Minenwarfer 75mm - anti tank role ?

[Sunray]

Leon's new eye candy of illustrated items has stimulated a new Pendraken order!

Among them I was fasinated by the WW1 Minenwarfer 75mm.  I have to confess I had dismissed this piece as a mortar, in much the mode as the British Stokes. 

It was only on a modest online research, I read that it was rifled and "used as an anti tank weapon" - I presume in WW1.  Now motars are not known for AT, and it was no doubt a stopgap. However the MV was 90 meters per second (Bazooka was 81 MPS)  it packed its 75mm 10lb shell with a punch. So it might have posed a serious threat - from a well dug in position - to early light armour ?

Three questions :

First, has anyone come across primary source accounts of the Minenwarfer 75 being used as an AT gun?

Secondly, there is nothing in BKC to refrer to its SCW use.  To what extent was it deployed  in Spain? 

Third, does anyone have AT/AP et al for this weapon ?

[Ithoriel]

"Another artillery weapon produced late in the war to ward off tank attacks was the 75mm Minenwerfer. A light trench mortar with a flat trajectory and excellent accuracy, it caused considerable comment among British tank crews, but its short 550-yard range made it vulnerable to enemy machine-gun fire."

From -  https://warfarehistorynetwork.com/2016/10/20/germany-vs-the-tank-developing-the-worlds-first-antitank-tactics/

[sultanbev]

Most of the references refer to a 76mm Light Minenwerfer, not a 75mm one, but anyway
In BKC4 terms it I reckon it would be: (Bare in mind this may not be the same as the SCW stats)

76mm Light Minenwerfer M1916 ??pts ART  Mv= 10  A/P =3/50  A/T = 2/25 CA =2 H =3 S=0 Restricted Arc (it weights 150kg, so not easily traversible)
Although there was a fortification mount with full arc.

It does apparently have an APHE round, with a listed penetration of a mere 15mm of armour, about the same as you'd get from it's HE round.
The A/P stat is based on the fact that it has a range of 1000m in the indirect fire role, with a minimum of 110m. Maximum direct fire range appears to be 600m or 1300m or 1000m depending on what it's mounted on and what source you read!
Wiki states it's effective range as only 300m, which would be the range it has 70% chance of hit against a none-moving tank target.

I've not heard of it's use in the SCW, although Finland used them until 1936, when they were sold to an international arms dealer:
https://www.jaegerplatoon.net/MORTARS2.htm


Mark

[sultanbev]

Ah yes, they were used in the SCW, the implication being they came from Soviet stocks of captured weapons and used by the Republicans:
https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=16TSDwAAQBAJ&lpg=PT79&ots=5zagEGXd3d&dq=minenwerfer%20in%20the%20Spanish%20civil%20war&pg=PT350#v=onepage&q=minenwerfer&f=false

A quick perusal around Axis History Forum shows they were used by both sides, and some at least were on wheeled carriages.
https://forum.axishistory.com/download/file.php?id=379800&t=1

Mark

[Sunray]

I wish I had undergraduates who could research like this! A lot of interesting and useful information. Thank you both for taking the trouble.

1.  Mark, the calibre appears to be 7.58cm, so 7.6 would seem best description, although 75mm rounds would fire.  Chinese did the same with their mortars to fire US ammo.

2. 550 yards is impressive range, if well concealed.

3. the late war neuer Art model has a 360 tranverse on its mount, so  decent arc.

4. Ithoriel, the image you supply in the article of the gun team in the trench - although obviously posed - is amazing.  Obviously no iron sights for conventional high trajectory bomb lobbing, but one gunner appears to be "sighting"[sic] down the barrel.  So engaging tanks was a matter of pointing the gun in the right direction and saying a prayer.

Its a querky little weapon.  I can see some unscrupulous arms dealer unloading a few to the Gallaicn Freedom Fighters, in their secession struggle from the Zambala Federation.  Beats the home made rocket tubes they currently have  Reminder - must get that order away to Leon

Its a good day when you learn something new before 9am !

Thanks again!

James

[Lord Kermit of Birkenhead]

Most German weapons from 1918 onward were A/T capable the British tanks caused major scares in the high comand !