Minenwerfer

Minenwerfer ("mine launcher" or "mine thrower") is the German name for a class of short range mine shell launching mortars used extensively during the First World War by the Imperial German Army. The weapons were intended to be used by engineers to clear obstacles including bunkers and barbed wire, that longer range artillery would not be able to target accurately. The Germans studied the Siege of Port Arthur, where heavy artillery had been unable to destroy defensive structures like barbed wire and bunkers. The German Military Ingenieurkomitee ("Engineer committee") began working with Rheinmetall to study the problem in 1907. The solution they developed was a short-barrelled rifled muzzle-loading mortar for mine shell ammunition, built in three sizes. In 1910, the largest of these was introduced as the 25 cm schwerer Minenwerfer (abbreviated "sMW"; English: "25 cm heavy mine launcher"). Despite weighing only 955 kg (2,193 pounds), it had the same effect on targets as the 28 cm and 30.5 cm mortars, which weighed ten times as much. At the outbreak of the First World War, the German army had a total of 160 minenwerfers. They were used successfully in Belgium at Liège and Namur, and against the French fortress of Maubeuge. After a few months when trench warfare started, the German infantry began calling for short-range weapons, and the minenwerfer entered the battle. Before long Allied forces were demanding similar devices. A captured minenwerfer was taken to the Royal Artillery Woolwich establishment in London in November 1914 and 100 copies rushed to the front by Christmas. By mid-1916 there were 281 heavy, 640 medium, and 763 light minenwerfers in service, with 4,300 new weapons being produced every month. With this powerful armory of short-range artillery, the German forces were able to reach across No Man's Land and bring a punishing fire to bear on any target which presented itself. When chemical warfare arrived, the minenwerfer was a highly convenient method of delivering gas.