Brandt Mle 1935
{{Infobox weapon
|name=Brandt Mle 1935
| image= Mortier de 60mm, modèle 1935 clean.png
| image_size = 300
|caption= Side view of the Brandt Mle 1935
|origin= France
|type=Mortar
|is_ranged=yes
|is_explosive= yes
|is_artillery=
|service=
|used_by=
|wars=World War II
Second Sino-Japanese War
Chinese Civil War
First Indochina War{{cite book|title=Personal firepower|first=Edward Clinton|last= Ezell|publisher=Bantam Books|year=1988|series=The Illustrated history of the Vietnam War 15|oclc=1036801376|url=https://archive.org/details/personalfirepowe00ezel|url-access=registration|page=[https://archive.org/details/personalfirepowe00ezel/page/41 41]|isbn=978-0-553-34549-0 }}
Algerian War{{cite magazine|language=fr|magazine=Gazette des Armes |issue=220 |date=March 1992|title=L'armement français en A.F.N.|pages=12–16|url=http://fr.1001mags.com/parution/gazette-des-armes/numero-220-mars-1992/page-16-17-texte-integral|first=Jean|last=Huon}}
Vietnam War{{cite book|title=North Vietnamese Army Soldier 1958–75|series=Warrior 135|first=Gordon L. |last=Rottman|date= 10 Feb 2009|publisher=Osprey Publishing|isbn=9781846033711|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iC21CwAAQBAJ|page=32}}
Laotian Civil War
Cambodian Civil War
Portuguese Colonial War
|designer=Edgar Brandt
|design_date=
|manufacturer=
|unit_cost=
|production_date=
|number= Over 4,900 (before 1940)
|variants=Brandt Mle 1935 modifié 1944
|spec_label=
|weight={{convert|19.7|kg|lboz|abbr=on}}
|length=
|part_length={{convert|72.4|cm|ftin|abbr=on|sigfig=1}}
|width=
|height=
|diameter=
|cartridge=Light HE shell: {{convert|1.3|kg|lboz|abbr=on}}
Heavy HE shell: {{convert|2.2|kg|lboz|abbr=on}}
|caliber={{convert|60.7|mm|in|abbr=on}}
|barrels=
|action=
|rate=20-26 rounds per minute
|velocity={{convert|158|m/s|ft/s|abbr=on}}
|range=Light HE shell: {{convert|100|m|ft|abbr=on}} to {{convert|1.7|km|mi|abbr=on}}
Heavy HE shell: {{convert|100|m|ft|abbr=on}} to {{convert|.95|km|mi|abbr=on}}
|max_range=
|feed=
|sights=
|breech=
|recoil=
|carriage=
|traverse= 20.5° at 75° elevation
|filling=
|filling_weight=Light HE shell: {{convert|160|g|oz|abbr=on}}
|detonation=
|yield=
}}
The Brandt Mle 1935 60-mm mortar ({{langx|fr|Mortier de 60 mm Mle 1935}}) was a company-level indirect-fire weapon of the French army during the Second World War. Designed by Edgar Brandt, it was copied by other countries, such as the United States and China, as well as purchased and built by Romania. Modified in 1944, the mortar continued to be used by France after the war until at least the 1960s.[https://web.archive.org/web/20110714120008/http://www.mortarsinminiature.com/images/TomBebb/TomBebbMortMans/LeMortierDe60mmMod1935M44.jpg French manual cover page image]
Description
The Brandt Mle 1935 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.{{sfn|Manuel du gradé 1939|p=283}} The team of the Mle 1935 was made of five men: a leader, a firer, an artificer and two suppliers.{{sfn|Manuel du gradé 1939|p=448}} 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, igniting a gunpowder charge, which would propel the bomb out of the tube, and towards the target.{{sfn|Manuel du gradé 1939|p=288}}
HE mortar bombs fired by the weapon weighed 1.33 kilograms.{{sfn|Manuel du gradé 1939|p=292}} A French infantry company in 1940 was allocated one Mle 1935 mortar.{{sfn|Manuel du gradé 1939|p=498(32)}}
This weapon provided a pattern for other light mortars used during World War II. Among the best known is the U.S. 60-mm M2 mortar. Captured examples were used by the Germans as the 6 cm Granatwerfer 225(f).[http://www.lexikon-der-wehrmacht.de/Waffen/granatwerfer-R.htm lexicon-der-wehrmacht.de]
File:60 mm Brandt M1935 Bucharest.jpg.]]
Romania also purchased and license-built the Mle 1935 mortar prior to and during the Second World War.{{sfn|Axworthy 1995|p=29}} The mortars were produced at the Voina Works in Brașov,Great Britain. Foreign Office, Ministry of Economic Warfare, 1944, Rumania Basic Handbook, p. 27 with a production rate of 26 pieces per month as of October 1942.{{sfn|Axworthy 1995|p=75}}
Users
- {{flag|France}}
- {{flag|United States}}
- {{flag|Nazi Germany}}
- {{flag|Portugal}}
- {{flag|Kingdom of Romania}}
- {{flag|Republic of China}}
- {{flag|Cambodia}}
- {{flagicon|Laos|1952}} Kingdom of Laos
- {{flag|North Vietnam}}
See also
Notes
{{reflist}}
References
- {{cite book|last=Axworthy|first= Mark|title=Third Axis Fourth Ally|isbn=9781854092670|location= London|publisher=Arms and Armour Press|date=1995|ref={{harvid|Axworthy 1995}}}}
- Ferrard, Stéphane. Les mortier Brandt de 60 et 81 mm dans l'Armée française en 1940.{{full citation needed|date=December 2013}}
- {{cite book|author=Ministère de la guerre. Direction de l'infanterie|title= Manuel du gradé d'infanterie |chapter=Mortier de 60|volume=VIII - Chapter VI|date=1939|publisher=Charles-Lavauzelle|chapter-url=https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k9622860g/f303.item|url=https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k9622860g/f1.image|pages=283–307|ref={{harvid|Manuel du gradé 1939}}}}
External links
- [http://www.worldwar2.ro/arr/?article=289 worldwar2.ro article on Brandt 60-mm mortar]
{{WWIIFrenchInfWeapons}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Brandt Mle 1935}}
Category:World War II infantry mortars of France
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