Free 2004 - Mimi and Toutou Go Forth by Prefers to remain anonymous, Giles Foden

hunter and it seems likely that Spicer had planned all along to get Lee out of the picture. It was to be his expedition, not Lee’s.
    At about noon that Sunday, 11 July, the Severn and the Mersey returned to the delta to finish the job. There could be no surprise this time. Two British spotter planes flew above the ship with impunity: it was the first time in the War that planes were used to pass back messages about the accuracy of shooting, though the practice of range-finding by other means was well established.
    Alerted by her own spotters in trees and on hills, the Königsberg fired salvo after salvo as the two barges approached—and fired with great accuracy. But the seamen on board the barges had learned how to control their flat-bottomed craft. They kept slipping moorings and edging out of range of the German guns.
    At about 12.30 a shell from the Severn hit one of the Königsberg ’s three funnels. It made a fearsome sound as it was shot away, the shell piercing the funnel casing and exploding. Up above, a British spotter biplane piloted by Flight Lieutenant John Cull swooped over, taking considerable small-arms fire. Cull’s observer, Flight Sub-Lieutenant Arnold, radioed the Severn and told her the shot was on target. The British fired more rounds and seven hits were recorded in the next ten minutes.
    At 12.45 the inevitable happened. The biplane was hit. As it stuttered down Arnold broadcast one last elevation correction to the gunners on the Severn before the plane somersaulted on the crocodile-thick water (this final correction was later revealed to have been of vital importance). Arnold fell out of the cockpit, over Cull’s head, but Cull, who had not undone his belt, went down with the plane. He was only able to free himself by ripping his trousers and tearing offhis boots. Bobbing to the surface, he was found by Arnold amid the wreckage and both men were picked up by a motor boat from the Mersey .
    Half an hour later, the coup de grâce was administered to the Königsberg . Rosenthal and the crew felt the shock of a series of explosions and a huge cloud of smoke billowed above the coconut palms as the ship burst into flames. The cry went up: ‘All hands abandon ship!’ The men panicked as they clambered over each other through the flames, pushing aside anyone who got in their way, and swam for the shore. Many were seriously wounded.
    The ship’s first officer George Koch detonated three torpedoes and blew up the hull, to prevent the British from using her. However, it is thought there were still some wounded on board. It was about 3 PM when the British ships withdrew. Coming back down the three-mile channel to the sea, they were showered by shells all the way. The Germans might have been beaten, but they weren’t giving up.
    Rosenthal and his colleagues spent that night on the banks of the Rufiji in a terrible state. Injured and half-naked, they were bitten into paroxysms by the fat mosquitoes that make their home in African swamps. There was not enough food to go round, but more importantly, not enough morphine. Wenig, Rosenthal’s fellow officer who had lost his foot in the first attack, came down with malaria that night. They slept rough on the river bank, lighting campfires in a vain attempt to ward off the insects.
    From malaria or gangrene or both, Wenig was delirious by the time the ship’s doctor amputated his leg near the knee a few days later. By that stage Rosenthal and the other survivors had begun salvaging the ship. The Königsberg was beyond repair, but her guns were still functional. Unbolted from the hull, they were brought ashore. Von Lettow-Vorbeck, the German commander, ordered that they be dragged back to Dar es Salaam, to which task 400 Africans were promptly put. The loss of the Königsberg was a blow to von Lettow, but at least he now had some serious artillery to distribute round the colony. He sent two of the Königsberg s 4.1 mm guns down the railway to Kigoma on Lake