Destruction of the cruiser Königsberg

On 11 July 1915, in the delta of the Rufiji river on the coast of German East Africa, the career of the German light cruiser Königsberg came to an end. Two British shallow-draught monitors, Severn and Mersey, shelled her from a range of several miles, their fire directed by an airman circling over the jungle. The wrecked ship was blown up on the orders of her captain, Fregattenkapitän Max Looff.

The second attempt

Königsberg had lain in the delta since the autumn of 1914. After sinking the cruiser Pegasus she had taken refuge there from the British warships, which found her at the end of October and blockaded the mouths of the river. An airfield was set up on Mafia Island, occupied in January, and at the beginning of June the monitors arrived there; thanks to their shallow draught they could penetrate deep into the delta. The first attack, on 6 July, was indecisive. The Germans knew the range to the position where the monitors anchored well, and their salvoes hit Mersey, killing several sailors. Of over six hundred British shells, only a few found their target.

Over the following days the ships were repaired at Mafia and the plan was changed. This time Mersey was to draw the enemy’s fire, while Severn was to move closer and fire using corrections from the aircraft.

The decision

On the morning of 11 July the monitors again entered the northern arm of the delta, the Kikunja, under fire from the banks. Mersey anchored in her old position, while Severn went further upstream under German salvoes and opened fire at about 12.30 p.m. Her fire was directed from an aircraft by J. T. Cull with his observer Arnold. The eighth salvo was already on target, and then the hits followed one after another. After a dozen or so minutes Königsberg was firing with only one gun. Cull’s aircraft, hit by the Germans, came down on the river between the monitors, and both airmen were rescued. At about 12.52 p.m. there was a great explosion on the cruiser, followed by others.

Looff, himself wounded, ordered the crew to abandon ship and blow her up with charges made from torpedo warheads. According to German figures this happened at about 2 p.m., and the cruiser settled on the bottom of the shallow river. The British official history notes that at about 2.20 p.m. the wreck was burning from stem to stern. In the final fight, according to the German official history, 19 sailors were killed and 45 wounded.

A crew without a ship

Julian Corbett, author of the British official history of the war at sea, wrote that on that day the last German cruiser on the high seas came to an end. The threat to shipping in the Indian Ocean was gone, and British warships could concentrate on the blockade of the colony’s coast and on supporting the troops on land.

The Germans did not give up, however. From the very next day they salvaged guns, ammunition and equipment from the wreck. Ten 105 mm guns, after repair, went to the forces of Lieutenant Colonel Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck and for years afterwards served as heavy field artillery. The surviving sailors of Königsberg also joined his troops.