ARTILLERY REGISTER |
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| Historical Specifics: | This is a light mortar introduced for British service during the 1930's. It is a simple design consisting of a tube and baseplate. The firer aims by tilting the barrel and lining up the sights, this is not as accurate as designs with a bipod but at the ranges the 2" was designed for this is not a problem. One advantage of this system is the ability to fire at very low angles allowing direct fire. The 2" mortar is trigger fired with a lanyard.
The standard service version of the 2-inch mortar had a barrel length of 21 inches and could fire a high explosive bomb weighing 2.25lb out to a range of 500 yards. With such a short barrel firing was by a small trigger mechanism at the breech. The 2 inch mortar was originally issued one per infantry rifle platoon. It had the advantages of being more portable than larger mortars and gave greater range and firepower than rifle grenades. Photo courtesy:Australian War Memorial (AWM 094355) - Australian Infantrymen using a 2 inch mortar in new Guinea in 1945 |
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