Brandt Mle 27/31

The Brandt mle 27/31 mortar was a regulation weapon of the French army during the Second World War. Designed by Edgar Brandt, it was a refinement of the Stokes mortar. The Brandt mortar was highly influential, being licensed built or copied by numerous countries.[6]

Brandt mle 27
Brandt Mle 27/31 on display at the Romanian Navy Museum.
Type	Mortar
Place of origin	France
Service history
Used by	See users section
Wars	Second World War First Indochina War[1] Algerian War[2] Portuguese Colonial War[3] Vietnam War[4]
Production history
Designer	Edgar Brandt
No. built	8000
Variants	L13.7 L/15.6
Specifications
Mass	56 kg (123 lb)
Barrel length	1.11 m (3 ft 8 in) L/13.7 1.26 m (4 ft 2 in) L/15.6
Crew	3[5]
Shell weight	Light: 3.25 kg (7 lb 3 oz) Heavy: 6.5 kg (14 lb 5 oz)
Caliber	81 mm (3.2 in)
Elevation	+45° to +85°
Traverse	8° to 12° variable with elevation[5]
Rate of fire	18 rounds per minute
Muzzle velocity	174 m/s (570 ft/s)
Effective firing range	Light: 2.8 km (1.7 mi) Heavy: 1.2 km (0.75 mi)[5]

Description

The Brandt mle 27/31 was a simple and effective weapon, consisting of a smoothbore metal tube fixed to a base plate (to absorb recoil), with a lightweight bipod mount.[7] The mle 27/31 could be disassembled into 3 loads, plus the ammunitions loads,[8] and a complete crew was 10 men. When a mortar bomb was dropped into the tube, an impact sensitive primer in the base of the bomb would make contact with a firing pin at the base of the tube, and detonate, firing the bomb towards the target.[9] HE and smoke mortar bombs fired by the weapon weighed 3.25 kilograms.[10]

Users

This weapon along with the Stokes Mortar provided the pattern for most World War II era light mortars. France, Russia, Italy, China and the United States all had weapons built from this design many times with similar weights, dimensions and performance.

In 1928, an unlicensed Polish copy was made as the Avia wz.28, but due to French pressure it was abandoned in 1931 because the French Brandt company held the patent for the ammunition. The Polish then produced a licensed copy as the wz.31 model (Polish: Moździerz piechoty 81 mm wz. 31) starting in 1935; 1,050 were made in Pruszków. By 1939, the Polish army was equipped with some 1,200 Stokes-Brandt mortars, most of them the newer 1931 model. Each Polish infantry battalion was intended to be equipped with four such mortars, but there were not enough available to fulfill this disposition.[11] The upgraded 1931 version was used by the Polish Army during, amongst others, the Battle of Westerplatte in 1939.

In Romania, the mortar was licence-produced at the Voina Works in Brașov,[12] with a production rate of 30 pieces per month as of October 1942[13] (over 1,000 such mortars were built in Romania by mid-1943).[14] 360 mortars captured by the Germans from the French were also received in 1942.[15]

Country	Weapon name	German designation for captured mortars	Observation
Austria		8 cm GrW 33(ö)[5]
Czechoslovakia	81.4 mm minomet,	8.14 cm GrW 278(t)	License-built variant[16]
	8 cm minomet vz. 36	8 cm GrW M.36(t)	Modified variant[16]
Republic of China		-	French and Austrian versions[5][17]
	Type 20 mortar	-	Local copy produced from 1931 in Jinling Arsenal[17]
Denmark	81.4 mm L/12	8.14 cm GrW 275(d)	[5]
Estonia
Finland	81 mm Tampella	-	[5]
France	Mortier Brandt de 81 mm mle 27/31	8.14 cm GrW 278(f), 8.14 cm GrW 278/1(f)	[5]
	mle 44 ACC, mle 44 ATS, mle 44 ARE	-
Ireland		-
Kingdom of Italy	Mortaio da 81/14 Modello 35	8.1 cm GrW 276(i)	Slightly-modified copy[5]
Empire of Japan	Type 3 81 mm mortar		Slightly-modified copy[18][19]
	Type 97 81 mm infantry mortar		Modified variant[18]
Nazi Germany	8 cm Granatwerfer 34, Kz 8 cm GrW 42
Netherlands[20]	Mortier van 8 Brandt (M.27/31)	8.14 cm GrW 286(h)	Produced under license[5]
Portugal	m/937 8cm[3]		French variant
Philippines
Poland	wz. 31	8 cm GrW 31(p)	[5]
Kingdom of Romania		-	License-built variant
Sweden	81mm GrK m/29-34	-	[21]
Soviet Union	82-PM-36	8.2 cm GrW 274/1(r)	Modified copy[22]
	82-PM-37	8.2 cm GrW 274/2(r)	Upgraded 82-PM-36[23]
	82-PM-41	8.2 cm GrW 274/3(r)	Upgraded 82-PM-37[24]
United States	M1 mortar	?	Modified copy[25]
Vietnam[4]		-	French-made
Kingdom of Yugoslavia	8.1 cm MWM 31/38 Kragujevac	8.14 cm GrW 270(j)	[5]

See also

• Reihenwerfer - An armored self-propelled barrage mortar based on the mle 27/31.

Notes

1. Ezell, Edward Clinton (1988). Personal firepower. The Illustrated history of the Vietnam War 15. Bantam Books. p. 41. OCLC 1036801376.
2. Huon, Jean (March 1992). "L'armement français en A.F.N." Gazette des Armes (in French). No. 220. pp. 12–16.
3. Abbott, Peter; Rodrigues, Manuel (1998). Modern African Wars 2: Angola and Mozambique 1961-74. Osprey Publishing. p. 18.
4. Rottman, Gordon L. (10 Feb 2009). North Vietnamese Army Soldier 1958–75. Warrior 135. Osprey Publishing. p. 32. ISBN 9781846033711.
5. Chamberlain & Gander 1975, p. 5
6. Chris Bishop (2002). The Encyclopedia of Weapons of World War II. Sterling Publishing Company. p. 202. ISBN 978-1-58663-762-0.
7. Manuel du gradé 1939, p. 308.
8. Manuel du gradé 1939, pp. 309-310.
9. Manuel du gradé 1939, p. 311.
10. Manuel du gradé 1939, p. 310.
11. Steve Zaloga; W. Victor Madej (1991). The Polish campaign, 1939. Hippocrene Books. p. 82. ISBN 978-0-87052-013-6.
12. Great Britain. Foreign Office, Ministry of Economic Warfare, 1944, Rumania Basic Handbook, p. 27
13. Axworthy, Scafes & Craciunoiu 1995, p. 75.
14. Axworthy, Scafes & Craciunoiu 1995, p. 147.
15. Axworthy, Scafes & Craciunoiu 1995, p. 76.
16. Chamberlain & Gander 1975, p. 3.
17. Ness, Leland; Shih, Bin (July 2016). Kangzhan: Guide to Chinese Ground Forces 1937–45. Helion & Company. pp. 343–345. ISBN 9781910294420.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
18. Chamberlain & Gander 1975, p. 14.
19. John Norris (2002). Infantry Mortars of World War II. Osprey Publishing. pp. 39–40. ISBN 978-1-84176-414-6.
20. Lohnstein, Marc (23 Aug 2018). Royal Netherlands East Indies Army 1936–42. Men-at-Arms 521. Osprey Publishing. p. 13. ISBN 9781472833754.
21. Gander, Terry J. (2001). "81 mm m/29 mortar". Jane's Infantry Weapons 2002-2003. pp. 4317–4318.
22. Chamberlain & Gander 1975, p. 28.
23. Chamberlain & Gander 1975, p. 29.
24. Chamberlain & Gander 1975, p. 30.
25. Ian V. Hogg (2001). The American Arsenal: The World War II Official Standard Ordnance Catalog of Small Arms, Tanks, Armored Cars, Artillery, Antiaircraft Guns, Ammunition, Grenades, Mines, Etc. Greenhill Books. p. 134. ISBN 978-1-85367-470-9.

References

• Dictionnaire de la Seconde Guerre mondiale, 1982 ed.
• Axworthy, Mark; Scafes, Cornel I.; Craciunoiu, Cristian (1995). Third axis, fourth ally : Romanian armed forces in the European war, 1941-1945. London: Arms and Armour. ISBN 1854092677.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Chamberlain, Peter; Gander, Terry (1975). Mortars and rockets. New York: Arco Pub. Co. ISBN 0668038179. OCLC 2067459.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
• Ferrard, Stéphane. "Les mortier Brandt de 60 et 81 mm dans l'Armée française en 1940"
• Ministère de la guerre. Direction de l'infanterie (1939). "Mortier de 81". Manuel du gradé d'infanterie. VIII - Chapter VI. Charles-Lavauzelle. pp. 308–313.

External links

• Mortier de 81 mm Mle 27/31