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SURVIVING GUN FILE (# 917)
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Germany

17cm mittlere Minen Werfer neue Art

16a or 16b

Trench artillery

Contributor :
Michael6367      http://www.doughboysofnyc.com/
     
     
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Location :
USA
Cumberland, RI
Diamond Hill
Coordinates : Lat : 41.97190 / Long : -71.40530
General comments on this surviving gun :


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

A mine on the road of a a Zen monastery... strange ! It is probably a a/A model modified into a n/A


Historic and technical information
Denomination :     17cm mMW n/A Origin :       ( RheinMetall)          

Historic context :

In front of the minenwerfers success and their good adapation to the positions war, but facing the increase of the front line depth with successive parallel trenches, the German army asked RheinMetall to improve the range of the medium MinenWefer introduced in 1913 by increasing the tube length.

This was done with the '17 cm mWM n/A' appeared in 1916 ('mMW' = 'mittlere MinenWerfer' = medium mine-launcher; 'n/A' = 'neue Art' = New version), at the same time the equivalent improvements were given to the 25 cm heavy minenwerfer.

The new productions integrated from 1916 longer barrels (4.5 calibres instead of 3.8), but two variants were also produced in order to use the existing material or even the one in some factories work-in-progress. Few informations can be found nowadays, but the existence of these variants is noted :

  • '17cm mMW 16a', produced by screwing a barrel extension in the a/A old tube
  • '17cm mMW 16b', taking the opportunity of the fact the a/A 3.8 calibres tube draft was longer then the finished piece and thus not cutting it out. It seems that in this case the tubes were 4 cm shorter.
Parties en guerre avec 116 pièces de l'ancien modèle, les troupes du génie Allemand (MinenWerfer pioniere) disposaient en juin 1917 de pas moins de 1904 pièces de type '17 cm mMW a/A' et 'n/A', et 2361 au début de 1918 !

Technical data :

  • Complete description : 17cm Middle trench mortar new mark
  • Design year : 1916
  • Calibre : 175.00 mm
  • Weight in firing position : 586 kg
  • Weight for transportation : 880 kg (with the 204 kg platform and the wheels)
  • Tube length in calibres : 4.50
  • Grooves : 6 width 30mm, 7 degrees angle
  • Projectile weight : 54 kg
  • Initial speed : 110 m/s
  • Fire rate :
  • Range : 1160 m
  • Elevation range : 45 to 75 degrees
  • Direction range : 20 degrees total range (360 degrees mounted on the 'rundbettung' platform)


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