German Colonial Uniforms

Schutztruppe Artillery Recovered from Lake Otjikoto

Including a number of old obsolete guns, German South West Africa had the largest number of artillery pieces of any of the German colonies in Africa when the First World War broke out. In late June 1915, shortly before the Schutztruppe's final surrender to South African forces, they dumped much of their artillery into Lake Otjikoto, near Tsumeb to prevent it falling into enemy hands.

Since then various attempts have been made to recover the guns, starting with some being found as early as 1916. Many more were found by divers in the early 1980's. These recovered guns have mostly been restored and are on display in Museums in Namibia and South Africa. Those photographed on this page are at the Alte Fest in Windhoek, the Tsumeb Museum and the Gunners Memorial in Potchefstroom, South Africa. Other Schutztruppe guns probably remain in Namibia's largest lake to this day.

The photographs shown below were taken by Phil Buhler, except for those of the South African 13 Pdr gun number 289 by Dominic Hoole. Please respect their generosity in sharing these photographs with us by not reproducing them without prior consent. Thanks very much also on this page to Vincent Wratten for identifying and supplying information on the guns and to Dominic Hoole and Frank Louw for tracking down gun number 289.


A 7.85 cm Leichte Feldgeschutz C73. This one is gun number 89, made in 1874. Note that unlike the other C73 guns shown on this page, this gun has seats for the gunners on the axle. It was recovered from the lake in early 1916 and is now on display at the Alte Fest (Old Fort) in Windhoek.	Another 7.85 cm Leichte Feldgeschutz C73. This one is gun number 22, made in 1874. It was recovered from the lake on 30th August 1984 and is now on display at the Tsumeb Museum.	Another 7.85 cm Leichte Feldgeschutz C73. This one is gun number 375, made in 1877. It was recovered from the lake on 30th August 1984 and is now on display at the Tsumeb Museum.

Another view of 7.85 cm Leichte Feldgeschutz C73 Nr 375 at the Tsumeb Museum.	Another view of 7.85 cm Leichte Feldgeschutz C73 Nr 375 at the Tsumeb Museum.	Two 7.85 cm Leichte Feldgeschutz C73s on display at the Alte Fest in Windhoek. The one on the left (without axle seats) is gun number 376 made in 1877. Unlike the other guns on this page it was not dumped in Lake Otjikoto, but was abandoned by the Schutztruppe in Windhoek in 1915. The gun on the right is gun number 89 as seen in the picture on the left above.

The breech of one of the Windhoek 7.85 cm Leichte Feldgeschutz C73s.	A 3.7 cm Maschinenkanone M97 Krupp type “Pom–Pom Gun”. This one is gun number 545, made in 1903. It was recovered from the lake on 17th January 1984 and is now on display at the Tsumeb Museum. Another M97 Maschinenkanone, number 546 is also on display at Tsumeb, it was recovered on 17th June 1983. Of the other M97 Maschinenkanone, four were surrendered by the Schutztruppe at Khorab in June 1915 and are now in South Africa (number 539 at the Tempe Army Base in Bloemfontein, number 540 at the Infantry School at Oudtshoorn, and numbers 542 and 543 at the National Museum of Military History in Johannesburg). Another two or possibly three are still in Lake Otjikoto.	Another view of the 3.7 cm Maschinenkanone M97, number 545, on display at the Tsumeb Museum

A 7.2 cm Gebirgskanone L/14 M98. This one is either gun number 16 or 18. They were recovered from the lake in early 1916 and were originally put on display and used for saluting purposes at the Tintenpalast in Windhoek. They were moved to their current home at the Alte Fest in around 2000. Gebirgskanone number 19 is now in the African Window Museum in Pretoria, South Africa and another three of them are presumably still in Lake Otjikoto.	Another 7.2 cm Gebirgskanone L/14 M98 at the Alte Fest in Windhoek. This one is either gun number 16 or 18.	A South African 13 Pounder Light Field Gun (7.64 cm) made in Britain in 1913. This one is gun number 288, named "Tulio" (after a diver who lost his hand recovering this gun). This along with its matching partner, gun number 289, was captured from South African forces at the battle of Sandfontein on 23rd September 1914. Neither of the captured guns were later used in action by the Schutztruppe against their former owners. They were both dumped in Lake Otjikoto in 1915, along with the other Schutztruppe guns on this page. Gun number 288 was recovered from the lake on 28th May 1983 and put on display at the Tsumeb Museum as seen here.

Another South African 13 Pdr Light Field Gun (7.64 cm) made in Britain in 1913. This one is gun number 289. Along with gun number 288 (see above) it was captured from the South African army at the Battle of Sandfontein on 23rd September 1914. In 1915 along with the other Schutztruppe guns on this page it was dumped into Lake Otjikoto. Gun 289 was recovered by South African forces from the lake in 1916 and went on to serve in the South African army against the Schutztruppe of German East Africa and again with the THA (Transvaal Horse Artillery) in the Rand Revolt of 1922. These photos of it were taken by Dominic Hoole at the Gunners Memorial in Potchefstroom, South Africa where it is displayed alongside gun number 205 (which was not captured at Sandfontein).	Another photo of gun number 289 taken by Dominic Hoole at Potchefstroom, showing its breech markings with the gun number as 289 and date of manufacture as 1913.	Another photo of gun number 289 taken by Dominic Hoole at Potchefstroom.

In 2013 a documentary was broadcast on Channel 5 UK TV called "Monty Halls and the Kaiser's Gold" in which the presenter dived into Lake Otjikoto searching for the legendary missing German gold (which rumour has it was dumped into the lake along with the guns). Needless to say, he didn't find it but the documentary is very interesting showing guns still in the lake including a Krupp 3.7cm Machine Cannon along with interviews with local historians and divers. The show also has stills of some of the earlier salvage attempts which brought the above guns to the surface. The documentary can see seen at Channel 5 or YouTube.

Please contact me here if you have more information or photos on this topic.

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