Evening Republican, Volume 19, Number 63, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 March 1915 — WICKED LITTLE GUN [ARTICLE]

WICKED LITTLE GUN

“Minenwerfer" in Action Barks Like Snarling Mongrel. Description of Deadly Piece of Artillery Used by Kaiser’s Troops That Has Played Considerable Havoc In Allied Trenches. Paris. —In reports on the warfare in the trenches of Flanders reference often is made to a certain supposedly new Instrument of destruction which the Germans are using. Lacking an equivalent translation in their own language, the French and Belgians have come to call the weapon by its German name, “Mlnenwerfer.” Many descriptions of this more or less mysterious piece of artillery, which has played considerable havoc in the allied trenches, have appeared in the newspapers, but they have all differed in some essential details. A contributor to Le Figaro, Paris, who was in Havre about the middle of January, saw one of these “MlnenSerfers” there in the yard of the Hiding where the Belgian ministry of war has its quarters. The "bomb thrower,” as the weapon might appropriately be called in English, had been found in a trench formerly occupied by German troops.

The writer in the Figaro describes the weapon as "a hideous little cannon with an ugly look about it." It is about 95 centimeters long and has a caliber of 170 centimeters. Its barrel can be swung horizontally and vertically, for the purpose of taking aim Clutches in the rear and on either side enable the gun to take a firm grip in the soil before it commences to bark, after the fashion of a snarling mongrel. The gun is mounted on a carriage of steel plates resting on wheels, and the unwieldy little thing.weighs about five hundred kilograms without the wheels. The projectile is inserted at the muzzle and is discharged by means of an ignition cap in the breech. When the aiming device is removed the gun does not look more formidable than one of the old bronze mortars at the Invalides, the writer says. It is not likely that the “bomb thrower” can project a shell farther than 500 meters. To be exact, it does not throw the projectile, but simply spits it out, so to speak. A bronze plaque indicates that the gun came from the Ehrhardt works at Duesseldorf and was manufactured in 1913.