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Type 62 4.2-inch mortar

The Type 62 4.2-inch mortar is a copy of the American M30 4.2-inch (107 mm) mortar . In 1969 ( the 58th year of the Republic of China ), the 61 Ordnance Factory of the Republic of China , which later became the Joint Logistics 202 Ordnance Factory, began to design and manufacture it. In 1970, it was finalized and named Type 62. The characteristic of the Type 62 is its high weight, with a total weight of 304.36 kilograms . The barrel is different from ordinary mortars in that it has a rifled inner bore design, and its hit accuracy is much higher than that of ordinary mortars without rifled smooth bores. Since the Type 62 has rifling , the shells are more like ordinary artillery shells, with a conical cylindrical body. Ordinary mortar shells do not have rifling and must rely on the wings to fly stably . Type 62 mortar shells do not need to use rifling to generate spin.

The Type 62 is too heavy to be carried by infantry. It is transported and used with vehicles. There are three vehicles in the Army of the Republic of China that can carry the Type 62: V-150S , CM-22 , and M106A2 ( a derivative of the M113 ).

42 mortars are also called chemical cannons and are usually used by chemical soldiers to release chemical warfare agents. In addition to chemical warfare agents, smoke bombs, incendiary bombs, and high-explosive bombs are also common.

The 4.2" mortar descended from the old Stokes mortar of the British Army. Britain invented the Stokes in World War I to overcome the disadvantages of gas cloud attacks. Gas clouds could be tremendously effective under the proper conditions, but they required considerable labor, were wholly dependent on the weather, could only be used with a few gases and, by their color and odor, sometimes warned the enemy. The Stokes had a smooth-bore barrel and therefore could not fire shells with pin-point accuracy. On the other hand, it had certain advantages. Troops could easily move it and fire shells at the rapid rate of twenty a minute. Each shell held more than two quarts of toxic agent. Because of these factors a mortar could suddenly overwhelm an enemy position with a large amount of poison gas.

Adoption of a rifled barrel made it necessary for engineers to redesign each component of the mortar, from baseplate to shell fuze. WWI shells had an all-ways fuze to make certain that the tumbling shell would explode no matter whether it landed on its base, side or nose. Fuzes of this type could not be used on a spinning shell since centrifugal force would activate the fuze and cause the shell to burst as it left the muzzle of the mortar. After considerable experimentation, engineers developed a safe, dependable fuze that could be set for impact or time.

The 4.2" mortar first saw action [with the US Army 2nd and 3rd Chemical Mortar Battalions] in the taking of Sicily in the summer of 1943. Mortar squads were among the first waves of troops to hit the beach, and they went into action a few minutes after landing. During the 38-day campaign, they shot 35,000 rounds of ammunition in crash concentration, harassing, interdictory and counter-battery fire, and in tactical smoke screening missions. The mortar made an excellent impression on commanders of infantry, ranger, armored and airborne units. Thereafter there was no question that the USA had taken the right course in turning the chemical mortar into a HE-delivering weapon.

With disks of powder of a certain thickness, the range depended upon the number of disks. The minimum charge, which lobbed the shell only 340 yards, could be lengthened to 4400 yards simply by adding more disks. The maximum gas pressure did not become excessive and there was no disturbance in the ballistics of liquid-filled shells. The disks were cut square, with a hole in the center to allow the disk to slip on the cartridge container. Sufficient disks, sewn together in bundles of different thickness, were placed on each shell before shipment to give a range of 4397 yards. Before the shell was fired, the mortar squad could remove one or more disks to shorten the range.