Minenwerfer

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German 7.5 cm Minenwerfer, World War I

Minenwerfer ("mine launcher") is the German name for a class of short range mortars used extensively during the First World War by the German Army. The weapons were intended to be used by engineers to clear obstacles including bunkers and barbed wire, that longer range artillery would not be able to accurately target.

[edit] Development

The Germans studied the Siege of Port Arthur, where heavy artillery had been unable to destroy defensive structures like barbed wire and bunkers. The German Military Ingenieurkomitee (Engineer committee) began working with Rheinmetall to study the problem in 1907. The solution they developed was short barreled rifled muzzle loading mortar, built in three sizes. The largest of these was introduced first, in 1910 as the schwerer Minenwerfer (sMW). The weapon had a calibre of 25 cm and fired a 97 kg shell filled with 50 kg of explosive. Despite weighing only 955 kg(?) it had the same effect on targets as the 28 cm and 30.5 cm mortars, which weighed ten times as much. At the outbreak of the First World War 44 had been delivered. They were used successfully at in Belgium at Liege and Namur, and against the French fortress of Maubeuge.

The medium version of the weapon, the 17 cm mittlere Minenwerfer (mMW) was introduced in 1913, and at the outbreak of war 116 were fielded.

The light version of the weapon, the 7.58 cm leichte Minenwerfer (lMW) was still at the prototype stage when the war started, but rapidly entered production. The weapon was far more efficient than its artillery counterpart. In comparison the 7.7 cm FK 96 n/A needed to be towed by a team of six horses, compared with a single horse for the lMW, additionally the lMW could be moved around the battlefield by four men. The minenwerfer was cheaper, costing only one seventh of the price of the artillery gun, and the ammunition was cheaper.

Since the muzzle velocity, and thus firing shock of the Minenwerfer was low, a variety of explosives unsuitable for use in artillery were used to fill the shells, since TNT was reserved for use artillery shells. Typically the explosives used were Ammonium Nitrate-Carbon explosives. However the sensitivity of the explosives made them occasionally detonate in the tube, there were a large number of these incidents, one of which claimed the life of Karl Völler, head designer of Rheinmetall in 1916. These problems, however, were eventually overcome.

Recognizing the numerous advantages of the Minenwerfer in trench warfare production was stepped up and by 1918 the numbers had increased dramatically to 1,234 heavy, 2,361 medium and 12,329 light Minenwerfer. A 38 cm calibre sehr schwere Minenwerfer (ssMW) was also developed.