WW2 gunnery range - Mortar bonanza !

[ww2digger]

Hi all


A good friend of mine told me of a location in which he had found a 'load' of mortars. Armed with the information he'd given me, I spent a good 4 hours on the net trying to find reference to the site being used as a range.


I found nothing.


Undeterred I have spent the last 4 weeks tracking down the landowner. Finally I managed to find him and he gave me permission to search the site. So off I went......


If it was an unrecorded WW2 range, chances are the place would be jammed with relics. Only problem was my search area was restricted, as I promised not to search in his growing crops, so had to limit my search to the edge of the fields and two small wooded areas.


I was having a relatively good day, finding a few 2 inch mortar fins and loads of spent bullets. Then I got to a stream........


.....you have to watch the video to found out what happened in the stream !!!











Anyway, I ended up with this little lot......

Lots of 2 inch nose fuzes and bits of fuze.....

And a close up of the 2 inch fins......

Here are some of the nose fuzes after cleaning.....

....and some of the 37 fins I found after I'd cleaned them, (yes.....37 !)

If you find any fins, there will always be a date on the base cap.....

....and on one of the fins.....

Not bad for a 3 hour search


Laters


ww2digger

 

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[mindcrime1988]

Pretty cool finds! I'm surprised you did not come across a live one with all those pieces lying around.

 

[Gunrunner61]

You said that the "live" one you found in the creek was a practice round......Did you recover it as well?............HH and be Carefull....

 

[EODsmitty]

Where did you find these? 2 in mortars were British mortars. I have found them on some ranges where joint training had been conducted. The U.S. might have bought some to test. They did the same thing with the Stokes mortar. The Brit 3 inch mortar or trench mortar was designed in WWI as an intermediate weapon. It covered the area past hand grenade range, but shorter than artillery range. The Stokes had an always acting fuze because it tumbled through the air end over end.

The U.S version was 4 inches. The next evolution was to the 4.2 inch. Sorry, I got carried away. Lol

Smitty