2" British mortar lanyard

[Stanleyrf89]

Hi,

Does anyone know how the pull lanyard on a British 2" mortar is constructed?

From photographs they look like a cotton cord plaited to create a 4"ish long pull cord, I can't find a part listed, so are they local armourer manufactured, and if so how and from what material?

All information very gratefully received.

Information

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[Peter Laidler]

The landyard was made from a length of pullthrough. It was threaded through the hole in the firing lever and the end woven back into itself. What most of us used to do was use the looped flanelette end of the pullthrough as the 'long' end so that you only had to weave one end (the end that went through the fiting lever hole) back into itself. Done zillions of them!

[Stanleyrf89]

Thanks Peter, I shall have a go and post a picture when I'm done, please be kind on your feedback as this will be my first one!

Regards

Peter

[Gil Boyd]

A brilliant piece of kit, but with everything...................... as long as the user could equate to the "Angle of Dangle and knew his ranges" you could drop the round into a 10 foot circle at 600 metres

[Topfmine]

Have a lanyard but no lever to fit it to.

[Peter Laidler]

Lever is absolute simplicity itself to make. Never made one but seem to remember that they were a tubular shaft with squared off centre welded at an angle to the lever. Some were actually square section shaft which makes it even easier. Small nut and washer secures it to the sear axis point. How's that for memory?

GREAT bit of kit - as was the 51mm mortar. We called them 'section artillery' but like the 51mm mortar, they're obsolete now. The Marines wanted to keep them but one of the day dreamers at Abbey Wood said that the AGL would do all the mortar would. Nearly............ Except carry as much dynamite and pack as big a punch

[Gil Boyd]

Nearly became my personal weapon at the time, I did better with the 2" then I did with my SLR which was a dog, but deadly at close range(0-100m)
The times I jumped in with that little baby. I did use HE on occasions but mostly effective for PARA ILLUM and SMOKE for attacks.
Not called Dead Eye Dick for nothing...........or was that the Accurate Prick on the Mortar

[Topfmine]

The lever looks very simple to reproduce, not a problem to make but i could do with a few measurements so its in keeping with an original lever. I will be visiting the War and Peace show in a few weeks time, i will either find one or take some measurements from an original on display, no doubt some one will have one for inspection.
Anyone know how to date a 2inch mortar ie by the serial number just as someone is doing with the Brengun serial numbers. Did Canada make any 2 inch mortars during the war.

[browningautorifle]

I don't know if we made them, but we had them. We used the same thing for years and just recently brought back the bipod and baseplate for them instead of the little base so they have some real use.

[Stanleyrf89]

Took a while to get hold of a suitably aged pull through, but I managed to find a double pull through for a Bren for £2.00...which also gave me plenty of raw material if I needed lots of practice.

Attached photo shows what I ended up with, having to learn to splice as I went along - as it was a Bren pull through I did a short bottom splice to tidy it up along with the top loop through the lever.

Hopefully that looks the part, but happy to take feedback in case there is room for improvement