50mm mortars

Soldier · 11-06-2006, 11:47 PM,

Can a 50mm mortar's direct hit on a Panther tank, for an example, do some harm. Perhaps crew abandonment!?
I mean the shell would land on top of the tank, for christ's sake.. :-)

Fullhouse · 11-06-2006, 11:59 PM,

Desperate measures ?

Soldier · 11-07-2006, 12:26 AM,

Yes, did not want to admit to it. You made me do it... :-(
Anyway, got two hits on a Panther within one minute of firing.
Needless to say, no result..

raz_atoth · 11-07-2006, 12:29 AM,

I've seen halftracks taken out by 82mm mortars and i guess if you're lucky enough you'll also manage to do the same with 50mm mortars,but shooting at Panthers?!Just wasted shells,imho.

Chipmunk · 11-07-2006, 01:31 AM,

I tested this with a hotseat game, one Panther vs six 50mm mortars. I gave the Panther hide orders so it wouldn't blast any of the mortars. I found that if you targetted the Panther for direct fire the Tac AI would drop the targetting after firing one round, I guess it doesn't consider the Panther a viable target for the mortar. I then tried having the mortars area fire the ground on which the Panther was parked. The result was all the mortars expended their ammo loadouts without doing any damage to the Panther.

Soldier · 11-07-2006, 01:32 AM,

I see your point.
Converting the 50mm to inches, reads just shy of two inches.
I'm guessing that a 50mm mortar shell has only marginally more explosive material in it, than a hand grenade!?

McIvan · 11-07-2006, 06:32 AM,

Less explosive power than a grenade, IIRC, because it is both smaller and has more casing (to withstand the shock of firing) plus fins.

I wouldn't expect any result on an unhurt Panther. However, if a Panther was immobilised I would be quite tempted to try and get an abandon with 50mm area fire. I can recall trying to get a German 50mm to cause an abandon on an immobilised KV2 once, but it didn't work.....but I think it could well work with a little bit of luck.

Soldier · 11-07-2006, 08:17 AM,

Thanks McIvan!
I was afraid of that. So the 50mm mortar is a suppression weapon, more or less..

Kelen · (This post was last modified: 11-07-2006, 08:34 AM by Kelen.)

They're not bad for taking out other mortars, or against MG teams, and they're even quite good against small light buildings. Apart from that, they make a good decoy.