Regarding his injury...It looked like the mortar was fired while he was unprepared? Ears?

quote:

Originally posted by RAMIUS:
Regarding his injury...It looked like the mortar was fired while he was unprepared? Ears?

Yes, I think it he didn't get a chance to plug his ears. Later in the clip he says he's OK.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Yeah...I'd probably have a few colorful metaphors as well. Thanks for the insight...

quote:

Originally posted by erj_pilot:
What do y'all think happened to the guy that got a little hurt? Pinch a finger loading a round? Whatever it was, didn't sound too pleasant.

Looked like he was a little too close to the mouth of the tube with unprotected ears when a round launched.

Doesn't sound like much in the video, but I imagine there's a pretty significant pressure wave from the launch.

quote:

Originally posted by mbinky:
What I found amazing, and I'm not a mortar guy, was how they switched the tube around so fast to fire in a different direction. Like "ploof" spin, next! And how some guys were adjusting the T&E on the fly and lobbing more rounds. You can see the training, they all knew how to drop rounds and they all knew to get out of the way. We only had the "small" camera view of the pit but they evidently saw the big picture and adjusted to suit.

Pretty frickin' awesome.

I noticed that too. There was a considerable amount of coordinated movement with deadly weapons in a short amount of time with several operators. I find that to be astounding. You said it best. You can see the training. makes me proud to be an American.

High gun and charge one, they were too close. These guys had presighted target areas and had them numbered so the call out the number and had the settings down, hence the quick gun changes. Those were some quick as hell adjustments. As stated earlier, Airborne company's have 2 M224 60mm mortars available. They may or may not have them staffed and running. I cross trained OJT and was a gunner on the M224 60mm. Two fire modes, drop fire and trigger fired. 81mm mortars are battalion support as can be the 4.2 as seen there. Thanks for sharing that video Ramius.

The mortars adjust fire very fast, much faster than artillery. Imagine having to shift trails on a 105mm or 155mm howitzer. It doesn't happen with 1 person and it doesn't happen fast. That's why mortars should be the primary to provide indirect fire support.

Each indirect fire piece will typically have a target list worksheet made up for it. It is mostly historical data. A popular target is what we refer to as POO: Point Of Origin. Those are spots that the enemy has shot at us from before.

A disadvantage of mortars is that they're high angle so time of flight can be quite long. In addition to quick adjustments of fire, another advantage of mortars is that they are great against targets in defilade. If there's a machine gun team behind a berm and you can't reach them with direct fire, mortars on that position will work wonders.

One of the most dreadful and helpless sounds is hearing indirect fire going over your head. It will either miss and you live or it hits and you'll have a very bad day.

How does it work? I see them drop the rounds down the tube. What powers it, ignites it, I don't know enough to even ask intelligent questions? Thanks.

Nice vid. Organic infantry indirect fire support in action.

Mortar maggots FTW.

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quote:

Originally posted by Sigmund:
Link to full screen:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o65nB1J4sPI

Looked like they were alternating HE and - gasp! - WP.

+ I noticed that as well. WP Nasty stuff.... wouldn’t want to be on the receiving end,

Pretty cool and good fast work. The big man even picks up his/a carbine and goes to work with that as well!!!

quote:

Originally posted by OKCGene:
How does it work? I see them drop the rounds down the tube. What powers it, ignites it, I don't know enough to even ask intelligent questions? Thanks.

Mortars have a primary charge in the tail. There is a firring pin in the bottom of the tube, and you can add additional charges "rings" to the shaft between the body of the mortar and the tail, above the fins. There are small holes in the shaft above the fins that the gas flows out to pressurize the tube and force the mortar out, those holes and gases ignite the added charges.

So a mortar can be fired close as a few hundred feet to almost a mile. From primary charge only, to (I think) six "packs".)

quote:

Originally posted by sigmonkey:

quote:

Originally posted by OKCGene:
How does it work? I see them drop the rounds down the tube. What powers it, ignites it, I don't know enough to even ask intelligent questions? Thanks.

Mortars have a primary charge in the tail. There is a firring pin in the bottom of the tube, and you can add additional charges "rings" to the shaft between the body of the mortar and the tail, above the fins. There are small holes in the shaft above the fins that the gas flows out to pressurize the tube and force the mortar out, those holes and gases ignite the added charges.

So a mortar can be fired close as a few hundred feet to almost a mile. From primary charge only, to (I think) six "packs".)

Very close, but the rounds are stored with all charges, 4 I believe (Charge 4) and the "cheese charges" are stripped off the round if they are not needed. As mentioned above, the leftovers can burned for disposal.

Slow youtube down, is pretty cool - this in about one second...

quote:

Originally posted by CD228:...
Very close, but the rounds are stored with all charges, 4 I believe (Charge 4) and the "cheese charges" are stripped off the round if they are not needed. As mentioned above, the leftovers can burned for disposal.

Ah. Thanks for correcting me.

I was at Bitburg AB in the early 80s, and I met some US Army guys that were there for exercises and testing mortar support for Air Base perimeter defense along with the Chaparral and Hawks A2A components that were permanent party.

They had a bunch of their gear in a TABV (Aircraft bunker) and I got the "tour".

We "snuck" each other in and out of each other's areas. They got to see the F-15 up close, and they let us see there weapons in return. We were not supposed to, but what the heck, we were "relation building", it's different when you know who's got your back, and who you might have to "walk out of the badlands" with. Me? I'm making friends...

I did not realize the rings were already on the motors. I thought they added them.

2012BOSS302, how does one "slow YouTube down"? I've been somewhat successful in sort of stepping through videos by quick stop and start actions, but it's very hit or miss. I'd love some way to do slow motion on videos. (Real Player used to have an option for that, but I think even that is now gone.)

flashguy

quote:

Originally posted by flashguy:
2012BOSS302, how does one "slow YouTube down"? I've been somewhat successful in sort of stepping through videos by quick stop and start actions, but it's very hit or miss. I'd love some way to do slow motion on videos. (Real Player used to have an option for that, but I think even that is now gone.)

flashguy

I don't know how to do slow-mo, but if you pause it you can use . and , to go forward or back 1 frame at a time.

quote:

Originally posted by flashguy:
2012BOSS302, how does one "slow YouTube down"? I've been somewhat successful in sort of stepping through videos by quick stop and start actions, but it's very hit or miss. I'd love some way to do slow motion on videos. (Real Player used to have an option for that, but I think even that is now gone.)
flashguy

When playing a video. Select the Gear (settings) on bottom right. Select Speed (should be on normal)



Select a different speed (can go down to .25 speed) let the the video play.
It resets back to normal when exit - so have to do it on any new video

Correct, the ammo bearers and sometimes the rest of the crew open the ammo tubes and rounds come with all the "cheese charges" stacked from tail fins to the main round body and rounds are prepped either in advance and/or as needed. There are different types of rounds (white phosphorus, flare, High Explosive, etc) and there are adjustable fuses that have settings that need to be selected before handing to the assistant gunner for dropping in the tube. Setting selections include impact, delayed impact, proximity, air burst, etc. The "cheese charges" come in handy to cook with in the field. Although I never tested this it was advised never to add pressure to a burning cheese charge. I would not stomp on a burning "cheese charge" whether it would cause a detonation or not. I can't remember exactly after 30 years but our 60mm rounds came with 4 or more charges. The more charges you use the more distance. The bottom of the mortar rounds look like a shotgun shell base and primer is inserted into the tube. The firing pin is hit by the firing pin at the base. As far as I remember, the 81mm and 4.2 had a fixed firing pin. The 60mm has a selector to allow for drop fire or trigger fire. It also has a ranging bubble built into the handle so you could carry a small base plate and a round in the tube with no bipod. If you needed to a gunner could set the Mortar on the ground, visually line up the gun, and trigger fire a charge 0,1 or in a pinch a charge 2 using then the built in bubble on the handle for ranging. Here is the smaller M224 60mm Mortar for reference.

quote:

Originally posted by Sigmund:

quote:

Originally posted by erj_pilot:
Thanks for the education, y'all...that's some bad-assery right there!! What do y'all think happened to the guy that got a little hurt? Pinch a finger loading a round? Whatever it was, didn't sound too pleasant.

Notice he didn't call a time out or go to his safe space, he stayed in the fight.

Thats the damn truth. And he wasn't "offended" either.