Page 88 - History of War - Issue 05-14

TRENCH WARFARE

fortifications in the future. A specification was German hardware captured
therefore issued for the development of a by the South Staffordshire
Minenwerfer throwing a demolition charge of Regiment on the Somme,
110lb or greater; capable of accurate fire to at including MG 08s and a
least 330 yards; plus combining compactness G98 rifle with 20-round
“trench magazine”
with the least possible weight.
The first heavy trench mortars were deployed
with German pioneers in 1910. Despite this lead
even the Germans could field only 190 weapons
at the outbreak of war. The result was the rapid
development and deployment of several different
stopgap mortars. These included the so-called
“Earth Mortar” which was a tube buried in the
ground for lobbing a 52lb sheet steel projectile;
the Albrecht with its wooden tube made in three
calibres; and the Iko Flügelminenwerfer. The Iko
was a particularly unwieldy smooth-bored beast
with a massive base plate, throwing a 220lb
projectile about 1,090 yards. At the other end of
the scale was the little Lanz mortar capable of
projecting 9lb shells about 440 yards.
Being on the receiving end of “Minnie” fire was
a terrifying and occasionally surreal experience.
The mortar was usually concealed in a pit, and
the sound of its discharge was less impressive
than the bark or roar of ordinary artillery. The
bombs were predominantly large but, being “One murderous instrument with which we have death, and that is a degrading business.”
projected at high trajectories and relatively low the advantage is the big trench mortar. They By 1916 German efforts focused on three
velocities, could sometimes be seen tumbling or hurl huge shells about a thousand feet into the standard models: a light 7.5cm, medium 17cm
wobbling towards the ground through a serene air and they fall almost vertically… Earth and and heavy 25cm mortar. The following year it
arc. The blast created by large missiles was branches are flung into the air to the height of a proved possible to replace whatever mortars were
prodigious. For destroying all but deep dugouts house, and although the shells fell 80 yards away then held by the infantry with four “new model”
7.5cm light Minenwerfer per battalion, all capable
The bombs, projected at high trajectories and of being shifted in wheeled carriages.
British trench mortars got off to a
relatively low velocities, could be seen tumbling comparatively slow start, and not until October
or wobbling towards the ground in a serene arc 1914 did Field Marshal French make a specific
request for “some special form of artillery”
suitable for trench destruction. So it was that
the British struggled for almost a year with
and collapsing sections of trench nothing but from us, the ground under us shook. During the inadequate numbers of inefficient, and often
the heaviest artillery could equal the effect. explosions I was looking through a periscope into dangerous, stopgaps. The 5inch “Trench
As George Coppard of the Machine Gun Corps the French trench opposite and could see terrified Howitzer” that materialised in December was
recalled, “men just disappeared and no one men running away to the rear. But somebody was dismissed as both unwieldy and inaccurate,
saw them go”. German soldier Karl Josenhans evidently standing behind them with a revolver, for and a better Vickers Pattern, accepted in March
was uncomfortably close as he watched one after another they came crawling back again. 1915, was available only in pitiful numbers.
Minenwerfer bombs fall onto the French lines: This war is simply a matter of hounding men to Dramatic improvements commenced in mid-
1915 with the first arrivals of the 2inch “Trench
Howitzer”, colloquially known as the “Toffee
Apple” bomb-thrower. The key to the weapon
The lightweight MG 08/15 was its projectile, a large spherical bomb
machine gun could, in
theory, be carried forward mounted on a steel stick. The bomb weighed
in support of infantry 50lb and could be thrown 500 yards.
A devastating salvo of Toffee Apples was
witnessed by Wyn Griffith of the Royal Welch
Fusiliers: “A pop, and then a black ball went
soaring up, spinning round as it went through
the air slowly; more pops and more queer birds
against the sky. A stutter of terrific detonations

Getty
A selection of WWI automatic weapons. The small gun left
of centre is the MP 18, the first true submachine gun
88 HISTORY WAR
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