Dez-ocuparea: "Măşti"? Ascund ele multe, chiar dacă nu-s toate măşti de vraci africani

25 august 2020

"Măşti"? Ascund ele multe, chiar dacă nu-s toate măşti de vraci africani

Acţiunea are loc în Africa (1918), în apropiere de epava crucişătorului german Königsberg, distrus de englezi după o lungă bătălie în delta fluviului Rufiji, unde se refugiase (în Tanganika, din Africa Colonială Germană / Deutsch-Ostafrika, acum Tanzania). Marinarii germani supravieţuitori (188) demontează toate tunurile navale de 105 mm, la care vor adapta afeturi pentru lupta terestră şi se retrag în junglă, de unde vor duce o eficientă luptă de gherilă, ani de zile. Camarazii morţi pe navă (33) i-au îngropat înainte de plecare într-un mormânt comun, pe malul din dreptul epavei. Un ofiţer de marină german (Lothar Slütter) trebuie să găsească o hartă cu locul unde este îngropată o ladă cu monezi de aur şi argint, bani necesari pentru plata mercenarilor africani (askari) care luptau sub comanda generalului german Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck. Harta este ascunsă undeva pe Königsberg. Slütter şi un soldat negru din armata colonială a lui Lettow-Vorbeck, împreună cu care se apropiaseră de epavă deghizaţi în vraci africani cu măşti, sunt împuşcaţi de un alt german, care fuge cu harta, plănuind să păstreze comoara pentru sine. Corto ajunge primul la faţa locului şi află (numai el) de la negrul muribund despre ce este vorba. Acesta făcea parte dintr-o grupare misterioasă, "oamenii-leopard", un fel de justiţiari africani. Corto Maltese, crezând că este vorba de o rudă a unui alt Slütter, tot din Kriegsmarine, cu care trecuse prin mai multe peripeţii cu câţiva ani mai înainte, pleacă în urmărirea ucigaşului împreună cu trei "oameni-leopard".

3 comentarii :

Riddick spunea...: Despre Corto Maltese am scris aici

https://riddickro.blogspot.com/2011/08/corto-maltese.html

dar din păcate s-au pierdut embed-urile cu clipurile respective.; 8/25/2020
Riddick spunea...: Finally, in April 1915, the British Admiralty agreed to a plan submitted by Drury-Lowe the previous November, which envisioned attacking the German cruiser with shallow-draft monitors, capable of navigating the Rufiji River. Two of the warships, Mersey and Severn, armed with a pair of 6 in (150 mm) guns each, were brought from Britain. On 6 July 1915, the two monitors crossed the outer sandbar and steamed up the river, despite heavy fire from German positions on the river banks. They stopped at a point they thought to be 10,000 yd (9,100 m) from Königsberg, which would be in range of their own guns but farther than the smaller German guns could reply. Aircraft were used to spot the fall of shot. The monitors' navigation was faulty, however, and after opening fire, found themselves to be within range of Königsberg's guns as well. In the span of three hours, Königsberg had forced both British ships to withdraw.[30]

They returned again on 11 July, after having repaired the damage sustained in the first attempt. The two monitors conducted a five-hour bombardment that destroyed the cruiser.[30] By 13:30, Königsberg was down to two operational guns, each with two rounds left. One of these last rounds was shrapnel and the gunners hit the British spotter plane, causing it to crash in the river.[31] With fires burning below decks, Captain Looff, now wounded along with many of his crew, ordered the ship scuttled. A torpedo was rigged with fuses to blow out the ship’s bottom. With the British still firing, the charges went off and with cheers from the crew for their ship, the Kaiser, and the Fatherland, Königsberg settled into the river just after 14:00, her flag still flying.[32]

The next day 33 German sailors were buried by the 188 remaining crewmen. A plaque was placed near the graves, reading "Beim Untergang S.M.S. Königsberg am 11.7.15 gefallen..." ("fallen during the sinking of SMS Königsberg on 11 July 1915...") followed by a list of the dead.[33] The armament and all other useful equipment and material were removed from the wreck and, together with the ship's crew, went on to see service in the East African land campaign under Lieutenant Colonel Paul Emil von Lettow-Vorbeck.[34][Note 3] Königsberg's 10.5 cm guns played especially prominent roles for the Germans for the rest of the war, acting as the theater's heaviest field artillery, used in harbor fortifications, and even remounted on the converted ferry Götzen, the German "capital ship" of the inland Lake Tanganyika fleet.[36] The surviving sailors, organized as the Königsberg-Abteilung, eventually surrendered on 26 November 1917 and were interned in British Egypt. In 1919, after the war, the men took part in a parade through the Brandenburg Gate to celebrate them and their ship.[37] The wreck of Königsberg was sold in 1923 to Commander John Ingles and large quantities of non ferrous material removed from the wreck. The wreck eventually rolled over on its starboard side and disappeared into the river bed in 1966. This is recorded in the Dar es Salaam Archives in Tanzania.

https://military.wikia.org/wiki/SMS_K%C3%B6nigsberg_(1905); 8/25/2020
Riddick spunea...: We know that the ten guns were salvaged from the wreck of the SMS Konigsberg in the Rufiji Delta in July 1915 and that they were dragged overland to Dar Es Salaam where the Germans set to work building gun carriages and limbers for some of them. They were then deployed for land use. Five were mounted on their original naval C06 fixed pivot stands to defend Dar Es Salaam, two on their pivot stands went to Tanga. Three were sent Westwards to Mwanza, Kigoma and to serve on the SS Graf von Götzen.

In March 1916 the SS Marie arrived in East Africa with supplies from Germany. Included with the supplies were four gun carriages made by Krupp specifically for the Königsberg's guns. This made more of them mobile and able to carry on the war as the Schutztruppe retreated. One by one the guns were destroyed or were captured as the campaign went on. All of them had fallen into allied hands after being disabled by the Germans before the end of 1917.

https://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?p=1788831&sid=48d1d39890190b102a88adaab02635ce#p1788831; 8/27/2020

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