Dig in the mortars, as described later, and sight them in onto potential target areas. You don’t get to play with heavy mortars without doing the course and there is quite a lot to it so that is probably enough for here.

Types of mortars

By far the most common mortars are the 81mm used by NATO and the 82mm used by the Ex-Soviet Bloc and the Chinese. There are various 120mm mortars but in my opinion the 81/82 has the better balance of mobility and firepower. Just being issued for 120mm mortars in the US are bombs with a clever radar proximity fuse which, without being carefully set for timing, causes the bomb to explode at a set height above the ground. Very good kit if you have them as air burst is devastating against infantry in the open or in trenches. Rotten have used against you.

Summary: What are the important things to remember about mortars?

Mortars are lightweight artillery. Small calibre mortars of less than 80mm are a waste of time because they achieve little in return for the disadvantage of the infantry being forced to carry them. Heavy mortars carried by vehicles and used in batteries can do good work when used against enemy in the open or in a tree covered area for best effect. Mortar fire should begin as a heavy barrage to deny the enemy chance to react.

LANDMINES

Because mines, and other explosive devices often referred to as IEDs (Improvised Exploding Devices), are a major problem to our forces in a counter-insurgency situation I have covered their use in more depth later. Here we will just look at how shop-bought mines work.

Landmines have had a very bad press in recent years. They are portrayed as awful things which maim and kill civilians and soldiers alike without discrimination several years after they have been placed and with no way of getting back at the people who planted them. Well, yes, in an insurgency situation they are all this – if you are the one treading on them. From the user’s point of view they are clever little things. Scatter a few around and you deny the enemy the use of the land indefinitely. This is why they are so popular with insurgents.

Mines have an entirely different use in conventional warfare and I think it is important you understand this so I do explain it later. Having said that, in conventional warfare engineers lay mines so you may never touch one except with your foot. The mines you are sure to come across will be used against you by terrorists. So perhaps it is even more important you understand these.

Goal: When is the right time to employ this weapon? What can it do?

A landmine is a defensive weapon in conventional warfare and should be laid in a clearly marked area around your position to funnel or slow the enemy as they remove the mines under your fire. As I said above, this type of minefield is generally laid by engineers but if you were an attacking force in a conventional situation, or perhaps on a Special Forces operation, you might come across this type of minefield. Of course, that is not how you will come across them when you are trying to put down an insurgency. In anti-insurgency warfare the mine is used by the insurgent – scattered in ones and twos without marker or warning – to kill or maim both civilians and the forces of occupation.

REMEMBER:

Anti-personnel (AP) mines will only burst a tyre on a vehicle and there is little collateral damage especially if the tyre is full of water (the water is believed to help absorb some of the energy from the mine). This is another good reason to ride rather than walk. The greater danger will come from an ambush after the AP mine has exploded.

There are two main types of mine. The anti-personnel (AP) mine which is used to cut off a person’s foot, so they lower morale with their complaints and require casevac, and the anti-tank mine which is designed to take the wheel or track off a vehicle to disable it. The use of a mine against vehicles in conventional warfare may have several beneficial outcomes: the user can either hope to kill occupants of the vehicle, deny the use of the vehicle to the enemy by damage or disable it to make it an easy target for their guns. In a counter-insurgency situation a mine is often used to stop the lead vehicle in a convoy before the ambush party opens fire on a stationary target.

History: How did it develop to be the way it is?

The mine started out as a bonfire placed at the end of a tunnel dug under the enemy castle wall. When the fire was lit the tunnel supports burned and the tunnel came down bringing the wall with it. One reason for moats was to stop this ‘undermining’ of fortifications. Later the fire was replaced by an explosive charge with more effective results. In the last century mines triggered by foot or vehicle pressure were developed by all the major players and became more effective as technology improved. They were considered an excellent deterrent to a mass infantry or tank assault on a position. They still are.

Operation: How does it work?

Pretty much all the landmines you will come across are triggered by the pressure of a foot or a wheel or a track. There are some less common mines which are triggered by a trip wire and set off their charge above ground for a better area of effect. Some anti-tank mines are made to wait for the second pressure to catch the second road wheel of a tank and achieve more damage. There are other explosive devices also referred to as mines such as the Claymore which we will look at elsewhere as the principle upon which they operate is entirely different.

Blast Mines: AP mines come in a thousand different patterns but the vast majority are ‘Blast Mines’ designed to take the foot off anyone who treads on them. They achieve this by sitting in the ground waiting for someone to either tread on a pressure plate in their lid or knock a sensitive spike coming out of the top. When the mine is activated the charge explodes and

the resultant shock wave takes off the pedestrian’s toes, foot or leg up to the knee depending on how it was trodden on, the type of mine, how deep it was laid and the type of soil it was laid in. Gravel or stones are the worst as they provide natural shrapnel.

Jumping Mines: You will understand that the Blast Mine disables one man. A Jumping or Shrapnel Mine is intended to get some of his mates as well. Again there are a number of types but the principle is that when one man treads on the mine it waits a couple of seconds until he has moved on and then jumps up into the air where it is caused to explode either by reaching the end of a tether wire or a time fuse. The jumping part of the mine tends to have a larger charge and its own shrapnel casing. This can take out a number of men in one shot. Though they are not in common use they are quite unpleasant things to come across.

Mine detection: We look at this in more detail later, but in principle you find a mine by touch with a foot or, preferably, bayonet or by using an electronic mine detector of some kind. To counter this some mines have anti-lift devices set to explode on movement and many are made with as little metal in them as possible to make them hard to find.

The inner workings of a Jumping Mine. (Corbis)

Anti-tank mines: In principle, anti-tank mines are similar to AP mines but have a bigger charge to defeat armour. Shop bought anti-tank mines take a lot of pressure to set them off so you could, theoretically, walk over them safely while they wait for a vehicle. Anti-tank mines will often roll a light armoured vehicle over but they are survivable. We look at their use later but for now be aware that insurgents often use anti-tank mines with AP mines laid on top so they are set off by a man and take out anyone standing nearby. Watch your spacing.