Forgotten US WWII Mortars

[US-Subs]

I was recently asked to send some photos to a friend, and as long as I had them out I giured I'd go ahead and post them, with a little of the history behind them.

The US went through significant mortar development during WWII, today everyone remains very familiar with the 60mm, the 81mm and the 4.2-inch. What has been largely forgotten, however, is the US 105mm, 155mm, 250mm and 914mm mortars.

As the US began fighting the Japanese in the Pacific, we rapidly discovered that much heavier mortars were needed to deal with the caves and fortifications being used by the enemy forces. The result was the new series of heavy mortars. As far as I have been able to find, all but the 914mm were deployed in the Pacific, the 914mm was reportedly ready to go for the invasion of the Japanese mainland. There are also indications that the 155mm at least was deployed to Europe, I saw one of the mortars in an EOD training collection - I believe it was at Shrivingham - in around 1998.

I have three examples of these projectiles in my collection, a 105mm and two different models of 155mm. Nearly all of the series take the M4 rocket fuze, which did not require spin to arm, but one of my 155mm takes a smaller fuze, which I suspect would have been the M77 or something similar

[US-Subs]

In 30 years I have only seen two of the 250mm, one in the Picatinny collection and one in the Aberdeen collection. The Picatinny Museum no longer exists so the two should be at Aberdeen, but there were some indications the collection was pilfered when it was moved, so that is unsure.

To the best of my knowledge the 914mm only exists at Aberdeen Proving Ground. The entire assembly is on display, along with two models of projectiles.

[US-Subs]

There are very few references remaining to this series of mortars, one of the best is "Weapons of WWII" by GM Barnes. A fantastic book, describes all but the 250 which was somehow overlooked. The 250 is shown in another document (don't have it with me) where it was described as a 9.45 - inaccurate both in conversion from the metric and in confusion with the WWI mortar.

[US-Subs]

Last of the pages

[Chris]

Very nice items US-Sub and interesting information.
Specially the 914 mm mortar.
Why they called him Little David I can't understand.

I will drink a beer next week in Boletice on your healt

Chris

[US-Subs]

Thanks Chris, wish I were going with you - JO

[shelldude]

Hello JO,

THANKS for sharing your rare U.S. heavy mortar round collection with us. I had never seen an example of the 250mm before, it's a great reference photo. I've always been intrigued with the "Little David" behemoth.

Best regards,

Randall

[Ammotech]

would you have some tech info on the 105mm HE. seems that they found one in Churchill and according to the old Churchill records "that 105mm mortar trials were conducted here during the winters of 51-53"

[ordman]

I have drawings of a lot of the mortar round shown

[SG500]

"There were some indications the collection was pilfered"
I guess that's why the Little David projectile is still there, it would be a little difficult to pilfer.
Great rounds, great info, great collection, thanks for sharing with us.
Dave.