4.2 Inch Mortar Carrier

The US Army used a 4.2 inch mortar in Chemical Corps units in World War Two. They were ground mounted and carried by men or in trucks. They did experiment with putting them in halftracks and so I built a battery of four in halftracks. My wargame army now has more mobility for it's mortars. There were 48 4.2 inch mortars in a battalion, and all my other ones are the standard version.

This is the Roco M-16 quadruple .50 caliber anti-aircraft gun halftrack. A few months after the Normandy invasion there was such a shortage of infantrymen that many anti-aircraft units were disbanded and the troops transfered to the infantry. I postulate that a few of those surplus units had their halftracks taken and converted into mortar carriers. A not unreasonable conversion and one that any competant maintence battalion should have been able to accomplish.

I had some Roco M-106 mortar carriers with the 4.2 inch mortar that I used for another purpose and so I took those mortars and put them in the back of the halftrack. The British converted many of their American supplied AAA halftracks into infantry carriers, so a conversion to a mortar carrier did not seem unreasonable. I used the .50 caliber quad machine gun turrets as trailer mounted versions, so nothing was wasted.