The 17 cm Kanone 18 in Mörserlafette (English: 17 cm Cannon 18 on Mortar Carriage), abbreviated as 17 cm K 18 in MrsLaf, was a

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

heavy gun used during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

Design

The 17 cm K 18 in MrsLaf was a towed gun with a

barrel A barrel or cask is a hollow cylindrical container with a bulging center, longer than it is wide. They are traditionally made of wooden stave (wood), staves and bound by wooden or metal hoops. The word vat is often used for large containers ...

50 calibres long. The 17 cm K 18 in MrsLaf shared the same box trail carriage with the

21 cm Mörser 18 The 21 cm Mörser 18 (21 cm Mrs 18), or 21 cm Mörser M 18/L31, was a German heavy howitzer used in the Second World War by Independent artillery battalions and batteries. A number were also used by coastal artillery units. Des ...

. The carriage allowed transport of the weapon over short distances in one piece, whilst for longer distances the barrel was removed from the carriage and transported separately. A series of ramps and winches made removing the barrel a reasonably quick task for its time, but still required several hours. For all of the gun's bulk, a full 360-degree traverse could be achieved by two men.

Dual-recoil mechanism

A notable innovation by Krupp on the 21 cm Mörser 18 and the 17 cm Kanone 18 was the "double recoil" or dual-recoil carriage. The normal

recoil Recoil (often called knockback, kickback or simply kick) is the rearward thrust generated when a gun is being discharged. In technical terms, the recoil is a result of conservation of momentum, for according to Newton's third law the force requ ...

forces were initially taken up by a conventional recoil mechanism close to the barrel, and then by a carriage sliding along rails set inside the travelling carriage. The dual-recoil mechanism absorbed all of the recoil energy with virtually no movement of the box trail upon firing, thus making for a very accurate weapon.

Ammunition

;Projectiles The 17 cm K 18 in MrsLaf fired three types of separately loaded ammunition. ;Shell performance The 17 cm K 18 in MrsLaf separately loaded ammunition used four charges. The gun's performance when firing the ''17cm K Gr 38 Hb'' long-range shell is depicted in the following table:

History

In 1939 the 21 cm Mörser 18 began appearing in the

Wehrmacht The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the German Army (1935–1945), ''Heer'' (army), the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmac ...

corps-level artillery regiments, replacing the obsolescent

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

-era

21 cm Mörser 16 The 21 cm Mörser 16 (21 cm Mrs 16), or 21 cm Lange Mörser M 16/L14.5, was a heavy howitzer used by Germany in World War I and World War II (although classified as a mortar (Mörser) by the German military). History It was based ...

. The gun was able to send a HE shell out to a range of , but by 1941 the Wehrmacht was seeking a longer- ranged weapon and Krupp responded by producing a smaller caliber increased-velocity weapon utilising the same

carriage A carriage is a two- or four-wheeled horse-drawn vehicle for passengers. In Europe they were a common mode of transport for the wealthy during the Roman Empire, and then again from around 1600 until they were replaced by the motor car around 1 ...

, with the designation Kanone 18. The 17 cm K 18 in MrsLaf quickly impressed German artillery officers with its range, but the real surprise was the explosive power of the

shell Shell may refer to: Architecture and design * Shell (structure), a thin structure ** Concrete shell, a thin shell of concrete, usually with no interior columns or exterior buttresses Science Biology * Seashell, a hard outer layer of a marine ani ...

, which was little different from the shell of the 21 cm Mörser 18. Production commenced in 1941. In 1942 production of the 21 cm Mörser 18 was halted for almost two years so as to allow maximum production of the Kanone 18. It has been suggested that the gun is the basis for the North Korean

M-1978 Koksan M-1978 Koksan (), a name used by US military analysts, known by its makers as the Chuch'ep'o (Juche Cannon; ), is a North Korean self-propelled gun based on the Type 59 tank chassis. Some guns were exported to Middle Eastern countries in the l ...

but there is no particular evidence for this beyond the calibre.

Operational history

The 17 cm K 18 in MrsLaf was employed at the

corps Corps (; plural ''corps'' ; from French , from the Latin "body") is a term used for several different kinds of organization. A military innovation by Napoleon I, the formation was formally introduced March 1, 1800, when Napoleon ordered Gener ...

and

army An army, ground force or land force is an armed force that fights primarily on land. In the broadest sense, it is the land-based military branch, service branch or armed service of a nation or country. It may also include aviation assets by ...

echelons in order to provide long-range

counter-battery Counter-battery fire (sometimes called counter-fire) is a battlefield tactic employed to defeat the enemy's indirect fire elements (multiple rocket launchers, artillery and mortars), including their target acquisition, as well as their command a ...

support, as well as filling the same basic heavy support role as the 21 cm Mörser 18, the pair becoming the most common weapons used by the Wehrmacht in this role. In 1944 some Allied batteries used captured 17 cm K 18 in MrsLafs when ammunition supplies for their usual guns were disrupted by the long logistical chain from Normandy to the German border. The 17 cm K 18 in MrsLaf was considered a technically excellent long range artillery piece for the German Army, with excellent range and a very effective shell. The gun's greatest weaknesses were that it was expensive to build and required careful maintenance. Additionally, it was quite slow to bring in and out of action, fairly difficult to maneuver and very slow to move off-road. Many were lost when their crews abandoned them when fleeing advancing Allied forces.

Gallery

File:17 cm K 18 MrsLaf 1.jpg File:Bundesarchiv Bild 101I-554-0865-17A, Nordafrika, Tunesien, Abfeuern einer Kanone.jpg File:Bundesarchiv Bild 101I-721-0377-16, Frankreich, getarntes Geschütz.jpg File:Bundesarchiv Bild 101I-721-0377-37A, Frankreich, getarntes Geschütz.jpg

References

{{WWIIGermanGuns

External links

Military Factory, "17cm Kanone 18 (17cm K18)", ''militaryfactory.com''
retrieved 29 June 2018. World War II artillery of Germany 173 mm artillery Weapons and ammunition introduced in 1941