[Weapons 101] How does a Mortar work?
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Modern mortars evolved from the so-called "Stokes Mortar", but the basic principles still apply. This video gives you a short overview on mortars.
A modern mortar is a weapon that provides short-range indirect fire at high angles, usually between 45 and 80 degree. Unlike traditional (old) mortars it was relatively small and mobile, which made it well-suited for trench warfare and also maneuver warfare, because unlike unwieldy artillery it could be used directly by the infantry units at the front line.
Script and further information here: militaryhistoryvisualized.com/...
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Hogg, Ian V.: The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Ammunition
-Websites & Links-
Great video that shows the removal of several augmenting charges at around 3:00
• "Hang it, FIRE!!!!"
www.globalsecurity.org/militar...
--Notes on Accuracy & “Methodology”--
Note that the mortar shell and mortar are not of the same type (and diameter in real life), but the functionality is similar.
1) The depicted Mortar Shell is a 8cm Wgr 38.
2) The depicted detailed Mortar is roughly a Esperanza 60mm Model ‘L’ Mortar.
3) The depicted Mortars in the beginning are US M2 60mm mortars.
![[US Army] Infantry Battalion Structure & Attack Tactics World War 2 (1944)](/img/n.gif)
If you like in-depth researched videos on Military History, considering supporting me on Patreon: patreon.com/mhv/
What? CZcams is charging you for these videos or what?
Luong Do no, his monetization has changed, so he's making little to no money on CZcams and it's ads
I see. Thanks.
bro plzz tell how does a multi barrel launch roket system works
Wait so a historical channel meant purely to be educational and accurate somehow got flagged as not being ad-friendly?
as an ex mortar-man , i like the video although there are a lot of things you can add like the fact there are different types of mortar bombs not just an impact fuses there are timed bombs and there are delayed fuse bombs
there are different kinds of armaments too ,some bombs used for lighting up the night while others are used to start a large fire not just shrapnel
There are also different calibers 52mm , 60mm ,81mm / 82mm (russian) or 120mm for instance
Some of them like the 81mm can be mounted on an apc
Pele sch; Would you help me identify a mortar from my collection? It was my grandfather's so likely Korea/WWII era. Perhaps 2" in diameter at most, and a simple hollow core straight through from tail to nose. No increase in width of the cavity for additional explosive. TruePittIrish@gmail.com. Thanks!
that is basic information for anyone using a mortar , thats not advanced information ( i wasn't asking for them to explain how each individual type of bomb works exactly) they do teach you that in the army
@Ethan Boyd
im a modern day mortar man so im not exactly an expert on WWII / Korea era equipment (learned a little about it when i was in the army)
but if you upload a picture to one of the free picture sharing sites and give us the link we could take a look
most importantly
try taking a picture of any serial number on the weapon usually on the bottom (although again ... WWII so who knows)
and try taking a picture from the side (full length)
also another measurement that would help is how long is the mortar without the base
and finally does it come with a base plate or does it have a small flat metal base attached to it
BTW i would advice against advertising your gmail account like you just did
people get a lot of spam mail that way
And finally i think one of the best bets you can make is to go to
www.patreon.com/ForgottenWeapons/posts
post about the mortar
there is a good chance he will take a look
Heh, I was actually wondering if you could stop a mortar from exploding by catching it without touching the impact fuse.
First my MOS is not a mortar man i was a weapons specialist , one of the courses / weapons i learned to use is the mortar
now as far as theoretically catching a mortar shell before you hit the impact fuse
if you could somehow catch the mortar just before it hits without hitting it at the top of the impact fuse then yes
but that depends on the type of round fired at you
there are shells that work on a timer - in that case there is nothing you can do
there are shells with an elongated impact fuse , designed to explode above ground , that would also require you to catch the shell at a different height than the normal one
Hope this helps clarify your theoretical question :)
I'd always wondered how mortars are fired. Having seen it, it now seems so bloody obvious.
TechnoSquidgy I know right! I always thought "what inside that mortar that makes the shell fire yet with loading?"
BadBoy_____17 I thought it was somewhat obvious that there's a firing pin at the bottom that makes the shell fire
Anthony DeLuca
Yeah it seems bloody obvious now, but before hand I could never quite figure out how it worked. I had assumed there was some kind of impact fuse involved but I just wasn't sure of the specifics.
TechnoSquidgy Me too,i allway saw a firing mortar but i never knew how It works.
what's scary is when you drop a round down the tube...and nothing happens.
O boi i just stepped on a golden landmine of a channel.
***** and knowing is half the battle.
You sound like a homosexual kraut
I was searching for same.
@@slobodaanopuvic6805
Haha hahahahahahaja xD
Fuck yeah
"Thus emphasis was given to create efficient and well-produced Finns". Thus the Finnish automaton people was created.
And thus, prostetic fish hands are created
Ugh that was painful, I'm so proud of you
Finally a channel about military history that's got dense content and not just 30 minutes of talk.
Mortar go BOOM!
My father was in a battalion mortar platoon in 1942 using British 3-inch mortars. A problem was that in the rubber plantations and jungle the mortar bomb fuses were so sensitive that it was not unknown for bombs to explode after leaving the motor tube and passing upwards through the overhead foliage. Against all regulations and ignoring safety considerations, by using 3 loaders it was possible to have 21 x 10-pound bombs in the air before the first bomb hit the ground. But when the Japanese were overrunning your rifle platoons the rule book 'went out the window'. Also when the mortar pits were been overrun it was possible to point the mortar tube straight up and smother your own position with bombs on the theory that at least your troops are in some cover and the enemy is exposed to the exploding bombs. Also mortar bombs never (hopefully) came back down onto mortar that fired it and mortar bombs landed in a random way in such situations. Once again a tacit of desperation. Keep up your good work.
Geoffrey Mowbray Let me guess where your father served, Malaya?
momo lolo: Malaya and Singapore Island. The battalion (Australian) was destroyed twice and reformed twice in les than 4 weeks. During that period it had a reinforcemnet draft of 10 officers and 560 other ranks, and absorbed from other units 4 officers and 279 other ranks. Losses were KIA or died of wounds 21 officers, and 441 other ranks; wounded and injured 23 officers and 677other ranks.
Over the past 20 years some British authors heavily criticised the battaliion for failing to hold its ground. By selectively using some sources without refering to complet records and other materials one author constructed his arguement and other authors have quoted his work siince.
It is not usually known that of all the units on Singapore Island, only a battalion of the Cambridgeshire Regiment never retired. It had dug in amoungst the european homes and gardens of Adam Road (near the Singapore Golf Club) and held off the Japanese infantry and tanks. No jungle or plantations there. Adam Road could be compared to a piece of Surrey placed into Asia.
Commissar_Dan: Dan, we can all be thankfull for that generation.
Of what was left of the battalion who became Prisoners of War during January and February 1942, 4 officers and 334 other ranks died in captivity. Survivours recovered and returned to Australia in 1945 ,41 0fficers and 712 other ranks.
From the 2/19 Battalion's formation in 1940 to its post war offical disbandment, 77 officers and 1815 other ranks passed through the battalion. (2 officers and 12 other ranks served alongside the Chinese forces in China)
The battalion's old King's and Regimental colours are still paraded on special occassions by the modern successor unit.
As my grand father went through 1915 to 1918 in the trenches, I should statistically not be alive. It is good to remember the real meaning of war as I find on these types of web sites some people take war too lightly.
Geoffrey Mowbray gibraltar of the east fell in a week lol.
Hardly a surprise that people kept using the same source. Pretty much the same thing happened to the 38th (Welsh) Division at Mametz Wood. Several days of fierce, often hand to hand fighting, they took the place suffering over 50% casualties (in only 4 days), yet the histories (the first written by one man using a selective group of accounts) state that the 38th did poorly.... Was not helped by the fact their own commander badmouthed his men afterwards.
Recent archealogical digs have shown that there were trench lines and fortifications within the wood that no one knew anything about. It was assumed until those positions were found (within the last couple of years), that many of the men of the 38th were lying about the level of resistance they faced.
Always worth taking the histories with a degree of caution, especially older ones which often did not have access to documentation that may have still been classified when the history was written.
Excellent. Succinct. Simple easy to follow visuals. Nothing worse than a 30 min video explaining a three minute concept. Well done.
American WW2 mortars used square sheets of nitrocellulose as augmentation charges, the sheets had some flex to them and you simply inserted them into slots in an adjacent pair of tailfins (or actually pulled them out, as crated most rounds started with a full set). These proved very simple and effective compared to some other countries' systems.
You just add sheets according to the distance
The three Battle of Peleliu episode of HBO's "The Pacific" were focused largely around a mortar team.
Great battle scenes and best episodes of the entire series too.
+Caesar Himself yeah, I watched it and never understood the "HANG IT" command, I was like "wtf are they saying". Actually had a final slide with that command in one version, because I thought that non-native speakers may have the same problem as me, but well, I didn't like the script and voicing of it. (the 0.1 version actually made a remark to the Pacific series).
Because the author's of the stories used had been Marine mortarmen.
Caesar Himself ,
Ok but of the problem is that in the HBO series the actors are speaking 1930's American english.
"Hang it all", now would be just "FUCK". Most spoke a little better spoken back then.
Caesar Himself
Autocorrect messing with me.
Better spoken back then.
Another advantage of the mortar is that near vertical impact ensures that the blast has a 360 degree effect and less of it goes harmlessly up into the air
I love your videos, thanks for posting. I had a north Vietnamese mortar round explode 8 feet in back of me when i was a machine gunner on a V-100 armored car. I was in the rear hatch. Yes, and i'm still alive to talk about it. God spared my life!
Less Augmenting Charges also increase the effective rate of fire. If you fire too many mortar shells in a short amount of time the tube gets very hot and loses accuracy.
You have to pee on it to cool it down. Mel Gibson did it in that movie.
Good to know
The real problem with over doing the rate of fire is the tube can fail. I guess the issue with accuracy would become a moot point then?
Can the tube get so hot that the rounds cook off in the tube?
Thank you for all your hard work, this is a great site and I've learned a lot. I'm not usually a WW2 "Gearhead" but I like how you've presented the different topics which makes me curious about the next video.
To add a little.
My Father became a U.S. Marine in 1938. Now because all Marines are infantry first. (He worked in the motor pool, for then Maj. Jerry Thomas) Motor pool Marines where actually a weapons company. He was first trained for mortars 60mm & 81mm. Then Machine gun by John Basilone.
He really enjoyed working with the 81mm mortar.
His last Battle was Peleliu .
The army is the same way your infantry first. In Afghanistan a few days before a sweep, the infantry got hit hard. I was Singal making sure the MI unit had good commo with the infantry units we supported. The Infantry CSM came to our unit and asked who you got that can learn quick and help us do this sweep? Our CSM picked me, I went from being a FOBBER to a door kicker in 3 days. Drills, hand signals, things locals left around to let us know what was going on and all kinda things. I was scared but after you get in your first shootout and pee your pants or more, you have a lot more confidence. It may seem like madness but it was a exciting in a weird way. When the deployment was over i got a few more medals then everyone else in my signal unit.
@@hoodfella4u ,
Thank you Brother !
I did Desert Shield/Desert Storm, U.S.M.C.
Time in the Shit,
Always changes a perspective....
Ex-mortar gunner here, the pin on a mortar is not always fixed, Some models have a handle or lever, but the gunner can select if the pin Should be fixed or "manual".
A scenario for where a "manual" shot would be use is when utmost accuracy is required or pinpoint at long distances.
Whenever a shell is inserted and hits the bottom of the tube, the tube can/will move a bit, that bit could be the difference of a beer i the mess or a courtmartial.
And as another person said, there are a lot different shelltypes and fuses.
This video needs to be researched more and "approved" by current or former mortar crews .
question, how do you make your animations? i mean the mini tank, planes and those things. thx
PowerPoint 2013, I make them from basic and free shapes grouped together, takes "a while" though.
many thanks :)
Military History Visualized then how do you animate them, do u use PowerPoint as well or do u use a video editing software the allowes you to have multiple photos on the 1 sence and move it around and edit it into a animation???
@Atomic Horizon: yes PowerPoint as well. So far I only used video editing software for some transitions (usually from non-Powerpoint to PowerPoint like in the Navy / Luft chats) and sometimes adding text, but not for animation. Might change in 2017 a bit, because I will upgrade my video editing software, but for all the graphics probably not, the major changes will be for real-life footage.
Great video, liking the slightly different series, you really are covering everything. Amazing work
+Nick Long thank you! Yeah, I have already a hard time just sticking to Military (History) stuff :D
Thank you for taking the time to make that. It was informative and easy to follow along
Great video, very informative and comprehensive. I also love the minimalism you use.
You are doing a great job, i`m having a lot of fun watching your videos, well done :)
thank you!
How have I lived so long not knowing this stuff?
The propellant charge is in front of the fins. One purpose for this is to spin the round in a smooth bore barrel. The gasses blow past the fins which are angled to deflect the gases, causing the round to spin.
One of the best channels on CZcams. Thanks.
Good video, appreciate the "straight to the point concept" and the fact you ask to like/subscribe in the outro, not the intro
very well researched videos and good graphic illustration too great job man!
Good video, short and simple, yet very detailed
21 and 87 degrees. Modern mortars can almost shoot directly at a target or completely vertical. Medium Mortars can be moved by hand, but the ammunition can not be moved in any meaningful quantity. So medium mortars have been taken out of line infantry units and put into a separate, battalion level unit that has access to trucks. If you would like to make a detailed video on mortars, I would be happy to provide you with any information.
Thank you for this simple explanatory video! 👍
Thank you man. Simple, accurate & efficient info delivery :)
i love this mans voice, its so good for this kind of narration.
My congratulations and compliments. I never knew how a mortar really worked. Outstanding!!!!
Great channel. Narration & graphics are the best.
Nicevideo, short, succinct, and informative. Many youtubers could learn from this
Excellent video, thank you!
Nice video! Learned a lot.
Awesome statistics review!
Great explanation
Well done
I'm really glad I've found your channel. Every vid is a piece of great and valuable work. Greetings from Poland.
+Tiget666 thank you, welcome to my channel!
Great little video..makes one want to know more..please keep it up
Something like this about shaped charge ammunition would be very interesting and extremely helpful for a lot of people, considering how many myths about it are still around to this very day.
yeah, I will probably do one a video on those too.
like what kind of myths? o.o
That it shoots a glob of molten metal which melts through the enemy armour for example.
Tyrannosaurus Rex doesn't it? or does it just slam into the metal, and the blast is directed only on the impact spot?
+MonarchTherapsids Inostran
It ejects a cone towards the target at incredible speeds. In fact, the speed at which it hits the target is so high that the pressure applied to the target area (a couple gigapascals iirc) is so absurdly high that it reaches a point at which solid materials start acting like liquids. So shooting at steel with a shaped charge is remotely like shooting at water with a pistol.
Awesome vid!!
Fantastic channel..keep up the great work. Subscribed.
The accent makes this video 100000000 times better
@Semper Fi the heavy accent is exactly what it is about.
So true
@@vista1417 No, he means, that german accent fits perfectly within context of explaining military matters.
Explained this video so detail. I like it
I had no idea about the augmentation charges, and was a little confused at first, I thought you made a mistake when you said they went a greater range because I assumed the augmentation was in fact in terms of explosion power, not propelling charge. Good video!
Pretty cool animation its very instructive. I apreciate a lot
This is educational perfection. If I could have done a degree learning this way, I'd be a historian now!
Good compact information.
Good Information, thanks guys
Good informative video.
Great series of vids ! Thanks for posting these . I am assuming that you have a background in military history / research ? A Canadian fan
two questions please, is it possible to have a dud & if so how is it removed from the tube. Second, can it explode if dropped. Does it activate only when the firing pin is struck, Thank you, great video.
You forgot to mention that with some mortars you do not have a fixed firing pin, but a manually controlled one, usually working on a lever like a trigger.
And for those wondering the difference this means that with a fixed firing pin, like shown in the video, the mortar bomb is dropped down the tube and on contact with the pin, fires.
But with a non-fixed firing pin, when the bomb is dropped down it does not fire until an operator pulls a lever or trigger.
Think of it like the difference in operation between an open bolt (fixed pin) and closed bolt (actuated pin) firearm.
I'm not entirely sure on the advantages of a non-fixed pin with mortars though, other than that I imagine it is a lot safer to use.
often wondered what the augmentation charges were and how the worked ,now WHERE can I buy one ,very informative THANKS!!
Great vid! As an idea for future videos, perhaps you could focus on artillery. How they were organized, controlled, operated, etc. I still don't even know how you actually "pull the trigger", so to speak, on an artillery piece.
+Evan Pinter yeah, that is definitely on my list too, because I don't know it neither, although I am getting a better understand about a lot of things from researching my videos, e.g., the understanding why mortars are used in infantry units and not artillery units definitely got "improved" by doing this mortar video.
Good stuff, thanks.
Well done. Thank you.
AWESOME VID
I was looking for this
You failed to mention the way the bomb gets propelled without the gases leaking around it. If you just drop a plain shell down a plain tube, it's innacurate and most of the propellant is wasted. Stokes solved this with eddy grooves.
An artillery shell needs a driving band of soft metal, that completely seals the shell against the barrel. You can't drop an artillery shell into the muzzle, it won't slide down. The mortar shell has to be small enough to slide inside the barrel, but this also means the propellant should leak around it and produce an innacurate or weak shot. The mortar bomb overcomes this by cleverly using perfectly contoured shallow grooves at it's widest point. As the propellant gases leak past the bomb, the grooves are shaped to force the gases to make spinning vortex eddies, and these form a kind of seal that slows the leaking propellant, giving more push and keeping the shell from rattling around too much. Look at a mortar shell, it has these grooves at it's widest point. They form a gas seal without touching the sides. Thats the secret Genius of the stokes.
Mortars are pretty much the ultimate simplified weapon with really only one moving part.
My plutoon (we trained with light mortars) was part of a artillery company, even though we always trained together with the coastal rangers as our job was to support them whilst out on the islands. So mortars aren't really part of the regular infantry companies but we do work with them, so you're not entirely right at the end.
great video!! i've always wanted to know how they'd work!!
+Lennart Hoek thank you!
Is the augmenting charges set of by a shock wave from the primary charge (like a blasting cap), or is it just a flammable material set off by an open flame?
Super Videos!
Haha, this guy is awesome, I think I have read the same books as he did.
Thanks for the knowledge..
Another advantage of the mortar is the explosive load relative to the propellant charge and shell casing. Since a mortar is short range and low pressure in the chamber, a thinner shell wall is required. So you can have more explosives relative to shell casing, and propellant in the same caliber comparing to artillery. a 120mm mortar shell can have as much explosive as a 155mm artillery shell.
Interesting is the role of the mortar in modern combat. In WWII, platoons (at least British and American forces) have their own motars, usually a small 2 inches or 60mm one attached to the platoon headquarters. Companies have their own mortars too. After WWII, lots of military eliminate the company and below mortars and make the rifle company mostly rifle-armed.
A couple shooting wars later, like the Falkands War, people start finding out that mortars are actually very important. Sure a commander can call in battalion mortars, regimental or brigrade artillery and above. Close-air-support even. Yet the mortar is the one that respond fastest. Even more important is the fact that military actions increasingly limit to smaller forces. The days of divisions squaring off against each other is (hopefully) over. If you look at the maps of today war in Iraq and Syria, areas of controls are usually restricted to roads and thing strips of land. Both sides carelessly left their units in "encirclement". Things that during the days of divisional combat would be fatal.
The current established organization of rifle company and platoons are severly understrength in terms of indirect and anti-tank firepower. The most casualty producing weapon of a platoon is a pair or M240s. A rifle company can choose to bring its own mortar, but it's not strictly alloted that way. One company commander in Afghanistan decided to leave its mortars behind for more riflemen. It was a decision he regreted. The bulk of the mortar and anti-tank strength is concentrated in the heavy weapon company of the battalion. Say a battalion is attacked by 2 companies of infantry and 2 companies of tanks. The defending battalion will have about 2 platoons worth of anti-tank units squaring off against 2 tank companies. Not to mention, you can expect the enemy to concentrate 5 battalions in the attack, outnumbering you in the process.
+Xuan Vinh To company level operations need to become more flexible and capable of fielding more Varietysof man portable weapons.
You're talking about the war against insurgents who are wearing skirts and have zero training as if they are a first-rate army.
catindabox 334 They, however, are not idiots. They do learn and they do adapt.
In Afghanistan, which you should note that it has been around 15 years since the start of conflict and you can still see new combat footage recorded by soldiers with Go-Pros everyday. Insurgents are not easily dislodged or defeated.
In the mountainous regions of Afghanistan, the insurgents learned that American soldiers are really good at marksmanship. However, their small arms, the M16s and now M4s are optimised for engagement at below 300m, as per the experience post WWII shown. At that range, 7.62x51, 7.62x54R, .50cal, and 12.7mm rules. Over 50% of engagements in Afghanistan are above 300m. The standard table of equipment put 7.62 NATO weapons at the platoon level and above. Insurgents will ambush American infantry at extended range, with PK and DHsK MGs. American forces had to start distributing 7.62x51 mm weapons at squad level. to counter this threat.
The insurgents' aims, however are not that great. Several reasons for this. They are not very well-trained. They have poor fire discipline: lots of automatic fire which lead to rounds going high. And they have poor eyesights: it's not that easy to get prescription glasses in the middle of bum-fuck nowhere. However, they do learn Americans' behaviour: the standard procedure when you are attacked is to seek cover. So they put bombs, IEDs, booby traps, and explosives around likely cover: ditches, berms, and low walls. American infantry under attack has the choice of either being in the open or take cover and get blown up.
The response from American infantry is actually very simple: stand your ground, and shoot back. Though they are in the open, they have several advantages: they are better shots, they have better body armour, and should they get hit, better first aids, and surgery. Bullet to the stomach are easier to treat than a limb flying off. Especially with body armour. Now if you are shooting back at an enemy like that, some really heavy weapons are useful.
i would be interested in finding out how exactly a 'tree burst' [or should i call it an 'air burst'?] effect is achieved against Infantry forces with mortar stonks/barrages.
From what i've read in memoirs of German, British and US troops [and all other national forces of WW2] who have found good light cover in woods but then suffered from constant mortar or artillerie air bursts, it sounds far more terrifying than being fired at in open ground as the shards of wood can cause many more casualties than just the shards of shrapnel. The likelihood of being wounded by metal as well as splinters must have accounted for a larger number of non-fatal casualties.
It would be interesting to know just how the opposing forces discovered or calculated the range of , for example, a 30 man platoon 'dug-in' in woodland.
The German forces [Army Group North] in , i believe, Byelorussya, called it 'the Green Hell' as Russyan mortars poured an enormous amount of firepower down upon German troops dug in in the dense woods.
Mortars were obviously effective against Marders [tank destroyers] and Sdkfz250/251s and the SP artillery [Wespe, Hummel] as these vehicles were open-topped and, thus, vulnerable to even light mortars which, over open LoS, were much more accurate at the shorter 100-400m ranges.
I would guess that the use of 'air bursts' was a calculation of the distance the mortar round has to travel with the fuse set to explode at a shorter range than the angle it's actually fired at?
Or is it simply a matter of the mortar rounds hitting tree trunks, amplifying the explosive effect of shrapnel combined with splinters or shards of wood?
You should try and do a vid on different skills and procedures such as: call for fire, SITREP, 9 line medecac, oporder's (OPORD) ... pick a nations force, for instance, US army. I'm actually pretty sure that Army Marines standardize on these types of things. People may find it interesting.
MrAdvantage1 Army fucking Marines, God damnit. For the record, we United States Marines are not part of the US Army, we are under the department of the Navy. In response to your statement however we do standardize 9-Lines for medevac. Call for fires are mainly for FO's, however I have been taught it, and OP orders are the most boring things in existence. Also we don't really use sitreps, we use ACE reports.
Best Austrian Accent ever, even that some complain they do not understand it and like always excellent made Video... more Videos please ^^
Here’s a tip: if the range or accuracy of your mortar isn’t up to scratch, simply look down the tube while dropping the mortar shell in to make sure it is firing correctly.
I was a 11C in the US infantry. What a challenging weapon to actually hit a target with
Now it's all clear... Thanks
my dad used to be a mortar orperator during his national service.
The mortar shells can actually range from High explosive, White phosphorus, chemical agent, illuminating, small nuclear, biological agent, smoke screen, napalm, incendiary shells, armor piercing, etc if any.
Cool video
The last I recall (back in the 80's) the 81mm (H.E round) had a maximum range of 5660metres on charge 8. Happy days back in the Mortar Plt.
That's about three and a half miles?
That's actually a pretty respectable range. Although god knows how you'd accurately hit a small target (eg a vehicle) at that range.
@@Rapscallion2009 Also and 11-Chuck in the 80's on an 81mm system. We regularly got metal on metal calls from the FO at 2+ miles. And that was with pencil and erasure M16 plot boards in the FDC.
These videos are realy nice. Some stuff is a bit dry, but I dont mind.
why would you mention it if you don't mind
Silly question, but I take it that the augmenting charges are set of by the holes in the base by the primary charge. Now when the augmenting charges detonate, since the mortar tube and body pillow they even themselves pressure wise. Are the charges just TNT OR similar? Great grand uncle was a mortar man I WW2 . Really interested in how they work
I don't know about the charges and likely depends on the time and also force / country as well.
Nice, but too short IMHO. You could have mentioned how size affects its application and what rounds are available. Moreover, doesn't the nebelwerfer count too?
Correct me if I'm wrong but there's this pattern:
40mm mortar: carried by one soldier; very mobile; only against soft targets; shrapnell, smoke; incendary most frequent rounds
80mm mortar: disassembled and carried by 3 soldiers (better use a vehicle), or thrown on a truck; able to distroy buildings
120mm mortar: requires a jeep at least; has the same ammount of explosive as a 155mm howitzer, but fires faster; can take down buildings with a few hits
160mm mortar: needs to be draged by a jeep; too big to be muzzle loaded
240mm mortar: needs a heavy truck to be dragged; or is mounted on a tank
PS: I understand the significance of 40 80 and 240mm mortars (infantery, allrounder; siege) but I have no idea about the application of 160mm mortars.
Nebelwerfer was rocket propelled ordnance.
chapiit08 Still its in many ways like a mortar.
Then the Katiusha too is like a mortar in many weays, and so is a howitzer, and an aintiaircraft cannon and so on. NO a mortar is a fucking mortar.
Good one
My neighbour told me when he was in the army, serving in the Duke of Wellington Regiment, machine guns were the Middlesex Regiment and mortars the Northumberland Fusiliers., but that was 1945.
This... this is kind of "how it works" that I love
The mortar is a weapon that is organic to the infantry. Smaller mortars are at company level and larger mortars are at battalion level. Usually artillery fire support personal are attached to infantry units. These personnel are usually the ones that call in fire from both mortars and artillery. Separate channels are used to communicate with infantry mortars or the artillery cannons..
Is it true that if the bottom of the mortar bombs isn't striked by the firing pin, they don't explode after hitting the ground if launched by hand? I'm taking about the final battle of the movie Saving private Ryan, they had mortar ammo but no mortar, so they were hitting the bottom of the mortar bombs on a metal plate by hand and then launching them by hand on the other side if the trench, not far away
How are they so precise? What sort of measurements are taking place by the mortar team to get it on target?
How do Spigot Mortars (eg: Granatwerfer 16) differ in operation?
So does this mean the final battle of the movie Saving Private Ryan could not have happened since the soldiers were smacking the mortar bombs on the base-plate rather than the firing pin to activate them?
The idea in that scene is that they detonate the base charge by slamming it on the ground.
I spent a year in a mortar company as a conscript and was extremely skeptical of this scene.
Probably the biggest issue is that even with a small diameter, mortar shells are relatively heavy and will be awkward to throw. It seems unlikely that you could throw it far enough to be safe from the fragmentation.
It also looked a bit like they were throwing the projectiles 'sideways, which makes it less likely that it will orientate the nose down in time, and it might just fall on its side, not detonating.
The base charge is also somewhat protected, since it's inside the actual tail of the projectile, so you need a fairly sharp rock to make sure the base charge detonates. Also, even though the base charge is small, you probably want to keep hands and legs away.
On the other hand, the scene was supposedly based on someone's real experiences, so I honestly don't know. Mortars haven't evolved very much at all since WWII, but I have to admit that we were never allowed to try anything of this sort. We did have a loader who dropped a shell though, and his group had to constantly do exercises for the following 3 nights.
Either way, I guess it's plausible, but I'm still very skeptical over that scene.
@@Infinite_Jester do you know how I can get detailed information on the explosive composition used in the augmenting charges and primary charges. I can't seem to find any information on the internet...
@@edwinvarela4779
Google for American military historians. Find one that's an expert in weapons and send them an email.
An armed mortar if it is jolted the main explosive is primed a second jolt sets them off. Mortors dropped into troops by parachute that were armed would then explode in the tube. Killing the crew. Quite common in war and there are videos of it happening to ISIS pricks.
@@Infinite_Jester they don't detonate the base charge they arm the main charge sheeze what army were you in 😆
I was a Mortar man in the 82nd ABN, back n the early 1980's we used the 81 mm and the 4.2 inch
I believe original mortars did not mechanically seal to the tube when fired. They used the turbulence in the tight fit to seal the propelling gases. A brass band was added to flare and seal when fired so the majority of the gas propelled the round.
I was also told it sucks to carry the base plate.
Well said. Thanks.
When you have to set the mortar at 89-90 you know you're in real trouble.
Well done, just one thing I would change is to call the "exploder" a detonator. It would also be interesting to detail the various types of fuses and mortar shells that are available (smoke, HE, FRAG, AP etc). Cheers Alex
ap mortar shells didnt know they were a thing
+Jim Cowley I'm gonna take a wild shot in the dark and say maybe they are for destroying fortifications?
I agree with PinkPlushie. Only Smoke, Illumination, High Explosive, Practice, Precision Guided Munitions, HERA, and Gas rounds, (CS, GB, VX) are made for mortars. The gas rounds may have been removed from the inventory. You can find imaginary rounds in video games like BF4, which become "real" in the minds of many.
I know they use red phosphorus in certain artillery shells, including mortars, but white phosphorus is still the primary smoke round for obscuration, at least in the U.S. inventory. Red can be used for screening, but it's primarily for marking. Both are used as incendiaries. Modern fuzing allows for multiple types of bursting in all mortars. Mechanical Time for illumination rounds, Point Detonating for general purpose use, and multi-option fuzes give the ability to select Proximity, Near Surface Burst, Impact, and Delay.
Ahhh... I didn't look it up, but I don't doubt that they have cleaned them up, chemically. Regardless of what's in with the WP, it's still a very nasty thing, all by itself. That's really the point though, isn't it?
Thanks now I know what the augmentation charges are.
Dein Englisch ist sehr gut.
Thanks for the video.
someone tell me what hiigh explosives such as rdx or tetrol or tnt etc are used in common mortars?
During my experiments I came to the problem of anything wich is near on size to the inner diameter of the mortar barrel (my experiments had about 0.4mm play) is slowed by the air underneath being compressed and not letting the round fall fast enough to initiate any primer. Does anyone here know how do actual mortars circumvent this problem? Making the round significantly smaller seems very counterinuitive as it would make preassure from the propellant be it nitrocellulose based or black powder based leak by the sides.
Make a video on ERA armour!
It makes so much sense now