John D Salt Posted February 11, 2003 Share Posted February 11, 2003 Amateurs of the quaint and curious in the Red armamentary will recall mention of the 37mm Spade Mortar in Chamberlain & Gander's "Mortars and Rockets" volume of the "WW2 Fact Files" series (Macdonald and Jane's, London, 1975). Truffling through the dusty volumes in the PRO on Saturday, while looking for something else I happened upon a second mention of this weapon, which I had never seen any other reference to. The document was WO 208/1856, "An outline of the war-time organisation of the Soviet Army", dated 1944 and fairly obviously originating from a Japanese intelligence source. I give the characteristics listed for it, together with (in parentheses) the figures from Chamberlain and Gander. Calibre_________37mm (37mm) Weight_________2.5 Kg (2.4 Kg) Barrel length____0.5m (0.52m) Effective range__60-300m (300m) Rate of fire_____20-25 rds/min (not stated) Bomb weight____Not stated (0.68 Kg) Although there seems little doubt that the Spade Mortar existed (there are two photos in Chamberlain & Gander), there are entries for some weapons that seem less solidly based. The Ampulomyot seems to have been listed twice, once with a maximum range of 180m and an effective range of 40-80m, and once, as a "fire shell launcher", with a maximum range of 300m and an effective range under 150m, in the latter case with a calibre of 127mm attributed to it. More intriguing is mention of a hand-held anti-tank rocket launcher. This has attributed to it a calibre of 50 to 60mm, a mass of 5Kg, and is said to fire a 1.55Kg projectile capable of penetrating 80mm of armour. This is said also to have been reported in multiple mounts of 3 or 6 tubes. The characteristics are a rather poor fit for the LPG-44 (RPG-1), which is a 30mm, 2Kg launcher firing a 70mm, 1.6Kg projectile capable of penetrating 150mm. However, I can't think what else it might be, unless perhaps lend-lease bazookas. A 92mm anti-tank gun is reported, which I take to be the result of a mis-estimation of the calibre of the 100mm. Finally, what I think is an entirely fantastic beast, and admitted as being "not confirmed", there is the SU-203, with a supposed armour thickness of 115mm. All the best, John. [ February 10, 2003, 06:45 PM: Message edited by: John D Salt ] 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Juardis Posted February 11, 2003 Share Posted February 11, 2003 Cool. BFC, I want a spade mortar in the 1.02 patch BTW salt, you wouldn't by any chance be "old salt card carrying curmudgeon" from the comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.war-historical newsgroup would you? 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kanonier Reichmann Posted February 11, 2003 Share Posted February 11, 2003 I'd lay money on it. Regards Jim R. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John D Salt Posted February 11, 2003 Author Share Posted February 11, 2003 Originally posted by Juardis: [snips]BTW salt, you wouldn't by any chance be "old salt card carrying curmudgeon" from the comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.war-historical newsgroup would you? Nope. I always post under my own full name. You will see me occasionally correcting the more egregiously mendacious posts of George Hardy on soc.history.world-war-ii, and sometimes sending chocolates to Paula or Tamara on alt.religion.kibology. However, it is my opinion that most usenet groups have gone to hell in the last few years. All the best, John "The D is for Gokmop" Salt. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mies Posted February 11, 2003 Share Posted February 11, 2003 Cool. BFC, I want a spade mortar in the 1.02 patch Yes, and I want SU-203's to battle the Sturm Tigers Mies [ February 11, 2003, 04:46 AM: Message edited by: Mies ] 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John D Salt Posted February 16, 2003 Author Share Posted February 16, 2003 Originally posted by John D Salt: Amateurs of the quaint and curious in the Red armamentary will recall mention of the 37mm Spade Mortar in Chamberlain & Gander's "Mortars and Rockets" volume of the "WW2 Fact Files" series (Macdonald and Jane's, London, 1975). Truffling through the dusty volumes in the PRO on Saturday, while looking for something else I happened upon a second mention of this weapon, which I had never seen any other reference to. The document was WO 208/1856, "An outline of the war-time organisation of the Soviet Army", dated 1944 and fairly obviously originating from a Japanese intelligence source. [snips]At the PRO again today, and I came across a photo of the 37mm spade mortar, which I have scanned as a .gif and would include in the post if it were possible to include .gifs. This time the source was WO 208/5189, short notes on the Red Army from 1942. The details given vary slightly again -- weight 3.3lbs, which is 1.5 Kg, but maximum range 250m and minimum 80m. The photo is not enormously helpful aout the mortar itself, as much of it is obscured by the leg of the mortarman using it. However, it does show a dinky little bomb-carrier, which seems to fold in half to be carried like a suitcase, holding 5 bombs in each half. What I found most interesting was that the mortarman is shown next to a motorcycle, suggesting that perhaps the 37mm spade mortar was issued to mororcycle battalions. All the best, John. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ex Bellator Posted February 16, 2003 Share Posted February 16, 2003 John, Can you mail the photo over to me and I should be able to convert it to a jpg and host it. I'm curious about the wee beastie anyway. Email in profile 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ex Bellator Posted February 16, 2003 Share Posted February 16, 2003 Here it is. I can just imagine the fun that BFC are going to have getting a Motorbike/Mortar/Entrenching Device into CMII Thanks John. 0 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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