I didn't know anything about this, so this comment was left on the flickr photo page:
25cm [ 10 inch] sMW - schwerer Minen-werfer - heavy mine launcher.
It's weight is 1,386 pounds.
This picture shows it in travel mode, it was not fired with the wheels attached.
It was originally developed by the German and introduced in 1910.
It was developed as a lesson learned from the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05. During this war it was duly noted that artillery alone could not eliminate all obstacles. The infantry needed a close quarter weapon capable of dropping a heavy explosive charge exactly onto a yet undestroyed target a few hundred meters/feet away. This area immediately in front of the assault troops was an area in which friendly artillery could not be relied upon to deliver accurate fire; as much due to communications as due to the power of the shell, which would be a hazard to their own men.
The 250mm sMW has a rifled tube, was muzzle-loaded, has a recoil mechanism, and the sight and laying mechanism of a full sized artillery piece. It was electronically fired at a distance from the mortar.
It fired a 215 pound shell containing 110 pounds of explosives out to a maximum of 2910 feet.
Reference:
Jäger, Herbert
German Artillery of World War One.
Ramsbury, Marlborough, Wiltshire:
Crowood Press, 2001
This information is presented to give a casual viewer information on this gun.
The specifications of this weapon differ between sources and often contradict each other, mainly due to information of original manufacture and from later modifications/models.
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