Feuer!

"Pensioner at 200m. Fire for effect!"

Some of my favourite childhood memories are the trips to Bangor with my dad and my younger brother on summer evenings in the late 1960s. The biggest attraction back then was this German submarine deck gun, which we clambered over and which fired our imaginations. It was a matter of some pride when I was first able to lift my own son onto the barrel twenty years ago (couldn't do it now!).

It was removed from the German submarine U19 which fought at the Battle of Jutland. The inscription reads as follows:
This gun taken from German submarine UB19 was allotted to Bangor (County Down) by the Admiralty in recognition of the valorous conduct of Commander the Hon. Edward Barry Stewart Bingham of H.M.S. Nestor at the Battle of Jutland on 31st May 1916. For which he received the Victoria Cross.

At one point during the 1980s, the gun was painted pink during the night by some local wags, but this was rectified fairly quickly by the local council.

I'm sure I'll blip again about this gun as it's a great photographic subject.