German 50mm Mortar

[Ratzki]

There has been enough unfavorable discussions involving the German 50mm mortar. "It has poor firepower","It has poor range","It does not have enough ammunition". The list is long. I am not saying that it is a great weapon, but used within the squad's best range to engage the enemy, it will hold it's own compared to other mortars of similar bore.
In order to make a case for the lowly 50mm mortar, one has to start with the platoons that it is assigned to. In early '41, the German infantry squad is out-gunned by it's Russian counterpart; checking the editor, it shows that a typical regular quality Russian Infantry squad has 11 men and an approximate firepower rating of 172 @ 40m, 92 @ 100m, and 43 @ 250m. A similar German squad is 10 men strong and has a rating of 124 @ 40m, 85 @ 100m, and 48 @ 250m. So if all things are equal in the field, the German squad will lose the vast majority of the time in a 1 on 1 fight at 40m or less. At 100m, the German squad is still at a disadvantage, even with an equal trade off of 1 man for 1 man. The Russian squads have 1 extra man per squad that the German side must overcome.
Somewhere between 100m and 250m, German infantry firepower gets the edge, but not by much. It is about an 11% advantage over the Russian side. Here is where the little 50mm fits in. With a range of between 60m and 500m, you should be engaging the Russian side well within the maximum distance that the 50mm can shoot. The German 50mm out-guns it's Russian counterpart as well. The Russian 50mm mortar is manned by 4 crewmen and has a blast rating of 5 with 65 rounds of HE. The German 50mm mortar is manned by 3 crewman and has a blast rating of 6 with 30 rounds of HE. That works out to be a 17% advantage in firepower over the Russian mortar, with equal rounds being fired. I know that the blast rating is rather vague in its effect, but I am looking at it as a larger blast rating would translate to a larger diametre area affected as well as causing more potential damage to anything within that diametre. Keeping on the underpowered side should be fine, but I expect that the 17% quoted should in fact be more.
So with a 11% advantage in the squads firepower and a 17% advantage with the 50mm mortar at 150m to 250m or so, the German squads can come out looking pretty good. Throw in a 24% firepower advantage that the German mg34 has over the Russian maxim at these ranges, and things start to look even better. I know that the Russian mortars have more rounds available, but therein lies the key, if the enemy does not get to fire the rounds off, it does not matter how many extra rounds it has, unfired rounds are a waste of points.
Is it a big power weapon?... no. But it is an advantage within the limits faced by a platoon of men. Maybe just enough of an advantage to swing the battle your way. The infantry and the armour get all the glory, but the little 50mm mortar can play a roll.

[Der Kuenstler]

Nice post - I like them in situations like you said where they could turn the tide of the firefight. They are better than the 81mm in tight situations such as city fighting or lots of woods, because they work at closer range. Also using 2 of them together can take out AT guns and other soft targets.

[RedDevil]

I like them for their smoke, keeps bigger guns from finding little targets when you need to take the pressure off and regroup or rearrange.

[Brvj]

I like them for their smoke, keeps bigger guns from finding little targets when you need to take the pressure off and regroup or rearrange.

except they don't have smoke

[RedDevil]

Should have put in "US and Brit light mortars" for clarity

[McIvan]

I agree re the German and Brit 50mm. They are quite useful bits of kit, but at first you wonder what on earth to do with them.

The answer is close support supression of whatever the parent platoon happens to be firing at. The German 50mm can do this 2-3 times before it runs out of ammo, the Brit 50mm only the once really, but it can also smoke something, eg that 150mm SiG that just opened up, while you get a counter into position and/or run away.

Still...there are better choices for your points. But if a scenario or OOB assigns them to you, no need to despair at all.

[Ratzki]

I agree re the German and Brit 50mm. They are quite useful bits of kit, but at first you wonder what on earth to do with them.

The answer is close support supression of whatever the parent platoon happens to be firing at. The German 50mm can do this 2-3 times before it runs out of ammo, the Brit 50mm only the once really, but it can also smoke something, eg that 150mm SiG that just opened up, while you get a counter into position and/or run away.

Still...there are better choices for your points. But if a scenario or OOB assigns them to you, no need to despair at all.

Suppression is what they do best. I ran a few tests last night to see the differences between the German 50mm and 81mm mortars against a dug in gun. The test was done with a Reg., Vet., and Crack mortar teams in both sizes, all modified by a +2 combat bunus HQ.
In every case the 81mm tubes knocked out the gun, with the average number of rounds fired being 7-8 for the crack and vet. teams and 15+ for the reg. team. I ran the tests several times and could not come up with any difference of note between the crack and vet. 81mm teams. Maybe it becomes more apparent in the longer to extreme ranges, but it did not show up in my tests at all. All the 81mm teams pinned the gun and kept the gun pinned after 5 to 7 rounds were fired. In pinning the gun, there was no real difference in mortar teams, they all were as effective as one another on average.
As for the 50mm mortars, they knocked out the gun about 30% of the time with the edge going to the crack and vet. teams. The number of rounds to knock out the gun was all over the map with a low of 6 to a high of 30. This time the edge did go to the crack team over the vet. team, but not by much. Now with pinning the gun, the 50mm teams were all equally effective with 6 to 7 rounds on average being needed to pin the gun and keep it pinned.
I did run a few tests with +1 and 0 combat bonus HQ's but not enough to comment on them too much. What I can say is that if you can get the rounds close to the target, there is little difference between the 81mm and the 50mm as far as pinning guns is concerned. I will not dispute the killing ability of the larger mortar, but the smaller 50mm is potentially able to setup, fire and pin before the first round falls from the 81mm. This can be an advantage, specially if the gun does not have to be KO'd.