Can anybody identify the (German ?) gun ?

[RodB]

Anybody know what this is, and/or the context ? Looks like a mountain howitzer deployed as an anti-tank gun to me, but the caption refers to a minenwerfer.

[Thunderbox]

Its a German 75mm lIG 18 infantry gun, introduced about 1933 onwards. This gun was used in the support artillery company of an Infantry regiment. Came in two versions - one with steel wheels (as in picture) the other with road tyres.

Picture looks like one of the Wehrmacht drill practices of the late 1930s.

[bob lembke]

The caption reads "Mine-thrower in combat position with gasmasks". However, although I am not familiar with the gun you cite, it seems that that incorrect titling could be based on the following. There was a wheeled carraige for WW I Minenwerfer, and when so set up they were used in an anti-tank role late in the war. But the pictured gun, which superficially looks like a Minenwerefer so set up, seems to me more complex in several ways. Additionally, the photo looks post-war in terms of the paper, etc. So, even not recognizing the specific gun, I think that you are right.

As the war went on there were more and more "infantry guns" attached to the German infantry, and later in the war most regiments in the line had one or two batteries. 50 special infantry gun batteries were formed, but the need was much greater, and many batteries from field artillery regiments were selected for this role. They usually used the 77 mm field gun, but the 105 mm light howitzer was also used. The famed Storm Battalion Nr. 5 Rohr was originally formed to test infantry guns in combat, and eventually tried at least four types of guns. The one they preferred was a Russian 76.4 mm parapet gun (captured in great quantities in the east), modified, with, among other things, better German sights. With some guns, like the 77 mm field gun, they cut the wheels down and perhaps also the barrel. My father saw S=B Rohr use the infantry gun in action and was extremely impressed.

More than you wanted to know.

Bob Lembke

Resident Hun

[centurion]

There was a wheeled carraige for WW I Minenwerfer, and when so set up they were used in an anti-tank role late in the war.

As shown

However there were modified variants allowing a more horizontal position particularly for AT work. All muzzle loaders. The gun in the OP is definitely an early version of the German infantry gun used widely in WW2 not WW1

[RodB]

The you all, gentleman, the forum members deliver as always ! I'd thought it was WWI because of the helmets, thought it might be one of the guns from Austria, but it didn't match any WWI artillery I'd seen. Mystery explained !

Supplementary question : anybody know what Kosmos in bottom left was ? (I know it's not a WWI photo, but they ARE wearing what looks like the 1916 Stahlhelm, so it sneaks in).

[centurion]

Possibly its a photo from Kosmos the monthly magazine of Gesellschaft der Naturfreunde a popular science society, big in Germany between the wars.