Board Thread:Off Topic/@comment-27447621-20180223225208/@comment-27144409-20180903143111

Bluewindbag wrote: mortars! the little canon thingy, right? That's adorbable.

Cannons are primarily designed for low angle dirct fire

Mortars are designed for indirect fire at steep angles

That said, I could see how someone inexperienced could mistake them for tiny cannons given their shape.

One of the advantages of light and medium mortars is that they're relatively portable yet potent. With three guys haulling the mortar and ammo for it, you can give infantry their own "light" artillery. The portability in particular is suppposed to apply more so to the light mortars, such as the Japanese type 10 and 89 "knee mortars" (Don't trust the nickname if you want to keep your kneecaps and femurs.) and the French 50mm Modele 37. (I have some plans for this one.) Don't use the German 5cm Le GrW 36, it forgot the lightweight simplicity.

I've been looking at light mortars on Forgotten Weapons. Interesting stuff.