between twice and three times this 
height. To engage the Koenigsberg with any prospect of 
success, five, six, or seven miles of one of the ri\er branches 
would certainly have to be traversed. There was, it is true, 
a choice of three mouths by which these vessels might 
])roceed. It was imperative, to protect the monitors from 
such gun-fire as might be <;ncountcred, and to take every 
step possible to preserve their buoyancy if a mine or 
torpedo were encountered. 
The Trent had come out as a mother ship to these two un- 
usual men-of-war, and from the moment of their arrival, she 
became an active arsenal for the further arming and protec- 
tion of her charges. Many tons of plating were laid over their 
vulnerable portions — the steering gear, magazines, navigating 
bridges, etc., having to be specially considered. The gun 
shields were increased in size, and every precaution taken to 
protect the gunners from rifle fire. Between these spells of 
dockyard work, the monitors were taken out for practice in 
conjunction with the aeroplanes. Mafia Island, which had 
already served as a dockyard and aerodrome, was now once 
more to come in useful as a screen between the monitors and 
the target. The various operations necessary for indirect 
fire were carefully studied. 
The First Attempt 
At last all was ready lor the great attack. The crew had 
all been put into khaki ; every fitting had been cleared out of 
the monitors ; they had slipped off in the dark the night before 
and were anchored when, at 3.30 in the morning, all was ready. 
I will now let a participant continue the story : 
" I woke up hearing the chatter of the Secdee boys and the 
voice of the quarter-master telling someone it was 3.20. I 
hurried along to my cabin and was dressed in three minutes, 
khaki shirt, trousers, shoes, and socks. A servant brought 
me a cup of cocoa and some biscuits, and I then made my 
way up to the top. 
■' It was quite dark in spite of the half moon partly hidden by 
clouds, and men wandering about the docks putting the last 
touches. It was impossible to recognise anyone as all were in 
khaki and cap and helmet. By 3.45 all were at general 
quarters and at ■ — we weighed and proceeded. Both 
motor-boats were towing, one on either side amidships. Two 
whalers anchored off Komo Island, and burning a single light 
each, acted as a guide to the mouth. We soon began to 
see the dim outline of the shore on t|ic right hand, and 
declared he could distinguish the mouth. There were four of 
us in the top. We arranged ourselves conveniently, ■ — — — and 
, taking a side each to look out. The gunnery lieuten- 
ant took the fore big gun and starboard battery, t had the 
