The carriage also mounted an integral firing platform that was lowered to the ground when emplacing the gun. The wheels were then cranked up off the ground. A rear castor-wheel jack was used to raise the rear spade off the ground if the gun needed to be traversed more than the 16° allowed by the mount proper. The reference noted above actually shows a crew preparing to lift the rear of the whole unit in preparation for such an operation, or perhaps for attaching the limber.
Just over 700 of the pieces were completed by the end of the war, with none manufactured in 1942 when the emphasis was on the smaller 17cm Kanone 18 in Mörserlafette.