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|wars= |designer=Sir Wilfred Stokes KBE |design_date=1915 |manufacturer= |production_date= |number= |weight=104 lbs (47.17 kg) total〔"Appendix D. Details of Trench Mortars" in "Field Artillery Notes No. 7". Mortar=48 lb; Elevating Stand=28 lb; Base Plate=28 lb; Total Weight for Transport = 104 lbs〕 |length= |width= |height= |part_length= |diameter= |crew=2 |cartridge=HE 10 lb 11 oz (4.84 kg)〔"Appendix E. Details of Ammunition" in "Field Artillery Notes No. 7". This figure is for the unstabilised cylindrical bomb used in World War I.〕 |caliber=3.2 in (81 mm)〔War Dept. Technical Manual TM9-2005, Volume 3, Ordnance Materiel - General, Page 17, December 1942〕 |action=Trip |rate=25 rpm (maximum)〔"Appendix D. Details of Trench Mortars" in "Field Artillery Notes No. 7"〕 6-8 rpm (sustained) |velocity= |range=750 yards (686 m) |max_range=800 yards (731 m)〔At 45° using 4 Rings of propellant. This figure is for the unstabilised cylindrical bomb used in World War I.〕 |feed= |sights= |breech= |recoil= |carriage= |elevation=45°-75°〔From Range Tables, September 1917. 45° gave maximum range with any particular propellant amount e.g. 420 yards with 1 ring. 75° gave the most vertical descent for the shell and the shortest range with any particular propellant amount e.g. 197 yards with 1 ring.〕 |traverse= |filling=amatol |filling_weight=2lb 4 oz (1 kg)〔"Appendix E. Details of Ammunition" in "Field Artillery Notes No. 7"〕 |detonation= |yield= }} The Stokes mortar was a British trench mortar invented by Sir Wilfred Stokes KBE that was issued to the British, Commonwealth and U.S. armies, as well as the Portuguese Expeditionary Corps (CEP), during the later half of the First World War. The 3-inch trench mortar is a smooth-bore, muzzle-loading weapon for high angles of fire. Although it is called a 3-inch mortar, its bore is actually 3.2 inches or 81 mm.〔 ==Design== Frederick Wilfred Scott Stokes – who later became Sir Wilfred Stokes KBE – designed the mortar in January 1915. The British Army was at the time trying to develop a weapon that would be a match for the Imperial German Army's Minenwerfer mortar, which was in use on the Western Front. Stokes's design was initially rejected in June 1915 because it was unable to use existing stocks of British mortar ammunition, and it took the intervention of David Lloyd George (at that time Minister of Munitions) and Lieutenant-Colonel J. C. Matheson of the Trench Warfare Supply Department (who reported to Lloyd George) to expedite manufacture of the Stokes mortar. The Stokes mortar was a simple weapon, consisting of a smoothbore metal tube fixed to a base plate (to absorb recoil) with a lightweight bipod mount. When a mortar bomb was dropped into the tube, an impact sensitive primer in the base of the bomb would make contact with a firing pin at the base of the tube, and detonate, firing the bomb towards the target. The barrel is a seamless drawn-steel tube necked down at the breech or base end. To the breech end is fitted a base cap, within which is secured a firing pin protruding into the barrel. The caps at each end of the bomb cylinder were 81 mm diameter. The bomb was fitted with a modified hand grenade fuze on the front, with a perforated tube containing a propellant charge and an impact-sensitive cap at the rear. Range was determined by the amount of propellant charge used and the angle of the barrel. A basic propellant cartridge was used for all firing, and covered short ranges. Up to four additional "rings" of propellant were used for incrementally greater ranges. See range tables below. The four rings were supplied with the cartridge and gunners discarded the rings which were not needed. One potential problem was the recoil, which was "exceptionally severe, because the barrel is only about 3 times the weight of the projectile, instead of about one hundred times the weight as in artillery. Unless the legs are properly set up they are liable to injury".〔Stokes's Trench Howitzer 3" Mark I, page 15〕 A modified version of the mortar, which fired a modern fin-stabilised streamlined projectile and had a booster charge for longer range, was developed after World War I;〔Ruffell〕 this was in effect a new weapon. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Stokes mortar」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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