Germany’s new weapon: Polish 46mm wz.36 light mortar
This gun was already very strange in appearance. From the base to the support to the two tubes, everything looked odd. At first glance, it seemed more like a light infantry gun rather than a mortar. And its Polish name - Granatnik - indeed means “grenade launcher”.
In 1930, the wz.30 light machine gun was born. In 1933, it was equipped by the Polish army. After further improvements, it evolved into the wz.36 gun that we are going to discuss now.
From the old photos from those years, we can also see that this cannon could be operated by just one person (though in the standard formation, there were 4 people in a team for each cannon).
The caliber of the gun is 46mm. The maximum diameter of the shell is between 45.6 and 45.7mm. The total length is 640mm, the barrel length is 400mm, the range is 100-800 meters, and the firing rate is 15 rounds per minute.
This gun is somewhat similar to the 2-inch mortar of the British army and the grenade launcher of the Japanese army. For instance, the wz.36 must be fired at a 45-degree angle; otherwise, the scale on the sight would be meaningless.
This breech also adopts the firing mechanism of trigger release rather than fixed firing pin. The trigger is located above the locking plate. On the left side of the trigger, there is a cover. When opened, it reveals a bubble level instrument, which is used to determine whether the gun barrel is at a 45-degree angle to the horizontal.
In theory, the Polish 50mm GrW36 was more effective than the German 50mm gun. At least it was much lighter. After the German blitzkrieg against Poland, they also took possession of this light mortar, but they soon abandoned it due to a lack of ammunition.
After Germany invaded Poland, they seized this weapon and kept using it until the ammunition ran out.
So, is this weapon, like the Polish bar, capable of serving as a new squad for Germany?
(As we don’t have an incident response team for mortars at present.)
Although the use of mortars is very limited in terms of scenarios, it does not contribute much to the enhancement of our combat effectiveness.
But in any case, adding a new weapon to enrich our battlefield is quite appropriate.
This weapon I rate at level 1, similar to the German mortar.
- Yes
- No
