Re: [SG-WW2] Mortars

In the US Armored infantry battalion, each rifle platoon contained a
mortar squad with a single 60MM mortar, and a light machine gun squad
with two light machine guns. In the standard US infantry battalion, a
weapons platoon contained a mortar section with 3 squads, each with a
60MM mortar, and a machinegun section with two squads each with a light
machine gun, although it appears that the machine guns were habitually
attached to the rifle platoons, and veteran units usually managed to
scrounge a third machine gun somewhere. By 1944 the German infantry
company usually had two short 8cm mortars I I believe the proper
designation was kurze 8cm mittlere Granatenwerfer 43)in lieu of the
50MM, and four 120MM mortars in the battalion heavy weapons company.
Incidently, you have to take the whole TOE thing with a grain of salt.
In the Battle of the Bulge, the US 2nd Infantry Division had 50% more
automatic weapons (BARs and various types of machine guns) in the ranks
than it was aut!
 ho!
rized by TOE. Soldiers frequently take steps to correct the deficiencies
they perceive in their equipment authorizations.
gzg-l@csua.berkeley.edu wrote:
> Claus

Following on from yesterday's topic on SG2 -> WW2 conversions, I
ventured into the loft and dug out some of my reference books (as well
as a lot of other stuff I'd forgotten about, like half-a-dozen unmade FT
ships and a mint-condition copy of the original Full Thrust rules).

I came up with the following for mortar ToEs in various nations :

German Infantry Battalion :
  3 50mm mortars in each rifle company (replaced by 2 half-track mounted
80mm in PzGren units)
  6 80mm mortars in each battalion (half-track mounted in PzGren units)
  Panzer Grenadier battalions also had 2 75mm infantry guns

Russian Rifle Battalion :
  3 50mm mortars in each rifle company
  4-6 82mm mortars in each battalion

US Infantry Battalion :
  3 60mm mortars in each rifle company
  6 81mm mortars in each battalion
  Armoured Infantry battalions had 3 81mm mortars in M3 half tracks
(M21) and 3 M7 priests

British Infantry Battalion
  1 2" mortar in each rifle platoon (3 per company)
  6 3" mortars in each battalion

The deployment is surprisingly similar across all of the nationalities.
The differences start coming in when you reach brigade or regimental
level with some nations deploying heavier mortars and others using light
howitzers or infantry guns - but this is beyond the scope of SG2.

Tony

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Tony Francis
Senior Software Engineer
Kuju Entertainment