Mortars in World War II: by Norris John

Author:Norris, John [Norris, John]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Tags: HISTORY / Military / World War II
ISBN: 9781473879201
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Published: 2016-03-29T16:00:00+00:00

Figure 28. German 8cm GrW34 in action.

At the same time that the Allies were meeting stubborn German resistance in Italy, the Soviet Red Army was massing for a huge offensive on the Eastern Front. The Red Army had relieved Stalingrad six months earlier and now it was keeping up the pressure. Both sides began amassing their forces for an engagement around the city of Kursk in between the Central Front and the Voronezh Front. The fighting lasted from 5 July to 23 August 1943 and eventually developed to extend along a frontage of 1,200 miles. At first it seemed as though the Germans might just pull off another victory, but eventually the Soviet weight of forces turned the battle in their favour. The Germans assembled some 912,000 troops, with almost 3,000 tanks and armoured vehicles and fewer than 10,000 pieces of artillery and mortars. Facing them was a Soviet force which would increase in strength to a level of 1.9 million troops, over 5,000 tanks and other armoured vehicles and 25,000 pieces of artillery and mortars. The exact numbers of mortars used in this battle is difficult to judge, but levels were high in all calibres up to and including the very heavy calibres used with batteries of conventional artillery. After several weeks of fighting, the Red Army emerged the victor. The German Army was smashed, yielding prisoners and captured stocks of weapons. With the Allied success on Sicily, the German Army was now under severe pressure on two main fronts.

D-Day and the Second Front

In England military commanders were making plans to co-ordinate the invasion of Europe. More American troops were being trained and assembled for the campaign which lay ahead and more weapons and specialist equipment was prepared. Rigorous training for amphibious operations was undertaken for assaulting from specialist vessels called landing craft. These were Higgins boats, named after designer Andrew Higgins, and were 36ft in length and almost 11ft in beam (width). They were capable of carrying up to thirty-six troops. For the Normandy landings, thousands of Landing Craft Vehicle/Personnel (LCVP) would be used to ferry troops, vehicles and heavy weapons ashore. To land the infantry as quickly as possible these craft were fitted with ramps in the bow which could be lowered to allow the troops to deploy directly onto the beach landing zones. The Americans designated some Higgins boats as ‘Assault Boats’ along with others known as ‘Support Boats’, each of which carried a compliment of twenty-four men organised into specialist teams along with their equipment. The Assault Boat Team landing craft ferried a team equipped to cut the barbed wire entanglements, riflemen, an anti-tank team armed with a Bazooka and a flamethrower team. It also carried a four-man mortar team to operate the 60mm M2 mortar. The No. 1 was the observer who carried an M1 carbine as his personal weapon along with compass, binoculars, cleaning kit, torch and twelve rounds ready to use. The No. 2 was the actual firer of the weapon who carried five rounds ready to use and a pistol for personal protection.

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