The 21 cm Mörser 18 howitzer was a heavy piece of artillery used by the Wehrmacht in World War II. Designed and manufactured by Krupp, this German 210-mm howitzer was employed mostly on the Eastern Front, especially during the sieges of Leningrad (1941-1943) and Sevastopol (1941-1942). It had been introduced in service with the German Army in 1939 as a replacement for the old 21 cm Mörser 16, which had a much shorter barrel (L/12) as it had been used in WW1. By 1945, Krupp had manufactured a large number of the new long-barreled howitzer, with more than 700 pieces.
Technical Characteristics
The length of 21 cm Mörser 18 barrel was 6.51 m (L/31). This gave it a maximum effective range of 17 km, firing 113-kg high-explosive or concrete-piercing shells. Like most of the German heavy artillery pieces, it was fitted with a horizontal sliding wedge breech mechanism and a hydraulic recoil buffer and a hydro-pneumatic counter-recoil. It was towed by half-track tractors, being transported in two sections along with another equipment support vehicle.
With a total weight of 22.7 tons, it could not be used in the highly mobile Blitzkrieg warfare. However, it was an effective heavy howitzer when employed to pound stubborn defensive enemy positions and to soften up the terrain before an attack as it had an elevation of up to +70°. Although the German word 'Mörser' means 'mortar', it was not really a 'mortar' in the strict technical term but a howitzer.
Below, the 21-cm Mörser 18 firing anti-bunker shells against a Russian fortress in Sevastopol in the Summer of 1942.
The German 210-mm caliber howitzer set up at the maximum elevation of +70°
Below, a photo of the rear side of the artillery piece, showing the breech and the loading process. You can see the artillery piece was mounted on a box trail carriage.
