Below you will find the fifth in a series of designer’s notes articles from The Last Hundred Yards series designer Mike Denson. In this segment he will discuss mortars in LHY. You can also find this article on his ConsimWorld Community page. Enjoy! -Rachel

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Mortars

Before we discuss how mortar support is represented in LHY, it is necessary to briefly share various excerpts from different sources discussing the use and effectiveness of mortars in World War II. Mortars caused more casualties in Normandy than any other weapon. The main reason was because there is no incoming sound, thus, no warning to take cover. German mortar fire was a serious concern amongst the Allies in the OVERLORD campaign. For instance, in the 21st Army Group, a specific committee was formed to study the problem and recommend countermeasures. The operational research unit in the 21^st Army Group produced a report on the subject:

The Germans use mortars in large numbers… In the present campaign, casualties from mortars have been particularly heavy and have contributed as much as anything else to making advances slow and costly. The casualties in the present campaign from mortars have been very heavy, heavier in fact than from all other weapons put together, at least as far as the infantry are concerned…[However] exact figures for mortar casualties are hard to get. Medical records only show the weapon causing the casualty in a few cases. A number of infantry battalion MOs… all agreed in placing the proportion of mortar casualties to total casualties among their own troops as above 70%.

Copp, T. (2000). Montgomery’s Scientists: Operational Research in Northwest Europe. Laurier Centre for Military, Strategic and Disarmament Studies.

In their book, D-Day, Zetterling and Tamelander, two Swedish military historians, discuss German infantry tactics regarding the use of mortars, which for the German infantry was a key weapon:

The battlefield of Normandy was somewhat confined, meaning the defensive area, including likely approach routes, was mapped and plotted in by artillery and mortar observers. When Allied infantry entered the German defensive area, they would come under fire from a few German riflemen. The idea was to get the allied soldiers to drop to the ground for cover on a likely spot selected by a forward observer. When the Allied soldiers ducked for cover, a barrage of mortar fire was immediately under way. The mortar fire would come in quickly, hit with great accuracy, and usually have a devastating effect. This is because they knew in advance where to fire, and the crew was ready and waiting to fire. The allied officers had a hard time convincing their soldiers that it was far less dangerous to keep moving than to stop when taking light small arms fire. 70% losses to mortar fire may be exaggerated, but in Normandy, and probably elsewhere, the mortar was the deadliest German light infantry weapon.

Zetterling, N. and Tamelander, M. (2003) [1995]. Avgörandets Ögonblick:Invasionen i Normandie [Determining the Decisive Moments: The Invasion of Normandy] (in Swedish). Stockholm: Norstedts.

Roles of the Mortar: Maneuver units benefit greatly from indirect fire capabilities, and the mortar was invariably the single most powerful indirect fire element of the infantry battalion. The primary role of mortars was to provide indirect fire support, at a company or battalion level, in the assault or defense of an objective. In small unit combat, mortars serve as both a killer and suppressor of enemy forces and an enhancer of friendly maneuverability. On the attack, the mortar is used primarily to suppress the enemy, inhibiting his fire and maneuver while allowing friendly forces to gain a tactical advantage.

Defensively, the mortar was used to break up enemy troop concentrations, reduce the enemy’s mobility and channel his assault forces into engagement areas, and break up the enemy combined arms team and destroy his synchronization. Each mortar section could fire an effective concentration in an area up to 100 square yards, making the 6-tube mortar platoon a potent force, although there were significant tactical limitations to what could be achieved. Perhaps the biggest drawback of the mortar was the high rate of ammunition expenditure and the need to husband ammunition. Thus, target selection was vital. The average 80 mm mortar round weighed 9 to 10 lbs. with a rate of 15 to 20 rounds a minute. A section could easily burn through 300 to 400 lbs. of ammo in a minute—and that’s just for one section. For an entire mortar platoon that would mean almost a thousand pounds of ammo. Mortars could also deliver smoke rounds. Smokescreens were important tactical tools. Their intent was to deceive the enemy; did the appearance of smoke signal an advance under its cover against a particular sector, or did it merely conceal a feint by a few men while the real blow was struck elsewhere? Unfortunately, smoke rarely adhered to the plan in quite the way it was intended. A sudden gust of wind could reveal the force maneuvering behind it, or worse, blow back the smoke and blind the advancing troops instead. During a forced withdrawal, mortars could quickly lay a smokescreen to cover the retreat of a company and greatly mitigate the effectiveness of harassing enemy fire.

Organization: Mortars were most devastating when used in numbers. Placing individual mortar sections under the direct control of rifle companies depleted the mortar platoon’s firepower. Splitting them up into company level units denied the battalion commander the opportunity to deliver a single, concentrated barrage from the necessary minimum of four tubes. If, as with the later German model, he had more than six tubes to work with, he could afford a more generous allocation to his rifle companies, but ultimately the mortar platoon was a battalion asset, not a substitute for lack of explosive firepower in the rifle units. The American mortar platoon typically consisted of six 81 mm mortars while a German mortar platoon consisted of six 8 cm mortars and later an additional two 8 cm or 12 cm mortars. Each American rifle company included its own 60 mm mortar section for indirect fire support. Although the German rifle companies did not have inherent mortar sections, it was not uncommon for a single 8 cm mortar section to be assigned as direct support to a rifle company.

Fire Control: Mortar fire control was reliant upon coordination between the mortar crews themselves and their forward observers. Fire control could be exercised either from an Observation Post (OP) or mobile fire controller. The OP, more commonly used in a defensive role, was sited forward of the mortar position, and was linked by telephone line, a more reliable method than the radio of the day. The mobile fire controller, more commonly used in an offensive role, would typically accompany the headquarters of a rifle company, and would be linked by radio to the mortar position. This allowed him to call in fire missions to engage targets of opportunity or help overcome stubborn points of resistance out of sight of the OP.

Mortar support was a key element in combat at the battalion level. As such, we have attempted to model it as accurately as possible and yet keep it simple. Both mortar platoons and mortar sections are represented in LHY. It is important to accurately represent both the fire control systems and the brutal battlefield effects of mortar fire, not only the killing and suppressing effects but also its effects on a unit’s ability to maneuver. As it was historically, mortar fire is the single most powerful element in LHY. The timing and use of one’s mortar support is critical in the success of small unit operations.

In our next segment we will discuss Platoon Leaders in LHY.

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Previous Articles:

The Last Hundred Yards Designer’s Notes: Intro & Time Lapse System

The Last Hundred Yards Designer’s Notes: Initiative & Activation Cycle

The Last Hundred Yards Designer’s Notes: Maneuver & Fire Mechanics

The Last Hundred Yards Designer’s Notes: Armor