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Well either memories are fading or something is wrong with those dates on H.E.
I have spoken to several lads now who went down south with 2 and 3 PARA and all agree it was the 2" mortar that was taken not the later 51".
But they all independantly stated it was only H.E. taken with them and if they wanted PARA ILLUM or SMOKE the Mortars Platoon would provide cover, as the lads tabbing had enough to carry already, with link etc
I was not aware of any 2" HE being issued for the Falklands, but it's not impossible and would explain why stock was retained until ten years ago when we blew the last of it up at Otterburn!
There were all sorts of problems with the 51mm HE - it had a pre fragmented body along the lines of the L2 grenade and the BL755 cluster bomb. The frag pattern was supposed to be as good as the 81 HE, but that may have been marketing fluff.. There were at least two versions of the 51mm HE - one conical and one like a (hmmm how to be polite here?) - "cylindrical with a swollen head"..!
I had always assumed that the 2" HE was held against some "Speshul People"'s requirement! .. but I can assure you that it's all gone now!
I of course meant 51mm not 51" to ensure the difference was clarified, from old and new.
Just to clarify, it was 2" HE used down south, so your info does corroberate the stored use of the round right up until late 90's and beyond;)
Been away for two weeks, interesting stuff about the 2" mortar, a lot to learn the more you delve and collect. Keep it going.
Your Marketing stuff parable with ammo reared its ugly head with the Grenade MG too when those supposed fantastic ranges it was supposed to reach out to just didn't add up. Or it might be that they just got metres mixed up with centifeet! Never my thing but I used to look at drill and inert rounds and think to myself '.....how the xxxx do they get that range out of this much propellant? Are they using dynamite?'
Try to wrack your brains with this teaser bombdoc. When did the last Energa stuff leave us. I never saw any after the mid/lateish 60's and the SASC docs report that it wasn't taught after that when all the L1A1 rifle launchers were withdrawn. Zillions of the launchers and leather cases seemed to end up at Ord disposals at Thatcham. Only they weren't 'disposed' but just sat there in 'the cage'.
Don't know about the Brits or others , but WW2 USGI mortars used Ballistite . The closest thing it compares to that we'd be familiar with is Hercules Bullseye with an added water repellant .
Chris
I thought that Balistite was a slow burning powder as Hercules Bullseye is a fast pistol powder. The Brit Balistite 28 gauge cartridge also contained black powder to aid ignition to set off the Balistite. The way the black powder was arranged in the earlier cartridges Mk 1 47 and 55 grains caused the early Mazak fins to split upon firing causing irregular flight patterns of the bomb. Still using the same Balistite charge weight 47 and 55 grains the new Mk 2 cartridges had the black powder arranged in a different way inside the cartridge. The No1 tail unit (not Mazak) had a extra row of flash holes drilled into the fin, the No 2 tail fin (Mazak) tail fins were thus marked in red paint on on of the fins for each bomb until the steel tail fins the Mk 3 and 4 were made. They also made a 17 and 18grain Balistite cartridge for vehicle use to propell 2" smoke from tanks. There was also a 73 grain cartridge for the signal success round which was a multi star round in red and green with a parachute. The equivalent North American powder to balistite was know as just Hercules.
Balistite was slow....compare to TNT and such . My info came from the Hercules factory techs 30-40 years ago from talking to the old timers there who had made it long ago . I believe that black powder might have been in there , too . I recall something about a small 5 grain-ish charge in a bag next to the primer ? Seems that later in the war they added a small straw tube up the center above the primer to get a better burn. It would allow the primer flash or BP flash to get to more of the charge at once.
Chris
This small tube of gunpowder up the centre above the primer was the same arangment as the Mk1 47 and 55 grain cartridge which ignited the Ballistite too quickly causing higher pressure. The gunpowder arrangement was changed so the Ballistite sat on top of the gunpowder slightly slowing the rate of combustion. I wonder how Ballistite would compair in burn rate to the modern Hurcules powder such as Bullseye, red dot, blue dot, Unique, 2400 etc in that kind of order?
Phew........... Can you see now why Armourers never touched ammo stuff and ammo techs never touched anything to do with weapons