Japanese 81 mm Mortar with Mail home tube

[Dirt Detective]

Hey Guys, Just picked this up yesterday. Looks to be a 81mm with a type 88 fuze. what I really love with this piece is the mail home tube made from bamboo. Im not sure if this fuze was correct for this or not...I dont have in hands yet and will post more pics if there is interest. I just love this mail home stuff

Here are the pics i have now.

 

[Dirt Detective]

Now that Im thinking about it, i wonder if this bamboo tube is what the rounds were stored in?? Hum..

 

[US-Subs]

Normally most of this stuff was crated. Bamboo was used by a number of GIs to ship stuff home, a collector I run around with recently got a similar tube, but I believe his was with bayonets.

The fuze you show is one of the Type 88s, not correct for mortars but commonly found with them. For some reason the correct mortar fuzes did not make it back in great numbers, lots of questions about why. They may have been more difficult to inert, no one is sure.

 

[BOUGAINVILLE]

The fuze you show is one of the Type 88s, not correct for mortars but commonly found with them. For some reason the correct mortar fuzes did not make it back in great numbers, lots of questions about why. They may have been more difficult to inert, no one is sure.

I have a fairly good hunch that the reason being is that mortars and artillery projectiles were transported fuzeless, having only a transit plug. This was a huge safely feature. When use was imminent then the transit plug was unscrewed and in the case of mortars either a Type 93 or Type 100 Mortar fuze was screwed in.

When these mortars were souvenired the chap would've later thought "gee this would would look way more cool with a fuze fitted" so because the Type 88s and the Type 93 and Type 100 all have a 24mm thread the bloke would grab a Type 88 Fuse to insert due to it being more plentiful as it was used across a wide range of artillery calibres.

All projectiles and mortars were cased with transit plugs in place and their fuzes packaged next to them in transit tins. A mortar position wouldn't have any Type 88 Fuzes as these would only be found in artillery positions. This would mean that the GIs would've add a fuze at a latter date. Those ones sporting the correct fuzes were more than likely from a GI that was a wee bit more meticulous and wanted to get it "right".

As far as inerting goes they are all the same, just unscrew the gaine and she is inert. Not one of these fuzes is any more difficult than the other. The hardest thing would be to figure out the thread direction.

 

[Dirt Detective]

Good info Bougainville..and us subs. Thanks for taking the time to post.

Mike

 

[US-Subs]

I have a fairly good hunch that the reason being is that mortars and artillery projectiles were transported fuzeless, having only a transit plug. This was a huge safely feature. When use was imminent then the transit plug was unscrewed and in the case of mortars either a Type 93 or Type 100 Mortar fuze was screwed in.

I'm still skeptical. There is no doubt that many/most of the projectiles were shipped with transit plugs, but I'm not sure that this was 100%. Likewise the Japanese were very inconsistent in their packaging of fuzes and munitions. While the fuzes were frequently packed in separate containers and crates, sometimes in large cans of 20 or more, they were also just as frequently packed in smaller containers that were secured into separate compartments within the ammunition crates along with the mortars/projectiles. The fuze cans were frequently placed into slots beside similar containers that held the propellant charges and ignition cartridges. Likewise often times the fuzes were packed in a similar fashion with artillery projectiles as well. This would have made finding correct fuzes a simple process. Whether this difference was due to changes early/late in the War, specific to different regions, or a result of some other unidentified change, I don't know. But I believe that the inconsistency on the part of the Japanese makes it hard to find simple answers.

 

[US-Subs]

I apologize that I don't have much time to spend on this, but a short check of some archive photos shows some of the variations in fuze packaging. In the first example it is as Bougainville describes, you can see that all components are packaged separately, cases, projectiles, fuzes etc. You can clearly see the can for multiple Type 88 fuzes leaning against the cartridge case. As he stated this is clearly safer and was frequently the procedure. At times even the primers were separate and needed to be assembled to the cartridge cases. In other situations however, you can see the fuze cans are packaged inside the crate with the munitions. On some examples you can see the fuzes are already assembled onto the projectiles. With the 90mm mortars shown you can find the fuzes, propellant increments and sometimes the ignition cartridges all packed in cans with the munitions.

As I mentioned, I don't know why the differences and lack of standardization. Maybe later in the war things were sped up and simplified, sacrificing safety for expediency, maybe it was regional, I don't know. But it is clear that there were many differences. Sorry no pictures of the 81mm, didn't run across any in the short time spent hunting.

 

[BOUGAINVILLE]

Here is the link to some posts I made some time ago concerning the Type 88 fuzes and Japanese Mortars. Might find it interesting.

http://www.bocn.co.uk/vbforum/threads/85168-jap-mortar?p=220420#post220420

 

[US-Subs]

Related to that, it seems like somewhere in my archive photos I have one described as US troops "testing" Japanese mortars fired from US tubes. If can find some time I'll try and look for it. Don't recall if they are shown dropping a round or not. If so, it would be interesting to try and identify the fuze.