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General US Airborne mortar team question

S

snakeeyes506th

Mortarman
I was wondering if the Mortar teams in the Airborne would have carried their disassembled mortars on or in packboards or by hand? I know it may be a lame question just curious as I dont want to give them one if they dont really need it persay.
Thanks
Snake
 
From Mark Bando's Trigger Time web site:

60mm mortar: Rounds per weapon: 80, each mortar jumped on 3 men. 14 riflemen jump with 1 round each. 3 mortar squad members jump with 4 each in M6 bag; 54 dropped in bundles and carried in cart (4 carts per company).

81mm mortar: Rounds per weapon: 54, dropped in bundle;carried by 3 men. 30 rounds in cart, plus 6 rounds on each of 4 men, or 5 rounds on 4 men and 4 rounds on 1. (cart and all rounds dropped in bundle). 80% H.E. light, 20% White Phosphorus.
Click to expand...

However, I imagine the carts were not highly mobile for some terrain and the baseplate and tube were carried by hand, even perhaps with some improvisation. I was not able to find a WWII reference denoting a packboard being used by airborne troops, but I would not doubt it happened.
 
Never saw a infantry mortar team using a cart to carry their mortars. The smallest guy in the squad got the base plate, the next guy got the tube, and everyone else humped ammo. Also the basic load for most abn units should of had all troopers carrying a couple of 60mm mortar rounds.
 
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