Company Officer's Handbook Of The German Army - Command and ...

EMPLOYMENT OF SUPPORT WEAPONS 27
b. Mortars
The 50-mm mortar is usually sited by the Germans to fire immediately
forward of the main line of resistance against an enemy who
is using covered approaches and cannot be reached by machinegun
fire. When held in a reserve platoon, this weapon is sited to
participate in defensive fire as well as to support counterattacks.
In recent operations the Germans have tended to depart from
their previous practice of employing 81-mm mortars by individual
sections (two mortars in a section), or assigning them singly to
companies and smaller units. They prefer to concentrate these
weapons, placing emphasis on the devastating effect of surprise
concentrations.
The fire unit is the section. When a number of sections are concentrated,
the senior officer will be forward in a main observation
post. This officer may direct the fire by giving a target designation
to a section within shouting distance. This section will indicate the
target to other sections by ranging with one mortar. The use of this
method, however, does not mean that normal means of indicating
targets and directing fire are not used.
Available information on the German 120-mm mortar indicates
not only that it has been introduced in mountain rifle regiments
and panzer-grenadier regiments but that 120-mm mortar battalions,
motorized and under control of GHQ, have been created as a result
of new concepts on the employment of this weapon. The Germans
have based their technical and tactical employment of this weapon
on a combination of artillery methods and techniques for the employment
of the infantry gun and the 81-mm mortar. The following
is an excerpt from a German document concerning the employment
of the 120-mm mortar: "As the mortars use only high-angle fire, it
is necessary to find positions from which all crests can be cleared.
The fire unit is the platoon, the tactical unit the company. To
obtain an especially effective concentration of fire, the battalion can
be employed en masse under the fire control of the battalion commander.
Splitting up the battalion into units smaller than a company
dissipates and reduces the effectiveness of the fire."