Hi Guys: I am working on the old Tamyia 81mm mortar team. I am placing them in a fairly small circular mortar pit. Just wondering what kind of equipment/ammo the guys would have in the pit. Would they have stored the ammo right there, or in a fox hole close by? When did the guys take the large rounds out of the individual tubes, prior to firing or would they have had them in the tubes in the pit? Any info or tips would be welcome. Just finishing the figures, pit and the surrounding groundwork. Will post pics when groundwork is finished. Thanks alot.

The pit doesn't require much. You'll need a metal fuse box, a fuse wrench, and a small case for the sight, which is actually used when laying out the position. And add 3-4 sandbags over the base plate. Our two pits at our firebase were made on level ground, with two layers of sandbags making the circle. One of the older FMs suggested a radius, but now we just use common sense-so long as there's room to manouver around when making large deflrection changes. Empty boxes were used in about 25% of the pit to build cover for the ammo. They were then sandbagged over. As per FM 23-90/TO 11W2-5-13-21, there needs to be a wooden or metal container at least 25m away.
Found on page 4-27, paragraph (6)g:
"Ammunition should be stored under cover. If it is necessary to leave the ammunition uncovered, it should be raised on dunnage at least 6 inches above the ground."

It's much the same as ammo handling procedures for artillery. WP must be stored upright. Other ammo may not be stacked in a way that does not allow circulation.

Check out Kevin Keefe's site Mortars in Miniature. It will give you all the info you need. He has some great referances and his builds are awesome.

Here is a mortar pit diagram out of a TM for referance too.

Yep. That's the old TM I mentioned that I can't seem to find. The new one has nothing. What's the number on that one? One note-the 3' gap shown in he drawing does not have to be a total gap, but rather a bit lower than the rest of the sandbags. And it should obviously lie between the sight and the aiming stakes, which won't even show up on most dios.
I guess our pits were seriously lacking. No grenade sumps, although it would have added mightily to the comander's whiffle ball golf course. Our ammo was stored in a buried ISU 90 underneath our baseball field.

Hi guys
What's a grenade sump?
Cheers David

18Bravo, I don't have the TM# either, just this scan that I took a while ago.




It is a hole, about 18" deep that you dig at a 45 degree angle down from the corner of the pit. The idea is that if a grenade falls in, you kick it into the sump and jump to the sides and it contains the blast to the sump and just in front of it. I have never actually tried one out to see if it works, don't really want to either.

Thanks, I had an idea it might be something like that, I can see how it would work, but like you I would not like to see if I could kick a grenade that "fell" into the pit into an 18" hole while my entire life flashed before me. One would need extremely fast reflexes and a sure presence of mind to even attempt a manouvre like that, surely a man to be reckoned with....
Cheers David

Thanks for the info guys. Kevin's site is a really good reference. I had planned on making a hastily made pit . So my base is too small to put any more detail such as a seperate connecting trench and ammo pit. Would it be horribly inaccurate to put a stack of the larger m-36 rounds in their tubes in the pit? Would the guys have laid them out for a fire mission? The tamyia kit comes with a bunch of the rounds in the tubes but only a few out of the tubes. Thanks again for the helpful input!

https://gallery.kitmaker.net/data/500/medium/DSCF1654.JPG

Being an old mortarman....I can tell you that our pits were dug in...deeper than what you've got portrayed...but hey...takes time to dig. Our bombs were stored in two smaller dugouts in the wall of the pit facing the enemy. Time permitting we would have the walls sandbagged. Equipment for the mortar, personal weapon and fighting order were the only other things in the pit.

so that's my 2 cents worth

John