Mortar (weapon) - History

History

Mortars have existed for hundreds of years, first seeing use in siege warfare. Many historians claim that the first mortars were used at the 1453 siege of Istanbul. A European account of the Siege of Belgrade (1456) by Giovanni da Tagliacozzo credits the Ottoman Turks for using seven mortars that fired "stone shots one Italian mile high". The speed of these was apparently slow enough that casualties could be avoided by posting observers that gave warning of their trajectories.

Early mortars, such as the Pumhart von Steyr, were also large and heavy, and could not be easily transported. Simply made, these weapons were no more than iron bowls reminiscent of the kitchen and apothecary mortars from where they drew their name. An early transportable mortar was invented by Baron Menno van Coehoorn (Siege of Grave, 1673). Coehorn-type mortars of approximately 180 pounds (82 kg) weight were used by both sides during the American Civil War. At the Siege of Vicksburg, General US Grant reported making such mortars "by taking logs of the toughest wood that could be found, boring them out for six or twelve-pound shells and binding them with stong iron bands. These answered as cochorns, and shells were successfully thrown from them into the trenches of the enemy."

During the Russo-Japanese War, Leonid Gobyato for the first time applied deflection from closed firing positions in the field and with General Roman Kondratenko designed the first mortar that fired navy shells. However, it was not until the Stokes trench mortar devised by Sir Wilfred Stokes in 1915, that the modern mortar transportable by one person was born. The Germans also developed a series of trench mortars or Minenwerfer in calibers from 7.58 cm to 25 cm during World War I, though these were rifled.

Extremely useful in the muddy trenches of the Western Front, mortars were praised because of the bombs' high angle of flight; a mortar round could be aimed to fall directly into trenches where artillery shells, due to their low angle of flight, could not possibly go. Modern mortars have improved upon these designs, offering a weapon that is light, adaptable, easy to operate, and yet possesses enough accuracy and firepower to provide the infantry with quality close fire support against soft and hard targets more quickly than any other means.

During the battle of Iwo Jima, the Imperial Japanese Army used twelve 320 mm mortars against the American forces.