Japanese WWII Model 89 Knee Mortar Round. As complete as they come.

**rambob** · 08-20-2011, 02:59 AM

Picked up this pretty nice round for a WWII Japanese Model 89 Knee Mortar for a great deal many moons ago. It still has significant paint and a an almost perfect date marking. Atypically it still has the two piece sheet metal, copper powder container and the primer assembly. These are generally missing on most examples. The main projectile has scratches inside and a few crystals of the explosive left, from when the explosive was roughly removed. BTW. The 18.12 date equates to December 1943. It would be really hard to find one of these in a better condition.

Japanese WWII Model 89 Knee Mortar Round. As complete as they come.

**slimjim** · 08-30-2011, 06:43 AM

Excelent piece rambob.I have one and is not in as good condition.These are hard to find.

**talltom** · 08-30-2011, 04:58 PM

i agree with the statement it would be very hard to find one in such good condition very nice rambob (now you need to find the mortar

)

tom

**rambob** · 08-30-2011, 11:00 PM

Tom, Well now that you mention it, here is my early issue Type 89 knee mortar serial number 27XX. It is the reason why I bought the Type 89 round I posted here in the first place. The mortar also came with the pretty complete and scarce spare parts kit in the small canvas pouch.

Bob

**talltom** · 08-31-2011, 08:52 AM

holy mackeral now that is nice i have never actually seen a real one before so you are very lucky well done for getting the set

tom

**rambob** · 08-31-2011, 02:35 PM

Tom, Thanks for your kind words. I was fortunate to get the mortar, carrying case and spare parts kit for a trade for an antique scale I had laying around the house.

Bob

**GIZMO8Z** · 08-31-2011, 02:52 PM

Wow, looks great!

Is it true that GIs would capture and try to use these things... place it up against their knee, and then injure themselves?

**rambob** · 08-31-2011, 05:55 PM

GIZMO8Z, You are absolutely correct. There are two schools of thought on where the Knee Mortar got it's nickname. One is that the baseplate is concave and appears to fit perfectly over the thigh for firing. The second was that the knee mortar was normally carried strapped to the leg and some garbled document translation from Japanese to English implied it was fired from the leg. Regardless, firing the Type 89 from the knee or thigh will promptly break that part of the leg and many American soldiers indeed had this happen to them, while test firing the mortar, until the word finally got out. The concave base plate actually was designed to allow it to dig better into the ground when fired.

Bob

**talltom** · 08-31-2011, 07:53 PM

bob thank you for that information its true you learn something every day thanks for buying this mortar and round because if you hadn't i wouldn't have learnt all this info so a big THX and well done

tom

**Gustaf B** · 09-14-2011, 03:56 AM

A quick comment on the explosive that was used in thie projectiles, it was picric acid, and very unstable, it reacts with steel or iron, and any residue could be dangerous. It might not be enough to explode, but it could flash. I know of one person killed, and another injured while trying to remove the explosive from a knee mortar round.
Best
Gus
PS nice stuff.