Although the majority of combatants had heavy field artillery before the outbreak of the First World War, none had adequate numbers in service, nor had they foreseen the growing importance of heavy artillery once the Western Front stagnated and trench warfare set in.

[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.

[4] The LadungsWerfer was designed and built by Rheinische Metallwaren und Maschinenfabrik based in Dusseldorf, Germany.

The large smoothbore barrel was 24.5 cm (9.6 in) in diameter but the German designation rounded down to the nearest centimeter.

The advantage of the LadungsWerfer was that they were cheaper to build and easier to transport than the 25 cm schwerer Minenwerfer but they were shorter ranged.

The projectiles consisted of thin-walled cast-iron ogive cases filled with explosives and sealed with a wooden base plug.