World War II Database

Country of Origin	United States
Type	Launcher
Caliber	81.000 mm
Length	1.190 m
Rate of Fire	18 rounds/min
Range	3.010 km
Muzzle Velocity	210 m/s

Contributor: C. Peter Chen

ww2dbaseThe US Army M1 infantry mortar design was based on the French Brandt mortar. An infantry battalion in the US Army and US Marine Corps would usually receive four of these weapons. Each weapon was usually carried in three separate loads, which were the barrel (44.5 pounds or 20.2 kilograms), the base plate (45 pounds or 20.4 kilograms), and the bipod (46.5 pounds or 21 kilograms). They were usually coupled with M4 sights. The standard ammunition used with M1 mortars were the M43A1 light high explosive rounds, which weight 6.87 pounds (3.11 kilograms) each, with a range of 200 to 3,290 yards (183 meters to 3,010 meters). Also used were M45 and M45B1 heavy high explosive rounds (10.62 pounds or 4.82 kilograms), M56 heavy high explosive rounds (15.01 pounds or 6.81 kilograms), M57 white phosphorus rounds (10.74 pounds or 4.87 kilograms), M57 smoke rounds (10.74 pounds or 4.87 kilograms), and M301 parachute illumination rounds. In WW2, while they were used in all major theaters of war, they were particularly important to the infantry fighting on Pacific islands and atolls, where the terrain did not always allow larger land-based artillery pieces. They remained in use through the Korean War, and they were replaced by the ligher and longer ranged M29 mortar starting in 1952.

Source: Wikipedia

ww2dbase

Last Major Revision: Oct 2014

M1 Mortar Launcher Interactive Map

Photographs

See all 13 photographs of M1 Mortar Launcher

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