Brandt Mle 27/31

Brandt mle 27
Brandt Mle 27/31 on display at the Romanian Navy Museum.
Type Mortar
Place of origin France
Service history
Used by See users section
Wars Second World War
Algerian War[1]
Portuguese Colonial War[2]
Vietnam War[3]
Production history
Designer Edgar Brandt
No. built 8000
Variants L13.7
L/15.6
Specifications
Weight 56 kg (123 lb)
Barrel length 1.11 m (3 ft 8 in) L/13.7
1.26 m (4 ft 2 in) L/15.6
Crew 3[4]
Shell weight Light: 3.25 kg (7 lb 3 oz)
Heavy: 6.5 kg (14 lb 5 oz)
Caliber 81 mm (3.2 in)
Elevation +45° to +85°
Traverse 8° to 12° variable with elevation[4]
Rate of fire 18 rounds per minute
Muzzle velocity 174 m/s (570 ft/s)
Effective firing range Light: 2.8 km (1.7 mi)
Heavy: 1.2 km (0.75 mi)[4]

The Brandt mle 27/31 mortar was a regulation weapon of the French army during the Second World War. Designed by Edgar Brandt, it was a refinement of the Stokes mortar. The Brandt mortar was highly influential, being licensed built or copied by numerous countries.[5]

Description

The Brandt mle 27/31 was a simple and effective weapon, consisting of a smoothbore metal tube fixed to a base plate (to absorb recoil), with a lightweight bipod mount. The mle 27/31 could be disassembled into 3 loads and a normal crew was 3 men. When a mortar bomb was dropped into the tube, an impact sensitive primer in the base of the bomb would make contact with a firing pin at the base of the tube, and detonate, firing the bomb towards the target. Mortar bombs fired by the weapon weighed either 3.25 kilograms or 6.9 kilograms.

This weapon along with the Stokes Mortar provided the pattern for most World War II era light mortars. France, Russia, Italy, China and the United States all had weapons built from this design many times with similar weights, dimensions and performance.

Users

In 1928, an unlicensed Polish copy was made as the Avia wz.28, but due to French pressure it was abandoned in 1931 because the French Brandt company held the patent for the ammunition. The Polish then produced a licensed copy as the wz.31 model (Polish: Moździerz piechoty 81 mm wz. 31) starting in 1935; 1,050 were made in Pruszków. By 1939, the Polish army was equipped with some 1,200 Stokes-Brandt mortars, most of them the newer 1931 model. Each Polish infantry battalion was intended to be equipped with four such mortars, but there were not enough available to fulfill this disposition.[6] The upgraded 1931 version was used by the Polish Army during, amongst others, the Battle of Westerplatte in 1939.

Country[4] Weapon name German designation for captured mortars
 Austria8 cm GrW 33(ö)
 Czechoslovakia8 cm minomet vz. 36, 81.4 mm minomet8 cm GrW M.36(t), 8.14 cm GrW 278(t)
 Republic of China
 Denmark81.4 mm L/128.14 cm GrW 275(d)
 Estonia
 Finland81 mm Tampella
 FranceMortier Brandt de 81 mm mle 27/31, mle 44 ACC, mle 44 ATS, mle 44 ARE8.14 cm GrW 278(f), 8.14 cm GrW 278/1(f)
 Greece
 Ireland
 Kingdom of ItalyMortaio da 81/14 Modello 358.1 cm GrW 276(i)
 Empire of JapanType 97 81 mm infantry mortar[7]
 Nazi Germany8 cm Granatwerfer 34, Kz 8 cm GrW 42
 NetherlandsMortier van 8 Brandt (M.27/31)8.14 cm GrW 286(h)
 Portugalm/937 8cm[2]
 Philippines
 Polandwz. 318 cm GrW 31(p)
 Kingdom of Romania
 Soviet Union82-PM-36, 82-PM-37, 82-PM-418.2 cm GrW 274/1(r), 8.2 cm GrW 274/2(r), 8.2 cm GrW 274/3(r)
 United StatesM1 mortar[8]
 Vietnam[3]
 Kingdom of Yugoslavia8.1 cm MWM 31/38 Kragujevac8.14 cm GrW 270(j)

See also

  • Reihenwerfer - An armored self-propelled barrage mortar based on the mle 27/31.

Notes

  1. ↑ Huon, Jean (March 1992). "L'armement français en A.F.N." Gazette des Armes (in French). No. 220. pp. 12–16.
  2. 1 2 Abbott, Peter; Rodrigues, Manuel (1998). Modern African Wars 2: Angola and Mozambique 1961-74. Osprey Publishing. p. 18.
  3. 1 2 Rottman, Gordon L. (10 Feb 2009). North Vietnamese Army Soldier 1958–75. Warrior 135. Osprey Publishing. p. 32. ISBN 9781846033711.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Chamberlain, Peter (1975). Mortars and rockets. Gander, Terry. New York: Arco Pub. Co. p. 5. ISBN 0668038179. OCLC 2067459.
  5. ↑ Chris Bishop (2002). The Encyclopedia of Weapons of World War II. Sterling Publishing Company. p. 202. ISBN 978-1-58663-762-0.
  6. ↑ Steve Zaloga; W. Victor Madej (1991). The Polish campaign, 1939. Hippocrene Books. p. 82. ISBN 978-0-87052-013-6.
  7. ↑ John Norris (2002). Infantry Mortars of World War II. Osprey Publishing. p. 39. ISBN 978-1-84176-414-6.
  8. ↑ Ian V. Hogg (2001). The American Arsenal: The World War II Official Standard Ordnance Catalog of Small Arms, Tanks, Armored Cars, Artillery, Antiaircraft Guns, Ammunition, Grenades, Mines, Etc. Greenhill Books. p. 134. ISBN 978-1-85367-470-9.

References

  • Dictionnaire de la Seconde Guerre mondiale, 1982 ed.
  • Ferrard, Stéphane. "Les mortier Brandt de 60 et 81 mm dans l'Armée française en 1940"
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