Chemical Mortars

I bought 2 Chemical mortars from Reiver/Under the Bed yesterday at Vapnartak, I had hoped that this would be sufficient to represent C & D companies of the 83rd Chemical Mortar Bn that supported the Rangers.

Further checking today shows that upon entry in combat each of the mortar battalions was composed of 1,010 men: 36 officers, 1 warrant officer, and 973 enlisted men, 32 distributed among a headquarters, a headquarters company, a medical detachment, and four weapons companies. Each company had 2 platoons, each platoon had two sections, and each section had 3 squads. On the basis of one mortar per squad, the battalion complement of mortars was 48. Transportation of the battalion consisted of 88 2½-ton trucks and 36 vehicles of varying smaller sizes. Chemical mortar carts were present in case of rough terrain. Side arms for the battalion included 820 .45-caliber automatics.

Based on this a RF company should have two 4.2 mortars and 15 figures. Given quite a number of the men would be involved in ammo supply I'll stick with two mortars, with four crew each, CO and an OP team of two making a total of eleven.

Will