THE MYSTERY OF THE KÖNIGSBERG GUNS
IN GERMAN EAST AFRICA DURING THE FIRST WORLD WAR
by Chris Dale, Bob Wagner, Oliver Eicke and Holger Kotthaus
 

The Kondoa-Irangi 'Big Bertha'
 "In a clearing by a hilltop we rested and found Big Bertha, as the 10.5cm was nicknamed"
 August Hauer, Schutztruppe Doctor


Gun at Dodoma, 1916
Originally published in "Les Campagnes Belges d'Afrique 1914-17"

Deployment to Dar Es Salaam
Big Bertha ('dicke Bertha' in German), was commanded by one of the original SMS Königsberg officers, Leutnant z.S. Reinhold Kohtz and was one of the five guns initially deployed for the defence of Dar Es Salaam from July 1915 until April 1916.

The Battle of Kondoa-Irangi
As General Smuts opened his South African offensive into the north of German East Africa in March 1916 taking Moshi and Kahe, the South African 2nd Division under General van Deventer invaded the Germans took the town of Kondoa-Irangi as a risky part of the general southward offensive begun by General Smuts the previous month via Kahe and towards the crucial German Central Railway (Mittellandbahn).

Although the South Africans captured Kondoa-Irangi with few casualties, they became stranded there with over stretched supply lines as the rainy season began. Many of the horses of the supply line had been killed by the Tsetse fly that plagued German East Africa and the South African soldiers themselves were plagued by malaria and ended up having to scavenge for food to support their limited rations.

Von Lettow-Vorbeck saw the weakness of the South Africans and diverted his troops and artillery there to try to take Kondoa-Irangi back in a major-counter attack.


German Command Post at Kondoa-Irangi, 1916
Eyewitness Illustration by Walther Rehfeldt from published in "Bilder vom Kriege in Deutsch-Ostafrika" published by Charles Fuchs, 1920. Now shown on ReichsKolonialamt.de

In April 1916 Kohtz's gun was mounted on one of the Krupp gun carriages which had arrived on the SS Marie the previous month and was sent to Dodoma down the Central Railway. From Dodoma it was loaded onto a Boer wagon and sent to Kondoa-Irangi to shell the South African positions.

For the journey from Dodoma to Kondoa-Irangi the barrel was separated from the carriage. The Krupp carriages were heavy and even with the widened wheels the additional weight of the barrel may have caused it to sink in the mud during what was the rainy season at the time. August Hauer, a doctor who served in the Schutztruppe noted- "There was no time to be lost. The enemy was advancing on Kondoa. Now there, we had an eight-day forced march to Dodoma where in the market place we saw a Boer wagon loaded with the long barrel of one of the Königsberg guns."
(Quotation from P144-146 "Kumbuke, Kriegserlebnisse eines Arztes" by August Hauer, Deutsch-Literarisches Institut J Schneider, Berlin-Tempelhof 1935)

He also saw the gun a few days later- "In a clearing by a fine hilltop we rested and found 'Big Bertha', as the 10.5cm was nicknamed. Not less than 32 oxen were attached to the Boer wagon on which she lay sprawled black and stiff."
(Quotation from P144-146 "Kumbuke, Kriegserlebnisse eines Arztes" by August Hauer, Deutsch-Literarisches Institut J Schneider, Berlin-Tempelhof 1935)

At Kondoa-Irangi the gun was re-assembled and along with one of the smaller 8.8cm Königsberg guns (under Oberleutnant z.S. Wunderlich, formerly of the SMS Möwe) put into action against the allied forces. The commander of the Schutztruppe, Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck described the position as-  "We had two naval guns, one 8.8 cm and 10.5 cm, carried on wheeled carriages and immediately placed them in position. These shot at the enemy camp south of Kondoa from our overlooking positions with apparently good results."
 (Quotation from P116 "Meine Erinnerungen aus Ostafrika" by Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck, KF Koehler Verlag, Leipzig 1920)

Joining the two Konigsberg guns were the two 10.5cm Howitzers that had arrived on the SS Marie. This gave the Germans artillery superiority for the first time (and last) time in the East African Campaign. Schutztruppe officer Karl Ernst Göring, described the German artillery in his memoirs-

"The artillery uniformly commanded by my friend Franz Köhl, had a 10.5cm and an 8.8 cm naval gun as well as the two 10.5cm field howitzers which had arrived with the auxiliary ship (SS Marie). These came into effective action in the battlefields before Kondoa for the first time."
(Quotation from P52 "Meine Kriegserlebnisse in Deutsch-Ostafrika 1914-1920" by Karl Ernst Göring)

The British and South Africans returned fire with their artillery but for the first and only time in the campaign, the Germans had artillery supremacy on the battlefield. The British artillery included one of the salvaged guns from HMS Pegasus-

"We learned later that the enemy 12.5cm (sic) cannons came from the English cruiser Pegasus, which our powerful Königsberg had sunk before Zanzibar in 1914. Thus, the defeated guns of friend and foe exchanged their bronze greetings in the African bush."(Quotation from P52 "Meine Kriegserlebnisse in Deutsch-Ostafrika 1914-1920" by Karl Ernst Göring)

The 10.5cm Königsberg gun did not last long in action however. Rudolf Viehweg, one of the SMS Königsberg sailors in East Africa simply noted- "A gun had been sent from Dar Es Salaam to Kondoa, but soon had to be replaced due to a broken barrel."
 (Quotation from P105 "Erlebnisse eines Matrosen auf dem Kreuzer ,"Königsberg"´ sowie im Feldzug 1914-18 in DOA" by Rudolf Viehweg, Buchhandel Krüger & Co, Leipzig 1933)

Dr. Ludwig Deppe, who also served in the East African Schutztruppe in the First World War described the gun's action as- "The second Dar Es Salaam gun under Oberleutnant Kohtz went to Dodoma end of April and then to Kondoa. After firing a few shots it had a barrel burst and was brought back to Dar es Salaam, where it was buried."
 (Quotation from P477 "Mit Lettow-Vorbeck durch Afrika" by Dr. Ludwig Deppe, August Scherl Verlag, Berlin 1919)

So it seems that the gun fired its first and last shots at the Battle of Kondoa-Irangi before damaging its own barrel with an accidental misfiring on 18 May 1916 making it the second of the Königsberg's heavy guns to be put out of action. The German word that Deppe uses to describe the gun's accident is "Rohrkrepierer". This is roughly translated into English as a barrel burst, but is often known in a military terminology as a squib load. A squid load occurs when a round fails to leave the barrel and sometimes detonates there.

It is purely a matter of speculation to wonder if the misfiring was due to a gunner's error, an over heated barrel, an existing fault in the gun itself or down to faulty ammunition that had been recovered from the River Rufiji and cleaned and dried out to the best of the abilities present.

The official German War Diary 'Kriegstagebuch' notes that the gun's Krupp carriage was also damaged in the explosion. The gun was taken back to Dar Es Salaam for repairs but was deemed to be damaged beyond repair and according to Deppe, was buried (probably somewhere near the railway works).

Although repeated German assaults on Kondoa-Irangi failed to recapture it, the Schutztruppe artillery continued to pound the enemy defences.

Finally in mid-July 1916 as the rainy season abated, van Deventer was able to continue his advance and the Germans were forced to withdraw from Kondoa-Irangi to avoid encirclement by Smut's other South African column advancing from the West. This left the way open for van Deventer to take the Central Railway at Dodoma.


10.5cm SMS Königsberg Gun, Dodoma 1916

 

Sources
"Kumbuke, Kriegserlebnisse eines Arztes" by August Hauer, Deutsch-Literarisches Institut J Schneider, Berlin-Tempelhof 1935
"Meine Erinnerungen aus Ostafrika" by Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck, KF Koehler Verlag, Leipzig 1920
"Erlebnisse eines Matrosen auf dem Kreuzer ,"Königsberg"´ sowie im Feldzug 1914-18 in DOA" by Rudolf Viehweg, Buchhandel Krüger & Co, Leipzig 1933
"Mit Lettow-Vorbeck durch Afrika" by Dr. Ludwig Deppe, August Scherl Verlag, Berlin 1919
"Kommando der Schutztruppe für Deutsch-Ostafrika.- Kriegstagebuch 1916", Bundesarchiv
"Meine Kriegserlebnisse in Deutsch-Ostafrika 1914-1920" by Karl Ernst Göring
"Das Offizierskorps der Schutztruppe für Deutsch-Ostafrika im Weltkrieg 1914-1918" by Wolfgang-Eisenhardt Maillard and Jürgen Schröder, Walsrode 2003
"Les Campagnes Belges d'Afrique 1914-17" published by the Belgian Colonial Ministry
"The First World War in Africa" by Hew Strachan, Oxford University Press 2004
"Königsberg- A German East African Raider" by Kevin Patience, Zanzibar Publications, Bahrain 1997
"The First World War in Africa" by Hew Strachan, Oxford University Press 2004
Reinhold Kohtz's testimony against former Spruchkammer NS-Kreisleiter Hans Hausböck in an article on Garmisch-Partenkirchen und seine jüdischen Bürger 1933-45
"C Smuts and JL van Deventer: South African Commanders-in-Chief of a British Expeditionary Force' by Ross Anderson, South African Journal of Military Studies 2003
 "Army Diary 1899–1926" by Richard Meinertzhagen, Oliver & Boyd, Edinburgh 1960
 Original Map from 'A Short History of the Great War' by AF Pollard, Methuen & Co, London 1920 WorldWar1Gallery.com
Axis History Forum Discussion on the SMS Königsberg Guns in English
Panzer Archiv Forum Discussion on the SMS Königsberg Guns in German

  


INTRODUCTION
Mystery of the Ten Guns
 SMS Königsberg & WWI in East Africa
 10.5cm SK L/40 Naval Guns
 Deployment of the Guns on Land

HISTORIES OF THE TEN GUNS
The Railway Gun - Tanga to Kahe
'Big Bertha' - Dar to Kondoa-Irangi
 The Lake Victoria Gun - Mwanza
 The Hove Gun - Dar to Bagamoyo
 The River Gun - Dar to Mkuyuni
 The SS Goetzen Gun - Kigoma to Korogwe
 The Elephant's Foot Gun - Kigoma to Tabora
 Apel's Gun - Dar to Kibata
 Wenig's Gun - Dar to Mahiwa
 The Last Gun - Tanga to Masasi
 and the
Two 8.8cm Naval Guns
 One 6cm Landing Gun
CONCLUSIONS
Last of the SMS Königsberg
 Mystery of the Mombasa Gun
 Mystery of the Pretoria Gun
WEBSITE
 Return to Index Page
 Credits, Sources and Links
 On-Going Research Forum at AHF
 Contact
 German Colonial Uniforms


Reinhold Kohtz (1889-1978)
Kohtz had entered the Imperial navy in 1908 and was promoted to Leutnant z.S. in 1911. He had served on the SMS Seeadler in German East Africa before being appointed as adjutant on the SMS Konigsberg for her mission to the colony. He was promoted to Oberleutnant z. S. on 19 September 1914, the day before the attack on HMS Pegasus at Zanzibar harbour. After the scuttling of the Königsberg, Kohtz commanded the ship's 10.5cm gun which was accidentally destroyed at the Battle of Kondoa-Irangi and then commanded its replacement, the former SS Goetzen gun which was later captured by the Belgians at Korogwe. Kohtz himself was also captured by the Belgians at Tabora while hospitalised with sickness in September 1916. Due to his medical condition, he was interned in Switzerland before returning to Germany after the war. He retired from the navy in 1920 with the rank of Kapitänleutnant. He lived in Danzig, working in the timber and electronics industries and also as Deputy Head of the Abwehr (German military intelligence) in Danzig until 1939. In 1938 his 81 year old mother (who was Jewish) and his sister were forcibly evicted from their home in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Bavaria by an anti-Semitic mob and both committed suicide during their deportation. Their family home was then confiscated and sold. During the Second World War, Kohtz was a department manager of a munitions factory in Posen but was arrested twice by the Gestapo and held for a time in Berlin. After the war he married and was eventually able to move back to his family home in Garmisch-Partenkirchen where he worked on the Bavarian Mountain Railway, the Zugspitzebahn.


Sir Jacob Louis van Deventer
(1874-1922)
Van Deventer first served as an artillery battery commander in the Transvaal army against the British in the Anglo-Boer War. During the war he received a wound which impaired his speech for the rest of his life. After the war he retired to his farm. He was recalled to the army of the Union of South Africa on the outbreak of the First World War and given the rank of colonel. He first commanded the force that crushed the Maritz Rebellion, then commanded the Upington column on the invasion of German South West Africa. In 1916 he commanded the 2nd South African Division under General Smuts in German East Africa and advanced his troops to the Battle of Kondoa-Irangi. In May 1917 van Deventer was appointed as overall allied commander in East Africa and pushed the Germans out of their colony and into Portuguese East Africa.He was described by Richard Meinertzhagen as follows: "Van Deventer is calm and collected, divulging his plans to none, not even his staff. He is cunning as an old fox and does not make up his mind till the last moment. Then he acts like lightening; up to that moment he appears dense and slow. To him a decision is final; there is no swerving, no delay, no alteration of plan". Van Deventer was knighted by George V for his services to the Empire.
(Quotation from P180 'Army Diary' by Richard Meinertzhagen.)


Dr. August Hauer
Hauer entered the army in 1913 as a medical doctor in the 114th Baden Infantry Regiment (6. Badisches Infanterie-Regt. Kaiser Friedrich III Nr.114). He transferred to the East African Schutztruppe on 15th February 1914 as an Assistant-Artze and served in the district of Niassa on Lake Tanganyika. When war broke out he was attached to the 13. Feldkompagnie. He was promoted to Ober-Artze in January 1916 but fell ill and was captured by the British the following year. After the war he wrote several books including 'Kumbuke' in 1924 about his East African experiences and 'Ärztlicher Berater für Übersee und Tropen Erstausgabe'  a text on tropical diseases in 1929. He also worked as a consultant doctor for tropical diseases in Berlin-Charlottenburg.


Karl Ernst Göring (1885-1932)
Karl was the eldest son of Heinrich Göring, the first German Commissioner for South West Africa. Karl's half brother Wilhelm was also a Schutztruppe officer in German East Africa before being given command of the Schutztruppe based at the Reichskolonialamt in Berlin during the First World War. Their younger brother Hermann later became infamous as Reichsmarshall in the Third Reich. Karl served in the 98 Infantry Regft before transferring to the Schutztruppe in 1910. He was an adjutant in Dar Es Salaam in 1914 and commanded the 4. Feldkompanie from November 1914. On 25 February 1915 he was promoted to Hauptmann and the following year took command of an Abteilung. He was badly wounded on 30 August 1918 and given in British custody a week later near Lioma. He later spent time as POW in Bombay, India. After the war he served in the police as Oberst-Leutnant.
 
 

PHOTO GALLERY


10.5cm SMS Königsberg Gun, probably at Dodoma, 1916
This photograph shows one of the Königsberg guns mounted on a Krupp gun carriage. Note the eight strutted widened Krupp wheels, the long straight carriage and the gun shield. Note the gun's left hand sighting device can be seen through the slighting hole in the gun shield.

The original caption for this photograph in a Belgian publication, says "C'est au Boma de Tabora que l'armee alliee retrouva un des dernier gros canons du Konigsberg" or "It is at the Boma of Tabora that the allied army found one of the last big guns of the Konigsberg" which initially led us to believe that this was Kohtz's second gun, sent from Kigoma which was later captured by the Belgians at Itaga, just North of Tabora. Closer examination of the photograph showed us however that this gun has no barrel flange and therefore cannot be Kohtz's second gun as that certainly had a barrel flange, having been turret mounted at Kigoma.

The men in the photograph are not the Belgian captors of a gun but are in fact the five man German crew of the gun, most likely including Kohtz. This photograph fell into Belgian hands when Kohtz was captured by the Force Publique while in hospital in Tabora in September 1916 and therefore may well show Kohtz's first Konigsberg gun, the one that had a barrel misfire at the Battle of Kondoa-Irangi. That gun also had a Krupp carriage and crucially had no barrel flange. This photograph and another in the same series appear to have been taken in a railway siding, most likely that at Dodoma, on its way to the frontline at Kondoa-Irangi in April 1916.
This photograph originally appeared in "Les Campagnes Belges d'Afrique 1914-17" published by the Belgian Colonial Ministry and online at Archive.org

 

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