Airfield Signal Mortar 3 inch

The New Forest website has since been updated acting on info. received: http://www.newforestheritage.org/beaulieu-airfield-pundit-code/. The signals mortar at Beaulieu differs from that at Harrowbeer in that it is a 5 inch mortar socket rather than 3 inch. Photos attached:

Here you go pictures of the other one and info

http://www.newforestheritage.org/image/847/

See Post 6.

http://www.newforestheritage.org/beaulieu-airfield-pundit-code/

it must have been a bit iffy banging them out vertically, as gravity would eventually bring what’s left back.

Here you go pictures of the other one and info

http://www.newforestheritage.org/image/847/

http://www.rafharrowbeer.co.uk/about.htm

The Signals Mortar would fire a large pyrotechnic vertically above the airfield in bad weather, usually used as a last resort for emergency guidance to an airfield.

The Signals Mortar at R.A.F. Harrowbeer is still in it’s original position, it has a diameter of 3 inches and is stamped with a date of 1943. It can be found adjacent to the Signals Square close to the Watch Office.

Cool, fire off some mortars, and see what lands 🙂

Yes we have the Signal Mortar mount (as per initial post); then the Motley MG mount from posts #4 and #8; and thirdly is the Stork mount (post 12), which is also an MG mount.

Thanks OneEighthbit, although it still looks like we are looking at two completely different but very similiar bases.

It’s the base for a Stork Mount for twin Vickers/Lewis MG for airfield defence.

http://www.sywellaerodrome.co.uk/sywell-aerodrome-magazine-2001-17-airfield-defences.php

Another snippet of info on the Airfield Research Group forum indicates that the Signal Mortar could fire a flare thousands of feet up and was electrically initiated from the Tower.

Im fairly sure we can rule out a military windsock although something smaller like an anomometer might be a possibility.

Wouldn’t a Windsock be dug into the ground?
After all, in many photos I’ve seen it was a permanent fixture and well marked.

Unless there were portable windsocks…but would they be used on a permanent airdrome?

we found something similar at Hunsdon, a former nightfighter airfield, we thought it was either a Motley mount or a windsock mount…

[ATTACH=CONFIG]251785[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]251784[/ATTACH]

Yours is an MG mount: as you can see from my post #4 above – right next to a pill box so more likely to be MG than windsock; and seen at other locations next to pill boxes.

austernj673 and Southern Air99 have posted something quite different (well OK similar but different).

I’d really like to know what the mortar looked like!

we found something similar at Hunsdon, a former nightfighter airfield, we thought it was either a Motley mount or a windsock mount…

[ATTACH=CONFIG]251785[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]251784[/ATTACH]

There’s a pill box at Biggin Hill that is fairly remote. It still has machine gun mounts by each “window”, concrete blocks used to block the windows and the steel door is lying nearby.

These sites may be of use:

RAF Harrowbeer (where I have visited) has a signal mortar base, shown on this site rather far down the page:

http://www.atlantikwall.co.uk/atlantikwall/edev_harrowbeer.php

This page is about Beaulieu airfield in the New Forest. It has something similar to what the OP found but suggests it was a windsock mount/base:

http://www.newforestheritage.org/beaulieu-airfield-pundit-code/

Regards

Chris

Thanks Sabrejet, yep I think your picture shows a Motley gun mount base. Thanks for posting.

Well I’ll be! I’ll post the photos of the Clyffe Pypard one later if I can.

EDIT: found it: it differs in some respects, so maybe this one is an MG mount and not like yours after all?

[ATTACH=CONFIG]251774[/ATTACH]

That was my first thought when I saw it, perhaps a Motley gun mount for Airfield defence but I recently found this picture online showing the base section in situ at another airfield with the detail stamped into the rim. Our example is very corroded but it looks like the barrel is detachable if it is a signalling device to allow loading of the flare.

Would be interesting to know if anyone is familiar with them and can explain exactly how it was employed.

It looks too hefty to be a signal mortar, plus non-adjustable for wind etc. I’d suggest it’s the base for an MG, having seen similar before – I think there is one extant at Clyffe Pypard.