[2] Besides land mines, machine guns, and trenches, barbed wire was a persistent threat to attacking infantry.

[3] What was needed to overcome the deadlock and give attackers an advantage was light, portable, simple, and inexpensive heavy firepower.

Great Britain, Italy, the United States, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire also produced their versions of the Mortier de 240 mm.

[5] Like the IKO the Albrecht mortar was a muzzle-loaded smoothbore weapon that used separate loading propellant charges and projectiles.

It had a two-part barrel that could be disassembled for transport that screwed into a swivel base that sat on either a circular or crescent-shaped steel platform.