Granatenwerfer m16

[David]

The small Granatenwerfer 16 was originally an Austro-Hungarian weapon, designed by an Hungarian priest – giving it it’s Austro-Hungarian nickname “Priesterwerfer”, literally “Priest Thrower”. Made in an early period of the war, when most mortar designs were either clumpsy or crude, or both, this was a remarkably light yet sophisticated design, filling a gap between the simple rifle grenades and the proper trench mortars. It soon proved to be a very handy and versatile weapon: the launcher itself weighed only 40kg, placed on a semi-circular base-plate. This meant that it could be used in many places that the much heavier Minenwerfer had no access to, as it often got very difficult to move these rather heavy pieces over muddy or shot-up terrain. This spigot-type mortar could be used to throw a 2kg fin-stabilized shell as short as 50meters but also up to maximum effective range of some 300 meters - 500meters was the theoretical maximum range. (The Granatenwerfer also used other types of grenades, some lighter than 2kg, som heavier.) The small grenades caused a very typical, tell-tale whirring sound when going through the air (it was caused by the sheet metal stabilizing fins) which caused the French to nicknamed it Pigeon, Turtledove. It was hardly a name of affection, as the small Granatenwerfer was seen as a very deadly weapon: according to the French it wounded more men than the much bigger light Minenwerfer. The reason was that due to the low final velocity, the projectile hardly penetrated the ground before its very sensitive fuse caused it to detonate on the surface, expending most fragments horizontally, instead of going into the ground in a crater, as many heavier grenades did. The Germans used the Granatenwerfer very cunningly at Verdun: as the sound was so well-known, the French knew the sound of the incoming projectiles only too well, they stayed put in their shelters when the heard the noice, even though the enemy was very close, knowing full well that due to the deadly nature of the grenades, the German couldn’t get up out of their trenches to attack before the whirring “turtledoves” had impacted. What the German did in at least one attack, was to fire the grenades without their fuses, which meant that they could start their sprint towards the French trenches at the moment the grenades were fired, and even reach them at the instant that the grenades went harmlessly PLOP into the mud.