The Mortar Pit

The Mortar Pit (HM1YU8)

Location: Carlisle, PA 17013 Cumberland County
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Country: United States of America
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N 40° 12.383', W 77° 9.476'

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Inscription
The American Expeditionary Forces (A.E.F.) was introduced to modern mortars in the trenches of France during World War One. The A.E.F. adopted the British Newton-Stokes design in 3-, 4- and 6-inch calibers as well as the French 240 millimeter heavy mortar. Mortars could fire high explosive, gas and smoke projectiles at a high angle into the narrow trenches.

Mortars were short range weapons. They had less than half the range of the 37 millimeter guns, but fired shells with many time more blasting power; being comparable to light artillery in that respect. Like the hand grenade and rifle grenades, the light mortar was a high trajectory weapon firing relatively heavy projectiles high into the air and plunging them almost vertically onto the target. Their chief value was in the fact that they could quickly and easily be moved into position close to the target. And having a high rate of fire of great destructive power, their surprise effect was great. The rate of fire was limited only by the speed with which the gunner could insert a shell into the muzzle after the previous shell had left it. I have seen six shells in the air at once before the first one hit the target.
Notes from the History of the Fifth Division, A.E.F.
Details
HM NumberHM1YU8
Tags
Placed ByU.S. Army Heritage and Education Center
Marker ConditionNo reports yet
Date Added Friday, June 9th, 2017 at 9:03am PDT -07:00
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Locationbig map
UTM (WGS84 Datum)18T E 316347 N 4452897
Decimal Degrees40.20638333, -77.15793333
Degrees and Decimal MinutesN 40° 12.383', W 77° 9.476'
Degrees, Minutes and Seconds40° 12' 22.98" N, 77° 9' 28.56" W
Driving DirectionsGoogle Maps
Area Code(s)717
Closest Postal AddressAt or near Army Heritage Trail, Carlisle PA 17013, US
Alternative Maps Google Maps, MapQuest, Bing Maps, Yahoo Maps, MSR Maps, OpenCycleMap, MyTopo Maps, OpenStreetMap

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