Customer Reviews

German Heavy Mortars:

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So far I had only read about the German heavy mortars during the Sevastopol and Leningrad sieges but after reading this book many things were clarified. The book is full of data like gun and projectile weights, muzzle velocities, rates of fire, total units produced, even required quantities of raw materials and man-hours for their construction (!) and the photographs are big size and very good. There are also some diagrams showing the heavy mortars on the move or loaded on trains and some of the engineering ideas are really impressive! The Germans used also some heavy mortars manufactured by the Czechs and the French and these weapons are adequately covered.

This short photographic survey of German heavy mortars in the Second World War is useful for shedding light on a number of obscure weapons. Although the volume is primarily intended for model-builders, it does provide a good overview of German 21 - 60 cm mortars. The volume has 58 B/W and 1 color photographs, as well as 9 sketches or line drawings. The author includes a 1-page appendix on weapons data, but fewer than 10 pages of text and captions. The weapons covered in this volume include: the 21 cm Long Mortar M16 L/14.5; the 21 cm Mortar 18 L/31; the 30 cm Mortar M17/L12; the 42 cm Mortar L12; the 42 cm Mortar L16 "Gamma"; the 42 cm Haubitze M16; the 60 cm Mortar "Karl"; the 38 cm Sturmmorser; the French-made 22 cm Mortar M14 and 28 cm M16; the Skoda 38 cm Mortar M16 L/17 and the 52 cm Mortar M18/L16. A sketch of the 21 cm Geschutzwagen VI self-propelled mortar is also included.

On the positive side, readers will probably appreciate the 8 pages devoted to the "Karl" mortar and researchers will appreciate the information provided on cost, materials used in construction and weapons production rates. However, the lack of any information on the specific Wehrmacht units which operated each weapon and the minimal information on operational use is a disappointment. Furthermore, the technical data is a bit scanty, given that charts don't require much space and the omission of a single photograph would have provided room for more than the basic data provided. Overall, this volume is a decent, if skimpy, introduction to German heavy mortars in the Second World War.

Has many great pictures of Heavy mortars,but they DIDN'T have any pictures of the 54cm.mortars!! They mention them,but no pics!!!Plus they call just about every artillery piece a MORTAR!!!

For what is a relatively obscure subject and the overall length of the book, there was a very good amount of information in the text, especially about the 60cm Karl and the summary of the German mortars used in the Second World War on the last few pages; I also enjoyed the detailed photographs of the crews loading, adjusting and firing the mortars. The line-drawings of the mortars and especially of the Karl and rail transporter (p33-34) with the respective technical data was also of great interest. This would be a good purchase for anyone interested in a compact introduction to this topic or for the scale model builder.