Why is the Mortar so important in battle?

[Music] welcome back everyone me again your one and only Maximus talking today about mortars I really appreciate you stopping by today just to give you a little heads up YouTube is doing some really strange things lately a lot of people have been messing me saying that they haven't even been getting notifications even with the Bell I'm not sure what's going on but if you could hit that Bell button for me just like these boys are hitting rounds downrange I really really appreciate it so yes we are talking about mortars today and is one of those weapons systems that a lot of people ask me Matt amidst you get a lot of people arguing with you that you're in the artillery and the mortars not actually an artillery weapons platform it's an infantry weapons platform we're not going to discuss that today because that's not really what I want to get into we're gonna talk a little bit more about the importance of mortars in the battle space and to be honest with you I have to say that I have a lot of respect for mortar teams mainly for the fact they were the ones that we were calling informations from whilst I was in Afghanistan providing your smoke screens or aichi onto enemy targets so you know a lot of respectful and big time so one of the most dreaded and revered weapons of an infantryman is obviously the mortar mortars a lightweight and man portable most of them so say the people that are not really carrying the bastards you know the bigger mortars the 120 millimeters need to be towed on wheels etc but in many militaries around the world light in few units have a mortar section three mortars normally in every company in World War two some German units had a mortar with every button the Russians and the Germans went crazy producing mortars in World War two and of course and World War one everything was down to the artillery the mortar was really born in World War one originally the mortar was built to lob an explosive in an high angle arc so it would land in narrow enemy trenches artillery had too much of a flat trajectory and wasn't really able to land inside the enemy trenches but mortars who rounds pretty much went straight up and came straight almost down did a really good job of this this is still true today the angle of the round is a major difference between artillery and mortars some waters are too large to be made portable like the 120 millimeter which is towed a mortar round has a very steep arc while the artillery round has a flatter trajectory another difference is that the mortars fire rounds at slower speeds of the artillery so they must be fired at a high angle to achieve any range since then it's become a valuable tool for most infantry units this is because they are really small depending on the type of projectile that you're using and they are easily able to be reloaded on the battlespace a box of ammunition say three rounds can be easily placed in the back of the manpack and carried into the battlefield many commanders use mortars as kind of a pocket artillery battery kind of like a miniature Gerber that can be fired very very quickly and put away again because mortars are light enough to be carried that accompany in few units through rugged terrain a vehicle normally could not do so of course one of the main disadvantages is ammunition it gets heavy and somebody in the infantry has to carry it one way to get around this was for light entry units attacking enemies to actually have every member of the company carry one mortar round or two when the company is getting ready to attack they drop off their rounds near the mortar crews mortars are also favored weapons of guerrillas and terrorists unfortunately because they're very primitive in their design the mortar does not really have to see the target at all to fire at it and mortars can fire up hills buildings and rivers similar to the artillery a mortar crew usually consists of at least three members the gunner controls the deflection elevation of the mechanism itself the assistant gunner loads the round at the command of the gunner and the ammunition man prepares and hands over the ammunition to the assistant gunner more members may be available to mortar teams to help carry out ammo and provide security unfortunately more rounds normally are not as powerful as an artillery arm but mortars are usually more available to the individual squad or platoon leader this is why it's vital to have mortars in the combat battle space they are extremely flexible unfortunately unlike self-propelled guns or howitzers they can have difficulty trying to get ammunition or the weapons systems set up very very quickly of course with you know certain gun crews in the artillery you can serve extremely fast but the inherent logistics of trying to get main guns up and into action can be quite difficult unlike the mauler which for the most part is fairly quick it should be noted that most mechanized infantry units do not have organic mortars at company level in mechanized or motorized battalion the mortar is a battalion level weapon this normally has to do with the fact that the heavier direct fire weapons are available and mechanized units usually fight against other mechanized units mortars of course work very very well against dismounted infantry in light vehicles but against tanks and armored personnel carriers yeah there uses fairly limited there are numerous some mortar rounds that are usually available a chi is obviously the most common smoke rounds used to conceal friendly movement or mark enemy positions for air strikes it should be noted that smoke rounds are best fight on the enemy instead of friendly troops this way friendly forces are less restricted by the use of smoke and don't come out of the smoke waiting into enemy machineguns white phosphorus is obviously another favorite it burns even under water and the fumes are extremely toxic it's not something that we'd like to use an arrow anymore but it is there there is presently an artillery round is fired into the sky where a sense of targets armored vehicles below it because the rounds attack weaker Armour it can be very effective it may only be a matter of time before this round is designed for the mortar and of course there is many different technology systems out there that they are trying to bring into place for the mortar to do this mortars especially the traditional muzzleloading variety really aren't very glamorous compared to a lot of other weapon systems but they are a vital asset that is always highly valued by the infantry if you're in a former Afghanistan your motives are only the main heaven support that you could rely on without having to call for hire for a fire mission request they can be man packed and it's really not Pleasant hauling the parts of ammunition around but it can be done they're also extremely effective at producing fear to the enemy being able to launch that amount of firepower very quickly relocate and not even be found unlike some other counterbattery fire missions that we placed by the enemy it puts a lot of fear into the enemy as to okay what's coming next another interesting and key attribute to borders is that they are a lower energy round than a conventional artillery projectile so they can fire ammunition that wouldn't survive the stress of being blasted out of a gun or a cannon that doesn't make the guided ammunition cheaper though it means that standard hate sea ammunition Kohi made of lower grade steel or even cast iron which costs a lot less than the high-strength steel used in conventional shells on artillery pieces and also produces a lot better fragmentation pattern or detonation this is one of the key contributing factors as to why these rounds and why mortars are so good at at gauging dismounted infantry normally the heavy artillery pieces are used for armored buildings mass amounts of infantry or fixed emplacements mortars are the infantry killer for this fact the ammunition itself and the casing and the projectile of the casing is very very soft which produces a heck of a lot of fragmentation very similar to artillery mortars have a very key role in both attack and defense in the attack effective maneuver will fires a face of fire when it comes to the infantry they need it extremely quickly and on hand ready to go a company level they can employ mortars very very quickly and even a platoon and section levels even faster both direct and indirect are required but normally indirect is going to be needed in force job to keep the enemy's head down in an attack they're there to establish the conditions for a maneuver so basically give the command the opportunity to have a bit of time to think about what he needs to do by suppressing the enemy infantry with his own mortar teams they're obviously gonna suppress the enemy and keep them head down in his trench and fix him in place so he can't counter his assault towards you and to provide close supporting fires for the after assault itself as the troops move forward in the defense this base of fire is used in different forms they actually force armored vehicles to button up closing their hatches and reducing their visibility or tactical awareness of the battle space mortars are very good at doing this the course and water is not going to be able to take out a tank however a couple of mortar rounds a 120 millimeter definitely landing on top of a couple of t-72s yeah you're gonna want to button up your hatch they also break up enemy troop concentrations for the most part not all mortars are actually gonna be able to engage and kill the target but they will definitely want to get them into you know cover break the formation and really kind of disorganize the troops that are coming towards your position they also reduce the enemy's mobility and kind of canal eyes into his engagement area so putting them in to kill zones you can actually kind of coerce them like a sheepdog into areas that you want them to be engaged in like I said mortars not always gonna be the ones that are going to absolutely kill most the enemy the artillery is gonna be the ones putting the heavy amount of ammunition down but they can give a bit of harassing fire to kind of coerce the troops to go in a different location and therefore put them into kind of a kill box they're gonna deny the enemy of the advantage of defilade terrain and force him into areas covered by direct fire weapons they also break up the enemy combined-arms team and destroy the synchronization the battle group altogether like said to kind of breaking up the troops between infantry and mechanized mechanized if they're getting mortared they'll close hatch down not a big deal holding position and kind of advance as they go in tree are gonna get into a you know dug in position breaking some cover and probably leave the mechanized or armored force to continue pushing forward this allows troops that are engaging those enemy forces to isolate them and potentially you know ambush them cut them off really handy to have and finally in a defensive role it really does protect the infantry against a closed dismounted assault mortars just like direct fire and indirect fire weapons have the ability to really put in some firepower the problem with heavy artillery such as you say you know 155 millimeter round is putting Danger Close with 155 millimeter round you're really really tight towards your troops in the danger zone that can kill them or really really injure them with mortars that danger close is reduced a little bit sometimes depending on the size of project are you using and therefore those fire missions can be brought in tighter towards your own friendly troops if it came down to it of course not really something you want to be doing is bringing in fire missions close to what your troops in a danger close situation but with you know smaller projectiles smaller waters that area of danger towards your troops can reduce someone overall folks mortars are extremely effective for the battle space and a lot of people say to me more deserve redundant why don't we have all these missiles and we have you know aircraft that can do all this and you know the Apache and all these helicopters that can see targets from miles away thermal imaging there is nothing that will ever replace the motor is a key attribute to any combat environment and I am really really proud to see you know members of my own unit actually going to do training and training up soldiers we're going to be working with mortars I have a lot of respect for that I wish myself could actually start learning on mortars I don't think I'm gonna have the ability to just with my full time career but I would love to try the guys have told me a lot of stories about more there's a lot of fun operating them so you know really really good bit of kit some of the mortars that are out there I mean the Russians go to town when it comes to military hardware and their mortars that they make are absolutely massive I mean that kick in NATO's but in terms of mortar projectile size the 120 millimeter mortar although extremely effective is just getting annihilated by some of the Russian equipment out there it's really really interesting to see anyway that is it for me today everyone I really appreciate you being here today as I mentioned in the beginning of the video I'm not getting a good warm fuzzy feeling about YouTube actually sharing my videos in the subscription feeds so once again if you could really hit that Bell button I would really appreciate that if you wish to support my channel please feel free to go check out my patreon page it is in the description box below and anyone who's been supporting or donating towards that site and my channel I can't thank you enough really really can it's very much appreciated thank you your patreon supporters it really means a lot if you want to come hang out on the place and games I'll just have a chat I actually have a discussion with a inspiring junior soldier about to go to army foundation college Harrogate today we had a literary about a half-an-hour discussion about his worry and concern about going to you know his basic training in the British Army and we had a really good show and I think I kind of eased his nerves a little bit so if you want to come hang out and talk about things like that or just message me or play video games whatever it may be hang on my discord channel it is a chat room service if you don't know what it is go download it install it whatever it may be and come have a chat with me the link for my server is in that box so come have a chat I do also have face books you again if you want to be notified of upcoming videos that's not being shown on YouTube you can actually just pop me on your facebook there and I'll add you as a friend and we'll send some videos out to you that's it really folks I hope you have a wonderful day and I'd love to hear your opinion on the mortis if you've operated them or about to operate on them have been supported by them but just have some general information that you want to share let me know in the comment section below have a wonderful day folks bye bye [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]

Channel: Matsimus

Views: 839,994

Rating: 4.8691287 out of 5

Keywords: mortar, mortars, artillery, marine mortar, mortar firing, 120mm mortar, 81mm mortar, indirect fire, matsimus, mortars firing, fire mission, 120mm Mortar Fire, military, army, army mortar

Id: v772NNOTY8M

Length: 14min 57sec (897 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 13 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/King-of-Nowhere-2015]

Great video! My takeaway is that they shouldn't inflict casualties, they should apply a -1 to LD and a -2 to movement. The guy says several times they aren't actually meant to do the real killing, they are more used to herd the enemy and create fear and area denial.

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How would that work in practice? Exactly like the Phantasm Grenade Launcher. Extremely low strength (seriously a space marine dying to shrapnel is pretty stupid) and applies a -1 LD if you are hit by at least one.