The 2" (51 mm.) mortar almost never made it to the battle of France; it was only conceived and adopted in the late 1930's.

The War Department brief was a simple one, namely to have a small-calibre, close-support weapon which could be easily transported, yet have a further range than rifle grenades. In November 1937, ten examples, along with 1,600 rounds, each a mixture of high explosive (HE) and smoke were made available for field trials. These trials proved so successful that production began in February 1938; thus when war broke out, only 500 examples were available to the BEF.


Each mortar had a crew of two, weighed 10.5 lbs (4.8Kg), was 21" (50.8 mm) long and had a rate of fire of 8 rounds per minute. The HE rounds weighed 2 lbs 2 oz (910 g) each and its effective range was 500 yards (460m).

This is a 1939 dated example, although having remained in service right through to the 1980's, has had its original long base plate replaced by the more compact one shown below. When the Bren production was switched over from the MkI to the MkI* & MkII versions, the handle under the stock became a redundant feature and these were retro-fitted to mortars. Originally they were supplied with a webbing sling as per our example. The wooden training mortar was one of a series of mock-up training aids produced and gives a better appreciation of how the mortar would have appeared in 1939/40.