Astonishing ammo for the 25cm scherer Minenwerfer

[bigwheelzip]

There is a display of artillery pieces at the WWI battlefield of the Belleau Wood Marine Corps Memorial in France, that contained an interesting heavy trench mortar that I'd never seen before. I photographed all of the displayed pieces, and was just looking up the details on that mystery mortar. An historical photo I found of a mortar crew posing while loading the weapon, shed light on another unknown part of the display, the huge projectiles.
I thought the large projectiles displayed at the memorial came from a larger cannon than was being displayed there, but some of the historical photos showed those 200lb,10in diameter projectiles protruding past the end of the mortar tubes. So those big artillery shells on display were actually big mortar shells.
The low velocity of the round allowed for thinner walls and correspondingly more explosive, resulting in a greater destructive power than similar sized long range artillery. The muzzle photo shows the tube is rifled, so no stabilizer fins were needed for the projectile.

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[LVSteve]

Is there an IWB holster for it? Does it take +P?

(In before the rest of the jokers )

 

[pharmer]

I sure wouldn't want to be on the receiving end of that. Joe

 

[bigwheelzip]

Is there an IWB holster for it? Does it take +P?

(In before the rest of the jokers )

No holster, but detachable wheels are included.
The rounds are 100lbs and 200lbs, so ya might call that +P.

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[Rudi]

These were devastating weapons. Very intense blast effect. In WWI artillery of all types was just overwhelming, the land really did look like a Moonscape. Some barrages lasted for days.

 

[vonn]

Read that General Patton said artillery won the war.

 

[JayFramer]

Impressive, but what is the one shot stop rating per Sanow und Marshall?

 

[Texas Star]

When I saw Minenwerfer, I was reminded of the Screaming Mimi rocket launcher of WW II.

Suffering through a barrage from that would take strong nerves.

 

[riverrat38]

Good for Bear! Maybe several with one shot.

Best,
Rick

 

[bigwheelzip]

This one-ton mortar was originally developed for battlefield engineers to destroy fortifications like bunkers and barbed wire. The German army apparently appreciated it's usefulness, and increased the mortars production from a few dozen to 1,234. Rate of fire is listed at 20 rounds per minute, though I'd imagine that would have to require several loading teams.

There are several on display at the Belleau Wood Memorial, though descriptions of what part they played in the battle are few.

A photo of two men loading one of these massive mortar rounds.

Mortar with transport wheels mounted.

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[Absalom]

Read that General Patton said artillery won the war.

During the Civil War, more than 90% of casualties were caused by minie balls from muskets.

By the time of World War I, between 80 and 90% were caused by explosives of one kind or another.

And especially on conventional battlefields, the trend continued.

That, by the way, is one of the things that small arms enthusiasts (like us) tend to forget, particularly in respect to WW II. As legendary as certain infantry arms are, relatively speaking they didn’t account for that many dead. Bombs, artillery shells, mortar rounds, tank shells, and mines did most of the damage.

By the way, “Minenwerfer” translates as “mine thrower”.

 

[Absalom]

In case you haven’t seen these before:

A rather unusual way the Germans developed to deliver heavy explosive projectiles in WW II: The “Schweres Wurfgerät 40/41” (literally, “heavy throwing device“).

The 28 or 32 cm rockets were fired directly from their wooden pack frames which were propped up on a metal frame. They delivered around 100 lbs payload to about 2000 yards.

 

[Frank46]

Yeah, but the Russians did them one turn better. Their katusha rockets mounted on trucks were more devastating and lots more of them. Frank

 

[Engineer1911]

How big is the bore brush, mop, and jag for cleaning the bore? I'll bet the training instructor was tough on fouling at the bottom of the barrel.

 

[steveno]

just think about all of the unexploded ordnance that is still out in those battlefields. there is a LOT of it in areas that are fenced up

 

[bigwheelzip]

just think about all of the unexploded ordnance that is still out in those battlefields. there is a LOT of it in areas that are fenced up

The battlefields that are actively farmed today, have what's termed an "Iron Harvest" in the spring when frost heaves push munitions to the surface, which get collected by bomb disposal teams.
Just as we were starting this vacation, an aerial view of a munition that exploded in a farm field was in the news.

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[Engineer1911]

^^^^ And I thought mud bogs in the prairie dog patch were tough. ^^^^

 

[LVSteve]

just think about all of the unexploded ordnance that is still out in those battlefields. there is a LOT of it in areas that are fenced up

That's why I laugh like a drain when any of the developer idiots talk about the state taking back the Nellis test ranges. I imagine a 3-year old beating the tar out of an unexploded 1000 pounder he has unearthed to make that nice gong noise.