Stokes Mortar
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| Stokes Mortar | |
|---|---|
| Type | Light mortar |
| Place of origin | United Kingdom |
| Service history | |
| Used by | British Army, British Commonwealth armies |
| Wars | World War I |
| Production history | |
| Designer | Sir Wilfred Stokes KBE |
| Designed | 1915 |
| Specifications | |
| Crew | Two |
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|
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| Shell | HE: (high explosive) 9 lb 14 oz (4.5 kg) |
| Calibre | 3 inch |
| Action | Trip |
| Elevation | 45-90° |
| Rate of fire | 22 rounds per minute |
| Maximum range | 1,200 yards (1097 m) |
| Filling | amatol |
The Stokes Mortar was a British trench mortar invented by Sir Wilfred Stokes KBE which was issued to the British Army and the Commonwealth armies during the latter half of the First World War.
[edit] History
Frederick Wilfred Scott Stokes - later to become Sir Wilfred Stokes KBE - designed the mortar in January 1915. The British Army was at the time trying to develop a weapon which would be a match for the Gwere at that time keen to develop a match for the Imperial German Army's Minenwerfer mortar which was in use on the Western Front.
The mortar was in no sense a new weapon, although it had fallen out of general usage since the Napoleonic period. In fact, while the British and French worked on developing new mortars, they resorted to issuing century old mortars for use in action.
Stokes' design was initially rejected in June 1915 because it was unable to utilise existing stocks of British mortar ammunition, and it took the intervention of David Lloyd George (at that time Minister of Munitions) and Lieutenant-Colonel J.C. Matheson of the Trench Warfare Supply Department (who reported to Lloyd George) to expedite manufacture of the Stokes mortar.
The Stokes Mortar remained in service until 1936, when it was superseded by the Ordnance ML 3 inch mortar, and some remained in use by New Zealand forces until after the Second World War.
As well as receiving a knighthood for inventing the mortar, Stokes was given several forms of monetary reward by the Ministry of Munitions for his invention including a royalty of £1 per Stokes mortar shell produced.
[edit] Description
The Stokes Mortar was a simple weapon, consisting of an unrifled metal tube fixed to a base plate (to absorb recoil) with a lightweight bipod mount. 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.
The cast iron mortar bombs were 3 inches in diameter and weighed around 4.5 kg. They were fitted with a modified hand grenade fuse on the front, with a perforated tube containing a propellant charge and an impact-sensitive cap at the rear.
The Stokes Mortar could fire as many as 22 bombs per minute and had a maximum range of 1,200 yards.
