Missing Gun from the SMS Königsberg

[CPT Bob]

Recoil Damper - Right Side (partially disassembled)

[CPT Bob]

Compare the Limber Wheels.

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[CPT Bob]

I believe that they are actually two more photos of "the most-photographed gun in East Africa", the Mkuyuni Gun.

My guess is that perhaps 40-50 years ago, someone mislabeled them as "the Kibata Gun" and no one ever questioned if that was correct.

It will take a few more "Porters" for me to explain the existence of the sights and to place the photos chronologically within the other photos, but I am unable to drink enough to believe that these are photos of the Kibata Gun.

[CPT Bob]

My box.JPG

[danebrog]

[CPT Bob]

Does anyone have any evidence that the Kibata Gun was ever recovered?

The Germans approached the British at Kibata from the north and a firing position for the K-berg gun was selected in the vicinity of Mwengei. The gun was brought as close as possible to the chosen location using the existing roads and trails, but a “long, straight road” was cut through the jungle to reach the final site.

After the battle, the Germans abandon the gun. The gun would have remained at that location for quite some time. The foliage quickly grew taller than the gun, just as it had done at Mkuyuni.

All the other abandoned K-berg guns were relatively accessible by either a road or a railway, but I understand that the “Kibata Gun” was left on top of a hill in the middle of the jungle at a point that was quite a distance beyond the nearest road. Did the British actually make all the effort to recover that piece of junk after the war?

I think that I recall several years ago, someone here mentioned a “third-hand” report of a Park Ranger (c.1980s?) who saw an old cannon out in the forest.

The Kibata Gun should be a DAR carriage with no-flange that was earlier mounted at Dar es Salaam.

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[Chris Dale]

Wow! Great new theory about Kibata photos...

[CPT Bob]

"A rather basic gun left by the Germans, now in the grounds of the old German boma, now a museum which was opened officially only a few days previous to our arrival in Iringa."

https://dandmintanz.wordpress.com/2016/07/

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[danebrog]

Bob, you´re truly awesome!
Looks like a 12.5-pdr Armstrong barrel. Wintgens captured two complete guns of them in Oct. ´16 at Ngominyi
One specimen still exists at Lupembe:
viewtopic.php?f=73&t=225705

The one above looks quite similar, could be the other one
Well spotted, Sir!

[CPT Bob]

I think your identification is correct. Well done!

It is easy to look at photos that other people have posted on-line. The "awesome" folks are those who travel to these places and take the photographs.

[CPT Bob]

Here is a "new" photo of the gun captured at Mwanza.

"One of the Königsberg guns captured later by the British/South African forces in East Africa." (Photo: Courtesy Ditsong National Museum of Military History)

http://samilitaryhistory.org/vol171as.html

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[CPT Bob]

These photos are a courtesy of Dominic Butler, the Assistant Curator at the Lancashire Infantry Museum.

Detachments of the 2nd Battalion of the Loyal North Lancashire Regiment helped capture the "Kibata Gun" at Mwengei.

http://www.lancashireinfantrymuseum.org.uk/

[CPT Bob]

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[Bildberichter]

"A rather basic gun left by the Germans, now in the grounds of the old German boma, now a museum which was opened officially only a few days previous to our arrival in Iringa."

https://dandmintanz.wordpress.com/2016/07/


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This is a British 12-pr 8 cwt QF Naval Landing gun - the gun that inspired the "Gun Run" tournaments that is still practiced today.

At Fort Dachang 1915:


At Mombo:


Another surviving gun in the Lupembe Njombe district, Tanzania:




At the Lutheran Church at Lupembe Njome:


What these guns would have looked like in their prime (this one is at the Devonport Field Gun Association Heritage Centre Museum, Crownhill Fort Plymouth):

[CPT Bob]

There is a sign displayed next to the cannon at the new museum in Iringa and the gentleman in the photo described it as "left by the Germans". I wonder what the sign actually says?

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