Brandt Mle 27/31

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.[6]

Brandt mle 27
Brandt Mle 27/31 on display at the Romanian Navy Museum.
TypeMortar
Place of originFrance
Service history
Used bySee users section
WarsSecond World War
First Indochina War[1]
Algerian War[2]
Portuguese Colonial War[3]
Vietnam War[4]
Production history
DesignerEdgar Brandt
No. built8000
VariantsL13.7
L/15.6
Specifications
Mass56 kg (123 lb)
Barrel length1.11 m (3 ft 8 in) L/13.7
1.26 m (4 ft 2 in) L/15.6
Crew3[5]
Shell weightLight: 3.25 kg (7 lb 3 oz)
Heavy: 6.5 kg (14 lb 5 oz)
Caliber81 mm (3.2 in)
Elevation+45° to +85°
Traverse8° to 12° variable with elevation[5]
Rate of fire18 rounds per minute
Muzzle velocity174 m/s (570 ft/s)
Effective firing rangeLight: 2.8 km (1.7 mi)
Heavy: 1.2 km (0.75 mi)[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.[7] The mle 27/31 could be disassembled into 3 loads, plus the ammunitions loads,[8] and a complete crew was 10 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.[9] HE and smoke mortar bombs fired by the weapon weighed 3.25 kilograms.[10]

Users
A Senegalese Tirailleurs crew with a Brandt Mle 1927/31 mortar, December 1939.

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.

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.[11] The upgraded 1931 version was used by the Polish Army during, amongst others, the Battle of Westerplatte in 1939.

In Romania, the mortar was licence-produced at the Voina Works in Brașov,[12] with a production rate of 30 pieces per month as of October 1942[13] (over 1,000 such mortars were built in Romania by mid-1943).[14] 360 mortars captured by the Germans from the French were also received in 1942.[15]

Country Weapon name German designation for captured mortars Observation
 Austria8 cm GrW 33(ö)[5]
 Czechoslovakia81.4 mm minomet,8.14 cm GrW 278(t)License-built variant[16]
8 cm minomet vz. 368 cm GrW M.36(t)Modified variant[16]
 Republic of China-French and Austrian versions[5][17]
Type 20 mortar-Local copy produced from 1931 in Jinling Arsenal[17]
 Denmark81.4 mm L/128.14 cm GrW 275(d)[5]
 Estonia
 Finland81 mm Tampella-[5]
 Norway8.1 cm Bombekaster m/35-License-built variant[18]
 FranceMortier Brandt de 81 mm mle 27/318.14 cm GrW 278(f), 8.14 cm GrW 278/1(f)[5]
mle 44 ACC, mle 44 ATS, mle 44 ARE-
 Ireland-
 Kingdom of ItalyMortaio da 81/14 Modello 358.1 cm GrW 276(i)Slightly-modified copy[5]
 Empire of JapanType 3 81 mm mortarSlightly-modified copy[19][20]
Type 97 81 mm infantry mortarModified variant[19]
 Nazi Germany8 cm Granatwerfer 34, Kz 8 cm GrW 42
 Netherlands[21]Mortier van 8 Brandt (M.27/31)8.14 cm GrW 286(h)Produced under license[5]
 Portugalm/937 8cm[3]French variant
 Philippines
 Polandwz. 318 cm GrW 31(p)[5]
 Kingdom of Romania-License-built variant
 Sweden81mm GrK m/29-34-[22]
 Soviet Union82-PM-368.2 cm GrW 274/1(r)Modified copy[23]
82-PM-378.2 cm GrW 274/2(r)Upgraded 82-PM-36[24]
82-PM-418.2 cm GrW 274/3(r)Upgraded 82-PM-37[25]
 United StatesM1 mortar?Modified copy[26]
 Vietnam[4]-French-made
 Kingdom of Yugoslavia8.1 cm MWM 31/38 Kragujevac8.14 cm GrW 270(j)[5]

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

Notes
  1. Ezell, Edward Clinton (1988). Personal firepower. The Illustrated history of the Vietnam War 15. Bantam Books. p. 41. OCLC 1036801376.
  2. Huon, Jean (March 1992). "L'armement français en A.F.N." Gazette des Armes (in French). No. 220. pp. 12–16.
  3. Abbott, Peter; Rodrigues, Manuel (1998). Modern African Wars 2: Angola and Mozambique 1961-74. Osprey Publishing. p. 18.
  4. Rottman, Gordon L. (10 Feb 2009). North Vietnamese Army Soldier 1958–75. Warrior 135. Osprey Publishing. p. 32. ISBN 9781846033711.
  5. Chamberlain & Gander 1975, p. 5
  6. Chris Bishop (2002). The Encyclopedia of Weapons of World War II. Sterling Publishing Company. p. 202. ISBN 978-1-58663-762-0.
  7. Manuel du gradé 1939, p. 308.
  8. Manuel du gradé 1939, pp. 309-310.
  9. Manuel du gradé 1939, p. 311.
  10. Manuel du gradé 1939, p. 310.
  11. Steve Zaloga; W. Victor Madej (1991). The Polish campaign, 1939. Hippocrene Books. p. 82. ISBN 978-0-87052-013-6.
  12. Great Britain. Foreign Office, Ministry of Economic Warfare, 1944, Rumania Basic Handbook, p. 27
  13. Axworthy, Scafes & Craciunoiu 1995, p. 75.
  14. Axworthy, Scafes & Craciunoiu 1995, p. 147.
  15. Axworthy, Scafes & Craciunoiu 1995, p. 76.
  16. Chamberlain & Gander 1975, p. 3.
  17. Ness, Leland; Shih, Bin (July 2016). Kangzhan: Guide to Chinese Ground Forces 1937–45. Helion & Company. pp. 343–345. ISBN 9781910294420.
  18. http://www.kvf.no/vaapen.php?type=BK&weaponid=BK00
  19. Chamberlain & Gander 1975, p. 14.
  20. John Norris (2002). Infantry Mortars of World War II. Osprey Publishing. pp. 39–40. ISBN 978-1-84176-414-6.
  21. Lohnstein, Marc (23 Aug 2018). Royal Netherlands East Indies Army 1936–42. Men-at-Arms 521. Osprey Publishing. p. 13. ISBN 9781472833754.
  22. Gander, Terry J. (2001). "81 mm m/29 mortar". Jane's Infantry Weapons 2002-2003. pp. 4317–4318.
  23. Chamberlain & Gander 1975, p. 28.
  24. Chamberlain & Gander 1975, p. 29.
  25. Chamberlain & Gander 1975, p. 30.
  26. 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.
  • Axworthy, Mark; Scafes, Cornel I.; Craciunoiu, Cristian (1995). Third axis, fourth ally : Romanian armed forces in the European war, 1941-1945. London: Arms and Armour. ISBN 1854092677.
  • Chamberlain, Peter; Gander, Terry (1975). Mortars and rockets. New York: Arco Pub. Co. ISBN 0668038179. OCLC 2067459.
  • Ferrard, Stéphane. "Les mortier Brandt de 60 et 81 mm dans l'Armée française en 1940"
  • Ministère de la guerre. Direction de l'infanterie (1939). "Mortier de 81". Manuel du gradé d'infanterie. VIII - Chapter VI. Charles-Lavauzelle. pp. 308–313.
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