The Illustrated War News, Number 15, Nov. 18, 1914 published this article on the German Trench – Mortar.
THE GERMAN TRENCH-MORTAR JUST INTRODUCED TO THE BRITISH: A WEAPON WHICH THROWS A 187-LB. MINE-SHELL."In this quarter," says Eye-Witness of the fighting near Ypres on October 29, "we experienced ... the action of the 'minenwerfer,' or trench-mortar. This piece, though light enough to be wheeled by two men, throws a shell weighing 187 lbs. The spherical shell has a loose stem which is loaded into the bore and drops out in flight. It ranges about 350 yards at 45 deg. elevation. The shell is a thin-walled mine-shell containing a large charge and is intended to act with explosive effect, not splinter-effect." The diagram on the left shows one of the shells and its stem in their most up-to-date form; in the centre is the trench-mortar (its wheels off) with a shell in place; below this are three shells without their stems; on the right is a shell and its stem.
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I read recently, although I've forgotten exactly which tome it was in (probably a Lynn McD book as I'm rereading various bits of ones), that a lot of British troops feared these particular babies more than they did artillery, because of the habit of maiming rather than killing you.
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