We are looking here at schwere Küstenmörser-Batterie No. 8, established in early 1915. They had 8 Lanz tractors, 1 Arator motor plough, 2 Podeus tractors, and 1 Kemna steam locomotive. The Lanz and Arator vehicles (seen in the two pictures) were three wheelers, the Podeus four wheelers. Arator and Podeus had winches.
The gun ought to be a Krupp 28-cm howitzer in wheeled mount. It was transported in four loads. But the assembly point - in most cases - was not the same as the firing position. Hence, the complete gun had to be moved - some thirty or forty metres - from assembly point to firing position, by tractor or by winch.
Mad Zeppelin is right, this vehicle is indeed of the schwere Küstenmörser-Batterie No 8. On the enclosed picture you can see this painted on the side of the vehicle. Are you sure by the way that this is an Arator? I have no name for this vehicle, so you could be right, but I always thought the Arator was a 4 wheeled vehicle. Then again, Arator is a firm and it could have produced several types of vehicles. After all, Lanz also produced 4 wheeled vehicles like the LC, ZE and ZF.
The artillery tractor with the counterweights at the rear is a LANZ Landbaumotor B (Lanz Type LB). One will find that photo in excellent quality in my new book on the Artillerie-Zugmaschinen (Tankograd World War One Special N° 1014) spread out over pages 36-37. The other tractor with the steering station at the rear is a (let us name things properly here) STANDARD-MOTORPFLUG Arator three-wheeler agricultural tractor. Notably the Arator (later Arator I) agricultural tractors can be identified by exactly that driver's station at the rear and the pear-shaped covers on the left and right between the wheels. Delivered to the Imperial Army was at least one three-wheeler (as seen here) and at least one four-wheeler. Only the three-wheeler has the massive winch above the front wheel. The agricultural tractor four-wheeler Arator I was later used in the Fahrschule driver training school at Opladen. The other four-wheel Arator a little lower in the post and with the lettering across the radiator is indeed an Arator II Artillerie-Kraftzugmaschine 80 PS and was built by STANDARD-MOTORPFLUG based on late-1915 army requirements. Note the Arator-II-typical "saddle tank" on top of the engine compartment. The Arators are covered in my book in chapter 10.
-- Edited by Oberfeld on Monday 13th of November 2023 06:43:17 PM
