@@loveplane737 one gets to know all about that 11C life especially if the command comes "give em x rounds of WP" A substance you want no part of, on either side.
A mortar is not a howitzer. A mortar is a mortar. A howitzer is capable of Firing both in high and low angles, a cannon is capable of firing in only low angles and a mortar is capable of firing in high angles only.
Excellent. I was about to buy a second hand mortar for my annoying neighbors on craigslist, bur the manual was missing. With that problem fixed I can now start laying down barrages on those annoying a-holes.
If the "81mm mortar has a casualty radius of about 40 meters," then why does the graphic depict a 40 meter _diameter?_ Wouldn't that represent a *20 meter* radius?
You are correct.The kill radius was 25 meters for 81mm.Thats from my service days and what we were told.Never tested that in reality but we had one guy loose half an arm when he didn't remove it quickly enough from the muzzle.
@@eugeneoreilly9356 That guy must have been pretty stupid and as slow as thick shit through a funnel. As NO body parts are ever supposed to be over the muzzle. You hold a shell with two hands from the side and then let go and duck. Exactly like is done in this video ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-F6npr3e-EmU.html
@@UmVtCg Well, where are people involved there statistically always come to stupid situations, despite all trainings. Did hear the case that actually guy did look into tube after misfire, and yes, guess, he lost his head
I don't know if it's still like this, but explosives would work on a timer. So you would calculate the range, and then time to cover the distance, and set the timer for longer then that.
You fail to mention the absolutely Essential role of the gas trap grooves. Dropping projectiles down a tube with propellant at the bottom was nothing new...the grooves were the magic bit. They are usually 3 or 4 grooves visible around the middle/fattest part of the mortar shell. The shell has to be thin enough to fall down the tube, but the propelling charge must push the shell up without leaking around that gap between shell and tube, (as that reduces range and accuracy as the shell wobbles)...but hows that done eh? Gas trap grooves!...which are actually VERY carefully designed to have the exact shape and depth that makes the escaping film of propellant gases form vortices, which forces the gas behind to slow down, and thus makes a gas seal. (In artillery and rifles, this seal is done by a metal driving-band, which physically expands into the rifling, leaving no gap.) That's the genius of the Stokes type mortar, the shell's grooves, and what made it so much more accurate than the medieval style mortars that had been around for hundreds of years, which could hit a castle, but not pinpoint targets like stokes mortars.
@@mathiasvries that's exactly what I'm talking about...folds of skin on obesely fat butts can form gas seals against porcelain, thus propelling that butt on a ballistic trajectory.
There's an expanding O ring around the middle now. When the charge goes of and all the super hot gasses start moving up the tube, the O ring expands and creates a seal. You can actually pick those up after shooting. It's a fun way to mess with the new privates lol.
"Mortar" is a workable paste which hardens to bind building blocks such as stones, bricks, and concrete masonry units, to fill and seal the irregular gaps between them, spread the weight of them evenly, and sometimes to add decorative colors or patterns to masonry walls. Edit: they seem to have now fixed the grammar error in their video title so my comment is now moot.
Aiming: For indirect fire the mortar crew aims at a stick they have placed front left of the mortar. This have again been calibrated with the aid of a theodolite . When done for all mortars in the group they will all be pointing more or less parallell. You can even use the theodolite to measure up a location some hundred meters away from the mortars. One of the mortars can then find targets from this off site location. Since the offset to the off site location is know one can recompute target coordinates and get the target from the main location. Used to awoid counter fire.
@@zaynevanday142 You can see one example of the use in Patrick Lancaster's youtube video "Artillery Battles Rage In Southern Ukraine (Russian Artillery Special Report)" around the 7:50 mark. My question would be how you managed to keep the tubes in parallell. I know we some times shot parallell control/adjustment shots.
I am surprised the military has not put a fire control computer in the hands of a mortar company that takes the coordinates of the target and mortars to generate a firing solution.
@@wpatrickw2012 I bet someone has done it. But it isn't that important, the manual calculations take seconds. Mortars are an area damage weapons, as far as I know they are not precise like artillery (not including laser guided). Adding to the precision problem, the dudes directing the fire can only report the target in absolute map coordinates or in their own coordinates plus the direction/range to the target . All prone to error. Add to that the fact that the first shots will have some intrinsic inaccuracies due to setup issues.
Informative and easy to follow information for those who may be totally uninformed about mortars. Nothing too revealing as far as any security goes, this is artillery warfare at it's most basic, and widely known worldwide.
@@werewolfbishop5465 Though they are quite similar in their application and deployment. Howitzers are usually bigger, with bigger barrels and often self propelled, they are normally used for indirect fire, much like a mortar, and often have a much greater range. To the average, walking the street civilian, they are quite similar, thus the comparison.
Unfortunately, most Mortar men don't dig down and set the Baseplate like that, rather than doing that they have a guy standing on the Baseplate to help it set into the ground level as possible. I know this because I served in the U.S.Army as a mortar gunner on the 81mm Mortar. We used the old M29A1 Mortar which looks just like the one you're showing in the video...
@@vast634 there’s a whole process to it but from what I remember you remove the cannon from the baseplate and angle the canon so the round slips out with a soldier catching the round haha it was pretty sketchy but it happened once to us
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My buddy (in a rifle platoon) used to call me Mortar puppy, which eventually morphed into Motorpuppy. Hence, my screen name. There was a plastic ring that would fly off after the shell left the tube the mortar shell became armed after the plastic ring came off (that was 40 years ago, have that changed?) I used to try to catch at least one of them (for good luck) before the ring hit the ground. When the shell went into the tube and nothing happened, Everyone would scream “HANG FIRE! and race back about 20 yards behind the mortar. The Gunner and assistant Gunner’s job was to clear it, by unlatching the tube from the base and tilt the barrel forward til the round slid slowly out with them catching the round when it slid out. Scary stuff. Without fail, the hang fire was always because, we forgot to screw in the firing pin into the barrel. Sitting around waiting for our fire missions, hearing how their wives left them cause they picked up crabs and std’s from picking up women from the bars and church(of all places? who knew they were wild?) from the small town near base. I really miss all that.
Thinking back, I think that the shell twist soon after leaving the tube and that’s what arms the shell? Or that it had to travel 70 meters before arming? I remember being a RTO (radio operator) for one of our fire missions. We were firing from inside our Tracks (Armoured Personall Carriers). I could only wear one ear plug cause I had to hear the commands that were coming in over the phone. I had forgot my field jacket and I didn’t have my poncho. It was rare freezing cold night, with down-pour rain in the desert all night, so I was happy to be tucked away in the corner of the APC with the radio. Almost lost my hearing forever in my right ear that night. Sorry for the ramblings of an old man.
@@classiarius Thanks for you insight Wes. It's been about over 40 years, since I was in the military. I work the 81mm, somethings I missed about my time serving, others not so much. But I am glad I did serve. My kids, their friends, and other family members, love to hear about my time in, and some of the wild things I saw and did, while they are things I wish I could forget. Sorry starting to ramble, again.
I was a 120mm mortar detachment commander. There are 6 mortars in a battery. 3 batteries form a battalion. I was un/lucky to be assigned to number 2 mortar. This was the ranging mortar. On receiving a mortar support request, I was given 2 minutes to unload, setup and fire the first bomb away. Others could take their own sweet time. I was told only the best got into no. 2.
It should be 'How does a mortar work?' or 'How do mortars work?'. Otherwise, you have done fairly well in delivering a basic lecture on a generic design.
@@doctorpanigrahi9975 Words are meant to have meaning. They only have that meaning if they are used correctly. Go find your "It's OK if I talk like a two year old" safespace.
Unfortunate half of the information is incorrect and half isn't mentioned. You shouldn't learn about these things from this channel. Read other comments and you will learn more than the video showed.
The name "mortar" is derived from the "pestle and mortar" alchemist's or apothecary tools in the middle ages. That mortar was a heavy deep metal pod in which ingredients were ground to small bits or powder with the help of the pestle. When gunpowder was invented "cannons" which shot balls of iron or stone (shrapnel effect) high over fortress walls were called mortars because their shape resembled apothecary mortars. Later they were used to fire hollow metal balls filled with gunpowder and a fuse, so called "bombs" or "bomb shells". The fuse could be lit manually because of the short barrel of the mortar. That was impossible in case of the long barrels of cannons, which therefore for several centuries fired only solid cannon balls until automatic fuses were invented.
Napoleon was the first to use cannons and mortars in volume. Officers that could read and write were used to do some rather difficult calculations to make sure the bombs exploded near enemy infantry. These hardened leather balls had salpeter, ammonia and other fun stuff inside, making for blind and handicapped people, lost limbs, all that fun stuff.
(True Story) when I was in iraq I remember I was standing with 6 of my neighbourhood friends just front of my house and then my mother called me needed something so I went home also my friends then like 5-10 minutes later a 120m mortar fail in exact centre where were goatherd I swear on my family that’s exact spot! Still giving me chills when I remember it.
I worked with a 120mm mortar. Usually you have a battery of 6. Typical use is blocking a crossroad, fighting landing parachuters or digged in infantry. On an exercise we were able to see the enemy in about 4km distance on the other side of a valley what is really unusual. A passing offz group was interested and asked what a mortar group would do if the command post for calculating was gone and you could see the target. So our group was given the task. The periscope was moved parallel to the barrel to aim directly at the target. The Uffz used the glasses to estimate the distance to a tank wreck, used the table to order angle and load. We fired a round and - hit the tank. Totally unexpected. Usually you hit app 200m off and use one or two corrections to get as close as 50m to the target what would be considered suitable.
With the time spending on mortar you gain bit more experience and have more "feeling" to adjust it and after a while you get deadly accurate even from the first hit. Not to mention after first grenade fall every body look for the cover so next shells does not match so much damage as the first one what came from "nothing"
We (not me personally, but our mortar pit) used our 120 as a flashlight mostly. The 120mm parachute flares stay up in the sky for a looong time and can illuminate an entire valley.
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My old man worked for George Patton...he would go to bed whenever we had a thunderstorm, I never asked why...and his war stories were about shooting rabbits in California...he's gone now, one of millions on all sides that saw way too much bad stuff...the folks that have seen bad stuff recently don't tend to talk about it either...this old world truly needs better political leadership...
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My father taught National Servicemen (conscripts) in the Australian Army in the 1950s. He instructed on the use of mortars. It is affected by the temperature and was found inaccurate in Korea in winter. If the propellant was designed for the temperature, it was very accurate. When a mortar bomb failed to explode, my father would dig down until he reached the bomb and read the serial number and then place a charge next to it and blow it up. That is one job that I do not want.
I'm 53 and I've always wondered how these worked. I figured there was some kind of firing pin in the base of the tube but I never knew about the ability to adjust the detonation timing or how the range of the weapon was adjusted. Thank you!
Lucky you! I was 14 when I found out from my own experience how they work on the receiving end, courtesy of the Serb ultra-nationalists/fascists trying to kill or expell us from our homes and lands in Bosnia during the early '90s. An 82mm mortar grenade blew up my uncle and his 13- and 16-year old sons 200 meters from their house when it fell between them while they were collecting hay (grass) for their cow (30 days later, his barely 9 year old daughter was shot and killed). I have experienced the 60mm, 82mm and 120mm calibers, and knew their exact flight time; 17, 22 and ~33 seconds respectively. At first it was 60mm, then they went with 82mm, and finally with 120mm (also 155mm howitzer grenades), over the course of about 2 months or so. We could hear the firing because it was no more than 2km away, and we were basically live targets; they had all the tanks, artillery, planes, while the biggest things we had were a few RPGs or bazookas, so they literally play by firing at us for months without danger to them. We were able to tell the caliber by the tails which usually remained at the place of explosion and which had the caliber marking on them. As for the howitzer, I tape-measured the diameter of the 2.5 meter deep hole left in the ground where a marking (smoke) grenade fell, as they don't really blow up but pop the smoke up high. The 120mm and 155mm were fired upon a small, 20-house village in which we took refuge after our houses were burnt down. In short: artillery is impressive unless you're on the recieving end.
@@edinfific2576 I was amazed how Europe sat on its soft fat ass and did nothing while genocide was again committed in its back yard. I was glad America finally said fuck this shit and at least sent in fighter jets and kicked worthless UN/NATO into action. I hope you're safe wherever you are now.
@@harperhellems3648 We were also "amazed" at the Europe because after the Holocaust it said "never again" and we deemed it too civilized and conscious to allow nazi-fascist politics and tactics to be blatantly lead in it. Tens of thousands were lead to gruesome tortures, deaths, rapes while having faith that Europe will not allow it and would very quickly stop it. I remember thinking and hearing the same from those around me while bullets and grenades were falling around us, and our villages and towns going up in smoke, one by one. Many were even saying that this is some sort of world powers' "experiment on humans" to see "how much, how far, for how long" (can someone endure). People thought all sorts of things. Pretty soon it became obvious to us that Bosnia was damned in the eyes of the non-Muslim world because most of its population called itself "Muslims" (though majority were indistinguishable from other Europeans in practice, and a minority practiced prayers and other rites).
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There's HE shell (High Explosive) Fragmentation shell, WP ( White Phosphorus) Chemical shell, HEI (High Explosive Incendiary) shells, Smoke shell to cover the ground, Illuminating shell to bright up the night sky, and maybe even a small nuclear shell.
Re a small nuclear shell, considering the weight of uranium, the maximum range on the mortar would be about 500 meters. There would be no use dropping the mortar; you could just spike it on the ground
@@LordAuron From simple physics and a knowledge of the mass of a typical mortar round and the mass of uranium that would be required for even the smallest of nuclear warheads. Obviously, Steven Baer meant his "maybe even a small nuclear shell" comment as humor because launching even the smallest of nuclear warheads would be impractical in an 81mm mortar. You can do the calculation yourself. Assume the mass of a typical 81mm mortar round is 4.5 kg and assume that the HE in the mortar round will be used to implode the uranium. You'll need at a minimum 15 kg of uranium for the warhead. Neglect the weight of the additional electronics and neutron reflector. Now your mortar round is 19.5 kg. Assume some practical range for the typical round (I think I used 2500 meters) and do the calculation for a 19.5 kg round.
You need a bigger caliber for artillery nukes. The USA had 280mm or 11in versions and 406mm or 16in versions. Between 390kg and 815kg. An explosion in the range of Hiroshima. Used until mid of the the 1960s. later they used similar nukes as mines. For example digged in at some villages in west germany where the Nato expected an attack of the red army.
that was actually impressive .I never knew how mortars worked and i was always like "bro,they don't have engine like rockets ,they don't have fuel like rockets, even their launcher it's not like a rocket launcher. how the hell does it get so high??!!" thnks for the video
Half of the information is incorrect and half isn't mentioned. You shouldn't learn about these things from this channel. Read other comments and you will learn more than the video showed.
What the video doesn't talk about, is how heavy those shells are. I'm not in the military, but found out when visiting Dubrovnik, Croatia. During the Balkan wars there was a lot of fighting going on there. In the hills surrounding the city, small war memorials are set up. Those include some war remains, including exploded morta shells, which I held in my hand briefly. An interesting place to be...
Every piece of ammunition is heavier than it looks. Common folks are not used to materials with that density. Mortar shell is cast iron shell. Of course it is heavy.
That's probably a 81mm shell, 60mm ones are relatively light, at least compared to 120mm. Those things are only like 1.5 kg, while 120mm are 9 times heavier. Or maybe I'm just used to carrying heavy things lol
Unfortunate half of the information is incorrect and half isn't mentioned. You shouldn't learn about these things from this channel. Read other comments and you will learn more than the video showed.
Unfortunate half of the information is incorrect and half isn't mentioned. You shouldn't learn about these things from this channel. Read other comments and you will learn more than the video showed. Animation is also wrong in some parts. it is very simple, like he is trying to explain it to the kids 6 years old.
While I fully understand your question, ALL ballistics work on an arc. NONE work on a straight line. Mortars just work on an exaggerated arc. At 1000 yards a .30-'06 bullet will be about 30'/9 meters above the line of sight at the maximum height of flight.
For every Charge bag is roughly 500m distance on Charge 1 there are no propellant bags on the Bombs tail fin what happens is a fire mission is called in by the Mortar Platoon FOO he gives the CPO Command Post Operator a grid reference and a bearing and the CPO using either a MorFire Computer or Plotting Boards work out the coordinates to the Mortar Section made up of 2 Dets ie: Barrels so the CPO usually a Sargent will call out the Fire Mission to the Section Ie: 81 5 Rnds Charge 4 FFE Fire For Effect Bearing ##### Then the Mortar No 1 will use the C2 Sight to line up the correct bearing and move the mortar so that the sight lines up with the sight post 30 meters to the front of the Mortar once it’s aligned the No 1 will fire a round and the FOO will adjust the fall of the shot once the bomb is on target the CPO will 5 rounds per barrel on the target to complete the Firemission
Mortar Sections we’re known as 81 82 83 Two Dets per section 2 barrels so in our Mortar Platoon we had 6 81mm mortars total with 4 pers for every Mortar 8 Sargents acting as FOO’s within the infantry Battalion
PRX height it is not under 20 m, and never as low as 30 cm. Its value it is determined automatically for radio controlled proximity fuses to a 20 - 30 m above target. For pyrotechnical mechanism fuses it is calculated as 2 - 4 standard height deviation value to the firing distance or 2 - 4 mills above terrain line in the objective area. Great experience to work with mortars.
@@MuhammadRafy considering the effect radius and the dispersion of metal fragments from aerial burst a standard explosion height allow a larger effect area against unprotected personnel. For example you can envision flares dispersion from a firework that explode at different heights along with the fact that shrapnel have sufficient kinetic energy to inflict significant injuries up to 40m.
You don't have to be in a mountainous area for a mortar to be effective. These mortars like the L16A1 are used to provide close range fire support to (mechanized/airborne) infantry. They can be used on most types of terrain except for urban area's where collateral damage must be avoided or some marshes where the mortar will sink to much after firing.
You missed out the "Plastic" rings around the centre of the round. With he friction of the round running down the tube the seal expands slightly forming a seal, so when the propellant expands it can push the round out. Without it most of the propellant gas will escape, and the round will go nowhere near as far.
Well, in the past was time trigger, what need to be adjusted depending of range what define flight time. Today there are shells equipped with sensors what can "see" distance to the ground and are less complicated for the crew and also more effective because time flight can vary not only according to the distance but also even on the air humidity and temperature. Not to mention this shells are bit more expensive and not every body can buy it
I Once had a red leg tell me that, based on his years of esxperience, all 105mm ammo was semi-fixed. For Christmas I gave him the empty casing from . CARTRIDGE, 105 MILLIMETER: APERS-T, M494: "Description: . . . Use: This fixed cartridge is fired from 105mm aluminum body and a rear steel base…. The cartridge is designed for close-in defense against massed infantry assaults and for offensive tire against exposed enemy personnel. There is a secondary capability against light armor and low-flying aircraft." Nothing like a "know-it-all" to make my day.
Using a mortar vs AIRCRAFT??? wtf??? I thought the Battlefield games were bad - in BF2 you climb up a crane and snipe the pilot out of a mig in flight, but the latest one gets more ridiculous as the advert shows a player taking out a mig in flight with a hand held frag grenade.... However a MORTAR shell vs a mig goes even further than this! HTF do you even AIM at a mig with a mortar???
@@Debbiebabe69 Well, back in years, I heard a story from a German crew member on Transall, he was loader in the back. They did fly over Bosnia dropping humanitarian aid to civilians. One night, they flow over one enclave under Serbian siege and the tail got hit by mortar shell when they was dropping aid and flying low. Luckily nobody went hurt and all had protective west. The repair was also easy, there was just some holes on the tail what also did not affected flying abilities so they was able to make back to Germany without any problems
Hmm, I used to deal with 105mm ammo for a m60a1 tank...that ammo in all instances is fixed, but then again, we called the cannon a gun...the artillery folks do use their own weird nomenclature, it's a military thing in all armies I suppose...
RU-vid brought me to this club. I never watched a vid like this, had no reason to be in suggested list yet there it was and I took the red pill and there's a whole world of cool stuff.
Unfortunate half of the information is incorrect and half isn't mentioned. You shouldn't learn about these things from this channel. Read other comments and you will learn more than the video showed. Animation is also wrong in some parts. it is very simple, like he is trying to explain it to the kids 6 years old.
@@TDDoooOOOooo Thanks, good to know. Still though, the subject itself is interesting, even if some facts are incorrect. Any channels you would recommend for accuracy?
"How does mortar work?" "Let's find out how the 81mm mortar works" Continues to talk about an obviously specific mortar-manufacturer and a specific type of round for it. 👎
Cannon is not pointed upward. There is specific terminology used for different types of armaments (gun, cannon, howitzer, mortar). Mortar is never supposed to be used ac cannon. because cannon fires directly at enemy while mortar fires indirectly (up in the air).
Unfortunate half of the information is incorrect and half isn't mentioned. You shouldn't learn about these things from this channel. Read other comments and you will learn more than the video showed.
Unfortunate half of the information is incorrect and half isn't mentioned. You shouldn't learn about these things from this channel. Read other comments and you will learn more than the video showed.
The purpose of a mortar (and much, much more importantly, it’s crew) is to embarrass and shame the CAS pilots into actually doing their job. A well trained mortar crew is leaps and bounds better in almost every metric than even having an A10 on station. Been there, did that. Mortar men are outstanding. You can @ me and argue about it, but if you disagree then you’ve never got to work with a mortar crew in contact 🤷♂️.
Some mortars are fired by a lanyard-activated firing pin. The m-4 is one currently-issued example. The maximum range of a mortar is about 9 kilometers, not 6 kilometers. Not all mortars use base plates. Some are mounted on wheels, such as some U.S. 120mm mortars, the M120mm A1. Knowledge shpould precede putported teaching.
I think you are forgetting there are different kinds of mortar, just like the video. 81mm seems to be what this video is based off and 120mm is what you are talking about. Bigger mortar, more boom, more potential range. Though, I don’t really know what militaries use what admittedly, nor if there are quality differences.
@@TheSp0kesman I think you, like whoever created this flacid video, are forgetting that there are different kinds of "mortar." So "How does mortar work' is a false title. Futhermore, not even all 81mm mortars use a fixed firing pin. So, there is error even as to that small subcategory.
@@TheSp0kesman Generally most armies use a light (60mm is common), medium (81mm for NATO, 82mm for East bloc), and heavy (120mm across the board for most armies, with some like the Israelis and Russians using monster 160 or 240mm weapons). Range of course, varies, but even for the super-heavy types is fairly short (under 15km or so).
Unfortunate half of the information is incorrect and half isn't mentioned. You shouldn't learn about these things from this channel. Read other comments and you will learn more than the video showed. Animation is also wrong in some parts. it is very simple, like he is trying to explain it to the kids 6 years old.
You use delayed for machine gun bunkers, breaks through concrete. Air bust for troops in trenches or prone. Near surface for troops in the standing. Impact is just your standard if you don’t receive a description in your call for fire.
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0:13 "First of all, let's talk about the structure of a mortar." [Total silence] 0:28 "Moving on, ..." Ookay... So we're not gonna talk about anything?
