|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 Germany
|
25cm schwerer MinenWerfer neuer Art |
 Trench artillery
|
|
|
Contributor :
|
Location :
France
Pozières (80)
Tommy's Bar
Coordinates :
Lat : 50.03920 / Long : 2.72820
|
General comments on this surviving gun :
This impressive mortar is exposed in the garden of this museum / bar well known by British tourists visiting the Somme Battlefields. It used to be shown along the road before.
Identical items in the same location :
1
Items covered by this file :
1
|
|
|
|
|
The preservation of this mortar presented into an interesting reenacted trench, is poor
|
The tune orientation on the base is wrong, the mortar seem to be ready to shoot backwards...
|
View on the 6 tube grooves
|
|
|
Historic and technical information
|
|
Denomination :
25cm sMW n/A
|
Origin :
(
RheinMetall)
|
|
Historic context :
The experience of the positions war and the multilipcation of the parallel lines of the trench network made the fighting units ask for a range increase of the 250 mm trench mortar, whose power and relative mobility had transformed into a feared weapon in this kind of conflict.
From 1916, RheinMetall delivered a new model named '25 cm sWM n/A' ('sMW' = 'schwerer MinenWerfer' = heavy mine launcher; 'n/A' = 'neue Art' = New version). The considerable increase of the barrel length, growing from 3 to 5 calibres (762 mm to 1090 mm), and a reinforcement of the recoil recuperation system allowed to increase the range (now close to 1 km) with limited weight increase of the gun, gaining +120 kg and whose setting into battery required up to 28 men according to the manual !
A part of the old a/A materials were modernised by screwing onto the old short tubes an extension. These weapons were sometimes named '25cm sMW n/A 16a'.
The manufacturing of the heavy mine launcher never stopped during the war. Compared to the 44 mortars available at the war outbreak, 1196 'a/A' and 'n/A' 25cm mortars were in service in June 1917.
|
Technical data :
- Complete description : 25cm heavy trench mortar new mark
- Design year : 1916
- Calibre : 250.00 mm
- Weight in firing position : 780 kg
- Weight for transportation : 1077 kg (with the 232 kg platform and the wheels)
- Tube length in calibres : 5.00
- Grooves : 6 34.44 mm wide; 7 degrees angle
- Projectile weight : 97 kg (mine raccourcie 70 kg)
- Initial speed : 51 m/s (105 m/s for the short mine)
- Fire rate :
- Range : 563 m (750 m for the short mine)
- Elevation range : 45 to 75 degrees
- Direction range : 20 degrees total range
|
Sources
|
-
German Artillery of World War One Herbert Jager Crowood 2001
-
Die deutschen Minen- und Granatwerfer im Ersten Weltkrieg 1914-1918 Dr Tillmann Reibert epubli GmbH 2014
-
Das Ehrenbuch der Deutschen Pioniere Major Paul Heinrici Verlag Tradition, Berlin 1931
-
German Trench Mortars and Infantry Mortars 1914-1945 Wolfgang Fleischer Schiffer Military / Aviation History 1996
|
|
