Device Review: RHS Microupdate x.782 uploading

[el cid again]

The 81 is on the limit of what men may pack. The original Japanese 81 mm was changed to a shorter one - mainly so that the beaste was not so impractical to pack around. Naturally - the Artillery units with 81s tended to have the older, long barroled version - with slightly more range - while the infantry preferred the newer, cut down one. Both carried the same ammunition. But here too - and 81 is not so much fun. A man must pack ammunition for a mortar in addition to his regular gear - so line units found one man could not carry many. IJA was more logical about it - attaching 8 man teams who carried no weapons at all - just ammunition for the line. But then, you had another whole squad worth of men to feed, and they were not worth a squad in combat.

The IJA solution - for something even smaller than a two inch or 60 mm - ended up being the practice post war. Wether we learned it from them, or came to the same conclusion, we now put tiny mortars and grenade launchers in the hands of the lowest level infantry (sometimes even on their primary weapon). [A Japanese 50 mm could actually fire grenades of different kinds in addition to its designed to purpose rounds. It was also sort of a gigantic signal flare launcher or smoke launcher. Not actually organic to the squad, there was a section of three at platoon, and normally one of the teams in that section was attached to each squad - so it is almost the same thing. By Viet Nam, when I took USMC training, they were teaching that an ideal fire team would have a "grenadier" in addition to "an AR man", a "team leader", and at least one other soldier who served as a rifleman or sneiper. In that era the "grenade launcher" was still a separate weapon - so that person would not have a rifle: today the same ordnance can be fired from a variant of his "rifle" (if an M-16 is a rifle, about which those who have fought with real rifles have some doubt: Elmer Keith wrote "no one who used both an M-1 or M-14 and an M-16 in combat prefers the latter"). In the Navy, we didn't have a grenadier, but we did have the option of putting a man with a shotgun in the team - and in certain combat situations that is very wise - better than all M-16 fitted troops. Today the US Marines still insist on the option of putting shotguns in a team.

Ultimately, ammunition is a big problem if you are humping - less so if you are not. It is amazing how fast you can fire all you can carry. How much ammunition you have and how readily you can replace it are always dominant factors in real world tactical decisions - and the reason real world troop leaders often do not behave the way wargamers usually do. The other reason is mission: just because you can fight does not mean you should fight. Your job is not (or not usually) merely to kill the enemy. It is to accomplish a task. Often getting in a firefight guarantees you FAIL in your mission, so good leaders don't engage. But try to explain that in a sand table game!

[Dili]

If you have horses or trucks 81mm is the solution. Soviets and Germans just dumped their 50mm mortars and consolidated in 81/82mm mortars later also Germans started replacing their Infantry guns for 120mm Mortars(a copy of the Soviet). 60mm Mortars are only good for teams that have not much way to transport. Note there is a difference between plain 60mm Mortars and 60mm Commando Mortars. The difference in weight of US WW2 mortar was 42lb for 60mm and 136lb for 81mm(could be separated in 3 parts). A 81mm round weights about 4kg while a  60mm about 1,3kg.

[Dili]

Ultra Light mortars comparison:
 
British 2inch Cal:50mm  W:11lb(improvement late in war) Round/W:2.25lb RPM:? Range:500yd
German GRW36 Cal:50mm W:31lb Round/W:1.98lb  RPM:40 Range:550yd  TEAM: crew of 3 w/ Mortar and 45 rounds
Soviet RM40/41  Cal: 50mm W:21lb  Round/W:1,85lb  RPM:30  Range:800yd
Italian Brixia Cal:45mm W:34lb   Round/W:1lb RPM:25 Range:580yd   Crew of 3
Japanese Tp98  Cal:50mm W:10lb Round/W:1.75lb  RPM:25  Range:700yd