Austro-Hungarian 22.5cm Minenwerfer Böhler

The Austrian 22.5cm type Böhler-Kapfenberg Minenwerfer was a pretty primitive type of smooth-bore trench mortar, with a fixed baseplate and the two big, very characteristic elevating screws, with an elevation from +25 to +75 degrees. It was heavy even when deployed: 432 kilos, and required a crew of four when firing. Below you can see the mortar both in transport mode, and deployed. In contrast with the German Minenwerfers this one had no form of recoil control, the tube driving down on to the baseplate, and could thus easily become embedded in the ground. Note also that there was no allowance for traverse of the barrel on its fixed mounting. The  whole piece was instead shifted by means of  levers, also visible in some of the photos below. The 48 kilo heavy projectile was simply a cylinder of gas or HE content, with no driving band or tail unit, and used a time fuse. It had a maximum rate of fire of 2 grenades per minute, and its maximum range was short, only some 1.550 meters. It was also used by the Ottoman Army.

The guns below can be seen on display in Redipuglia in Italy (1-5), Brussels (6-7) and Gorizia in Italy (8-9 and above).