M2 Mortar - In The Movies

A brief overview of the M2 Mortar as seen in the movies.

Movies/Video Games Featured:

The Siege of Jadotville 2016
Hacksaw Ridge 2016
The Front Line 2011
71: Into the Fire 2010
The Pacific 2010
Miracle at St. Anna 2008
Band of Brothers 2001
Saving Private Ryan 1998
Operation Dumbo Drop 1995
Hot Shots! Part Duex 1993
Too Late the Hero 1970
The Bridge at Remagen 1969
Hell is for Heroes 1962
Never so Few 1959
Go For Broke 1951
The Fighting Seabees 1944

#ww2 #weapons

[jesusdeputy]

Johnny u okay? i saw the "morter 19" video

[claytonwatson]

Hello johnny, I am a 81mm mortar man in the United States marine corps and I must say that going into this video I expected a lot of inaccuracies (a lot of people do not properly understand mortars) but you did a excellent job explaining them. I was impressed by your knowledge of the fuzing and how propelent charges work. Thankyou for your accurate video.

[RileyZilla]

The creator of Gojira and director of many Godzilla films Ishiro Honda had a near death experience with one of these in the war. As he was running a mortar landed right in front of him but failed to explode; later under the cover of darkness he found it and took it back home as a souvenir that sat on his work desk until his death.

[tedrussell]

I have a friend of mine that was on a 60 mortar in ww2. He is the last living “Band of Brothers”Brad Freeman. He is 97 at the moment and still living. He cannot hear out of his right ear because of the mortar. Good man!

[BeefyRider]

Very happy to see Go For Broke! get namedropped. One of my favorite WWII movies.

[rider]

One thing that is surprisingly uncommon in movies is the MK19, would love to see that!

[kturrent]

Another good one Johnny! You could mix it up and do some pre-ww1 guns, maybe a flintlock or some civil war guns.

[paratrooper]

Great vid, well thought out and researched. I was a Mortar crew member for my entire US Army enlistment - however I was always assigned to 81mm mortars in Weapons Platoons and we were never equipped with the much smaller M2. This was a long time ago and some of my memories are pretty slim but I do remember how much effort was required to hump - means carry - individual pieces of the weapon in the Central Highlands of Vietnam. Now, the 81 was quit a bit heavier than the M2 and one man could not have carried more than one part of the gun for any distance and rounds which came in several different flavors were another matter entirely. Im sure there were Mortar Platoons that really chewed up the VietCong but in my whole year of carrying one or another of those 81mm gun parts we never fired our weapon in actual combat although we carried one gun along with several rounds everywhere we moved. Now we did set up and fire our gun every time we set up for the night and if in or on an established Landing Zone we could be sure to fire several boxes of HE or Illumination but again on a Search and Destroy mission we would Zero our gun in and fire but in combat in the boonies the 81 became a heavy piece of equipment that we never fired!

[bigblue]

Interesting that many armies of WW2 used small calibre mortars at platoon and company level. Though one exception I can think of is the German army with their 81mm mortars.

[NoMoreCrumbs]

The Shuri Castle mission in the Okinawa campaign of CoD: World at War directly cribs that mortar tossing scene from Saving Private Ryan, except I think you're tossing Japanese mortar shells in that one. Same principle, though.

Would love to see one about the B-4, Stalin's Sledgehammer

[harryb]

Never used one for real but have used plenty while reenacting including 60mm and 82mm, and it always leaves me with two impressions. 1st no matter how much I try to learn I can never comprehend how they are aimed, and 2nd I'm bloody glad I never have had to use them for real as their heavy and cumbersome. Especially the base plate that often bounces into you're leg when running and can cause serious injuries due to the spikes on the underside. Excellent video once again.

[gooraway]

Very realistic when all the enemy soldiers scream together after the mortar round goes off in 'None so Few' about as realistic as hitting them without a sight or baseplate on the mortar

[calebpresley]

Would love to see some more naval related spotlights. Fletcher class destroyers maybe? Keep up the great work!

[thekhoifish]

Since seeing this mortar in Band of Brothers and the Pacific, every time I drop empty cans into those recycling boxes I think to myself “hang it- fire!”

[DeadThrallOfficial]

I was a 60 amd 81mm mortarman with 2 tours in Iraq. Just wanted to say. Prettymuch spot on with the ect. I very much appreciated the inclusion of the fact all light mortarmen are just riflemen half of the time, and the use of Add on suplemental charges for extended range. However. Its a bit backwards. The rounds themselves come with the additional charges already attatched. You Remove them to get the range youre after, not add them. They have 4 charges on them with the base charge in the stem of the round. We rairly fire at charge 4. Usually 2 or 3. And never above charge 1 or 2 for handheld mode ( which ia a real thing even today that we train for. Your vid shows pretty good depiction of handheld mode at the 9:33 mark) Charge Zero is what you see in most war movies which is for Danger Close missions. But the funny looking charges dont look as sexy on film so most movies always show the bare rounds at charge zero. But it rairly reflects the ranges fired on screen I wish movies reflected that. You definitely did your research. Tho I would have added a few comparisons to modern 60mm mortars as many viewers still have misconceptions about their use. For example. Mortars are no longer efective in engaging armored vehicals. As the armor on most modern tanks/APCs is now thicker and made of modern materials, with add on reactive armor packages avaliable. While they could in theory still damage the tracks or wheels making it less mobile. The current doctrine jokingly says "the only way to kill a tank with a mortar is drop a round down the open hatch" however it is still VERY usefull in engaging Infantry support for armored sections. And you can still use White Phosphorus rounds for smoke screens, and catching shit on fire. Tanks still dont like being engulfed in flames and they cant shoot at what they cant see. Also modern mortar rounds "at least ones used by developed nations" can no longer be used like hand grenades. You cant take a modern round slam it on something hard and chuck it at the enemy. Nothing will happen. For the saftey of mortar crews the way the rounds arm has changed. So you cant accidently blow yourself up by dropping the round on the ground. People still think you can do this with rounds today, since nothing in pop culture/content/film has told them otherwise. Over all I enjoyed the vid and Im a huge nerd about Mortars I could talk about this shit all day lol.

[djolley]

This illustrates the ranges in which modern combat usually takes place, at least a mile or more. (There are many notable exceptions in the Pacific in WWII, in Vietnam, and in urban warfare in the war on terror). Longer range weapons like mortars and machine guns do a big share of the killing.

[pvt.potato]

2.6k views only? you are absolutely criminally underrated!

[Rrgr]

In the Korean war, some US grenadiers used mortar rounds as rifle grenades, I was surprised to find that the Garand could endure that recoil, you can find some pictures and history about it in the internet, as it seems it was indeed effective.

[minuteman]

I have had the opportunity to fire a few rds from a 60mm mortar and two things struck me at the time. The concussion is a real smack in the face. They are not really "loud" but your head is right near the muzzle when you drop the bomb and it feels like your whole body was punched at the same time. The other thing is the rounds seem to take an eternity to reach their target. Since they're pointed at a steep angle, they fly very high in the air before starting to drop to the ground and it seem to take forever. I'm just guessing because I never timed it but I'd say 10-15 seconds from launch to landing.

[admiral_t]

Ahhh the morter 19, a formidable weapon of war! Anyway, good stuff as always Johnny!