What? They're Germans! The proper way to use the 0m setting is to rig an overcomplicated multifunctional clockwork/mine device with ITS OWN 200-page manual to the lanyard so the crew would have time to evacuate before the Red Army peasant conscripts can get to the mortar position!
The direct fire role of mortars was in the german manuals (F.u.G. meaning Führung und Gefecht der verbundenen Waffen or Leadership and combat of combined arms) at least since 1923. If I remember correctly it was intended for usage in an antitank role.
Ironic the French of the static Maginot line designed a mobile mortar and the Germans who favored high mobility blitzkrieg adopted a cumbersome mortar.
Not necessarily, it just is very much indicative of design processes and priorities. The French wanted a quick barrage tool, the Germans were looking for a precision 'minenwerfer'. Remember that the Maginot line was not the full extent of France's defence. Rather it was meant to be used as an immovable flank that could not collapse and from behind which the French could strike. France's inaction was mostly a result of politicians muddying the waters: the French army was very much an army that aimed to assault. The Germans were just faster and more flexible about it, but they do like to overengineer, which was as much an issue with the Panzer III as it was with this mortar.
No, both french and germans designed a grenade launcher for trench war. The germans needed 2 years to have the perfect solution in place. The french needed more than 10 years to develop something that was no great solution for trench war. Later on, when war turned into being a mobile one, the french solution was more practical, but that has nothing to do with the fact that the development of the french originally failed for what it has been made for. If german engineering is coming out with something that cannot be moved easily you can be assured that the army requierements have been "we need something to kill precisely trenches and mg positions, weight and agility is not so important to us". Otherwise the grenade launcher would not have any chance to pass the practical testing of the Wehrmacht, what every equipment had to pass before it was introduced into the army.
FRENCH-we want a light mortar....10 years later.... here it is,we just made it with scrap metal from the junkyard GERMAN-we want a light mortar..2 years later.. here,but you will first need to read this 200 page manual and need 2 people to carry it
upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/92/Jerrycan.JPG/800px-Jerrycan.JPG muh overcomplicated solution to canisters needing wrenches or starting to leak sooner rather than later
The comparison with that cute little French Model 37 Mortar is astonishing - give two different teams the same problem and there is no guarantee they will come up with the same solution.
@@allensteiner1 Night vision? Now I cant see it without one of those massive infrared projectors they occasionally tried testing, yknow those huge things they would attempt to put on snipers and tanks and whatnot?
@@Elenrai Know what's funny about those? If memory serves, as far as literal first-generation infrared optics go, their design was remarkably straightforward and rugged.
I've just got an image of some French platoon meeting up after seventy years at some old battle field they fought on and then there's just whine and some German shouting about how he finished reading the manual.
Thats the reason for weapon drill - to get it done, before the war ends....:) I bet, the German mortar crew was able to get this thing set up under 8 seconds - or they have on sunday guard duty at the barracks gate....^^
I think something else that needs to be remembered is the poor guys had to carry ammo as well. A German mortar team carrying a dry weapon has the same weight as a French team carrying a weapon with 23 rounds.
Except a german round will have 3x the kill zone AND be FAR more accurate in landing their shells. Meaning that the french mortar would likely be combat ineffective but make lots of loud noises And despite the hosts hyperbole, 14kg is NOT heavy. For comparison this mortar weighs LESS than an anti tank rifle.
@@TheBelrick "3x the kill zone" is a pretty dubious claim, don't you think? What is your definition of a "killzone", and how did you reach the figure of it being three times larger than the French mortar in question?
@@jonathanbaird8109 IIRC in my research the german mortar had enough greater explosive to create that much of a greater kill zone. feel free to be dubious and DYOR
@lerrybedouin yeah but the M2 is a 10 mm larger projectile, weighing 3 lbs for HE compared to two, and expected to have a five man mortar crew. That’s before you mention the fact that the American M2 has 4 times the effective firing range
2:28 And interestingly enough; the modern 60mm mortar used by the US Military, is actually both. There is a "switch" at the base of the "carrying handle" that allows you to switch back and forth between the two modes. The "open bolt" form is typically used for "volley fire," while the "closed bolt" allows the gunner to move around and chose the best place from which to actually fire the round. Modern mortar rounds are actually "inertia" armed for the most part. There are some fuses, IIRC, that are not armed by inertia and are instead "live" the moment you pull the safety pin (just like the safety pin on a grenade). It's the detonation of the "cheese charges" and the base of the round, and its sudden acceleration, that arms it.
The trigger is for “hip fire” missions. The team consists of three men. The gunner, the sergeant, and the ammo bearer. The sergeant receives the fire mission and computes a firing solution. This is relayed to the gunner who is actually carrying the mortar with a small baseplate roughly the size of 4 inches by 8 inches attached to the gun. He unslings the mortar and places it on the ground facing the azimuth called off by the sergeant. Just above the trigger is a bubble level that allows for accurate elevation adjustments by hand tilting the barrel. When the ammo bearer is done prepping the required charge, it is slid down the tube. The gunner makes the final adjustments, holding the trigger in his right hand and the upper portion of the barrel in his left hand, squeezing the trigger to fire while holding the barrel still. This allows for very quick application of fire, within seconds of either receiving a fire mission or visually identifying a target. I had the opportunity to train as an ammo bearer on my company’s mortar team to replace a sick solder for deployment to JOTC in 1997. It was one of the highlights of my career.
@@occamsrazor1285 who said anything about whistle??? Smooth bore yes, spinning through the air, also yes. Also, some artillery rounds do whistle, If you are close enough to the receiving end to hear it. I am not trying to insult you, but you did put out erroneous information. I see that you are an enthusiast of these types of weapons and I commend you for that. I really enjoyed watching the round disappear into the sky after it was fired. This video brought back a lot of memories, lol.
@@melonseedskiff1522 Sorry for the curt response. I made that comment while I was in my morning stand up, so it didn't have my complete attention. I said it that way because I didn't want to say you were wrong, just that what you told me conflicted with some information I'd heard in the past, but my info could very well be wrong and so I was requesting further info. Thanks for the info on the hip fire missions. It's been really hard to find info on exact use (though I suppose I can always go find field manuals. I'm just not THAAAT dedicated to it XD). BTW, you never said; what branch were you with? Was this US Army training?
Given your videos on this mortar, the Japanese "knee mortar" and the French light mortar, I'd love to see videos on the American 60mm M2, the Soviet 50mm PM series Mortars, the Brixia Model 35, and the British 2 inch mortar (SBML).
Da es aber su kompliziert war, konnte man sichergehen das bei 2 fehlschüsse der 3te traf bei befestigungen oder feindliche Stellungen, dass machte Mörsertruppen in der Wehrmacht sehr gefährlich.
While the French mortar is less complicated and lighter it took them 10 years to develop it and when it was needed they had less than 3000 available where as the German mortar had a two year gestation and were available when the war started. Just like the Curtis P40 fighter the US had at the start of WW2 it's better to have and adequate supply of an inferior weapon than no weapon at all.
Then again, the Germans knew for sure there was going to be a war, and prepared for it, seeing as how they knew they were going to invade other countries. The French didn't really get serious about it until it was too late.
Not quite - the French developed it in the late '20s early '30s, then sat on it (Through the Great Depression, I must point out) while spending the money they had improving their rifles, machine guns, tanks, and aircraft. As Ian points out, at the close of WW I, pretty much everything the French Army had, other than artillery, was painfully obsolete.
True that - the Germans started looking at ways to get around the Versailles Treaty and its limitations before the ink on the signatures was dry. It's worth noting that one of the premises for the creation of the German Great General Staff, and its philosophy through history, was that Germany was a resource-poor country surrounded by hostile neighbors, and preparing to gain ground and resources by military action was their primary function.
Peter Stickney Concur with your assessment. They had to prioritize what arms they would buy/manufacture with available military funds. Though an awesomely designed light weapon, from my understanding mortars are primarily suited to attacking enemy fortifications and emplacements. I don't know of any evidence that the French had designs on a pre-emptive attack on Germany or attack on any foreign power between ww1 and ww2 and it was thought that nothing could break the defenses that the allies erected after ww1 without plenty of time to maintain the front line at these defenses with reinforcements. Maybe that is why the mortars took a back seat and only got spun up once it was realized that the line was bypassed by blitzkrieg and the Germans would have time to dig in. But I'm just an armchair expert here. If anyone has critique/experience/or sources that say otherwise, I'm all ears.
Its a trench mortar designed to aim on measured terrain where distances were well known. Hence, this precision allowed to shoot tiny grenades into enemy trenches with minimum test shots. During WW2 trench warfare was not anymore a huge matter so it got obsolete...
Nope, not Patreon, I just made the mistake of browsing the RIA catalog and liking mortars. I don't know if they listed it early or what, but that's how I found it :o
And buy an early war light mortar to snipe squirrels 400 meter/yards away, yes? I have to say only two things: - no pics = it didn't happen - prove it Not necessarily in that order. A squirrel head trophy would do as well, I suppose.
@Necramonium eh, it was terrible leadership and panic among on the French that caused the downfall. In the early stages the expeditionary forces in Belgium were pretty much able to push through the German forces in Belgium and flank the forces going into France. Something the local commanders asked the high command and we're told to stay put. The Germans were really on their last legs by Dunkirk . They had supplies for three months of operations. From an armchair point of view the Germans should've been the losers of that offensive, it was a massive gamble that paid off
+celshad Most assault rifles are not based on the Stg.44. Some may have been inspired by it, but they're not based on it. The Germans do a good job inventing something, but do a bad job developing it for actual military logistic efficiency. A complicated state of the art weapon (or anything military related for that matter) is a cool proof of concept, but not necessarily a good thing to use in war.
Here in the Channel Islands, alot of these ended up in a static defense role. There was even a clip fed automatic version built into some coastal bunkers.
Nice video, this made me look into some more German WW2 mortar systems. I Always knew of the 8cm, and maybe this lesser known 5cm and even 12cm werfers. But I just found out about a ligther and shorter 'Kurz' 8cm 'Stummelwerfer'. Which was actually used pretty extensivly and effectifly by the fallschirmjagers (and proberbly by more troops). This light 8cm versions seems to be the follow up of the 5cm, and adresses a lot of the problems you mentoined in your video. And besides that I found out about 10cm and 10,5cm 'Nebel'werfers. All very interesting and I hope one day you can touch more on these types of equipment.
Wow, it's weird how your videos interact with my perception of time. I remember this episode as being a few months old at the most, and it's been over a year. Time flies when you're watching Ian.
It's a chilly January morning, and I'm watching back episodes of forgotten weapons. This is a good day. Thank you Ian.
6 ปีที่แล้ว +1
One day you should visit the War Museum of Budapest to see some incredible unique weapons: the Gebauer machine gun, the Kiraly submachine gun, but also real extraordinaries like pneumatic mortars from WW1.
The Japanese had some pretty gloriously complex rangefinder/gun director setups as well. Let's not forget, they tried to make every gun on the ship AA capable (in theory at least, it rarely worked in practice). Still, the 18.1 inch guns of Yamato and Musashi firing at a high angle for AA purposes would have been a sight to see, the one picture I'm aware of showing one of them firing a salvo shows a smoke cloud/fireball every bit as big as the ship.
The Japanese 18in guns were not equipped to fire at a high angle for AA purposes, how they were employed for air defense was to fire shells at the water at close range in hopes that the shell splash would bring down torpedo bombers, which of course, had to approach almost on the deck to launch their torpedoes. And "hopes" was all that was good for, it was never successful. The max elevation of the guns were 45 degrees, which is the same as the max elevation for the USN 16in 50cal gun used on the Iowas.
The iconic picture that you find when you search on June 22 Barbarossa images ... the first one is a company of soldiers carrying disassembled mortar systems one the base plate others tubes etc. I think that is a longer barrel version though.
maybe you dont need to carry so many larger heavier mortar rounds if you use a small round and just hit the enemy soldier directly on his helmet? designated marksman mortar hee.
@@vendomnu If you go watch Ian's video on the OSS Flying Dragon, he mentions that the OSS actually /did/ attempt to develop silent-firing mortars among a number of other covert weapons. :D
regarding the firing pin, some of the 120mm mortars are designed for either fixed pin firing or lanyard triggered firing. Some mortars, like the 60mm Brandt fitted to Panhard armoured cars, are breech loaders and have manually activedated firing pins or can even be muzzleloaded with a fixed firing pin.
@@Elenrai hasn't a big range but it was intended as support weapons. They wanted to issue those something like 5 per platoon way more than Lmgs. I think that as idea it would be better during ww1 but for me is still fine as concept.
@@requiemaeternam3406 That makes sense. Though frankly at that size and range you might as well just use good old german potatomashers. They can go "boom" got a decent enough range, and you can mash kartoffel with it!
It looks more like a finely crafted telescope. Case and point for: "the Nazi's were bad at war economy" "Mein Fuhrer, would you like to invest the time and resources into this new thing the 'boys are calling the Stermgewher" "Nein, we need to build 2 million finely crafted, light mortars that weigh 30 pounds."
I love how they have this big, heavy, complicated but super accurate and sophisticated leveling and range setting system, and then they just tippex a line on the barrel for the sights.
With precision like that, frontline troops could call in which floor tile they wanted a mortar on. Also, I love how you describe the Atlantic Wall as being the Wehrmacht equivalent of the Island of Misfit Toys. 😂
If I was a German soldier with even a passing familiarity with the French light mortar you showed last time, and some quartermaster handed me this monstrosity, I think "Are you fucking kidding me?" would be the appropriate response.
I would love it, if you could go more into the details of the tactics of the weapons. While the technical aspects are very interesting, the way the weapons were used would also be quite a thrill to hear about.
Ask C&Rsenal to do a video then. You can leave it to Othias to come up with 1,5 hours of full detail info on this thing ...WHEN they're ready doing WW1 weaponry.🤣
I don't think so. It works in larger mortars like 60mm and up because those have a longer tube and the round picks up more momentum on a longer fall. In a drop this small I don't think the falling round would have enough momentum to detonate the primer by just falling on the pin. But it's just my assumption.
The fire rate is not the question here, the idea behind a striker fired mortar is safety. Unlike in say British artillery batteries, where an NCO per gun was enough to authorise firing, the Germans were really tight about their battery officers (and those were actually commissioned officers, up until the late war) actually giving the direct firing order. So having each gun crew just drop a grenade into the barrel, then giving the order and having everybody fire on command allowed for a more safe procedure than when an NCO with each gun simply gives the order to drop the grenade into the barrel.
There might be some outliers, but normally the lever would actuate the firing pin backwards against a spring until a point where the firing pin is released from the lever and the spring forces it forwards firing the weapon. You would then need to release the lever so that it can engage the firing pin again. You can see why such a firing mechanism wouldn't have the firing pin protruding if the lever is held down. Atleast that's the impression I've got.
What was the "T" headed tool on the base plate used for? I assume the cup on the base plate had a cap at one time and held maybe a spare spirit level or firing pin.
I was reading about grenades improvised from mortar bombs and it appears that the Finns modified small mortar bombs like this with Russian grenade fuses,for use as hand grenades. In some cases, they machined off the fins and shaft and kept the pear-shaped body of the bomb and fitted the threaded grenade fuse instead of the impact fuse of the original bomb.
Previous experience necessary and classroom training time needed for this type of weapon. Japanese Type 89 - No previous experience and about three hours in the classroom before heading to the range British 2" - No previous experience and about three hours in the classroom before heading to the range German 5cm Le GrW36 - A degree in surveying, three years of practical use of survey instruments six weeks in the classroom before heading to the range. End effect Japanese Type 89 - lots of rounds down range very quickly British 2" mortar - lots of rounds down range very quickly German 5 cm - some rounds down range eventually.
Vids are fantastic. I request that the camera is locked down full manual--when your arms come into the frame, the exposure is adjusting, often obscuring the detail you're pointing out, or manipulating. Thx for the unending excellent work!
For more fixed position, you need two of this things with a one foot longer barrel. For an quick attack, you better chose the french tool. both offer a good answer to a single purpose.
So ... they made a "mobile" mortar system that is designed for accuracy and you gotta fiddle with several knobs? It appears that most commando light mortars are basically a single tube with no bipods. Then you "walk" the rounds to target. It's an explosive shell, you are gonna do something.
Welcome to 3rd Reich engineering. It gets even more egregious if you look at the Luftwaffe: note to Nazis, it doesn't matter if you have a technologically superior fighter if it gets swarmed by canvas and plywood pieces of flammable trash that the Britbois churn out by the dozen. Logistics matter more than tactics.
I remember to this day, first seeing weapon engineering as a child. My uncle had an Enfield .303 and a mosin nagant. They were deactivated as we're Brits and I sat there looking at the action of both weapons and comparing, with the Enfield being amazing in my opinion compared to the Russian weapon. What an interesting job you have.
I resent the myth of German over engineering. It’s a tactic of contemporary “historians” trying to downplay the achievements of German engineers producing standard-setting weapons of war in spite of a crippled war-time infrastructure. So when I say this mortar is over-engineered, I feel the irony in the seat of my pants.
The weapons they created were (mostly) great, in concept at least but during the war they were making matters worse. V2 rockets or the Messerschmitt 262 are a great example. They were great inventions that would set the course for decades BUT they were using valuable resources that would be better suited towards artillery or trucks. Same with STG 44, great in concept but in practice you couldn't produce enough ammo for it and couldn't ship it to the front in large enough numbers.
Eh theres some truth to German over-engineering. Making huge tanks that could hardly cross bridges that ate up all your fuel and were a bitch to keep running. A lot of times they would have been better off making something "good" and affordable instead of something amazing and extremely costly. We (America) had the luxury to experiment with toys. Germany needed to use every resource efficiently.
When your limitation is resources then making the best possible weapons makes perfect sense and I think things like the kettenkrab were actually very useful. But sometimes things are just crazy and this one is also heavy which means more wasted resources.
Close counts in horseshoes and BOMBS. What types of ammunition (bombs) were used and their effective blast and kill radius compared to the French light mortar would have been a very interesting bit of information for these area affect weapons.
It was made in the 1930's when they had plenty of people and factories they wanted to keep busy with work. It was decided it would be discontinued in 1941 and gradually pulled from front line service when they figured out they no longer had the time or people to put these together. Remember the Germans were preparing for a quick "dressed as you are" war, and not the years long grind they got...so simplicity for mass production wasn't always their first priority. BTW- He is wrong, the troops liked this weapon and were sorry to see it leave front line service as it provided the German Infantry with a hitting power and range capability greater than any other weapon readily available at the squad or section level. It was admittedly over complex, but the Germans were not the only country to realize they needed simpler, cheaper weapons...just look at the Johnson (M1943) and Thompson....expensive and not well suited to mass production, easily replaceable by simpler more reliable weapons (M1 and M3).
The purpose of a mortar is so a Company commander or a Battalion commander can have larger ordnance on demand. Mortars are "organic" to the Company or Battalion. Which means a direct Commander directly controls the mortar. Compare to Division level artillery that is inorganic to the Company or Battalion commanders. If a particular manouvering unit needs artillery support then calls to higher authority must be made. Artillery is outside the direct authority of the lower level combat manouver units. Artillery has longer range and more damage potential. Mortars are less expensive, more plentiful, and, can be assigned directly with basic combat manouver units. In most militaries it is the Platoon and Company. Combined into a Battalion.
Classic Mouse built to Mil Spec. May be dubious when it come to using them, but the French are good weapons designers. Mentioning the Atlantic wall, the Germans mounted two prototype 50mm automatic mortars in a bunker at Corbiere Jersey. Later taken to Royal Small Arms Enfeild for evaluation. In one place bearby there is also a 30 foot high reinforced concrete tower , half built into a granite cliff face with a 10 foot steel hemisphere on top, plus all ancillirys inside, to mount TWO, count them! TWO MG 34/42.
I’d try to avoid the over engineering cliche but dear God someone needed to slap the design team around and remind them it was a light mortar. Or much easier tell the designers they had to carry the bastard around for a week and watch it suddenly lose weight.
Just remember that if the Germans had several thousand more of these they could of extended the war by at least a few days and that would of made all the difference to victory!
And this one mortar adequately explains my entire experience working with engineers and their stupidly complicated designs. This is why operators and mechanics should design things, or at least be involved in and listened to during the design process of everything.
I have the feeling that Light in this case refers more to the projectile than the Mortar itself :-) This is more on the side of taking your light artillery to an entrenched position easier than going with a gun carriage and tow truck. So this is more for the 2nd line of troops than the first line. Is there any documentation about the expected use of these things ? The french and Japanese ones were more on the offensive side than this German one ...
love how it has a < 0 m > range setting
for when you are surrounded and have only one shell left to go out with a bang
What? They're Germans! The proper way to use the 0m setting is to rig an overcomplicated multifunctional clockwork/mine device with ITS OWN 200-page manual to the lanyard so the crew would have time to evacuate before the Red Army peasant conscripts can get to the mortar position!
the 50m setting is already quite scary... its basically straight up. Gusts will probably send that right back into yout face i would think.
The direct fire role of mortars was in the german manuals (F.u.G. meaning Führung und Gefecht der verbundenen Waffen or Leadership and combat of combined arms) at least since 1923. If I remember correctly it was intended for usage in an antitank role.
That's the "our pillbox needs a sunroof" setting.
Aww dammit, I was just typing a similar joke.
German army: what seems to be the problem?
German engineers: we don’t know. But we’re going to solve it.
Thanks for the laugh
Ironic the French of the static Maginot line designed a mobile mortar and the Germans who favored high mobility blitzkrieg adopted a cumbersome mortar.
Well, the Germans had the Siegfried line in which they used more concrete than the French on the Maginot line so there's that.
That...is a pretty good point
very ironic
Not necessarily, it just is very much indicative of design processes and priorities. The French wanted a quick barrage tool, the Germans were looking for a precision 'minenwerfer'. Remember that the Maginot line was not the full extent of France's defence. Rather it was meant to be used as an immovable flank that could not collapse and from behind which the French could strike. France's inaction was mostly a result of politicians muddying the waters: the French army was very much an army that aimed to assault. The Germans were just faster and more flexible about it, but they do like to overengineer, which was as much an issue with the Panzer III as it was with this mortar.
No, both french and germans designed a grenade launcher for trench war. The germans needed 2 years to have the perfect solution in place. The french needed more than 10 years to develop something that was no great solution for trench war. Later on, when war turned into being a mobile one, the french solution was more practical, but that has nothing to do with the fact that the development of the french originally failed for what it has been made for. If german engineering is coming out with something that cannot be moved easily you can be assured that the army requierements have been "we need something to kill precisely trenches and mg positions, weight and agility is not so important to us". Otherwise the grenade launcher would not have any chance to pass the practical testing of the Wehrmacht, what every equipment had to pass before it was introduced into the army.
FRENCH-we want a light mortar....10 years later.... here it is,we just made it with scrap metal from the junkyard
GERMAN-we want a light mortar..2 years later.. here,but you will first need to read this 200 page manual and need 2 people to carry it
Meanwhile in good old Russia they fire their projectiles out of empty vodka bottles.
The Germans had a.............slightly different timeline for when it was needed.
Is there any example of similar systems with Brits, American, Japanese or Soviet
US 1940 - so we want a light mortar? General McNeal - humm , let's get battle need studies.
1947 - we have everything figured out.
Nevermind guys
JAPAN-We want a light mortar....here it is, and here's the bayonet to go with it.
Germany - providing overcomplicated solutions to trivial problems since 1815.
1871 if anything
upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/92/Jerrycan.JPG/800px-Jerrycan.JPG
muh overcomplicated solution to canisters needing wrenches or starting to leak sooner rather than later
Congratulations, you found one of the few German things from the Second World War that was universally good.
Oh hey there.
I remember you.
undertakernumberone1 Now you can fuel the Ferdinand (Elephatnt) fully *before* the transmission fails. yay
That looks like it was designed by a machinist that had a love for astronomy.
He's probably a Virgo.
Weirdo*
well a man needs hobby
Engineers design these, machinists build them. But funny comment
The comparison with that cute little French Model 37 Mortar is astonishing - give two different teams the same problem and there is no guarantee they will come up with the same solution.
Yep, totally German style engineered, I bet they were thinking about adding a night-vision scope at some point too ...
@@allensteiner1 Night vision?
Now I cant see it without one of those massive infrared projectors they occasionally tried testing, yknow those huge things they would attempt to put on snipers and tanks and whatnot?
@@Elenrai Know what's funny about those? If memory serves, as far as literal first-generation infrared optics go, their design was remarkably straightforward and rugged.
Mortar roulette:
1) set to vertical
2) put in shell
3) launch shell
4) run
everybody dies because you loaded an airburst shell
The legend tells that German infantry still adjusting this mortar to fire.
I've just got an image of some French platoon meeting up after seventy years at some old battle field they fought on and then there's just whine and some German shouting about how he finished reading the manual.
I wonder what the maximum precision of something like this is anyway, 50m at 45 degrees? 100m?
"Ready to fire Sir. ... Sir? What do you mean "never mind"? What? The war is over? We lost? ... But the mortar is all set to go now!"
Thats the reason for weapon drill - to get it done, before the war ends....:)
I bet, the German mortar crew was able to get this thing set up under 8 seconds - or they have on sunday guard duty at the barracks gate....^^
How would Sunday guard duty help to improve performance? Sunday is for additional weapons drills, not standing around being lazy.
Haha......^^
Ha ha ha
@@ascania2547 Sunday is for off duty frolics with the local village fraulein
I think something else that needs to be remembered is the poor guys had to carry ammo as well. A German mortar team carrying a dry weapon has the same weight as a French team carrying a weapon with 23 rounds.
Except a german round will have 3x the kill zone AND be FAR more accurate in landing their shells. Meaning that the french mortar would likely be combat ineffective but make lots of loud noises
And despite the hosts hyperbole, 14kg is NOT heavy. For comparison this mortar weighs LESS than an anti tank rifle.
@@TheBelrick "3x the kill zone" is a pretty dubious claim, don't you think? What is your definition of a "killzone", and how did you reach the figure of it being three times larger than the French mortar in question?
@@jonathanbaird8109 IIRC in my research the german mortar had enough greater explosive to create that much of a greater kill zone. feel free to be dubious and DYOR
The US M2 was ten pounds heavier for the motar alone.
@lerrybedouin yeah but the M2 is a 10 mm larger projectile, weighing 3 lbs for HE compared to two, and expected to have a five man mortar crew. That’s before you mention the fact that the American M2 has 4 times the effective firing range
2:28 And interestingly enough; the modern 60mm mortar used by the US Military, is actually both. There is a "switch" at the base of the "carrying handle" that allows you to switch back and forth between the two modes. The "open bolt" form is typically used for "volley fire," while the "closed bolt" allows the gunner to move around and chose the best place from which to actually fire the round.
Modern mortar rounds are actually "inertia" armed for the most part. There are some fuses, IIRC, that are not armed by inertia and are instead "live" the moment you pull the safety pin (just like the safety pin on a grenade). It's the detonation of the "cheese charges" and the base of the round, and its sudden acceleration, that arms it.
The trigger is for “hip fire” missions. The team consists of three men. The gunner, the sergeant, and the ammo bearer. The sergeant receives the fire mission and computes a firing solution. This is relayed to the gunner who is actually carrying the mortar with a small baseplate roughly the size of 4 inches by 8 inches attached to the gun. He unslings the mortar and places it on the ground facing the azimuth called off by the sergeant. Just above the trigger is a bubble level that allows for accurate elevation adjustments by hand tilting the barrel. When the ammo bearer is done prepping the required charge, it is slid down the tube. The gunner makes the final adjustments, holding the trigger in his right hand and the upper portion of the barrel in his left hand, squeezing the trigger to fire while holding the barrel still. This allows for very quick application of fire, within seconds of either receiving a fire mission or visually identifying a target.
I had the opportunity to train as an ammo bearer on my company’s mortar team to replace a sick solder for deployment to JOTC in 1997. It was one of the highlights of my career.
It is not the sudden acceleration that arms the mortar round, but the number of revolutions it makes in its course.
@@melonseedskiff1522 Revolutions? The M224, M252 and the M120 all have smooth bore tubes.... Also...mortar rounds don't whistle...
@@occamsrazor1285 who said anything about whistle??? Smooth bore yes, spinning through the air, also yes. Also, some artillery rounds do whistle, If you are close enough to the receiving end to hear it.
I am not trying to insult you, but you did put out erroneous information. I see that you are an enthusiast of these types of weapons and I commend you for that.
I really enjoyed watching the round disappear into the sky after it was fired. This video brought back a lot of memories, lol.
@@melonseedskiff1522 Sorry for the curt response. I made that comment while I was in my morning stand up, so it didn't have my complete attention. I said it that way because I didn't want to say you were wrong, just that what you told me conflicted with some information I'd heard in the past, but my info could very well be wrong and so I was requesting further info. Thanks for the info on the hip fire missions. It's been really hard to find info on exact use (though I suppose I can always go find field manuals. I'm just not THAAAT dedicated to it XD). BTW, you never said; what branch were you with? Was this US Army training?
Given your videos on this mortar, the Japanese "knee mortar" and the French light mortar, I'd love to see videos on the American 60mm M2, the Soviet 50mm PM series Mortars, the Brixia Model 35, and the British 2 inch mortar (SBML).
"Warum soll man es so einfach machen, wenn man es so schön komplizieren kann?"
109Eken Danke, dass ist so richtig
I've got to find out whose quote that is, that may be the most wonderfully, stereotypically Deutsch thing I've ever read.
Is it? Well I learned something today. So it's a sarcastic kind of thing?
"Der einfache Weg, ist nicht immer der richtige."
Da es aber su kompliziert war, konnte man sichergehen das bei 2 fehlschüsse der 3te traf bei befestigungen oder feindliche Stellungen, dass machte Mörsertruppen in der Wehrmacht sehr gefährlich.
While the French mortar is less complicated and lighter it took them 10 years to develop it and when it was needed they had less than 3000 available where as the German mortar had a two year gestation and were available when the war started. Just like the Curtis P40 fighter the US had at the start of WW2 it's better to have and adequate supply of an inferior weapon than no weapon at all.
Then again, the Germans knew for sure there was going to be a war, and prepared for it, seeing as how they knew they were going to invade other countries. The French didn't really get serious about it until it was too late.
Not quite - the French developed it in the late '20s early '30s, then sat on it (Through the Great Depression, I must point out) while spending the money they had improving their rifles, machine guns, tanks, and aircraft. As Ian points out, at the close of WW I, pretty much everything the French Army had, other than artillery, was painfully obsolete.
True that - the Germans started looking at ways to get around the Versailles Treaty and its limitations before the ink on the signatures was dry.
It's worth noting that one of the premises for the creation of the German Great General Staff, and its philosophy through history, was that Germany was a resource-poor country surrounded by hostile neighbors, and preparing to gain ground and resources by military action was their primary function.
Peter Stickney x
Peter Stickney Concur with your assessment. They had to prioritize what arms they would buy/manufacture with available military funds. Though an awesomely designed light weapon, from my understanding mortars are primarily suited to attacking enemy fortifications and emplacements. I don't know of any evidence that the French had designs on a pre-emptive attack on Germany or attack on any foreign power between ww1 and ww2 and it was thought that nothing could break the defenses that the allies erected after ww1 without plenty of time to maintain the front line at these defenses with reinforcements. Maybe that is why the mortars took a back seat and only got spun up once it was realized that the line was bypassed by blitzkrieg and the Germans would have time to dig in. But I'm just an armchair expert here. If anyone has critique/experience/or sources that say otherwise, I'm all ears.
It's so complicated it's practically a miniature 4.2" mortar. The four deuce was my first love back in '87 at finishing school in Georgia :)
German engineering.... Providing solutions to problems we never knew we even had.
It's like the BMW X6.
But a german cannon use in the modern m1 abraham tank ...thats the truth XD
Then we all want to buy these solutions. The truth.
@Breite Katze Hey, wenigstens etwas!
Because everyone in the room gets a shot at the design and no priorities are set. As the saying goes "too many chefs spoil the soup".
Its a trench mortar designed to aim on measured terrain where distances were well known. Hence, this precision allowed to shoot tiny grenades into enemy trenches with minimum test shots. During WW2 trench warfare was not anymore a huge matter so it got obsolete...
Command, “let’s make something nice and simple.” German, “confused screeching.”
Unlisted videos like this are a ploy by Ian to get me to just cruise all of the Rock Island catalog.
HE'S ON TO US!!!!
Nope, not Patreon, I just made the mistake of browsing the RIA catalog and liking mortars. I don't know if they listed it early or what, but that's how I found it :o
And buy an early war light mortar to snipe squirrels 400 meter/yards away, yes?
I have to say only two things:
- no pics = it didn't happen
- prove it
Not necessarily in that order.
A squirrel head trophy would do as well, I suppose.
Leave to the Germans to make a "Light" mortar 31 pounds. I will stick with the French Mle 1937 or Japanese Type 89 thank you.
It's not German engineering if it's not over-engineering.
Who is from Berlin ?
@Necramonium eh, it was terrible leadership and panic among on the French that caused the downfall. In the early stages the expeditionary forces in Belgium were pretty much able to push through the German forces in Belgium and flank the forces going into France. Something the local commanders asked the high command and we're told to stay put. The Germans were really on their last legs by Dunkirk . They had supplies for three months of operations. From an armchair point of view the Germans should've been the losers of that offensive, it was a massive gamble that paid off
Technically the Type 89 isn't a mortar. It's a grenade launcher but it's designed to fire like one.
+celshad Most assault rifles are not based on the Stg.44. Some may have been inspired by it, but they're not based on it. The Germans do a good job inventing something, but do a bad job developing it for actual military logistic efficiency. A complicated state of the art weapon (or anything military related for that matter) is a cool proof of concept, but not necessarily a good thing to use in war.
Here in the Channel Islands, alot of these ended up in a static defense role. There was even a clip fed automatic version built into some coastal bunkers.
Ian: *extremely good explanation* "oh, this is a muzzle cover that shrunk a bit"
me: haha it has a cute hat
Nice video, this made me look into some more German WW2 mortar systems. I Always knew of the 8cm, and maybe this lesser known 5cm and even 12cm werfers. But I just found out about a ligther and shorter 'Kurz' 8cm 'Stummelwerfer'. Which was actually used pretty extensivly and effectifly by the fallschirmjagers (and proberbly by more troops). This light 8cm versions seems to be the follow up of the 5cm, and adresses a lot of the problems you mentoined in your video.
And besides that I found out about 10cm and 10,5cm 'Nebel'werfers. All very interesting and I hope one day you can touch more on these types of equipment.
Wow, it's weird how your videos interact with my perception of time. I remember this episode as being a few months old at the most, and it's been over a year. Time flies when you're watching Ian.
soldier 1: "They're closing in!! What do we do?"
Soldier 2 "Run for it Johnson. Im setting it to vertical."
“Run for it Hanz!”
Thanks, Mortar Jesus.
I like where this is going
Tits up
I love themed weekends
"And now I have to fiddle with these levers until it is..." As you are being overrun.
"Unless you're German and you design something like this." I'm still laughing.
It's a chilly January morning, and I'm watching back episodes of forgotten weapons.
This is a good day.
Thank you Ian.
One day you should visit the War Museum of Budapest to see some incredible unique weapons: the Gebauer machine gun, the Kiraly submachine gun, but also real extraordinaries like pneumatic mortars from WW1.
I think battleships have less steps to range and fire then this thing!
Unless it's a german battleship...
The Japanese had some pretty gloriously complex rangefinder/gun director setups as well. Let's not forget, they tried to make every gun on the ship AA capable (in theory at least, it rarely worked in practice). Still, the 18.1 inch guns of Yamato and Musashi firing at a high angle for AA purposes would have been a sight to see, the one picture I'm aware of showing one of them firing a salvo shows a smoke cloud/fireball every bit as big as the ship.
Be fair , German Range finders were good. They had a very advanced optical industry.
load it up with grape shot, might be effective....
The Japanese 18in guns were not equipped to fire at a high angle for AA purposes, how they were employed for air defense was to fire shells at the water at close range in hopes that the shell splash would bring down torpedo bombers, which of course, had to approach almost on the deck to launch their torpedoes. And "hopes" was all that was good for, it was never successful. The max elevation of the guns were 45 degrees, which is the same as the max elevation for the USN 16in 50cal gun used on the Iowas.
I really like that you also include heavier stuff!
The iconic picture that you find when you search on June 22 Barbarossa images ... the first one is a company of soldiers carrying disassembled mortar systems one the base plate others tubes etc. I think that is a longer barrel version though.
maybe you dont need to carry so many larger heavier mortar rounds if you use a small round and just hit the enemy soldier directly on his helmet?
designated marksman mortar hee.
@@vendomnu If you go watch Ian's video on the OSS Flying Dragon, he mentions that the OSS actually /did/ attempt to develop silent-firing mortars among a number of other covert weapons. :D
@@vendomnu 3yr old comment but iirc russians actually have a silenced mortar
As a civil engineering student, this gun is basically a piece of survey equipment that is way more fun.
I love the built in twin orange juicers and catch tray!
regarding the firing pin, some of the 120mm mortars are designed for either fixed pin firing or lanyard triggered firing. Some mortars, like the 60mm Brandt fitted to Panhard armoured cars, are breech loaders and have manually activedated firing pins or can even be muzzleloaded with a fixed firing pin.
How about the British 2-inch commando mortar? That takes portability to the next level!
Or the Italian Brixia that can fit your pockets
@@requiemaeternam3406 I just googled it and saw the shells....are you sure its not just a hand grenade intended for highly skilled users?
@@Elenrai hasn't a big range but it was intended as support weapons.
They wanted to issue those something like 5 per platoon way more than Lmgs.
I think that as idea it would be better during ww1 but for me is still fine as concept.
@@requiemaeternam3406 That makes sense.
Though frankly at that size and range you might as well just use good old german potatomashers.
They can go "boom" got a decent enough range, and you can mash kartoffel with it!
Japanese had a nice one knee mortar so to speak
hey, I´m a German and I don´t think it´s very complicated ! It´s almost "easy to use" ;)
I can't stop watching this channel - thanks
Ohh this piece of over engineered german thing of boom.
It's seriously like a super small artillery piece minus the carriage wheels and I love it!
It looks more like a finely crafted telescope. Case and point for: "the Nazi's were bad at war economy"
"Mein Fuhrer, would you like to invest the time and resources into this new thing the 'boys are calling the Stermgewher"
"Nein, we need to build 2 million finely crafted, light mortars that weigh 30 pounds."
The Etch-A Sketch of light mortars.
I could listen to Gun Jesus talking all day.
well you can... just press repeat again and again
I love how they have this big, heavy, complicated but super accurate and sophisticated leveling and range setting system, and then they just tippex a line on the barrel for the sights.
twice as much firepower? I'd be willing to carry a few extra pounds for that
With precision like that, frontline troops could call in which floor tile they wanted a mortar on.
Also, I love how you describe the Atlantic Wall as being the Wehrmacht equivalent of the Island of Misfit Toys. 😂
This inevitably led to a complex system of identifying and calling floor tiles on a grid, just in case the situation ever came up.
If I was a German soldier with even a passing familiarity with the French light mortar you showed last time, and some quartermaster handed me this monstrosity, I think "Are you fucking kidding me?" would be the appropriate response.
Great video. My dad fired mortars in the 50s with the green howards and would love to see a English mortar next
I would love it, if you could go more into the details of the tactics of the weapons. While the technical aspects are very interesting, the way the weapons were used would also be quite a thrill to hear about.
Ask C&Rsenal to do a video then. You can leave it to Othias to come up with 1,5 hours of full detail info on this thing ...WHEN they're ready doing WW1 weaponry.🤣
On a non fixed firing pin design. Of u hold the fire lever down will the pin stick up so u can drop round in to fire. The idea here is more fire rate
not really? i suppose they work kinda like a double action revolver thingie, so it wouldn't really work that way probably
It'll work that way every time with a fixed firing pin though. It'll go off as soon as you drop it in. So more fire rate than what?
I don't think so. It works in larger mortars like 60mm and up because those have a longer tube and the round picks up more momentum on a longer fall. In a drop this small I don't think the falling round would have enough momentum to detonate the primer by just falling on the pin. But it's just my assumption.
The fire rate is not the question here, the idea behind a striker fired mortar is safety. Unlike in say British artillery batteries, where an NCO per gun was enough to authorise firing, the Germans were really tight about their battery officers (and those were actually commissioned officers, up until the late war) actually giving the direct firing order. So having each gun crew just drop a grenade into the barrel, then giving the order and having everybody fire on command allowed for a more safe procedure than when an NCO with each gun simply gives the order to drop the grenade into the barrel.
There might be some outliers, but normally the lever would actuate the firing pin backwards against a spring until a point where the firing pin is released from the lever and the spring forces it forwards firing the weapon. You would then need to release the lever so that it can engage the firing pin again. You can see why such a firing mechanism wouldn't have the firing pin protruding if the lever is held down. Atleast that's the impression I've got.
fun fact: that bubble contains pure, uncontaminated air from 1939. it's like a little time machine
Everybody gansta till the mortar gets adjusted for zero meters
What was the "T" headed tool on the base plate used for? I assume the cup on the base plate had a cap at one time and held maybe a spare spirit level or firing pin.
Mongo63a Only my assumption: T shaped tool looks like a cleaning rod, cup probably held tip brush for cleaning rod.
Correct, that is a cleaning rod, the cup is missing it's brush/swab and the lid.
Thank you. It was driving me crazy trying to figure out what that cup was.
The T is a bratwurst roasting fork and the cup is for mustard.
I was reading about grenades improvised from mortar bombs and it appears that the Finns modified small mortar bombs like this with Russian grenade fuses,for use as hand grenades. In some cases, they machined off the fins and shaft and kept the pear-shaped body of the bomb and fitted the threaded grenade fuse instead of the impact fuse of the original bomb.
Forget what I said about the French mortar, I'll take three of these!
7:00 "We can go from basically vertical..." Which I would highly recommend against doing.
Gun Jesus back at it with another beautiful (if over complicated) mortar.
Thanks for another great video.
Previous experience necessary and classroom training time needed for this type of weapon.
Japanese Type 89 - No previous experience and about three hours in the classroom before heading to the range
British 2" - No previous experience and about three hours in the classroom before heading to the range
German 5cm Le GrW36 - A degree in surveying, three years of practical use of survey instruments six weeks in the classroom before heading to the range.
End effect
Japanese Type 89 - lots of rounds down range very quickly
British 2" mortar - lots of rounds down range very quickly
German 5 cm - some rounds down range eventually.
Ian's face on 0:12 gives you his opinion before even starting the video
Still not as embarrassing as the PIAT.
Yeah the piat wasnt great but it still destroyed many enemy vehicles
This thing looks like it should also fold into a briefcase/jerry can-style carrying setting.
most big 60, 81, 120 and old 4.2" had only three elevation settings. you adjusted range by removing propellant charges according to the firing table
Vids are fantastic. I request that the camera is locked down full manual--when your arms come into the frame, the exposure is adjusting, often obscuring the detail you're pointing out, or manipulating. Thx for the unending excellent work!
For more fixed position, you need two of this things with a one foot longer barrel. For an quick attack, you better chose the french tool. both offer a good answer to a single purpose.
Hehe, compared to elegant and light French mortar this is a thick ass boy :p
I wonder if guns have gender.
It's like a "my first artillery piece" kit, it's adorable
So ... they made a "mobile" mortar system that is designed for accuracy and you gotta fiddle with several knobs?
It appears that most commando light mortars are basically a single tube with no bipods. Then you "walk" the rounds to target. It's an explosive shell, you are gonna do something.
Welcome to 3rd Reich engineering. It gets even more egregious if you look at the Luftwaffe: note to Nazis, it doesn't matter if you have a technologically superior fighter if it gets swarmed by canvas and plywood pieces of flammable trash that the Britbois churn out by the dozen. Logistics matter more than tactics.
Great video as usual. Just a small correction: it's "leichteR Granatwerfer" actually :)
Ian: "this mortar is live"
Heavy breathing intensifies
May be heavy and complicated, but I think it's beautifully designed! Would love to own one!
Open carry this in Texas, oh yeah :D
I remember to this day, first seeing weapon engineering as a child. My uncle had an Enfield .303 and a mosin nagant. They were deactivated as we're Brits and I sat there looking at the action of both weapons and comparing, with the Enfield being amazing in my opinion compared to the Russian weapon. What an interesting job you have.
6:59 Flash back to "Hot Shots 2" scene where a mortar crew got taken out by a stick.
it's leichter, you missed the r. still great content as usual.
Not quite. If I may: Der leichte Mörser or Leichter Mörser. Maybe Ian just forgot the article. :D
Nice to see there's a marker for 0 yards so you can play chicken with mortar shells, or set up a nice surprise if you're overrun.
I resent the myth of German over engineering. It’s a tactic of contemporary “historians” trying to downplay the achievements of German engineers producing standard-setting weapons of war in spite of a crippled war-time infrastructure.
So when I say this mortar is over-engineered, I feel the irony in the seat of my pants.
The weapons they created were (mostly) great, in concept at least but during the war they were making matters worse. V2 rockets or the Messerschmitt 262 are a great example. They were great inventions that would set the course for decades BUT they were using valuable resources that would be better suited towards artillery or trucks. Same with STG 44, great in concept but in practice you couldn't produce enough ammo for it and couldn't ship it to the front in large enough numbers.
Eh theres some truth to German over-engineering. Making huge tanks that could hardly cross bridges that ate up all your fuel and were a bitch to keep running. A lot of times they would have been better off making something "good" and affordable instead of something amazing and extremely costly. We (America) had the luxury to experiment with toys. Germany needed to use every resource efficiently.
mouthpiece200 well there was this guy called hitler who was kind of crazy and wanted everything to be big and expensibe and shit
When your limitation is resources then making the best possible weapons makes perfect sense and I think things like the kettenkrab were actually very useful. But sometimes things are just crazy and this one is also heavy which means more wasted resources.
What do you mean,it's not a good idea to create 100s of Maus tanks?
As normal they wanted to develope this so perfektly as possible-that it was a little bit "Über das Ziel hinausgeschossen!"
Close counts in horseshoes and BOMBS. What types of ammunition (bombs) were used and their effective blast and kill radius compared to the French light mortar would have been a very interesting bit of information for these area affect weapons.
But you know that ALL light 40-50mm mortars are hammer-fired because that drop is too short to reliably pull your hand away.
It was made in the 1930's when they had plenty of people and factories they wanted to keep busy with work. It was decided it would be discontinued in 1941 and gradually pulled from front line service when they figured out they no longer had the time or people to put these together. Remember the Germans were preparing for a quick "dressed as you are" war, and not the years long grind they got...so simplicity for mass production wasn't always their first priority. BTW- He is wrong, the troops liked this weapon and were sorry to see it leave front line service as it provided the German Infantry with a hitting power and range capability greater than any other weapon readily available at the squad or section level. It was admittedly over complex, but the Germans were not the only country to realize they needed simpler, cheaper weapons...just look at the Johnson (M1943) and Thompson....expensive and not well suited to mass production, easily replaceable by simpler more reliable weapons (M1 and M3).
The purpose of a mortar is so a Company commander or a Battalion commander can have larger ordnance on demand. Mortars are "organic" to the Company or Battalion. Which means a direct Commander directly controls the mortar.
Compare to Division level artillery that is inorganic to the Company or Battalion commanders. If a particular manouvering unit needs artillery support then calls to higher authority must be made. Artillery is outside the direct authority of the lower level combat manouver units. Artillery has longer range and more damage potential. Mortars are less expensive, more plentiful, and, can be assigned directly with basic combat manouver units. In most militaries it is the Platoon and Company. Combined into a Battalion.
The Italia 45mm mortar was even more complicated.
Classic Mouse built to Mil Spec. May be dubious when it come to using them, but the French are good weapons designers. Mentioning the Atlantic wall, the Germans mounted two prototype 50mm automatic mortars in a bunker at Corbiere Jersey. Later taken to Royal Small Arms Enfeild for evaluation. In one place bearby there is also a 30 foot high reinforced concrete tower , half built into a granite cliff face with a 10 foot steel hemisphere on top, plus all ancillirys inside, to mount TWO, count them! TWO MG 34/42.
I’d try to avoid the over engineering cliche but dear God someone needed to slap the design team around and remind them it was a light mortar. Or much easier tell the designers they had to carry the bastard around for a week and watch it suddenly lose weight.
My favorite educational channel on weapons.
Just remember that if the Germans had several thousand more of these they could of extended the war by at least a few days and that would of made all the difference to victory!
That thing has more pieces and mobile parts than my motorcycle
For Germany, Simplicity is never an option
*Laughs in Swiss.*
And this one mortar adequately explains my entire experience working with engineers and their stupidly complicated designs. This is why operators and mechanics should design things, or at least be involved in and listened to during the design process of everything.
Like many of the things on this channel, what a beautifully machined paperweight.
Those are the biggest wire nuts I've ever seen.
It's a good job Germany learnt from their mistakes and never designed anything that was overcomplicated and far too heavy for its role ever again.
Carried by a 3 man crew along with 45 rounds. According to Ian Hogg in his book infantry weapons of WWII.
Looks like they wanted it to work “as well as was possible.”
I have the feeling that Light in this case refers more to the projectile than the Mortar itself :-)
This is more on the side of taking your light artillery to an entrenched position easier than going with a gun carriage and tow truck. So this is more for the 2nd line of troops than the first line. Is there any documentation about the expected use of these things ? The french and Japanese ones were more on the offensive side than this German one ...
Awesome content as always - but it leaves one question open for me: what is the t-handle (mounted flat on the top to one side of the baseplate) for?