Brandt Mle 1935

Brandt Mle 1935
U.S. M2 mortar, a license-built copy of the Brandt Mle 1935
Type	Mortar
Place of origin	France
Service history
Wars	Second World War
Production history
Designer	Edgar Brandt
Number built	Over 4,900
Specifications
Weight	19.7 kg
Barrel length	725mm
Crew	5

Cartridge	1.33 kg or 2.2 kg HE shell
Caliber	60.7 mm
Rate of fire	20-26 rounds per minute
Muzzle velocity	158 m/s
Effective firing range	100 m to 1,700 m (light HE shell) 100 m to 950 m (heavy HE shell)
Filling weight	160 g (light HE shell)

The Brandt Mle 1935 60-mm mortar (French: Mortier de 60 mm Mle 1935) was a company-level indirect-fire weapon of the French army during the Second World War. Designed by Edgar Brandt, it was copied by other countries, such as the United States and China, as well as purchased and built by Romania. The mortar continued to be used by France after the war until at least the 1960s.^[1]

Description

The Brandt Mle 1935 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. The Mle 1935 had a normal crew of five 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, igniting a gunpowder charge, which would propel the bomb out of the tube, and towards the target.

Mortar bombs fired by the weapon weighed either 1.33 kilograms or 2.2 kilograms. A French infantry regiment in 1940 was allocated 200 rounds for each of the nine authorized Mle 1935 mortars.^[2]

This weapon provided a pattern for other light mortars used during World War II. Among the best known is the U.S. 60-mm M2 mortar. Captured examples were used by the Germans as the 6-cm Granatwerfer 225(f).^[3]

Romania also purchased and license-built the Mle 1935 mortar prior to and during the Second World War.^[4]

Notes and references

Axworthy, Mark. Third Axis Fourth Ally, London: Arms and Armour Press, 1995.
Ferrard, Stéphane. Les mortier Brandt de 60 et 81 mm dans l'Armée française en 1940.

External links

worldwar2.ro article on Brandt 60-mm mortar

French infantry weapons of World War II

Side arms	MAB Model D pistol Modèle 1935 pistol Star Model 14

Rifles and carbines	MAS-36 rifle Lebel Model 1886 rifle Berthier rifle Berthier carbine

Submachine guns	MAS-38

Machine guns and other larger weapons	FM 24/29 light machine gun Hotchkiss M1914 machine gun Hotchkiss M1922 machine gun Hotchkiss M1929 machine gun

Mortars	Brandt Mle 1935 Brandt Mle 27/31

Grenades	F1 grenade

Cartridges used by France during WWII	8mm Lebel 7.5×54mm French .32 ACP .380 ACP 7.65mm Longue 7×57mm Mauser 6.5×50mm Arisaka

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