Dismantled weapons and Portage costs

Actionjick

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While pondering more hahas for the 2 dismantled 81mm mortars thread I got to thinking about portage costs of dismantled versus assembled weapons. Btw that was an excellent picture posted by Rocket-Man.

What I was curious about is if the reduced portage costs for a dismantled weapon is an exaggeration of how much easier it is to portage when dismantled? Looking at the picture it seems as if the tubes have straps and the base plate is carried on the back. Would these be enough to significantly reduce the portage cost by 1/4 or more?

I was hoping some of our infantry brethren could give this swabbie some real life insight into carrying these weapons. I only had to carry a wrench ( spanner ) and a coffee cup.🙄
 
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A_T_Great

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While pondering more hahas for the 2 dismantled 81mm mortars thread I got to thinking about portage costs of dismantled versus assembled weapons. Btw that was an excellent picture posted by Rocket-Man.

What I was curious about is if the reduced portage costs for a dismantled weapon is an exaggeration of how much easier it is to portage when dismantled? Looking at the picture it seems as if the tubes have straps and the base plate is carried on the back. Would these be enough to significantly reduce the portage cost by 1/4 or more?

I was hoping some of our infantry brethren could give this swabbie some real life insight into carrying these weapons. I only had to carry a wrench ( spanner ) and a coffee cup.🙄
LOL, yes us swabs have it easy! That's a good question.
 

Actionjick

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I'd also be interested in an approximation of how many mortar rounds they are carrying.

Assuming the guy with the tape on his helmet is the leader what would his counter be? I'll go for 9-1.

Was glancing at notebooks the other day and came across a question we had for AH.

If there are armor leaders why not infantry crew leaders?

I doubt we ever sent it in. Just a scribble while bsing about the game.
 

WuWei

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If there are armor leaders why not infantry crew leaders?

I doubt we ever sent it in. Just a scribble while bsing about the game.
I heard discussions of a scenario that has one as an SSR.
 

von Marwitz

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I'd also be interested in an approximation of how many mortar rounds they are carrying.
The mortar crew of three could not carry much more than the mortar itself: One guy the tube, the second the base plate and the third the bipod. The weight of each component was close to 20kg.

The rounds were packed in boxes of three, weighing roughly 14.5 kg, each individual round having a rough weight of 3.5kg.

17210

With a cadence between 15 to 25 shots per minute, it becomes clear that you need many soldiers to carry ammunition for any meaningful deployment of the weapon if entirely moving on foot. Beside his normal kit, I guess a soldier would not carry more than two boxes with 6 rounds in total.

That said, we can deduce that these weapons were normally not carried around purely on foot.
The Germans had indeed this:

17209

Gefechtskarren If. 9/1 with dismantled GrW 34.

As can be seen, this was normally intended to be drawn by a horse.

17211

As can be seen here, it had a capacity of 20 boxes of ammo @ 3 rounds each for a 60 rounds total. This would make for roughly 300kg of ammo, 60 kg for the GrW34, the weight of the Gefechtskarren itself along with some extra kit of likely exceeding 500kg.

von Marwitz
 

Actionjick

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The mortar crew of three could not carry much more than the mortar itself: One guy the tube, the second the base plate and the third the bipod. The weight of each component was close to 20kg.

The rounds were packed in boxes of three, weighing roughly 14.5 kg, each individual round having a rough weight of 3.5kg.

View attachment 17210

With a cadence between 15 to 25 shots per minute, it becomes clear that you need many soldiers to carry ammunition for any meaningful deployment of the weapon if entirely moving on foot. Beside his normal kit, I guess a soldier would not carry more than two boxes with 6 rounds in total.

That said, we can deduce that these weapons were normally not carried around purely on foot.
The Germans had indeed this:

View attachment 17209

Gefechtskarren If. 9/1 with dismantled GrW 34.

As can be seen, this was normally intended to be drawn by a horse.

View attachment 17211

As can be seen here, it had a capacity of 20 boxes of ammo @ 3 rounds each for a 60 rounds total. This would make for roughly 300kg of ammo, 60 kg for the GrW34, the weight of the Gefechtskarren itself along with some extra kit of likely exceeding 500kg.

von Marwitz
Thanks! Very interesting and informative. Does seem like a lot to be carrying.
 

Gordon

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I thought that was a reflection of their IQs - from "Chickenhawk" by Robert Mason.
 
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