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grapeshot wrote: Hi, Does anyone know if any 4.7 inch guns from the Boer War still exist?

I'm not aware that any complete ABW examples have survived, but these fragments of the gun destroyed by General Ben Viljoen are on display at the National Museum of Cultural History, Pretoria.

For Ben Viljoen's account of the capture of "Lady Roberts", see: Viljoen: My Reminiscences of the Anglo-Boer War, Chapter 28



Courtesy of DITSONG: National Museum of Cultural History

THE 4.7 INCH (120MM) “LADY ROBERTS” NAVAL GUN
By Jan van den Bos, Curator Military Collection; DITSONG: National Museum of Cultural History

The “Lady Roberts” naval gun was used in many Anglo-Boer War battles. For example, the 4.7- inch formed part of a six-day battle at Dalmanutha near Belfast, Eastern Transvaal (today Mpumalanga) in August 1900. The battle started on 21 August 1900 and ended on the 27th when the Boers retreated. The British attacked 70 men of the Johannesburg Zuid-Afrikaansche Rijdende Politie Corps (ZARP). By September the Transvaal south of the Delagoa Bay railway line was under British control. The 4.7-inch British naval gun or “Lady Roberts” played an important part during this defence.

The gun was stationed on a hill near a British fortification that overlooked the Pretoria and Komatipoort road and railway line. General Ben Viljoen and his men attacked the British fortification and after 20 minutes of fighting the British surrendered and Viljoen took the gun by surprise. The Boers destroyed the “Lady Roberts” with dynamite because they did not have suitable ammunition. The remains were left in the veldt. Just after the war these remains (see photograph) were brought to the newly built State Museum (later the Cultural History Museum in Boom Street, Pretoria). The gun received a prominent stand on the northern side veranda of the courtyard at the old Museum. With the establishment of the new Cultural History Museum in Visagie Street, (now DITSONG: National Museum of Cultural History) the artillery moved to a specially built roof port on the western exterior of the building.

The “Lady Roberts” was manufactured at one of Britain’s gun works and originally designed as armament for battleships. It was initially mounted on a British ship in Simons Town, but later modified for field conditions to counteract the 155mm French Creusot or “Long Tom” guns of the Boers. The British was outranged and outgunned by the “Long Tom”. The Long Tom gun could firie a 42.6kg shell at a distance of about 10 154 meters. It left the British army with serious defence problems. The “Lady Roberts” on the other hand fired a 20kg shell at a distance of between 6 000 to 8000 metres, the best gun on Britain’s side in terms of distance.

The “Lady Roberts” can be viewed at DITSONG: National Museum of Cultural History during weekdays between 8h00 to 13h30.


THE 4.7 INCH (120MM) “LADY ROBERTS” NAVAL GUN



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And the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, has a "telescopic sight" used with one of H.M.S. Terrible's 4.7-inch guns during the Natal Campaign. This was Lieutenant James Stuart Wilde's standard Naval telescope, which he repurposed for use with his gun while ashore.

Engraved: "H.M.S. ‘TERRIBLE’ / NAVAL BRIGADE / SOUTH AFRICA 1899-1900 / No.1. 4.7 GUNSIGHT / COLENSO / SPION KOP / VAAL KRANTZ / TUGELA HEIGHTS / RELIEF OF LADYSMITH / LAINGS NEK".

SEE ALSO: The Bombardment of Colenso, 13th – 15th December 1899.




.Courtesy of the National Maritime Museum, London (NMM KTP1119)

"This achromatic telescope has a leather-covered barrel and silvered-brass fittings, including a single draw tube, a pivoted eyepiece cover, a sliding sun shade and an objective lens cap. It is typical of the type of telescope used for making general observations on board ship, but appears also to have been used as a gun-sighting telescope for a 4.7-inch gun".

NATIONAL MARITIME MUSEUM




This detail from René Bull's photograph of one of H.M.S. Teribble's 4.7s at Colenso appears to show this very scope strapped to the gun's sighting bar (reversed, with objective lens facing the viewer).





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An impressive array of Boer and British shells picked up in the Kimberley area.

"British & Boer Shells fired in, out & about Kimberley & Beaconsfield".



.Free State Archives Repository





A. ..... 4.7-inch QF cartridge case (Naval)
B. ..... 4.7-inch QF Lyddite shell (Naval)
C. ..... 155 mm Creusot "Long Tom" shell - common at back; exploded shrapnel in foreground
D. ..... 12-pdr QF cartridge case (Naval)
E. ..... 9-pdr Armstrong studded shell
F. ..... 7-pdr Armstrong studded shell
G. ..... 4.1-inch "Long Cecil" segment shell
H. ..... 12-pdr / 15-pdr BL shrapnel shell
I. ...... 75 mm Krupp BL segment shell (unfired)
J. ...... 4.7-inch QF shrapnel shell (Naval)
K. ..... 5-inch Howitzer shell (Lyddite?)
L. ..... 75 mm Krupp QF shrapnel shell (with cartridge case)
M. ..... 75 mm Krupp BL shrapnel shell
N. ..... 37 mm Vickers Maxim "pom-pom" shell (unfired)


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And right in the middle of the display is what appears to be an en-bloc clip of 6.5mm Dutch Mannlicher M95 rounds. Not seen those before in an ABW context. Sorry for the poor quality of the cut; my little SONY does not pick up a screen shot very well.
IL.

Well spotted IL,



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In my ongoing research for my work on the South African Constabulary, on 22 June 1904, Quartermaster-Sergeant Mara of the Ordnance Department and Trooper Black of the SAC and a native were killed in an explosion on the hillside above Pretoria in a magazine referred to as the "Queen Magazine". Another two members of the SAC were badly wounded. The magazine had apparently been used by the Staatsartillerie and large amounts of ammunition were stored in the facility at the time of the explosion. Is there any more information available regarding the magazine?