Peter a ? on the 2 inch Mortar tool roll

[breakeyp]

Peter can you work your magic and list the items that fit in the 2 inch Mortar tool roll? I know there is a two or three piece wood cleaning rod and the large diameter brush fits in the attached metal cup but remain clueless on the other pockets. Best, p.

Information

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[Beerhunter]

Each Mortar has a holdall which contains the following:
Barrel Cleaning Brush and rod.
Oil Can
Sponge Cloth
Cotton Waste
Flannelette
Combination Tool
Firing Pin
Firing Pin Spring
Hammer

Attachment 23921

Source: Infantry Training, The Light Mortar, 1959

[Peter Laidler]

There it is...............

Does anyone out there remember 'cotton waste'? It was huge bundles of waste cotton thread, presumably from the northern cotton industry, who bundled it up to use in much the same way as we use old rags now. You pulled a hand sized lump off (or cut it off with an old pen knife.....) The trouble was that if you used it to wipe your lathe, milling machine or drill down, hundreds of razor sharp shards of steel would get impregnated in the bit you used and the next minute, when you wiped your hands with it.............. a razor sharp cut would appear.

In the Mortar context, the cotton waste was wrapped around the bore brush and used to scrub and oil the mortar barrel

[breakeyp]

Thank you all for the info. best, p.

[Peter Laidler]

Have you got a 2" mortar PB? THey were sooooooooooo simple to gauge and work on with a simple rebound mechanism. The old 2" had gone by about 1988, replaced by a 51mm. Now the 51's have gone too. They used to be called 'section artillery' because a 2" mortar was light enough to be carried in the section or platoon together with a few bombs each.

They went up to a shorty Mk8 I seem to remember with a zillion sub mark variants from Mk1 upwards

One of the bombs was white (and sometimes blue) smoke that was bullet and grenade fragment resistant. It meant that you could advance to contact through the smoke and the magic smoke would stop the oncoming bullets................ So they used to say! Happy days

[breakeyp]

Yes I have one, demilled to US regmts, in the shipping chest. I also have two rounds missing the nose caps. I also have the tool roll and hence the interest. I can post pics if anyone is interested. This was ex-Israeli. best, p.

[Beerhunter]

Here's an Illuminating (parachute flare) Bomb from my collection of stuff. (Or rubbish as 'er indoors calls it.) I picked it up on a Training Area donkeys years ago.

Attachment 23953

They were great fun to fire. We didn't have HE in my time, just smoke and illuminating.