Hi Folks,

Its been a while since I've been on here and I wish you all well.

I've a number of books on the Konigsberg and I'm having difficulty in locating some scaled drawings of the improvised mobile firing platforms the Germans made in using the Konigsberg guns for the campaign.

The reason for the plans is so that a wargaming model can be designed in 1/56th scale. This would be the first (I believe in the world). I've a first rate designder keen to design this model. We have a 4.1 inch gun in the Australian War Memorial off the Emden which we can take measurements from for the barrel. There are a number of different platforms used, but I'd be happy with just the one type if thats available.

Many thanks and I do wish you all well.

God Bless

Helen

Hi Folks,

Merry Christmas to one and all and I pray you are having a lovely time with friends and family.

I was happy to receive from a lovely fellow named Holger some photos of the 4.1 inch gun used by the Konigsberg and two of which are from the Konigsberg. The other is of a German Naval gun crew most probably posing as they serve the gun. I've not seen these photos before so I wish to share them here.

Holger has also indicated that he had no luck with taking measurements in Pretoria / RSA but under the new government it was not longer allowed to visit the gun!? Harry can you assist here?
Holger was saying in his e-mail that he will visit Mombasa/Kenya soon to try and take photos and measurements of the Konigsberg gun. From reading Kevin Patience's book "Konigsberg" this gun was located at Bagamoyo and after firing seven shots at the allied landing the breech block had been thrown in the bush and the gun ambandoned intact. From what the author is sayng the gun is now located at Fort Jesus Museum in Mombasa.

There are two links to the photos below:

http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s266/He...nigsbergGun.jpg

http://i154.photobucket.com/albums/s266/He...rewinAction.jpg

Best Wishes

Helen

Hi Harry, Thanks for the pic - very nice.

God Bless

Helen

I was in Pretoria last month and the guns are accessible. No measurements though.


http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/i...mp;#entry811525

Roop

Hi Roop, Thanks for the thread and pics. They are excellent and I'll let Holger know too of your trip.

Many Thanks again.

God Bless

Helen

Hi Helen,

Excellent image of the 'German Naval Gun Crew In Action'. Thank you very much for sharing.
Any idea of the ship and where pic was taken? The deck seems to timber which probably rules out the Konigsberg.


Regards
Kalla

Hi Kalla, I'll ask Holger if he knows and I might throw this pic on the Axis Forum as well.

Best Wishes

Helen

Timber decking would be common on warships of the period, they compensated for wear and tear and protected against thermal expansion of the plate work.

Roop

Some additional information provided by Holger and my thanks to him for sharing this information on the crew serving the 10.5 gun in the topic:
Photo:
Taken from a postcard in a private archive. The same photo, beside was from a book.
The photo show a 10,5-cm-SK on the German steamer
"Goetzen” at mid of October 1916 on the North-Western side of Lake Tanganyika near Uvira. This gun was used from mid
August 1915 to Mai 18th 1916 on this ship. It was the gun no.6. Korogwe in the list: Ten Koenigsberg guns.

Identification of the Person in photo, right, behind the
shield. It was Vicesteuermann Edel. He was from the Möve, then
he served on the Kingani, H. v. Wissmann and the Goetzen.

Best Wishes

Helen

Interesting site here:

KonigsbergGuns


ciao,
GAC

Dear Helen,

Thank you for supplying us with the photos of the KÖNIGSBERG guns.

As for the GRAF VON GÖTZEN gun, the name of Vizesteuermann Edel made me check his name against the list of the crew of SMS MÖWE as mentioned in the 1937 report by Kapitän Zimmer, the former commander of the MÖWE. Edel’s name does not appear on this list, as shown in Bericht S.M.S. Möwe über die Zeit vom 08.12.1913 bis Kriegsausbruch (Traditionsverband ehemaliger Schutz- und Polizeitruppen).

According to the article Tanganjikasee - A Gunboat War in Deutsch-Ostafrika 1914-1916 (By Jingo) by Dennis L. Bishop and Holger Dobold, Vizesteuermann Edel served on one of the merchant ships of the Deutsche-Ostafrika Linie. As a member of the Naval Reserve he joined up, together with 3 officers and 40 sailors (Marinere-servemannschaften).

As for Edel’s service on Lake Tanganyika, he is mentioned in the article as being in charge of a party of 8 sailors, landed on 1 February 1915 from HEDWIG VON WISSMANN to retrieve some loads which were dropped by Belgian porters after a raid carried out by the HEDWIG.

I presume the date of the photo must be "mid October 1915", since it was removed on 16 May 1916, and according to the 2007 German novel "Eine Frage der Zeit" (A Question of Time) by Alex Capel) replaced by a dummy gun. Information on the novel can be found on Alex Capus' homepage.

Regards
Per

Thanks Per for following up on this story.

God Bless

Helen

The Belgian troops captured in Central GEA district Tabora two 10,5-cm-SK (4.16 in.) Koenigsberg-guns.

The German West-troops lost one gun at the 2^nd September 1916 at Korogwe (Kahama; 160 km North of Tabora)

[IMG]http://i31.tinypic.com/21boq3b.jpg[/IMG]



The other gun they lost at the 18^th September 1916 at Itaga (Ngeruka hill; 20 km North-west of Tabora)

[IMG]http://i29.tinypic.com/1118ozp.jpg[/IMG]



I read in two sources that Belgian troops brought one gun to Kisangani (formally Stanleyville)

And the other gun to Kinshasa (formally Leopoldville)

http://www.richthofen.com/konigsberg/wrecks_relics/index.htm

http://www.traditionsverband.de/download/p...gsberg_guns.pdf



Has anybody information about the present location? (Was it worth to have a look there?)



Holger