Photos You don't see these every day... Type 89

[Parallax]

This is a battlefield bring-back by a relative who picked it up on Okinawa during WW2.

It's a Type 89 Japanese Army HE mortar round for the Type 89 Nambu "Knee Mortar" seen in The Pacific and recounted by nearly every Marine who fought the Japanese in WW2. The mortar was valued because it could be braced against a wall or tree and used in direct fire mode, or braced vertically at an angle on the ground for nearly point blank high angle fire through the jungle canopy. Max range was about 650 meters. The red band around the top indicates Army issue (dark green was Naval Landing Forces) and the yellow band indicates HE. Notice the copper rifling band on the bottom. The Type 88 fuse is dated April 1943, Mfg at the Tokyo Arsenal, and was a contact type fuse. The body is dated May 1943 and appears to be from the Kokura Arsenal according to the symbols. The grenades were carried in a pouch that held 4... and almost every guy in a squad was used to mule the ammo so there was plenty to be had. The Nambu mortar itself was ingeniously simple, cheap to make and very effective. The Type 89 HE round packed a heck of a punch... it was also possible to fire the Type 91 fragmentation hand grenade with an add-on propellant charge attached to the bottom of the grenade.

And yes... the explosive compound was removed and impact fuse rendered safe.

 

[High Binder]

Re: You don't see these every day... Type 89

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Parallax</div><div class="ubbcode-body">

And yes... the explosive compound was removed and impact fuse rendered safe.

</div></div>

Well that's no fun.

 

[Bevenue]

Re: You don't see these every day... Type 89

Yours looks great compared to the one it the link.

 

[eevilweevil]

Re: You don't see these every day... Type 89

That's friggin awesome!

 

[jwaj]

Re: You don't see these every day... Type 89

Very nice example. That Picric Acid is nothing to mess around with.

 

[303_enfield]

Re: You don't see these every day... Type 89

"impact fuse rendered safe" Might want to double check that. Two of my "rendered safe" were still live! Lots of knee mortars came home live for some reason.

 

[RMPSTRAT]

Re: You don't see these every day... Type 89

When I was working for one of the local cities yrs ago the PD had siezed a knee mortar from an auction house and I watched them cut into about 4 pieces...Total waste

 

[Parallax]

Re: You don't see these every day... Type 89

In Canada, of all places, the Nambu Type 89 projector is not regulated at all and intact samples are in the hands of a number of collectors. Here in the US they are classified as destructive devices and regulated or DEWAT'ed to own.

As for Picric Acid... yep not very stable stuff. I knew a WW2 Marine rifleman that accepted a promotion from Corporal to Butter Bar in the field before he knew what the "risky" job was he was volunteering for. He ended up leading a couple teams of pillbox assaulters consisting of two demoltion guys with satchel charges, two BAR men, two flamethrower operators a few riflemen. They also had bottles of Picric Acid. He said if they used Picric Acid they always were sure to wipe the bottle clean lest some dry up and form crystals in the threads of the cap... the next twist then meant "Kaboom".

 

[J-Ham]

Re: You don't see these every day... Type 89

That would make an awesome oil tank on my next chopper... but I'm guessing that is probably out of the question

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[Captain Moroni]

Re: You don't see these every day... Type 89

My old boss has several of the knee mortars along with the grenades kinda cool to look at. An old Marine I met called them the "femur snapper" I guess you don't fire a knee mortar from your knee.