(The image above shows a large-caliber, short-barreled mortar used by the German Army during World War I. It requires four people to move it with wheels, and it cannot be disassembled. The German soldiers in the picture are wearing the 1916 helmets.) (If the review takes a long time, you might see a surprise chapter next time.)
During this period, mortars already existed.
The Germans used a large-caliber, short-barreled mortar that had a curved trajectory, allowing it to fire shells into the trenches of the Allies.
However, it looked like a mortar but conceptually was completely different from a mortar.
It was actually a howitzer, with a trigger, requiring charging, and was a breech-loading artillery piece, essentially a fixed artillery position on the battlefield, making it hard to move.
The design Shire proposed was a true mortar: the Stokes mortar invented by the British in 1915.
