![Sample our Humanities journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5939/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Humanities.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
Public awareness of the African theatre in the Great War stems largely from C. S. Forester’s 1935 novel The African Queen, and its subsequent 1951 film adaptation. Long thought to have been inspired by British activities on Lake Tanganyika, Forester’s novel more closely resembles events in Cameroon where German missionary Alphons Hermann attempted to sink HMS Dwarf using homemade torpedoes.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. Kinsley, ‘Naval Struggle'; Hearde, ‘A Lake Too Far'.
2. Forester, The African Queen; The African Queen, directed by John Huston, DVD, 2010. Other novels inspired by the Naval Africa Expedition include Scholefield, Alpha Raid; McCann, Utmost Fish; Dow, Lord of the Loincloth; Capus, A Matter of Time. The land campaign in German East Africa is also well represented in fiction, including Stevenson, Ghosts of Africa; Boyd, An Ice Cream War; Stander, The Fortress. Other fictionalised accounts of events in East Africa include Smith, Shout at the Devil.
3. See Sternlicht, Forester and the Hornblower Saga, 9.
4. Forester, Novelist and Storyteller, 4. Most literary analysts content themselves with providing a cursory overview of his life, much of which is drawn from Forester's own posthumously published autobiographical musings. See Sternlicht, Forester and the Hornblower Saga, 13–34; Seymour-Smith and Kimmens, ‘Cecil Scott Forester'; Forester, Long Before Forty.
5. Sternlicht and Newman are the rare exceptions who offer literary criticism. Sternlicht, Forester and the Hornblower Saga, ch. 2; Newman, ‘C. S. Forester'. For film studies commentary, see Fultz, ‘A Classic Case of Collaboration'; Meyers, ‘Bogie in Africa'; Brill, ‘African Queen and Huston's Filmmaking'; Bergreen, James Agee, 346–67. The best account of the difficulties involved in filming the Hollywood screen adaptation of Forester's novel is Hepburn, Making of The African Queen.
6. For examples, see Robbins, First World War; Keegan First World War; Gilbert, First World War.
7. Farwell, Great War in Africa; Strachan, First World War in Africa; Anderson, Forgotten Front; Paice, Tip and Run; Samson, World War I in Africa; Krech, Die Kampfhandlungen.
8. For examples, see Middlemas, Command of the Far Seas, ch. 16; Patience, Königsberg; Houston, ‘Admiralty's Orders were Clear'; Lochner, Kampf im Rufiji-Delta; Chatterton, Königsberg Adventure. Foden provides a rare exception with a detailed overview of the Lake Tanganyika expedition. His work is heavily based on Shankland's The Phantom Flotilla which Paice describes as a lurid and inaccurate account written by a disgruntled participant in the Tanganyika naval campaign who had little understanding of navy rules and regulations. Foden, Mimi and Toutou; Shankland, Phantom Flotilla; Paice, Tip and Run, 234. Historians who repeat the claim that events in East Africa inspired Forester's novel include Moyd, ‘Africa,’ 286; Gardner, On to Kilimandjaro, 105; Marshall, World War I, 200; Miller, Battle for the Bundu, 211.
9. Among the few scholarly studies of the war which speak to events in Cameroon is Farwell, Great War in Africa, chs 2–3; Strachan, First World War in Africa, ch. 3; Osuntokun, Nigeria in the First World War; Schulte-Varendorff, Krieg in Kamerun. For missionary activities during the war, see Orosz, ‘For God and Country'.
10. Paice, Tip and Run, 15–25; Strachan, First World War in Africa, 102; Farwell, Great War in Africa, 125.
11. Foden, Mimi and Toutou, 15–19; Anderson, Forgotten Front, 86–87; Sibley, Tanganyikan Guerrilla, 67–77.
12. Hordern, History of the Great War, 192–93; ‘The Tanganyika Naval Expedition', supplement to the London Gazette, 13 July 1917, 7070–71; Paice, Tip and Run, 99–101; Foden, Mimi and Toutou, 19–21; Sibley, Tanganyikan Guerrilla, 77–79.
13. Magee, ‘Transporting a Navy'; Spicer-Simson, ‘Operations on Lake Tanganyika'; Foden, Mimi and Toutou, 24–31; Chatterton, Königsberg Adventure, 229–30.
14. Paice, Tip and Run, 145–46; Chatterton, Königsberg Adventure, 201–06.
15. Sibley, Tanganyikan Guerrilla, 79–81; Foden, Mimi and Toutou, 146–51, 170–75; Miller, Battle for the Bundu, 204–05; Campbell, Sailormen All, 232–44; Anderson, Forgotten Front, 90–97.
16. Toutou was briefly out of the picture because she had been damaged in a storm the night before and was undergoing repairs. Spicer-Simson, ‘Operations on Lake Tanganyika', 762–63; Leviathan, ‘Battle of the Lake'; Lochner, Kampf im Rufiji-Delta, 325–27.
17. Paice, Tip and Run, 151, 229–32; Foden, Mimi and Toutou, 185–95; Chatterton, Königsberg Adventure, 243–44.
18. Breit, “Talk With C. S. Forester,” New York Times Book Review (April 6, 1952): 16. Forester provided additional details three years later in a short essay. Forester, ‘Hornblower's London'.
19. Sternlicht, Forester and the Hornblower Saga, 29–30, 56. Forester, Brown on Resolution. For press accounts of the Tanganyika expedition, see Paice, Tip and Run, 234. Other early published accounts of the Naval Africa Expedition include O'Neill, War in Africa, 74–75; Dane, British Campaigns, ch. 5; Newbolt, June 1916 to April 1917, 80–85.
20. The truncated version of Forester's story appeared in five parts as Forester, ‘The African Queen', News Chronicle, 9–13 July 1934. I am indebted to Thomas Jabine at the Library of Congress for his assistance in obtaining copies of the serialised version.
21. Forester, The African Queen, 1968, chs 1–2.
22. Ibid., 17.
23. Ibid., 23.
24. Ibid., 24–25.
25. Ibid., 15, 35–37.
26. Ibid., 257–62.
27. Ibid., 290–92.
28. The film also omits any reference to the premarital sexual relationship between Charlie and Rose, to Allnut's abandoned wife, his cowardice and turns him from an English Cockney into a Canadian so that he could be played by Humphrey Bogart. The African Queen, directed by John Huston, DVD, 2010. The serialised version of Forster's story is also quite different. Instead of making her way to Lake Wittelsbach, the African Queen sails into the Rufiji delta to attack a trapped German cruiser named Dortmund on a mission that proves fatal to both Rose and Allnut. See Forester, ‘African Queen,' parts III–V. For the full-length novel's description of the attack on the Königin Louisa see Forester, The African Queen, 298–300.
29. Foden, Mimi and Toutou, 208–09. For the specific examples he cites, see Forester, The African Queen, 9–10, 14, 121, 287–88, 298–300. The adventure and psychological aspects of Forster's novel were first noted in Hutchison, ‘A Strange Wartime Adventure', New York Times Book Review, 10 Feb. 1935, 15; Loveman, ‘Mad Adventure’, Saturday Review of Literature, 10 Feb. 1935, 5.
30. Strachan, First World War in Africa, 30–34; also see Dane, British Campaigns, ch. 9; Dobell, ‘Campaign in the Cameroons’.
31. Dane, British Campaigns, 167–69; O'Neill, War in Africa, 45–47.
32. Haywood, ‘Cameroons Campaign', 1–2; also see Alliston, African River Wars, 103.
33. Gorges, Great War in West Africa, 108–11; Moberly, History of the Great War, 79–80; Admiralty, Cameroons 1914, 171–72; Corbett, To the Battle of the Falklands, 280.
34. Lighters are barges used to ferry goods between anchored vessels and the shore. Moberly, History of the Great War, 80–81; Chatteron, Gallant Gentlemen, 132–33; Admiralty, Cameroons 1914, 173–75; Alliston, African River Wars, 107–08; Cato, Navy Everywhere, 72–73.
35. Translation of private diary of Lieut. Nothnagel (hereafter Nothnagel diary), 6–8 Aug. 1914, WO 158/552, The National Archives, Kew (hereafter TNA). A copy of this diary can also be found in the Private Papers of C. A. Stamp, 7071 PP/MCR 148, Imperial War Museum, London (hereafter IWM); also see ‘Extracts from the diary of W. Schumacher, Chief Engineer of S/S “Kamerun” up to the Surrender of Duala' (hereafter Schumacher diary), 4–8 Aug. 1914, WO 158/552, TNA; Gorges, Great War in West Africa, 118–19.
36. Moberly, History of the Great War, 81–83; C. T. M. Fuller, ‘Cameroon Expeditionary Force, Naval and Combined Naval and Military Operations August 1914 to April 1916', CO 649/8/49661, TNA; Scholze, Deutsches Heldentum, 91–92.
37. Chatterton, Gallant Gentlemen, 135; Nothnagel diary, 10–11 Sept. 1914, WO 158/552, TNA; Norden, Der Fall von Duala, 16; Student, Kameruns Kampf, 60.
38. Wendling, ‘Befehl zum Rammen', 189; Wendling, Die letzte Fahrt ‘Nachtigal', 9.
39. Undated and unattributed press clipping entitled ‘Die Schicksale eines Kolonial-kampfers' (hereafter ‘Die Schicksale eines Kolonial-kampfers') and unsigned ‘Bericht [an die Kolonialamt] über die Tätigkeit u. Gefangennahme des Pallottinerbruders Alphons Hermann als Soldat bei den Kämpfen in Kamerun', 1 April 1915 (hereafter ‘Bericht über die Tätigkeit Alphons Hermann'), Provinz-Archiv der Pallottiner, Limburg an der Lahn (hereafter PA). Photocopies of both documents, neither of which has a call number since the archives are being reorganised, were furnished to me in Sept. 2007 by the Pallottiner's archivist, Father Norbert Hannappel. Also see ‘Proceedings of HMS Cumberland', 513; Student, Kameruns Kampf, 61; Gorges, Great War in West Africa, 125. Gorges misidentifies Polich as Lt. Phoëlig.
40. Translation of Note Verbale, Ausswärtiges Amt to US Embassy Berlin, 9 Nov. 1915, FO 383/49/178446, TNA; ‘Die Schicksale eines Kolonial-kampfers’ and ‘Bericht über die Tätigkeit Alphons Hermann', PA; Cato, Navy Everywhere, 78. For more on Hermann's career, see Neff, Notices Biographiques, 122.
41. Nothnagel diary, 12 Sept. 1914, WO 158/552, TNA; ‘Bericht über die Tätigkeit Alphons Hermann', PA.
42. Corbett, To the Battle of the Falklands, 282–83; ‘Proceedings of HMS Cumberland', 510–11; Admiralty, Cameroons 1914, 177–78; ‘Naval Work in the Cameroons’, 21; Vöhringer, Meine Erlebnisse, 7–9.
43. Scholze, Deutsches Heldentum, 93; ‘Die Schicksale eines Kolonial-kampfers’ and ‘Bericht über die Tätigkeit Alphons Hermann', PA.
44. Nothnagel diary, 12 and 14 Sept. 1914, WO 158/552, TNA; also see ‘Bericht über die Tätigkeit Alphons Hermann', PA.
45. ‘Die Schicksale eines Kolonial-kampfers’ and ‘Bericht über die Tätigkeit Alphons Hermann', PA; Chatterton, Gallant Gentlemen, 136–37.
46. Schumacher indicates that Bauch's decision to volunteer was prompted by the promise of a payment of 60,000 marks to his family if the attack succeeded. Interestingly, while they have the other details correct, both Schumacher and Nothnagel report incorrectly that the 14 Sept. attack was against the Cumberland rather than the Dwarf. Schumacher diary, 15 Sept. 1914, WO 158/552, TNA; Nothnagel diary, 16 Sept. 1914, WO 158/552, TNA.
47. ‘Bericht über die Tätigkeit Alphons Hermann', PA; Capt. C. Fuller, Final Report of Late Senior Naval Officer Duala May 1917, ‘Naval Operations in the Cameroons Sept. 1914–May 1916’ (hereafter Final Report), ADM 137/27, TNA; Cdr. Frederick E. K. Strong, commander HMS Dwarf, to Capt [Fuller], HMS Cumberland, 15 Sept. 1914, ADM 137/28, TNA; journal of F. E. K. Strong (hereafter Strong journal), 14 Sept. 1914, Private Papers of F. E. K. Strong, 6812/78/25/1, IWM; also see Frederick Lugard to Lewis Harcourt, Secretary of State for Colonies, 23 Sept. 1914, ADM 137/48, TNA; Student, Kameruns Kampf, 61–62.
48. ‘Bericht über die Tätigkeit Alphons Hermann', PA; Gorges, Great War in West Africa, 125; Corbett, To the Battle of the Falklands, 283. Corbett reports incorrectly that the torpedo exploded harmlessly in a sandbank.
49. Schumacher diary, 15 Sept. 1914, WO 158/552, TNA; Nothnagel diary, 16 Sept. 1914, WO 158/552, TNA.
50. ‘Bericht über die Tätigkeit Alphons Hermann', PA; Chatterton, Gallant Gentlemen, 137–38.
51. ‘Proceedings of HMS Cumberland', 513; also see diary of F. Drury, 19 Sept. 1914, 665/91/11/1, IWM; diary of R. H. Errington, 19 Sept. 1914, 6973/77/9/1, IWM.
52. Strong to Capt. [Fuller], HMS Cumberland, 15 Sept. 1914, ADM 137/28, TNA; Strong journal, 15 Sept. 1914, 6812/78/25/1, IWM; Moberly, History of the Great War, 85.
53. ‘Proceedings of HMS Cumberland', 512; Admiralty, Cameroons 1914, 178; Chatterton, Gallant Gentlemen, 139; Scholze, Deutsches Heldentum, 96.
54. Moberly, History of the Great War, 85; Gorges, Great War in West Africa, 126–27.
55. Ship's log, HMS Dwarf, 16 Sept. 1914, ADM 53/40444, TNA; Fuller, Final Report, ADM 137/27, TNA; Wendling, ‘Befehl zum Rammen', 193–95; Wendling, Die letzte Fahrt ‘Nachtigal', 23–28.
56. Nothnagel diary, 16 and 18 Sept. 1914, WO 158/552, TNA; Ship's log, HMS Dwarf, 16 Sept. 1914, ADM 53/40444, TNA; Capt. Cyril Fuller, ‘Report on Naval and Military Actions in the Cameroons from their Inception until June 30, 1915', ADM 137/224, TNA; Strong journal, 16 Sept. 1914, 6812/78/25/1, IWM; Wendling, ‘Befehl zum Rammen', 196–98; Wendling, Die letzte Fahrt ‘Nachtigal', 28–29.
57. Gorges, Great War in West Africa, 128.
58. ‘Bericht über die Tätigkeit Alphons Hermann', PA; Student, Kameruns Kampf, 62; Scholze, Deutsches Heldentum, 101–02. Scholze conflates some elements of the earlier Bauch attempt with this attack.
59. ‘Bericht über die Tätigkeit Alphons Hermann', PA; Schumacher diary, 19 and 22 Sept. 1914, WO 158/552, TNA; Nothnagel diary, 20 and 22 Sept. 1914, WO 158/552, TNA; Gorges, Great War in West Africa, 128–29; ‘Proceedings of HMS Cumberland', 520–21; also see Norden, Der Fall von Duala, 19.
60. ‘Bericht über die Tätigkeit Alphons Hermann', PA; also see Hurd and Bywater, From Heligoland to Keeling Island, 129–30.
61. ‘Bericht über die Tätigkeit Alphons Hermann', PA.
62. Bender, Der Weltkrieg, 12; Gorges, Great War in West Africa, 125; also see The Times, ‘The Conquest of Cameroon and Togoland', 287. Cato's claims that Hermann tried unsuccessfully to avoid imprisonment by pleading that ‘his missionary work in the Cameroons was likely to suffer by his absence' are not borne out by other sources. Cato, Navy Everywhere, 81.
63. Translation of article in BM monthly magazine forwarded by G. B. Beak to Horace Rumbold, British Consul in Berne, 12 Dec. 1916, CO 649/9/5, TNA; also see ‘Die Schicksale eines Kolonial-kampfers’ and ‘Bericht über die Tätigkeit Alphons Hermann', PA.
64. A. J. H. [Alfred John Harding] to [Charles] Strachey and Sir G[eorge] Fiddes, ‘German Missionaries: Alleged Ill-Treatment', 29 Nov. 1915, CO 649/4/55157, TNA; ‘Die Schicksale eines Kolonial-kampfers’, PA; Neff, Notices Biographiques, 122.
65. O'Neill, War in Africa, 48; Moberly, History of the Great War, 124–29; Gorges, Great War in West Africa, 130; Strachan, First World War in Africa, 35–36; Dane, British Campaigns, 171; Alliston, African River Wars, 125–27; Corbett, To the Battle of the Falklands, 284–86; Scholze, Deutsches Heldentum, 102–08.
66. Dane, British Campaigns, 187. For more detail on the inland campaigns in Cameroon, see Farwell, Great War in Africa, chs 4–5; Strachan, First World War in Africa, 35–60.
67. Hurd and Bywater, From Heligoland to Keeling Island, 130.
68. For more on missionary activities in Africa during the war, see Orosz, ‘For God and Country'.
69. According to Strachan and Farwell the Cameroon campaign involved 18,000 Entente and more than 8,000 German troops. Strachan, First World War in Africa, 22 and 32; Farwell, Great War in Africa, 71. Killingray and Matthews estimate that British forces alone employed some 25,000 carriers in Cameroon, nearly double the number used on the German side. Killingray and Matthews, ‘Beasts of Burden'.
70. Quinn, ‘Impact of First World War', 176; also see Strachan, First World War in Africa, 57.
71. A. J. H. to Strachey, [John] Risley and Sir G. Fiddes, ‘Mr. J. Bosshart and Basel Mission Trading Co', 20 April 1915 (hereafter Bosshart Memo), CO 649/1/18085, TNA; Telegram from Dobell to Secretary of State for Colonies, 26 April 1915, CO 649/1/19445, TNA; General Charles Dobell to Bonar Law, Secretary of State for Colonies, 5 Dec. 1915, CO 649/2/465, TNA.
72. A. J. H. to Strachey and Sir G. Fiddes, ‘Basel Missionary Society', 15 May 1915, 649/6/21311, TNA; also see Strong journal, 15 Sept. 1914, 6812/78/25/1, IWM; Brig. Gen. C. M. Dobell to Colonial Office, 28 March 1915, reprinted in Great Britain, Colonial Office, Correspondence Relative to Alleged Ill-Treatment, 16.
73. Osuntokun, Nigeria in First World War, 194–96.
74. Moberly, History of the Great War, 187; A. J. H., Bosshart Memo, 20 April 1915, CO 649/1/18085, TNA.
75. A. J. H. to Strachey and Sir G. Fiddes, ‘Basel Missionary Society', 15 May 1915, 649/6/21311, TNA.
76. Ibid.; C[harles] S[trachey], response to Bosshart memo, 21 April 1915, CO 649/1/18085, TNA. Strachey also claims that another torpedo was found on BM property.
77. Rev. Paul Christ, Committee of the Evangelical Missionary Society of Basel, to the Colonial Secretary, 25 March 1915, CO 649/6/21311, TNA; G. B. Beak to Horace Rumbold, British Consul in Berne, 12 Dec. 1916, CO 649/9/5, TNA. For the Pallottine side, see Karl Gissler, Rector General of the Pallottine Order, to Cardinal Archbishop Francis Bourne, 8 Jan. 1916, CO 649/11/2223, TNA; Bonar Law [Secretary of State for Colonies] to Cardinal Archbishop Bourne, 24 Jan. 1916, CO 649/11/2223, TNA.
78. A. J. H., Bosshart Memo, 20 April 1915, and Risley's response, 22 April 1915, CO 649/1/18085, TNA; A. J. H. to Strachey, Risley and Sir G. Fiddes, ‘Basel Mission Trading Co', 26 April 1915 649/1/19445, TNA; A. J. H. to Strachey and Sir G. Fiddes, ‘Basel Missionaries’, 31 May 1915, CO 649/2/24072, TNA; A. J. H. to Strachey and Sir G. Fiddes, ‘Roman Catholic Mission in the Cameroons’, 14 Jan. 1916, 649/11/2223, TNA. For the BM's return to Cameroon, see Weber, International Influences, 25.
79. Great Britain, Papers Relating to German Atrocities; Great Britain, Correspondence Relative to Alleged Ill-Treatment, 16.
80. ‘Die Schicksale eines Kolonial-kampfers’ and ‘Bericht über die Tätigkeit Alphons Hermann', PA; scrapbook of undated newspaper clippings in Private Papers of M. C. Carr-Gomm, 9888, IWM; Scholze, Deutsches Heldentum, 102.
81. A. J. H. to Strachey, memo on ‘Basel Mission Society: Note from German Government Forwarding Petition from the Society Relating to the Treatment of German Missionaries’, 7 May 1915, CO 649/6/21311, TNA; Great Britain, Correspondence Relative to Alleged Ill-Treatment, 16; translation of Verbalnote, Ausswärtiges Amt to US Embassy, 9 Nov. 1915, CO 649/4/55157, TNA.
82. G. B. Beak to Horace Rumbold, British Consul in Berne, 12 Dec. 1916, CO 649/9/5, TNA.
83. Breit, ‘Talk with C. S. Forester', 16; Forester, ‘Hornblower's London', 568–81.
84. Forester, ‘A Very Personal Explanation', iii–iv; also see Roblin, ‘L'affaire “Konigen Luise”’.
85. Forester, Long Before Forty. Sternlicht reports that many elements in Forester's autobiography are contradicted by facts. Sternlicht, Forester and the Hornblower Saga, 24.
86. Newman, ‘C. S. Forester', 95–106; Sternlicht, Forester and the Hornblower Saga, ch. 1; Forester, Novelist and Storyteller.
87. Forester, Novelist and Storyteller, 4.
88. Sternlicht, Forester and the Hornblower Saga, 17–19
89. Ibid, 21–23; Newman, ‘C. S. Forester’, 97–98.
90. Sternlicht, Forester and the Hornblower Saga, 30.
91. Ibid., 25–30.
92. ‘Well Done, Carminia!', The Times, 21 Sept. 1914; ‘The Cumberland's Haul', The Times, 2 Oct. 1914; ‘West Africa Operations’, The Times, 25 Nov. 1914; ‘Capturing an “Outpost of Kultur” in Kamerun', The Graphic, 21 Nov. 1914; ‘A Naval Duel in West Africa', The Illustrated War News, 30 June 1915.
93. These include Admiralty, Cameroons 1914, 179–81; Cato, Navy Everywhere, 78–80; Chatterton, Gallant Gentlemen, 132–43; The Times, ‘Conquest of Cameroon and Togoland', 287; Corbett, To the Battle of the Falklands, 283–84; Dane, British Campaigns, 170–71; Gorges, Great War in West Africa, 124–28; Hilditch, Battle Sketches, 21–22; Hurd and Bywater, From Heligoland to Keeling Island, 129–31; Moberly, History of the Great War, 85; O'Neill, War in Africa, 48; ‘Proceedings of HMS Cumberland', 512–21.
94. Although both the British and the Germans made some use of small craft as torpedo boats in East Africa, the published accounts of naval operations during the Great War to which Forester would have had access make little or no mention of this and provide no details about how the torpedoes were manufactured. By contrast, published accounts of events in Cameroon often provided explicit details about the attacks on Dwarf, including the construction of the torpedo mechanism. Thompson, Book of the War at Sea, 236, 243; Middlemas, Command of the Far Seas, 236; Miller, Battle for the Bundu, 81; Admiralty, East Africa to July 1915, 91; Newbolt, June 1916 to April 1917, 80–85; O'Neill, War in Africa, 48, ch. 6; Hurd and Bywater, From Heligoland to Keeling Island, 130–31; Cato, Navy Everywhere, 25, 35, 77–81.
95. Magee, ‘Transporting a Navy', 356; Foden, Mimi and Toutou, 151.
96. See Porter, ‘Evangelical Visions'; White and Daughton In God's Empire.