Mortars

Ned · Post by **Ned** » Sun Jul 31, 2005 2:22 am

My friend and i (Eoin) had a discussion on how many rds could you get in the air in one minute. I have done the emergency rate out the back of a carrier (20 rds in a minute)and that was working !!!

Eoin knew a guy from Korea who got 23? out and would have got 24 except the tail fin of 23 cut the back of his left hand as it left the barrel!!

Any ex mortarman out there that have similar stories etc please call in as it would be interesting to start a thread on the beautiful weapon known as a Mortar !!!

81 out

wh12725 · Post by **wh12725** » Sun Jul 31, 2005 10:07 am

Ned...by your closing would I be correct is assuming that were on an 81-mm crew? As you know the smaller the mortar the greater the rate-of-fire. Having sounded like a wise-ass...I'm not, I was infantry! We did have our own 81-mm section and a 4.2 inch mortar section at battalion level. The NVA used a lot of 60-mm mortars against us and some 82-mm Russian/Chinese and a rare case of 120-mm which were also Russian/Chinese. Our rate-of-fire thumbnail was what was used against us, i.e., how many rounds could they get into the air before round number 1 hit the ground! When the first round exploded the NVA/VC would pick up their toys and run....they knew counter-battery was on it's way. With 60-mm they could get between 11 and 14 rounds up depending obviously on the skill of the crew. With 82's it was 8-10 rounds assuming they were at their usual near-maximum range of 3000-3500 meters. Not exactly what you were searching for but not many of us ex-grunts are very smart

Ned · Post by **Ned** » Sun Jul 31, 2005 8:02 pm

Wh

yes mate I was a nO1 on No3 tube. In a parachute battalion. Best days of my life as a mortarman. In the aussie Army you are a rifleman first then you do specialist cses, so every guy in support company which houses mortars,recon,anti armour/sf machine gun, sigs and pioneers, you can be assured they are the senior soldiers of the battalion. We use the 81 mm only although we did trails in the mid 80's on the 51 and 60 mm tubes. Very succesful , thats probably why the Army never adopted them.

Cheers

NED

Aughnanure · Post by **Aughnanure** » Mon Aug 01, 2005 7:20 pm

And just remember that mortars are Muzzle-loaders and have been in use now for some hundreds of years. A record probably only beaten by Swords and Bayonets.

Eoin.

spearedum · Post by **spearedum** » Wed Jan 04, 2006 12:56 pm

what 'bout sticks and stones!

thanx Dante'

TaosBob101 · Post by **TaosBob101** » Wed Jan 04, 2006 3:02 pm

While I was in a Combat Support Company w/ the 4th ID (M), We had Mortar,AT, Scout, HQ Plts. Because were were Mech on M113's, we had only the 4.2in Heavy Mortar. Only is an understatement. I only had to walk by a 4.2 firing once w/o ear plugs.

Never saw my first 60mm until the Army Reserves while in a Light Inf Bn. As all my mortar pics are on the home machine, I'll post this...

Wonder if they had to dig in first... Looks to be in the 70-82mm class. From a Swiss site I like.

"HANG " "Drop"

I could always spot and FO, never learned to fire those.

Used that other funny compass in mils ?

Burned alot of left over charges after range day.

spearedum · Post by **spearedum** » Wed Jan 04, 2006 4:04 pm

I was an FO in the 4th. ID Divarty in Nom. The 1st. thing we learned in survey school at Ft Sill was TAD (target accuasation) using our T2 Theadolite divission survey instrements.

There are atleast two other FO's members in the MAH! I was the only artillery surveyor, but Niner and wh007(?) were FO's as well!

The 4duces' (and twin 50's) saved our lifes on more that one occeasion on our mt. We had to wait ~45 minutes just to get smoke from S3's FDC! The 5th. SF's would act on our FM's because they could see the activity on our Hill, where Camp Enari was 12 klicks away, and Artillery Hill was 20.

Were the AT's APC's or self-propelled howitizers?

"It's a small, small world after all..." Thanx Dante'

TaosBob101 · Post by **TaosBob101** » Wed Jan 04, 2006 5:10 pm

I was in 1st Bn 22Inf (M) at Ft Carson,CO. In the CSC, the TOW(AT) guys were in the old stand up and shoot M113's ( A perfect aiming stake for a T-72

) Later on we got the ITV (Improved Tow Vehicle) we could fire under armored cover. Looks like a FIST track.

The Scouts had a .50 and a Dragon AT weapon on their's. Mortars had a .50 w/ their 4.2. All the line units had tracks setup w/ M60's ( NAM style) and used the 81mm Mortar. I quess the new to me 120mm is the big one now.Never have seen one yet. Russian capture,yes.

The Light Inf USAR unit at first, had TOW on M151 Jeeps, Scouts had M60's on pedistal mounts. Then they took all that away to line up the MTOE more on the new 10th Mtn. Div style in 1990. ( Few vehicles and alot of walking

)

spearedum · Post by **spearedum** » Fri Jan 06, 2006 3:00 pm

On our OP we had a self-proclamed grenadeer, Bruen***, who could eather (memory fart) fire three M79 grenades and they would eather impact at the sametime, or land in the same zone.

Bob would fire the first round at a high angle, rapidly fire the second at a ~60 degree angle and the last directally at the impact zone! I forgot what happened, but it was inpressive.

We had had an excessive amount of M79 rounds to practice with on the OP.

Thanx Dante'

RGRWJB · Post by **RGRWJB** » Fri Jan 06, 2006 11:13 pm

I was a 11C2V in the Rangers and the only piss tubes we had was the 60mm from WWII.

Mortars

Mortars

Type!