Hi All
Here’s another Andy’s Rubbish and Ramblings for you.
Adrienne and I do a reasonable amount if traveling around New Zealand as and when time allows, one favourite pastime is finding our remaining WW1 trophy guns that are still in public display. Sadly our forefathers were not the greatest at preserving the many war trophies that were once distributed to towns and communities throughout the colony. Many of the artillery pieces, trench mortars and machine guns have been lost to time. Remaining guns are few, these silent sentinels have often been on long term outdoor display and their condition has suffered as a consequence. Some have had a restoration or two which has helped preserve them and thankfully their significance is now realised by the communities fortunate enough to have retained their guns.
Aside from being wonderful display pieces or a source of entertainment for local children these guns represent the sacrifices made buy the soldiers that captured them, or endured the hell of constant barrages of high explosive and shrapnel shells delivered by artillery. Many of those servicemen irrespective of what army they were fighting for were somehow impacted by these guns, shell shock, horrendous wounds, death and destruction being dealt out indiscriminately in regular doses.
One can only imaging the terror these guns faced. To the returned soldiers, these guns represented the friends they left in the battlefield, they represented those that made the ultimate sacrifice as much as they represented victory. Our war trophies brought home something tangible that could be related to our contribution to the “Great War”, the general public could view these implements of war first hand and and maybe, just maybe make some sense of it all.
This example sits in the Hawkes Bay town of Waipawa ( North Island, New Zealand), the gun is a 10-5cm leFH16 in “Krupp Style”, some refer to this as the 10.5cm leFH Kr. It is a distinctive sup type of the 1916 model light field howitzer. In 1817 the leFH16 entered service, this particular example is dated 1918.
There are no specific capture details for this gun, it’s a trophy gun that was awarded to the New Zealand division and was received by the New Zealand war records section, London in June 1919, by August 1920 the gun had arrived in New Zealand.
Records indicate a gun was issued to the Waipawa Returned Soldiers Association in May 1925, in all probability it would have been this leFH16.
The gun has the serial number Nr6246 on the breech along with M6321 and S8196, also on the breech along with the Krupp trade mark of three intertwined circles.
It’s a great survivor, I first “found” this gem in 1987 while on a trip to the east coast with my brother, now it’s a regular stop off when I’m in the area. The gun was actually reasonably freshly restored when I first encountered it (1982 restoration), 42 years on, it’s had a couple of repaints but it is starting to visibly deteriorate. Hopefully it receives some remedial work to preserve it for future generations to appreciate and enjoy.
Photos taken 27/01/24