Page 18 - Bulletin 11 2007

15

civilian pilot H. D. Cutler who had a 90hp Curtiss flying boat. (Fig. 1.6). He was
immediately commissioned as a Flight Sub-Lieutenant in the RNAS, and sent off to locate

the Koenigsberg. He did so on 3 December 1914, finding her 12 miles up river. On a later
flight in December he was forced down by engine trouble and taken prisoner. In June 1915

RN ships were eventually able to sink Koenigsberg and her wreck remains in the Rufiji

river to this day.

In the deep south Atlantic there was a brief sea war involving the China Squadron of the
German High Seas Fleet. This consisted of modern, fast, well-armed cruisers and in

October 1914 it intercepted an ageing RN fleet off the Chilean coast and sank the Good
Hope and Monmouth to the utter disbelief of the Admiralty and the joy of Berlin. It was the

greatest British naval defeat in 100 years. It was feared that the Germans would seek to

round Cape Horn and enter the Atlantic, possibly attempt to bombard Simon’s Town, or
make for the German base at Dar-es-Salaam from which they could then intercept British

shipping heading for the Cape. So a strengthened RN force was sent to the Falklands

where, in December 1914, battle was given in which four of the German ships were sunk.
This action effectively ended German high seas activity in the southern hemisphere, but a

substantial Cape Squadron was kept in readiness at Simon’s Town throughout the war,
assisted by an Imperial Japanese Navy cruiser during the later part of the war. (Fig. 1.7).

The Land War

The experience of the land war was an indirect one and involved securing the Fortress,
forming and training the ACF & DRA, and the Cape Corps.

Securing the Cape Fortress

At Simon’s Bay steps were taken to secure the Naval Base by declaring the Simon’s Town

area a “Prohibited Area”. The main line of defence was a chain of blockhouses, with barbed