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SURVIVING GUN FILE (# 275)
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Germany

25cm Albrecht Werfer

Trench artillery

Contributor :
Bernard Berthion     
     
     
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Location :
Canada
Ottawa, ON
Canadian War Museum
Coordinates : Lat : 45.43040 / Long : -75.69880
General comments on this surviving gun :


Identical items in the same location : 1
Items covered by this file : 1

Besides the small Lanz mortar, the strange Albrecht mortar looks medieval, done with wood and steel wire !


Historic and technical information
Denomination :     25cm Albrecht sMW Origin :       ( Albrecht)          

Historic context :

Amongst the numerous varieties of trnch mortars used by the Germans to solce the chronic lack of reglementary MinenWerfers, the '25 cm Albrecht MinenWerfer' is probably one of the less sophisticated.

With its middle age look, this weapon was bade of 250 mm diameter and 2 meters long smooth bore tube, manufactured with addembled wooden planks and strengthened by a steel wire coiling. The elevation could be slightly adapted around 45 degrees thanks to a screw linked to the two legged thin carriage. The circled wooden barrel concept had already been used for the lower part of the strange 'Erdmorser' that was buried in the earth, and were the Albrecht mortar ancestors.

Both these weapons launched the same rudimentary 23.5 kg projectile, names 'coal bucket' by the French soldiers, simple thin plate cylinder 38 or 58 cm high, closed at the upper end by a wooden disc with a handle, and at the lower end by a wooden block with a hole for a wick. A modified version was named 'conical coal bucket' and had the upper wooden disc replaced by a steel plate cone.

The Albrecht mortar range was 600 m at its maximum, and was tuned by changing the quantity of the propulsive charge. Variants of 35 cm and 45 cm existed, launching respectively monster bombs of 100 kg and 200 kg !

Technical data :

  • Complete description : 25cm launcher Albrecht
  • Design year : 1915
  • Calibre : 250.00 mm
  • Weight in firing position : 289 kg
  • Weight for transportation :
  • Tube length in calibres : 8.00 2 m
  • Grooves : 0 smooth bore
  • Projectile weight : 23.5 kg ou 30 kg
  • Initial speed :
  • Fire rate :
  • Range : 600 m
  • Elevation range : unknown
  • Direction range : 45 degrees


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