British Ordnance Collectors Network
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German WW1 76mm Trench Mortar
- Thread starter AB_BSM
- Start date
It sure looks like the bugger that almost knocked me out ! You can just put them back by pressing on the end cap and screwing it down. But beware when first unscrewing the cap the old grease will be hard and will hold it in until you are just close enough looking in to leap out and nail you but good !
Gspragge thanks for the note and the tip re the spring exiting the weapon at a great rate of knots ..... sorry wrong weapon I think.....after further checking could it have been one of the springs from a German 17cm mortar. The first attachment is a 1922 pic of what I believe is a 17cm mortar along with a German field gun either side of a local memorial. Some time later both weapons disappeared. In more recent times the field gun re-surfaced in private hands down South following which it was purchased, restored and mounted under cover outside an RSL building in Brisbane Australia. The mortar is still missing in action but there may be a sequel to the story. During WW2 our version of the British Home Guard were titled the Volunteer Defence Corps. A few years back I was interviewing survivors of the local Battalion with a view to writing a book (which is still in the pipeline as I did one on Military MT instead) and one of the elderley veterans told me about a time early in the war when his unit demolished (with explosives) an old WW1 German mortar in the bush as a training exercise. During that visit he presented me with the spring shown in the initial post stating that it had come from said mortar. My guess is that it is more then likely the one missing from the WW1 memorial and lost for all time!! Rod
