Mortar
A mine thrower is originally a weapon system for firing projectiles with a mine effect . As a rule, these were high-speed cannons with a short barrel, as well as a barrel recoil and braking device that were loaded from the muzzle. Only deep-fire guns with a projectile weight of more than 4.6 kg were designated as mine throwers - guns that used lighter projectiles were declared as grenade launchers . Mine throwers were used by the German Army and the K. UK Army in the First World War. Similar weapons in which the fragmentation effect was in the foreground were called grenade launchers , mortars, wing mine launchers or charge launchers .
The term mine thrower was used in Germany after the First World War until the 1930s as a camouflage designation for infantry guns with larger calibers. The reason for this was that artillery guns were regulated in the Treaty of Versailles , but mine throwers less.
Nowadays, high-speed artillery for immediate combat support is referred to as mortar in Germany and grenade launchers in Austria . In Switzerland, mine throwers are still used today, even if the Swiss Army wants to use the internationally common name mortar .
Mine throwers should not be confused with systems for laying landmines , such as B. the mine throwing system Scorpio .
Examples
World War I mortars were:
Cold War mortars were:
- 8.1 cm mine thrower 33 (Switzerland) and 72 (Swiss mountain infantry)
- 8.1 cm fortress mine launcher 56/60 (Switzerland)
- 12 cm fortress mine thrower 59/83 (Switzerland)
literature
- Christian Reinhart, Michael am Rhyn: Automatwaffen II - machine guns, assault rifles, mine throwers. Armament and equipment of the Swiss army since 1817 . Volume 14, Stocker-Schmid Verlag, Dietikon-Zürich 1983, ISBN 3-7276-7014-2 .
See also
Individual evidence
- ↑ Tillmann Reibert: "The emergence of a new type of weapon as a reaction to the conditions of trench warfare; Dissertation for obtaining the doctorate", 2013, University of Hamburg , pp. 29–30, [1]
- ^ Billions in the armaments program 2016 in: Neue Zürcher Zeitung , February 25, 2016
- ↑ Job description mine thrower gunner in the Swiss Army
- ↑ Swiss Army: Regulations 53.131: The 8.1 cm mine throwers 1933 and 1972.
- ↑ Fortress Oberland: 8.1 cm fortress mine thrower 56/60 ( Memento from December 8, 2015 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ Fortress Oberland: 12 cm fortress mine thrower 59/83 ( Memento from December 27, 2015 in the Internet Archive )