The 21 cm Festungs und Belagerungs Mörser M1880 or ''(21 cm Fortress and Siege Mortar M1880)'' in English was a

heavy mortar A mortar is usually a simple, lightweight, man-portable, muzzle-loaded weapon, consisting of a smooth-bore (although some models use a rifled barrel) metal tube fixed to a base plate (to spread out the recoil) with a lightweight bipod mount and a ...

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

Background

During the second half of the 1800s, several military conflicts changed the balance of power in Europe and set off an arms race leading up to World War I. A company that profited from this arms race was the Friedrich Krupp Company of Essen Germany and several European countries were armed with Krupp artillery. Some customers like Belgium, Italy, Romania, and Russia imported and built Krupp designs under license while others like the Ottoman Empire and Bulgaria lacking industrial capacity imported Krupp weapons.

Design

The 21 cm M1880 was a heavy mortar that was designed to provide high-angle

indirect fire Indirect fire is aiming and firing a projectile without relying on a direct line of sight between the gun and its target, as in the case of direct fire. Aiming is performed by calculating azimuth and inclination, and may include correcting aim by ...

for

siege A siege is a military blockade of a city, or fortress, with the intent of conquering by attrition warfare, attrition, or a well-prepared assault. This derives from la, sedere, lit=to sit. Siege warfare is a form of constant, low-intensity con ...

operations. It could be used to either attack or defend fortified areas. In defense, the mortar was used to provide high-angle fire to destroy enemy communications, supply, and attack trenches dug by an attacker during siege operations or it could be used by an attacker to destroy

gun turrets A gun turret (or simply turret) is a mounting platform from which weapons can be fired that affords protection, visibility and ability to turn and aim. A modern gun turret is generally a rotatable weapon mount that houses the crew or mechanism ...

casemates A casemate is a fortified gun emplacement or armored structure from which guns are fired, in a fortification, warship, or armoured fighting vehicle.Webster's New Collegiate Dictionary When referring to antiquity, the term "casemate wall" mean ...

, pillboxes, supply dumps, and command posts. The 21 cm M1880 was part of a family of mortars from Krupp that included 7.5 cm, 8.7 cm, 10.6 cm, 12 cm, 15 cm, and 24 cm mortars. The 21 cm M1880 was a

breech-loaded A breechloader is a firearm in which the user loads the ammunition (cartridge or shell) via the rear (breech) end of its barrel, as opposed to a muzzleloader, which loads ammunition via the front ( muzzle). Modern firearms are generally breech ...

rifled mortar with an early form of horizontal sliding block breech that used

separate loading Ammunition (informally ammo) is the material fired, scattered, dropped, or detonated from any weapon or weapon system. Ammunition is both expendable weapons (e.g., bombs, missiles, grenades, land mines) and the component parts of other weapo ...

propellant charges and projectiles. There were two types of mount one was a static fortress mount that had a round metal base that bolted to a concrete slab or a mobile siege mount that bolted to a rectangular wooden platform. The upper part of both mounts was a wedge-shaped cradle constructed of riveted metal plates that held a trunnioned barrel. The U-shaped cradle allowed for high angles of elevation and was adjusted by a hand wheel on the side of the cradle that connected to a crescent-shaped elevation mechanism. Traverse was adjusted by a wooden pole that fit into a hole in the rear of the base and was levered into position. For transport, the mortar could either be transported attached to its wooden base or unmounted from its base. A pair of wheels were attached to an axle at the front and the rear was attached to a limber.

Users

The 21 cm M1880 was used during the

Balkan Wars The Balkan Wars refers to a series of two conflicts that took place in the Balkan States in 1912 and 1913. In the First Balkan War, the four Balkan States of Greece, Serbia, Montenegro and Bulgaria declared war upon the Ottoman Empire and defe ...

and World War I by the Ottoman Empire. A number armed Ottoman forts in the Balkans and a few were captured during the Balkan Wars. It is unknown if Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece, or Montenegro continued to use the mortars they captured? It may have also seen action during the

Italo-Turkish War The Italo-Turkish or Turco-Italian War ( tr, Trablusgarp Savaşı, "Tripolitanian War", it, Guerra di Libia, "War of Libya") was fought between the Kingdom of Italy and the Ottoman Empire from 29 September 1911, to 18 October 1912. As a result o ...

of the same period. The 21 cm M1880 also armed Belgian and Romanian forts built before World War I and more than likely saw service during World War I.

Gallery

File:210 mm Morser M1880-5.jpg, A 21 cm mortar with ammunition. File:210 mm Morser M1880-4.jpg, A 21 cm mortar on a 4 wheeled cart. File:210 mm Morser M1880-6.jpg, A 21 cm mortar attached to a limber for transport. File:Factory of mortar ammunition.jpg, Stocks of projectiles in a Belgian factory. File:Cpe Serb 210 mm mortar M1880.jpg, Serbian troops with a captured Ottoman 21 cm mortar during the 1st Balkan War. File:Ottomans preparing to fire.jpg, Ottoman troops loading a 21 cm mortar during World War I. File:15cm Mörser. Podgorahöhe. (Anfang April 1819.) (BildID 15664572).jpg, An Italian 15 cm mortar captured by Austro-Hungarian forces during World War I. File:Positions Mörser.JPG, A Swiss 15 cm mortar at the Standort Musée Militaire Vaudois, Switzerland.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:21 cm Festungs und Belagerungs Mörser M1880 World War I mortars Mortars of Belgium 210 mm artillery