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The Battle of the Rufiji Delta was fought in Tanzania from 1914–1915 and was a battle of World War I. In 1914 the most powerful German ship in the Indian Ocean was the cruiser SMS Konigsberg. On November 5, British ships managed to trap the Konigsberg in the Rufiji Delta, but were unable to navigate the Delta. A blockade of the Rufiji Delta began. The crew of the Konigsberg disguised their ship so it looked like the forest around the delta. However, by March 1915 food supplies were low and many of the crew members aboard the Konigsberg died. The British sent two shallow draft warships into the delta in July 1915 where they destroyed the Konigsberg with the help of two aircraft. After the battle the British were unquestionably the strongest naval power in the Indian Ocean.
