21 cm Mörser 99
| 21 cm Mörser M99 | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Type | Mortar |
| Place of origin |  German Empire |
| Service history | |
| In service | 1899-1918 |
| Used by | See users |
| Wars | See wars |
| Production history | |
| Designer | Krupp |
| Designed | 1893 |
| Manufacturer | Krupp |
| Produced | 1899 |
| Specifications | |
| Mass | Travel: 6,380 kg (14,070 lb) Combat: 4,820 kg (10,630 lb) |
| Barrel length | 2.1 m (6 ft 11 in) L/10 |
| Shell | Separate-loading, bagged charges and projectiles |
| Shell weight | 83–144 kg (183–317 lb) |
| Caliber | 21 mm (0.83 in) |
| Breech | Horizontal sliding-block |
| Recoil | None |
| Carriage | Box trail |
| Elevation | +6° to +70° |
| Traverse | None[1] |
| Rate of fire | 1 round every 3 minutes |
| Muzzle velocity | 300–394 m/s (980–1,290 ft/s) |
| Maximum firing range | 6.8–8.3 km (4.2–5.2 mi) |
The 21 cm Mörser M99 was a German mortar which served in a number of colonial conflicts, the Balkan Wars and World War I.
History
The 21 cm Mrs 99 was designed and built by Krupp and entered service in 1899. The Mrs 99 was the successor to earlier bronze barreled 21 cm mortars that had been in service since the Franco-Prussian War. The Mrs 99 was fairly conventional for its time and most nations had similar guns. However, its lack of recoil mechanism made it dated and by the time the First World War broke out it had been largely replaced by the 21 cm Mörser 10.[2]
The majority of military planners before the First World War were wedded to the concept of fighting an offensive war of rapid maneuver which in a time before mechanization meant a focus on cavalry and light horse artillery firing shrapnel shells. Although the majority of combatants had heavy field artillery prior to the outbreak of the First World War, none had adequate numbers of heavy guns in service, nor had they foreseen the growing importance of heavy artillery once the Western Front stagnated and trench warfare set in. The theorists hadn't foreseen that trenches, barbed wire, and machine guns had robbed them of the mobility they had been counting on and like in the Franco-Prussian and Russo-Turkish war the need for high-angle heavy artillery reasserted itself. Since aircraft of the period were not yet capable of carrying large diameter bombs the burden of delivering heavy firepower fell on the artillery. The combatants scrambled to find anything that could fire a heavy shell and that meant emptying the fortresses and scouring the depots for guns held in reserve. It also meant converting coastal artillery and naval guns to siege guns by either giving them simple field carriages or mounting the larger pieces on rail carriages.[3]
Although largely replaced by the German Army before the First World War the Mrs 99 was brought back into service because of a combination of higher than expected losses of field artillery and insufficient numbers of heavy guns which led to them being brought out of reserve and issued as replacements to field artillery regiments.[2]
Design
The Mrs 99 was a short barreled breech-loading mortar on a rigid garrison mount. The barrel was a typical built-up gun of the period with all steel construction. The gun had an early form of horizontal sliding-block breech and it fired separate-loading, bagged charges and projectiles. Like many of its contemporaries, its carriage did not have a recoil mechanism. The Mrs 99 fired a wide variety of different projectiles which are listed here. The advantage the Mrs 99 had over its predecessors was that it was made from nickel-steel of much greater strength than previous guns of cast bronze or cast iron construction. This meant that the Mrs 99 could be smaller in diameter and lighter in weight than its predecessors which meant it was easier for it to keep pace with infantry divisions on the march. This greater strength also meant it could fire heavier projectiles to a greater range than its predecessors.
each battery consisted of four guns with four batteries per battalion.[2] A set of wooden ramps could be placed behind the wheels and when the gun fired the wheels rolled up the ramp and was returned to position by gravity. There was also no traversing mechanism and the gun had to be levered into position to aim. A drawback of this system was the gun had to be re-aimed each time which lowered the rate of fire.[1][4]
Users
Wars
Photo Gallery
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Royal Military Museum, Brussels. -
Royal Military Museum, Brussels.
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References
- ^ a b "Lovett Artillery - 15cm. schwere Feldhaubitze (15c. s.F.H. 1893)". www.lovettartillery.com. Retrieved 2018-09-26.
- ^ a b c d Fleischer, Wolfgang. German artillery : 1914-1918. Barnsley. p. 22. ISBN 9781473823983. OCLC 893163385.
- ^ Hogg, Ian (2004). Allied artillery of World War One. Ramsbury: Crowood. pp. 129-134 & 218. ISBN 1861267126. OCLC 56655115.
- ^ Jäger, Herbert (2001). German artillery of World War One. Marlborough: Crowood Press. pp. 6–16. ISBN 1861264038. OCLC 50842313.
- ^ "15cm sFH93". www.landships.info. Retrieved 26 September 2018.
{{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|dead-url=(help) - ^ "Krupp". www3.plala.or.jp. Retrieved 2018-09-26.