British 4.2-inch Heavy Mortar

[Keith Brooker]

Had to have some one with me from the museum so that i did not take it home. i do have a VHS film 120 Mortar Battery 61st Light Regiment Royal Artillery in Korea 1951 - 1953 towing them with Morris C8 GS and firing them some of it in colour.

[Neil Ashley]

Did we ever decide if this late war version ever actually saw any war-time service?

[horsa]

Hey Keith,

I've got one of the towed mortars that I am just starting to restore. Haven't seen any for sale but people still say there might be one or two available in Australia. Will post something if I hear anything on one being available.

One thing that I will need to fabricate is the pair of poles used to help swing the wheels up and down for lowering the base. I'd guess they are 2" diameter since the sockets in the base and wheel brackets are slightly bigger than that. And the length is probably 40-42" based on how it seems to be the same rough length of the base plate. It would help me in getting something made proper to know a few true measuements if you have access to the example at your museum since it has them with it. Items related that I can think of are:

Diameter of socket end of pole.
Diameter of the blocking wide part of the pole (ring about 1" tall?).
Diameter of the hand holding end of the pole.
Length of the thinner hand holding end of the pole.
Length from wide end of pole to the blocking ring.
Overall length of the entire pole.
And are they hollow, made of sections of pipe welded together or are they solid and milled down? Seems it would be entirely too heavy if solid.

Many thanks in advance.

[Keith Brooker]

Hi David,
The last time i was down there was 1 1/2 years ago, might be worth giveing them a email as they are very helpfull . www.firepower.org.uk thats the Woolwich firepower museum. I can inlarge my photos if thats any help. photo of Morris C8 GS 15Cwt trucks with Mortar positions of A Troop, 170 Light Battery, 1 RNF & 1 RUR just prior to withdrawl from the Imjin area Korea 1951. [ Brigadier M N S McCord ]

[horsa]

I'll make contact with the museum and see if they can take measurments. Appreciate the link to their web site.

Your photo shows how amazing the support logistics had to be. I've read accounts from six years earlier during the fighting in the Netherlands where the 4.2" mortar platoon would fire off 3000 rounds during an offensive. Hard to imagine what it would take to transport in that many rounds.

[wally2960]

Hello, recently I bought a mortarmounting and the seller told me that it was of the 4.2". After compairing it with the 1944 pictures of the 2 Kensington ( 49th West Riding ID) taken in Belgium, and already posted on this topic I can't find any difference between the mounting shown on the picture and the one I've bought. But strangely the only marking I found are showing: 1942, MTG 3 Inch Mor.
Is this normal? Thanks Wally

[horsa]

Shot below for reference shows three mounts with the first being for the 3-inch mortar, middle one is for the lightened 4.2-inch mortar and the third one being for the towed 4.2-inch mortar.

The lightened version would appear to be based on the standard 3-inch format with the addition of a third leg, third leg locking bar which might not be visible in the shot and of course the cradle for the larger 4.2-inch barrel. Worm gear seems to be the same on each of them. There are differences in the locks for the standard legs on both mounts but I think that is a difference found in early and late 3-inch mounts and not something to differentiate the 3-inch vs 4.2-inch patterns.



Nomenclature is not official as I don't have a manual handy so hope you can decipher what I'm calling things in this post.