Okay, coupla days ago, we posted a teaser, asking "Whatizzit?"
This was a toughie for most of you, with the bulk of you running down the rathole of the Type 89 Knee Mortar.
We gave you some hints - including the fact that most of the time, the answer lies in the Castle Archives or the photos of the Imperial Arsenal of Doom.
Owen Dyer, who asked me to do another teaser, got it right, in all the specifics, first day. Frank C. limped in a couple of days later.
It's a round for the WWI Granatenwerfer 16, highlighted in this Castle post.
The thing you had to figure out was the purpose of the smooth metal sleeve. The answer? This is a "bouncing" bomb. Due to the mud and general pulverization of the ground in the area of the trenches, lots of impact fuzed rounds didn't function, or buried themselves before exploding, making their impact minimal. Essentially, the smooth sleeve is a mini-mortar, containing a blackpowder charge which blows the bomb up into the air, where it will then function, getting around the soft ground problem.
That's it! For those of you who played, thanks! For those who didn't. Well, thanks for reading, anyway!
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