120 mm Mortar Fire Mission on Armoured Personnel Carrier Video

   A video (US Armoured Artillery) showing how the 120 mm mortar is fired off in the vehicle. The commander is at the top of the APC (near the copolla) and the person loading the mortar is called the Loader or No. 3 Man. Normally the Fire Mission Officer would call "Fire Mission Mortar No. ###" and only 1 detachment would be called to action. In those days, that was normally done by my buddy Chong Wai Kiong.The entire Battery consisting of 6 vehicles would first secure the deployment area and the lead vehicle would then be required to fire off the first round of mortar - within a maximum time, normally less than 2 minutes. So the ranging 'piece' is  first required to find the target by shooting 3 times and once the bombs reach within 100m of the intended range, then the rest of the Battery would follow suit and a full fire mission would take place. The range of the mortar is normally about 3 - 6 km depending on the elevation of the mortar (trajectory) and also what incendiary flares (circular and flammable)  are attached to the mortar to ensure it flies as far as it should.

   Normally, the ranging mortar fires to get the range of the bomb,ie. to ascertain that the bomb reaches the target within the intended distance. That woud normally take about 3 rounds maximum, following which the entire battery (platoon of mortar soldiers) would be called to 'fire for effect', that is for the entire 6 to 10 mortars to hit the target at the same 'line'.

   A tough vocation but fun.