Landships II

giorgio · Captain

News GB Modelli

Tim R · Hero

AWESOME!!!!

Eric · Colonel

Really nice !!!

Tonys · Field Marshal

Looks great, but the real thing must have been a bitch to load!

giorgio · Captain

Tonys wrote:
Looks great, but the real thing must have been a bitch to load!

In the next kit there will also be the trench and the cart with bullet

CharlieC · Legend

I can see why that idea didn't become commonplace. My guess is the mortar had a range of, at best, 1500m. So to emplace

the mortar first dig a hole for the mortar then build an embankment with a narrow gauge railway running along the top so

the projectiles can be man handled on special carts and loaded into the mortar. And the enemy is doing what in the meantime,

probably falling about laughing, until they bring the whole exercise to a quick and bloody end with a couple of shells.

Makes the much later Davy Crockett nuclear recoilless rifle almost sound sensible.

Charlie

Pzkpfw-e · Commander in Chief

Were they breech or muzzle loaders?
pin.it/3X2hPSt
I can't find anything online about this weapon, the 240mm mortar, could reach out to 2,000metres, I'd assume this beast could do better than that.

CharlieC · Legend

Muzzle loaders from the images - there's no sign of a breech mechanism. In the Pinterest image

you can see the special cart used to move the projectile up to the muzzle - it looks as if the projectile

can be turned around and tipped up to line up with the barrel. The Germans had endless problems with

projectile explosions inside the mortar I wonder if this mortar had similar problems.

Charlie

PeterEm · Corporal

My question would be how they actually managed to fire the thing. OK,the bomb is trundled up on its trolley and is loaded into the barrel. Its too heavy and the loading angle too shallow for it get very far in. The crew then have to crank up the barrel (with its heavy live bomb at the sharp end) to the firing position indicated on the pictures of the kit. How can they have any certainty when the bomb will start to slide down the tube and engage with the firing pin? Unless there's some mechanism to lock the bomb in place while they're doing this and setting the range, it looks to me like a recipe for chaos!

Peter

CharlieC · Legend

This mortar was a 19th century design and was different from later designs like the Stokes.

My guess is it was probably fired with a friction tube or electrically like the big German mortars so there isn't

a fixed firing pin. It probably used bagged propellant which was pushed down the bore before loading the

projectile.

Charlie

CharlieC · Legend

By chance found a little information on the Bombarda da 400mm.

The projectile weighed 270kg - explains the need for the narrow gauge railway to bring up the projectiles.

The range was quoted as 4100m, much longer range than I had thought.

I found an image of what must have been multiple batteries of 400mm Bombardas so it must have been in widespread service.

The mortars in the image appear to be a version which could be broken into 2 pieces rather than 3 and the elevation gear seems different.

Charlie

FrankM · Private

It could also be trigger fired like the British WW" 2 inch mortar.

Ironsides · Legend

It seems to have a breech for the firing charge or at least some method of firing it from the base:

https://www.europeana.eu/en/item/9200196/BibliographicResource_3000093806982_source

Charlie I think that line of mortars may be 240mm:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/240_mm_Trench_Mortar#/media/File:WWI_-_Adamello_Glacier_-_240mm_trench_mortar_model_L.jpg

-- Edited by Ironsides on Thursday 29th of April 2021 09:28:20 AM