Type 95 50-mm Smoke Mortar50-mm Finned Bangalore Torpedo
Japanese Explosive Ordnance – Army Ammunition – Navy Ammunition
Chapter 4 – Section 3
ARMY MORTARS
Type 89 - 50-mm Incendiary Mortar
Weight complete round: 1.25 pounds.
Weight incendiary mixture: 10.7 ounces.
Filling: Incendiary mixture:

Potassium nitrate: 47.7 percent.

Aluminum: 21.7 percent.

Sulphur: 19.9 percent.

Antimony trisulphide: 6.1 percent.

Wax: 2.8 percent.

Propellant: Nitrocellulose powder.

Over all length: 6.25 inches.
Length propellant containers: 1.25 inches.
Diameter propellant container: 1.02 inches.
Maximum diameter: 1.97 inches (50 mm).
Color: Natural brass body with black propellant container.
Fuzing: Powder delay train.
Weapon in which used: Type 89 grenade discharger.

Description: The shell is a cylindrical sheet-metal tube with a hemispherical nose and is covered with clear lacquer. Around the side of the casing are four silver-foil disks, each disc covering seven ports in the shell casing. The casing is crimped over the base, which contains two black-powder delay trains and is threaded to receive the propellant hous-ing. The propellant housing housing is of steel, with six gas-escape ports in the sides and a percussion cap set in the screwed-in base. The propellant is contained in a copper cup inside the propellant housing.

Operation: The flash from the propellant ignites the delay trains in the base of the shell, which in turn ignites the incendiary filling.

Remarks: Another incendiary shell, the type 10-year, is similar in appearance and opera-tion to the type 89 shell. It is 5 7/8 inches in length; the color of the body is natural brass; and the propellant assembly is black. There are eight sets of perforations covered with silver-foil disks. The type 10-year shell is fired from the type 10-year grenade dis-charger, an obsolete weapon that as the forerunner of the type 89 grenade discharger.

Figure 298 – Type 89 50-mm Incendiary Mortar.

Type 95 50-mm Smoke Mortar50-mm Finned Bangalore Torpedo