During World War I, a British aristocrat, an American entrepreneur, and the latter's attractive young daughter, set out to destroy a German battlecruiser, which is awaiting repairs in an inlet just off Zanzibar.
Just before World War I, the hard-drinking, sharpshooting, Irish-American Colonel Flynn O'Flynn uses British aristocrat Sebastian Oldsmith to help poach ivory from German-controlled territory in East Africa, putting them at odds with Herman Fleischer, the local German Provincial Commander. When Sebastian is infected with malaria, he is nursed back to health by Flynn's daughter Rosa, and they fall in love and marry. Not long afterwards, Britain declares war on Germany and they are drawn into the conflict, ultimately making a daring attack on the German armored cruiser S.M.S. Blücher as it undergoes repairs in a local estuary.—Chris Frost <[email protected]>
"Colonel" Flynn O'Flynn (Lee Marvin), an American adventurer living in Portuguese African territory, manages to dupe naive Englishman Sebastian Oldsmith (Roger Moore) into a series of illicit raids into German East African territory just prior to the First World War. On the first raid, an ivory hunting expedition, they are chased by local German Commissioner, Herman Fleischer (Reinhard Kolldehoff) into the arms of German battleship "The Blücher" which rams and sinks their Dhow. Their second raid manages to steal the German tax revenue from Fleischer - upon which Oldsmith marries O'Flynn's daughter, Rosa (Barbara Perkins), over O'Flynn's objections.
At the outbreak of World War I, Commissioner Fleisher is appointed "Military Commander of the Southern Province", and uses that authority to mount a raid into Portuguese territory aginst O'Flynn's home, which he burns. In the same raid he also kills Rosa and Sebastion's daughter in front of Rosa.
O'Flynn, Rosa and Sebastion begin a personal war against the Germans, and are eventually recruited by the British to find the Blücher as it lies laid up in a river for repairs. Flinding the ship O'Flynn and Oldsmith pose as native labourers to place an explosive on board. Unbeknownst to them Rosa is captured and taken aboard the ship. A second raid to rescue her results in O'Flynn's death as Rosa, Sebastion and Fleisher escape the explosion. In a final showdown Sebastion shoots Fleisher on the river bank in front of Rosa, avenging their daughter's death.
