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 Germany
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25cm schwerer MinenWerfer neuer Art |
 Trench artillery
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Contributor :
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Location :
Belgium
Rance
Cease fire memorial
Coordinates :
Lat : 50.14170 / Long : 4.27500
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General comments on this surviving gun :
Identical items in the same location :
1
Items covered by this file :
1
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Nice mortar with its elongated tube. Recently restored with a lot of care
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Unreadable markings (before reconditioning)
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This gun marks the place where the front line was when the cease fire was trumpeted in November 1918
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Historic and technical information
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Denomination :
25cm sMW n/A
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Origin :
(
RheinMetall)
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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.
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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
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Sources
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German Artillery of World War One Herbert Jager Crowood 2001
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Die deutschen Minen- und Granatwerfer im Ersten Weltkrieg 1914-1918 Dr Tillmann Reibert epubli GmbH 2014
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Das Ehrenbuch der Deutschen Pioniere Major Paul Heinrici Verlag Tradition, Berlin 1931
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German Trench Mortars and Infantry Mortars 1914-1945 Wolfgang Fleischer Schiffer Military / Aviation History 1996
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