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 Ruvu River Gun
 "We fired around 300 shells and our stocks decreased noticeably. It was simply war!"
Hermann Müller (Königsberg Gun Crew)


Gun Captured near Mkuyuni, 1916
Photo © Lt C Dale Collection, Imperial War Museum

Deployment to Dar Es Salaam
This gun was originally one of the side mounted guns in unarmoured cupolas on the SMS Königsberg and therefore did not have a barrel flange to hold a turret shield. After being re-fitted at Dar Es Salaam, it was one of the five guns that were deployed for the defence of the port on their fixed pivot mounts from July 1915. It was commanded by Leutnant z.S.a.D. Udo von Eucken-Addenhausen.

Deployment to the Northern Front
In March 1916 with the South African offensive in the north of the colony looking more threatening than a seaborne landing at Dar Es Salaam or Tanga, the Germans moved two of the 10.5cm Königsberg guns and one of her 8.8cm guns to the Northern Front.

Ludwig Boell who served as an officer in the East African Schutztruppe during the war described the situation- "To remedy the especially painful perceived lack of long-range guns (on the Northern front), the command decided on 10th March to weaken the coastal defence. An 8.8cm and a 10.5 cm gun were transported from Dar Es Salaam to the Northern railway and a 10.5cm gun from Tanga (the Kahe Railway Gun) made its way to Kahe. The first two guns were on carriages made in the colony".
 (Quotation from P167 and footnote "Die Operationen in Ostafrika im Weltkrieg 1914-1918" by Ludwig Boell, Verlag Walter Dachert, Hamburg 1951)


Schutztruppe Patrol and Porters near Mount Kilimanjaro on the Northern Front
Eyewitness Illustration by Walther Rehfeldt from published in "Bilder vom Kriege in Deutsch-Ostafrika" published by Charles Fuchs, 1920. Now shown on ReichsKolonialamt.de

As Boell said, the 10.5cm gun from Dar Es Salaam, was fitted with one of the gun carriages made in Dar Es Salaam. The gun carriage was similar in design to that used on the gun from the SS Goetzen captured at Kahama-Korogwe but differed in that period photographs show that it did not have a central riveted seam at the front of the carriage nor a double riveted central joint halfway down the tails of the gun carriage.

In Boell's text, he mentions the guns from Dar Es Salaam before the gun from Tanga that went to Kahe. In fact the Tanga gun was transported to the Northern Front at Kahe where it was deployed and destroyed before the guns from Dar Es Salaam arrived on the Northern Railway.

The story of this Second Gun 10.5cm on the Northern Front is told in the memoirs of Hermann J Müller who served with the gun's crew from it's arrival on the Northern Front in March 1916 until its destruction five months later. Throughout this time the gun was constantly on the move as von Lettow-Vorbeck's army retreated south from Smut's offensive. The gun fired on the advancing allies for a few days, then moved on again. The most notable feature throughout the narrative is the difficulty in transporting gun, which was ultimately to be its downfall as in August 1916 it became the fifth of the SMS Königsberg's 10.5cm Guns to be put out of action.

Prior to working with this gun, Hermann Müller had served onboard the SMS Königsberg and with the railway gun that had been destroyed at Kahe around 20 March 1916. A week after the destruction, Müller was sent to collect a new gun which had been sent up from Dar Es Salaam to reinforce the Northern Front.

The following quotations are all from  Müller's memoirs ("Kriegserinnerungen aus DOA 1914-1917", Vol. I, P28-37, Privately Published).

"On 27 March I received an order to bring the 10.5cm gun which had newly arrived from Dar Es Salaam by rail to the Müller plantation, to Mkulumuzi. The transportation to Mkulumuzi was quite difficult at night, especially since there was a lack of reliable guides which would have made our journey shorter. We had about three hundred Amboni porters under the leadership of Mr. Stutz that came to assist."

From Mkulumuzi the gun was transported on the Northern Railway to Lembeni.

"Loading onto the Northern Railway took place in the afternoon and it then departed immediately for Lembeni. In Lembeni busy life again prevailed, as it can only be at the front. A lively coming and going especially when under command, lasted the whole time. Lembeni lies in the Pare Mountains, about 2300 meters high. To the south of Kiyenge near  Lembeni, the ground falls particularly steeply and it was a very difficult job to set up the observer status there. The gun was soon in position and within about 20 minutes the telephone began to call, "Nikeska", "Keiliberg" etc."

But as always, the South African and British forces continued their advance and the gun was soon on the move again.

"From Mkumbara we went to Korogwe, here the advance began to Central Railway and the Northern Railway was abandoned. Our transport was pulled by eight heavy horses provided by Wilkens & Wiese, the sawmill in the Schume Forest in the Usambara Mountains, but these poor animals were down to three by the departure from Handeni."

"On 6 June at Handeni we had a brief skirmish with the English who were advancing on Dezema. We were forced to move away during the night. Unfortunately, we did not have more than eighty four porters for the heavy artillery and we needed to continue to Killimamzinga. Because of this lack of manpower it was a sad journey, having to drag the heavy artillery through the sand and over hill and dale."


One of the 10.5cm Guns from the SMS Koenigsberg on the Move
Eyewitness Illustration by Walther Rehfeldt from published in "Bilder vom Kriege in Deutsch-Ostafrika" published by Charles Fuchs, 1920. Now shown on ReichsKolonialamt.de

About fifteen to twenty miles south of Handeni, the gun was again put into position for firing at the advancing South Africans.

"Our artillery activity was quite satisfactory. Due to our very excellent observation at Mlembule, which was about 2,000 meters high, we could exceptionally watch the entire storage life of the enemy well and watch our shots accordingly. The gun emplacement was then about 800 meters back due to violent and almost daily air raids and here in conjunction with the newly arrived second 10.5cm gun under Fähnrich von Nippelt, formerly a plantation owner at Loge Loge, we again have some shells to fire at the enemy day and night. It was simply war! We fired around 300 shells we fired in that time and our stocks decreased noticeably."

Soon after however, the gun was on the road south again.

"On 25 August we had to march south through Morogoro, which we were ordered to leave immediately and march south on the Kiroka Pass. From Kingolvira to the Kiroka Pass the road was good but went slowly but steadily uphill. It was an efficient piece of work to get the gun through but more than once we thought the wheels would slide back down the slope."

"Hauptmann Stemmermann was quite surprised when he received the report, "Gun in position" the following morning. I think, he hoped to have seen that the gun had been blown up in the pass, then all the many people required for transporting it could be released. In his heart the Abteilung leader wanted the artillery unit to be disbanded."

Destruction of the Gun
Near Mkuyuni it was considered that the gun was too heavy to cross the improvised bridge over the Ruvu River and the decision was made to destroy the gun. Several dynamite charges were used to break the gun and its wheels. Thus it became the fifth of the ten Königsberg heavy guns to be put out of action. Müller recalled-

"On 30th August (1916) the enemy attacked early. We were ordered to intervene and destroy the gun after firing off the ammunition. A sad command! But what was it? In Eucken we did not have a leader equal to Schönfeld who was able to confront the department commander, so we were only told 'Execute the order'. By six o'clock in the evening we had fired our ammunition and the gun was blown to pieces around seven o'clock. But the blast was not as good as in Kahe, perhaps because of the rain? Parts were blown out of the barrel and the breech cracked. I laid two more explosions at the wheels to make the gun unable to drive. The brass shell casings (111 of them each weighing 5kg) were hidden in one of the caves... and then we moved out into the night."

After the destruction of the gun the crew moved onto towards the Ruvu whereupon they found that the river crossings were quite strong and that maybe they could have transported the gun over them. Müller recalled- "After two hours march through the jungle we reached Chimbosa. It was a rare sight to see the transportation of the howitzer battery with its many parts on the Ruvuvu Bridge by torchlight. It had been said that it would have been impossible for our 10.5cm gun to cross the bridge but seeing the bridge now it seems it would have been possible in daylight. But what use is talk now? What's done is done!"


British 2nd Road Corps building a new Bridge over the Ruvu River, June 1917
Photo Lt LAW Powell collection © Imperial War Museum

Meanwhile British forces (most likely elements of the Loyal North Lancashires and Kings African Rifles) came across the remains of the gun with its broken right wheel on 30 August 1916. The gun still had its limber and notably had very distinctive scratches on the right side of its barrel. From these scratches the gun can be identified in later photographs showing that the gun was to some extent repaired by its captors. The gun was last seen in a photograph of a collection of captured German guns taken in Dar Es Salaam in December 1918. Its whereabouts since then are unknown.

Close examination of the existing photos of the gun after its capture show that there are possible crack marks on the top of the gun cradle. These splits, the damaged gun bucket, broken wheels and the inherent instability of the Dar Es Salaam made gun carriage are probably all factors to the reason why this gun was never put on permanent display after the war. No trace of it has been seen since these last photos taken in December 1918. It may well have been scrapped in Dar Es Salaam shortly after the end of the First World War.

 

Sources
"Kriegserinnerungen aus DOA 1914-1917" by Hermann J Müller, Privately Published
"Die Operationen in Ostafrika im Weltkrieg 1914-1918" by Ludwig Boell, Verlag Walter Dachert, Hamburg 1951
"Königsberg- A German East African Raider" by Kevin Patience, Zanzibar Publications, Bahrain 1997
"Meine Erinnerungen aus Ostafrika" by Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck, KF Koehler Verlag, Leipzig 1920
Field Artillery Magazine, US Field Artillery Association, Fort Sill Oklahoma, July-Aug 2001
"In Monsun und Pori Safari" by Richard Wenig, Verlag, Berlin 1922
"Bilder vom Kriege in Deutsch-Ostafrika" byWalther Rehfeldt, published by Charles Fuchs, 1920. Now shown on ReichsKolonialamt.de
"Das Offizierskorps der Schutztruppe für Deutsch-Ostafrika im Weltkrieg 1914-1918" by Wolfgang-Eisenhardt Maillard and Jürgen Schröder, Walsrode 2003
"The First World War in Africa" by Hew Strachan, Oxford University Press 2004
Axis History Forum Discussion on the SMS Königsberg Guns in English
Panzer Archiv Forum Discussion on the SMS Königsberg Guns in German
Von Eucken-Addenhausen's Grave at Aurich in Lower Saxony at Grabsteine-OstFriesland.de

 


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 Northern Railway Gun - Tanga to Kahe
'Big Bertha' - Dar to Kondoa-Irangi
 The Lake Victoria Gun - Mwanza
 The Hove Gun - Dar to Bagamoyo
 The Ruvu 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

 


Georg Udo Victor von Eucken-Addenhausen (1883-1952)
 Udo von Eucken-Addenhausen was born in Jena, in the Grand Duchy of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach where his father was at the time the city mayor. He later became mayor of Eisenach, then the Oldenburg envoy to Prussia and was ennobled in 1906, adding von to the family name. The younger von Eucken-Addenhausen entered naval service in 1901 and became Fähnrich z.S. the following year, later serving on board the SMS Mecklenburg. In 1905 he left the Imperial Navy and entered merchant service on the German East African Line as a ship's Kapitän. On the outbreak of war he joined the Schutztruppe with the naval rank of Leutnant z.S.a.D, promoted to Oberleutnant z.S.a.D in March 1915. In this position, he commanded the Königsberg gun sent to the Northern Front until its destruction at Mkuyuni in August 1916. In 1917 as commander of the Schutztruppe's 5. Artillerie Abteilung he was taken into British captivity while ill. He was kept at the POW camp at Sidi-Bishr in Egypt. After the war he returned to Germany and retired from the navy in 1920. In 1926 he became vice-consul to the Royal Danish court and retired from that post in 1930 as Konsul a.D.  


Hermann Johann J Müller
Müller completed his his military service as a private soldier in the 31st Prussian Thüringian Infantry Regiment (Infanterie-Regiment Graf Bose 1. Thüringisches Nr. 31) based in Altona. He studied mechanical engineering, working on steam engines and from 1909 worked as an engineer on a cotton plantation at the Rufiji in German East Africa. On the outbreak of war he enlisted as a reservist in the Schutztruppe and served with at least three of the Königsberg 10.5cm guns. He was first employed in helping to transport and set up the first gun at Tanga (which was later destroyed at Masasi). His third Konigsberg gun was the gun from Dar Es Salaam that was posted to the Northern Front and destroyed near Mkyuni on the River Ruvu in August 1916. Müller then continued to serve with the Schutztruppe artillery until he was captured in 1917 and imprisoned in India and Egypt. He retunred to Germany after the war but in 1929 went back to Tanganyika and worked near Tanga on the plantation for the Director Cordis von Brandis of the United-Sigi-Segoma Estates Ltd. until 1939. After the Second World War he published his memoirs as "Kriegserinnerungen aus DOA 1914-1917".
 


Walther Rehfeldt
Little has so far been found out about Wathler Rehfeldt, expect that he was an artist who served with the Schutztruppe in German East Africa during the First World War between 1916-17, when Rehfeldt was captured by the British suffering from malaria and spent some time in a POW camp in Egypt. In 1920 Charles Fuchs published a book of Rehfeldt's watercolour paintings of life on campaign in German East Africa, entitled "Bilder vom Kriege in Deutsch-Ostafrika". The book was well praised at the time by von Lettow-Vorbeck saying that the artist had  "captured with an open mind and a warm heart the characteristic people of East Africa". It has since been debated as to how much of his work was done in the field and how much was finished from sketches later in Germany but from the accuracy involved it is clear that Rehfeldt at the very least made very detailed sketches while on campaign. In the absence of much photographic evidence of this period, these illustrations give a colourful look into the everyday lives of the Schutztruppe on campaign in the First World War. The full version of  "Bilder vom Kriege in Deutsch-Ostafrika" is now shown on ReichsKolonialamt.de

 
 

PHOTO GALLERY


10.5cm SMS Königsberg Gun Captured near Mkuyuni, German East Africa 1916
This photograph shows one of the Königsberg guns as it was captured by British and South African forces near Mkuyuni, August 1916. Note that the Germans have clearly disabled and immobilised the gun by the use of explosive charges in the barrel and on the nearside wheel. From the angle of the barrel it looks like the elevation system has been destroyed too. This is one of the gun carriages made in Dar Es Salaam with multi-spoked traction engine wheels. Note how the Dar Es Salaam carriages fitted along the axle, whereas the Krupp carriages fitted above the axle also how the carriage tails slope to converge with each other at the base. The Krupp carriages had parallel tails. This gun's barrel has some interesting scratch marks in the paintwork on the nearside which have helped to identify later photos of the same gun. The original caption of the photograph says "This gun was blown up and abandoned by the enemy when General Sheppard, with the 2nd East African Brigade and the 2nd South African Brigade advanced to the Ruwu River 21st March 1916". This cannot be correct as memoirs of the gun's crew clearly date the end of the gun as being in August 1916. In March it was just departing Dar Es Salaam. Reports on the Kaiser's Cross website credit the capture of the gun to British rather than South African forces (most likely elements of the Loyal North Lancashires and Kings African Rifles).
Photo © Lt C Dale Collection, Imperial War Museum


Close up of the 10.5cm SMS Königsberg Gun Captured near Mkuyuni, 1916
This view clearly shows the damage to the wheel and the gun mounting.
Photo © Lt C Dale Collection, Imperial War Museum


10.5cm SMS Königsberg Gun Captured near Mkuyuni, German East Africa 1916
 The original caption for this photograph seems to describe it accurately, "British artillery officers with one of the 4.1-inch (105mm) guns from SMS KONIGSBERG on its improvised carriage. This gun was abandoned by the retreating German Schutztruppe between Pugu and a crossing point on the River Ruwu after having its breech mechanism destroyed." In this photo the barrel has been elevated and the right wheel rolled around so that the broken section is at the bottom. The toothed gear of the gun's elevation system can be seen over the top of the gun barrel near the top of the wheel. These elevation systems from the gun's original mountings were retained on the Dar Es Salaam gun carriages but not on the new Krupp carriages which arrived on the SS Marie. Note the clearly missing breech block and the recoil spring hanging out of its cylinder. This photograph shows a difference between this and the other two Dar Es Salaam gun carriages captured at Korogwe and Kibata in that it does not have a double row of vertical rivets halfway down the carriage tail.
Photo Lt-Col GH Cooke Collection © Imperial War Museum


10.5cm SMS Königsberg Gun near Mkuyuni, 1916
Note the wheel of the gun limber in the far right corner of this photo. From the similarities in the vegetation in the background. It appears that this photograph was taken where the gun was captured near Mkuyuni. The gun bucket is still damaged and does not support the barrel correctly and in this photograph both the wheels have been removed, possibly with a view to repairing them before attempting to transport the gun to Dar Es Salaam. Note the smaller farm wheel of the gun limber can be seen on the far right side of this photograph.


10.5cm SMS Königsberg Gun at Dar Es Salaam, 1916
From the distinctive scratch marks on the barrel, the Dar Es Salaam made gun carriage and the flangeless barrel we can see that this is the same gun that was captured near Mkuyuni. The gun elevation has now been fixed and most likely the right wheel had also been fixed or replaced if it had been transported all the way to Dar Es Salaam, although unhelpfully the unidentified British officer in the photograph is standing directly in front of our view of the wheel. Note the rounded front of the Dar Es Salaam gun carriage has no riveted seem like the gun from the SS Goetzen that was later seen in Stanleyville in the Belgian Congo.
Photo from Lt. LAW Powell Collection © Imperial War Museum


Captured German Guns In Dar Es Salaam, December 1918
The gun in the left foreground appears to be one of the 8.8cm Königsberg guns on an improvised carriage. Next to it is one of the 10.5cm howitzers brought by the SS Marie. Behind that are two 10.5cm Königsberg guns. The nearest of which is on a Dar Es Salaam carriage and can be seen from its barrel markings and lack of barrel flange to be the gun captured at Mkuyuni probably now with a repaired wheel. This is the last known photograph of the Mkuyuni gun and its whereabouts since this photograph are unknown. The Königsberg gun in the background has a Krupp carriage and barrel flange and is the gun that is now on display in Mombasa.
Photo originally published in "In Monsun und Pori Safari" by Richard Wenig, Verlag, Berlin 1922

Comparison of Scratch Marks on the Gun's Barrel


Near Mkuyuni, 1916		  
Dar-Es-Salaam, 1918

It was Oliver Eicke that first noticed the scratch marks in the paintwork on the barrel of the gun at Mkuyuni. These same scratch marks show up on photos of the flangeless barrel on the Dar Es Salaam gun carriage in the photo taken of the captured German guns taken in Dar Es Salaam in 1918, showing that gun to have been the one captured at Mkuyuni.

 

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