During the Russo-Japanese War in 1904, the Japanese attacked the port of Lushun, which was defended by Russian troops.
In the face of the Japanese rushing and constantly approaching the front trenches, a Russian officer named Nikolai had a whim, mounted a 47 mm naval mortar gun obliquely on a gun mount with wheels, and shot the enemy in front of the trench at a forty-five-degree angle, which actually blew the Japanese soldiers to blood.
After the war, weapons experts were interested in the little Russian idea — flat-firing guns with dead ends and blind spots, heavy machine guns that were extremely inflexible in concrete fortifications, and this flexible curved firepower really inspired new ideas against bunker infantry.
Since then, the door to a new world has been opened, and the traditional mortar was born.
During the First World War, in order to break the stalemate of trench warfare, countries around the world successively built their own mortars. Japan, on the other hand, took a different approach, miniaturized curved firepower more thoroughly, and developed the Taisho Decatronic Grenadier in 1921.
But this grenadier is not the final version suitable for large-scale installation.
Knee mortar: Misuse is a joke
The development time of the Type 89 grenadier was 1922, but the actual mass production time was 1932.
The reason why it has been separated by 10 years is because in the process of research and development and design, the Great Earthquake in Japan occurred, which destroyed the design drawings and samples, and the engineers involved in the design were mostly killed or injured, so after the follow-up redesign experiment, it was officially mass-produced.
As early as the Taisho Decade, a small number of them were put into use, and the fault problems reported from the front line continued to flow. Compared to it, the Type 89 grenadier has improved its accuracy and range by a notch, positioning itself to fill the gap in firepower between mortars and grenades.
According to its function, the Eighty-Nine Grenadier can be decomposed into four parts, from top to bottom: launcher, adjustment mechanism, firing mechanism, and support mechanism. Among them, the support mechanism is a hoe, which is shoveled into the soil when used, which plays a role in stabilizing and counteracting the recoil.
But in the Pacific Theater, the Americans didn't know what to do with it, and they made a joke:
Second, I will use both the weapons of the enemy
A Type 89 grenadier needs to be equipped with three soldiers, one shooter and two loaders, in practice. The loader is a part-time ammunition man, carrying 16 ammunition per person.
A team of skilled grenadiers that can fire 25 shells in a minute.
The Type 89 grenadier uses a Type 89 50 mm high-explosive mortar shell, which consists of an open base and an integrated upper body with a screwed base plug, with an effective range of 260 meters and a maximum range of 700 meters.
The range seems to be not far away, but it is a very powerful firepower coverage on the Chinese battlefield, and our army has suffered a lot of losses from the Japanese grenadier.
Later, our army gradually realized the threat of grenadiers and explored a set of combat experience:
Due to its limited accuracy, the Type 89 grenadier is generally used in close combat. The sound of the launch can be heard at that distance, so as long as you lie down immediately after hearing the sound of the launch, you can effectively reduce casualties.
The Eighty-Nine Grenadier canister can not only fire normal shells, but even something like a melon grenade can be stuffed into it.
In the Pacific Theater, Japan often used the Type 89 grenadier to suppress the American troops at close range, and at the same time sent infantry around the side to beat the American troops to pain.
But such tactics only worked in the early stages, and the Americans had the art of summoning aircraft cannons, and dialed the radio as soon as they heard the sound of grenadiers.
Under the all-round three-dimensional strike of heavy firepower such as artillery, naval guns, and aerial guns, the Japanese army could not return to the sky even if its tactics were exquisite.
I never thought that this weapon invented by the invaders was shining in the hands of the mainland army.
After war verification, our army found that if the Type 89 grenadier is deployed in the anti-slope of the hilly position, it is particularly effective against machine gun fire points and fixed fortifications. The Chinese army even copied the Type 89 grenadier and used the captured Type 89 grenadier until the Korean War.
It was not until the 1960s, with the full spread of 82mm mortars and 107 rockets in the People's Liberation Army, that the Type 89 grenadier was given to Vietnam with a single wave of aid.
Third, the Soviet-German battlefield: caliber is the king
The Type 89 grenadier is 608 mm long, weighs 4.7 kg and has a caliber of 50 mm. Compared with the mainstream mortars of more than ten or twenty kilograms on the Soviet-German battlefield at the same time, the advantages of seeming miniaturization and light weight have been achieved, which is very convenient for concealment and carrying. But can the Type 89 grenadier be useful in Europe?
The answer is no.
In the configuration of the Soviet and German armies, the Type 89 grenadier corresponded to a light mortar. To know the analogy of its peers, look at the fate of light mortars in the Soviet-German army.
Grenadiers were not unique to Japan, and before the outbreak of the Soviet-German War, the Soviet Union had developed similar things, such as the "37 mm sapper shovel mortar."
The 37 mm sapper spade mortar, hereinafter referred to as the shovel mortar, was finalized in 1939 and designed by Mikhail Grigurivić.
The weapon was designed to provide infantry with a slightly more platoon-scale fire support than a grenade. The shovel-type mortar has a gun body like a grip, a base like a shovel, and can also be used to dig fortifications between battles.
The shovel-type mortar weighs 2.4 kg and has a maximum range of 250 meters, which seems to be stronger than the Japanese Type 89 grenadier from the paper data. But it has two fatal flaws, one is that the shell killing radius is too small and the power is insufficient; the other is that the structure is too simple, and there is even no sight, which can only adjust the shooting angle with experience, which is extremely difficult to operate.
The first appearance of the shovel-type mortar was in the Soviet-Finnish Winter War, and it is said that when the shells fired by it hit the thick snow in front of the enemy position, they could not even explode.
Finally, in 1941, the shovel mortar was completely discontinued in the midst of a scolding, and it was written off from the regular army's configuration, and the entire inventory was given to the guerrillas everywhere.
The Germans also developed light mortars, the most classic of which is the GrW36 50 mm mortar, which is a little heavier than the Japanese Type 89 grenadier of the same caliber, with 14 kg.
But such weapons, without exception, have been left out in the cold, either by reducing production or simply by discontinuing production. The common reason is that the power is insufficient and the killing radius is too small.
The Soviet-German battlefield was the most intense part of the major battlefields of World War II, and the large and small artillery was larger and faster than whoever fired, so the mortars used the most by both sides had a minimum caliber of 120 mm.
In contrast, 50 mm mortars with a killing radius of less than 20 meters were naturally inadequate on the Soviet-German battlefield.
As the fighting heated up, both sides placed light mortars on a relatively minor footing in order to accommodate the overall situation. By 1943, guns with a caliber not exceeding 100 mm were embarrassed to pull to the front.
The Soviet-German war was fought from Eastern Europe to Central Europe, during which most of the fighting took place on the plains, where large-caliber artillery and highly mobile fighting vehicles were the domain, and light mortars played very little role.
In contrast, the ruins of the city are the only living space for light mortars. However, even in the field of street fighting, there are still infantry guns and assault guns competing with them for this narrow world.
The most fierce battle was the Battle of Stalingrad, where the ground units fought between the Soviet and German armies had been reduced to the room, and the only weapons that could be used at this time were rapid-fire weapons and daggers.
Fourth, the weapon of embarrassment: the Japanese army itself can not see
Compared with the Soviet-German battlefield, where thousands of cannons are fired in unison, the Chinese battlefield is much quieter.
In 1944 alone, the Soviet Union built more than 23,000 artillery pieces of various types, and the number of shells was 100 million rounds, which was more than the total consumption of China and Japan in the eight years from the outbreak of the all-out War of Resistance to the japanese surrender.
What's more, in the later stages of the war, the grenadier was gradually ignored by the Japanese soldiers because of various problems in its own existence.
In the platoon, the artillery is placed at the back, because the artillery is a long-range weapon, and the artillery is difficult to win when attacked by the enemy's conventional infantry.
The grenadier belongs to the infantry support weapon, its range is not far enough to be far away from the rifle combat area, and it may not be used well to be put down by the cold gun on the opposite side without a few shots, so it requires the flexible arrangement of the grass-roots command.
At the same time, due to the poor manufacturing process of the Eighty-Nine Type Grenadier, the launcher will rupture because it cannot withstand the bore pressure. When using it, people on the side also have to worry about blowing up themselves.
Therefore, don't ask what level the Eighty-Nine Type Grenadier is placed on other battlefields, the Japanese army itself feels that it is not qualified.
The Type 89 grenadier is a typical weapon created to cater to the national conditions of scarce resources. Japan lacks resources, so it focuses on building "elite soldiers" and using superb operating technology to fill the gap of insufficient science and technology.
On the other hand, the eight-nine-type grenadier needs a lot of training to get started, ranging, aiming what is missing, can only follow the feeling to grab the hand of the dream.
When the veterans were still there, the eighty-nine grenadier was still an artifact, but in the back, the Japanese veterans were crippled and dead, and they had no choice but to let the baby soldiers and student soldiers replenish the source of troops.
The threshold for the use of the Type 89 grenadier is too high, how can it be used well with such a recruit?
Therefore, the Japanese army in the late second period of World War II preferred the Type 97 90 mm infantry gun to the grenadier.
Grenadiers are an alternative to mortars, and as long as mortars are well equipped, grenadiers are never used. In short, it is not a strange thing that a grenadier that was disliked by the Soviet Union can shine on the battlefields of Asia.
With the industrial might of the Soviet Union and Germany, why wouldn't the Japanese want a two-hundred-millimeter caliber? However, the Sino-Japanese war was a contest between backward agricultural countries and backward industrial countries, and China could not return them with a larger number of artillery of greater caliber.
Text/Winds of Peace
Resources:
1. "The Type 89 Heavy Thrower and type 91 Grenade of the Japanese Army Invading China", Shen Keni
2. "The "Vanguard" of Japan's War of Aggression - 50 mm Grenadier," Santu and Li Liangliang