Knee Mortar Question

[arisakadogs]

For some time I've been wondering why the weapon "type" designation was never marked on either the T-10 or T-89 Knee Mortars? Every other weapon I can think of had its type designation plainly marked but never on the knee mortars. Any ideas?

[Nick Komiya]

I was busy writing, so I left this for some ordnance guy to comment on, but no one seemed to step forward, so I will step up to the batter's plate.

It is actually quite simple, if you know how weapons development worked in the army.

When the model 89 prototype finally got the green light on 9th April 1930, it had no Type designation yet, as the official name was "Provisional Type 89 Heavy Grenade Launcher", so naturally you could not stamp any Type designations on it during this probation time.

Until it spent about 2 years in the field with convincing performance, it does not get the official "Type 89" designation, as that trial phase is a probationary period for the weapon. The Japanese version of Wikipedia says it finally gained the Type 89 designation in 1932, but that is not correct. Even in 1935 it remained a "provisional standard" and while it was still in this probationary state, it officially got designated as a secret weapon on 1st February 1935, which would prohibit any Type designation markings, etc.　

The Type 10, on the other hand, never officially made it to earn a "Type 10" designation, as it failed as a "Provisional Standard Type 10", which it became in 1921. Thus already in 1922, development of a replacement was launched, which also did not get a Type 89 stamp for the reasons given above.

So there never was a Type 10, only a Wannabe Type 10, which got replaced by a hush-hush unmentionably secret weapon. That is it in a nutshell.

[arisakadogs]

Honestly, I didn't really expect an answer to this question but just wanted to raise the issue. I did figure that if anyone could answer the question it would be Nick! Thanks a bunch for this information and the document. One thing that is interesting is that the "T-10" was produced as late as 1939.