Two Captured VIMY Minenwerfers need your help

[Donny Fenn1]

Gonna diverse again here. Used to be a German howitzer on display at a road side in the Crowsnest Pass at one time. gone now, anybody have any idea what happened to it ? there were also some MG 08 sled mounts, no guns, still there last time I drove by. Lethbridge has a couple of German artillery pieces.I gather, captured German ordnance was distributed widely and easily, by any organization that wanted them. shame it's come to such a sad end. this is oneof the Lethbridge guns.

Grizz

The cannon and MG08s are on the side of the highway mounted on a concrete "plinth" for lack of a better word. They were restored/painted at some point and there is a plaque commemorating a local family that lost two sons IIRC. The sleds have had MG08s on them for as long as I can remember.

 

[buffdog]

They LIED about your age....
Never trust a newspaper who cannot get the pertinent facts correct!!! ##

Heck........I LIKE that reporter. He made me 9 years younger. Now if I could only feel that way! LOL

 

[buffdog]

The cannon and MG08s are on the side of the highway mounted on a concrete "plinth" for lack of a better word. They were restored/painted at some point and there is a plaque commemorating a local family that lost two sons IIRC. The sleds have had MG08s on them for as long as I can remember.

The cannon in the Crowsnest Pass is at Frank, Alberta. It is a 10.5cm leichtes Feldhaubitze 98/09, (light field howitzer,) serial number 3392, made in 1916. It is flanked by two MG 08 Maxim machine guns on sled mounts.

The one in the picture is at Henderson Lake in Lethbridge, Alberta, is a 15cm. schwere Feldhaubitze 1902, (heavy field howitzer,) serial number 1101

 

[buffdog]

Number 848 is a 17cm (170mm) Minenwerfer, claimed by the 8th. Battalion CEF but that marked out and its capture was awarded to the 16th. Battalion, CEF.

It was captured on 8.8.1918 near Aubercourt, and the Ledger shows it was shipped to Stamford, Ontario.


The 17cm mMW is the smaller brother to the 25cm sMW. The carriages are very similar and from a distance they look the same but the 25cm Minenwerfer can be identified by the cut outs in the upright side panels.


Further to the above information

"Angrysoldier"

Your 17cm. Minenwerfer was shipped to Stamford, Ontario, on 26/10/20 by the Grand Trunk Railway. A personal database (accurate to Feb. 2015,) indicates it is now at the Queen Charlotte Armoury, on display in Charlottetown, PEI. Apparently it went from Stamford Ontario, to the Armour School in Gagetown N.B., thence to the PEIR in 2013. It is mentioned in the War Diary return of captured guns, page 11.

The DATE and the 16th. Battalion is very significant here. The date, 8/8/18 was the day that the Battle of Amiens started, and a check of the War Diaries for the 16th. Battalion shows that they were indeed near Aubencourt that day. Furthermore, the 16th. kept a very good record, and they listed the captured weapons for that battle.

Under "Trench Mortars", is listed number "848", a 170 mm Mortar. You can not ask for better provenance than that.

 

[angrysoldier]

Number 848 is a 17cm (170mm) Minenwerfer, claimed by the 8th. Battalion CEF but that marked out and its capture was awarded to the 16th. Battalion, CEF.

It was captured on 8.8.1918 near Aubercourt, and the Ledger shows it was shipped to Stamford, Ontario.


The 17cm mMW is the smaller brother to the 25cm sMW. The carriages are very similar and from a distance they look the same but the 25cm Minenwerfer can be identified by the cut outs in the upright side panels.


Further to the above information

"Angrysoldier"

Your 17cm. Minenwerfer was shipped to Stamford, Ontario, on 26/10/20 by the Grand Trunk Railway. A personal database (accurate to Feb. 2015,) indicates it is now at the Queen Charlotte Armoury, on display in Charlottetown, PEI. Apparently it went from Stamford Ontario, to the Armour School in Gagetown N.B., thence to the PEIR in 2013. It is mentioned in the War Diary return of captured guns, page 11.

The DATE and the 16th. Battalion is very significant here. The date, 8/8/18 was the day that the Battle of Amiens started, and a check of the War Diaries for the 16th. Battalion shows that they were indeed near Aubencourt that day. Furthermore, the 16th. kept a very good record, and they listed the captured weapons for that battle.

Under "Trench Mortars", is listed number "848", a 170 mm Mortar. You can not ask for better provenance than that.

Sweet I was wondering where it went to. It spent the winter out back behind my shop.

 

[donor]

I found this photo by chance.That's in Polish Army Museum in Warsaw,Poland.

 

[buffdog]

Yes. That is a 25 cm Schwere Minenwerfer on it's carriage. (The 25 cm mount has the cut-outs in the vertical pieces of the sides of the mount and the 17 cm does not.)

 

[RRCo.]

Where a war trophy was made part of a war memorial it was exempt from the scrap drives. Some towns quickly made their trophy allotments part of their war memorials for that reason.

 

[Bigrounds8mil]

Nice to see this project getting some media coverage, really happy and impressed to see the students wanting to help out fixing the old girl.

Thanls again Wayne for getting the ball rolling on this! I'm gonna have to stop by Waterford on my way to Ottawa over the summer to see it in person

 

[buffdog]

.
If you come to Southern Ontario this summer, and visit Waterford, be sure to stop at the Canadian Military Historical Museum in Brantford, Ontario. It is open Tuesday to Sunday, 10:00 to 16:00. If it happens to be a Tuesday that you are there, I can probably give you a guided personal tour.