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Eerrors in the article about the M-43
The current issue highlights the NVA M-43 Heavy Mortar. In the article the author claims that the M-43 (most NVA 120mm Heavy mortars were actually the Type 55 Chinese copy) delivered a punch equal to the 152mm howitzer. Not even close. The M-43 had three different rounds that were normally used - the HE F-843 - which was a straight-forward HE round, and the OF-843 and OF-843A which were HE-FRAG rounds. (The difference in the two being that the OF-843 had a 5.9lb bursting chjarge of TNT and the OF-843A had a 3. 48lb bursting charge of Amatol. (The author seems to concentrate on the HE-Frag rounds.) The projectiles (with fuze) weighed in at just over 35lbs.
The NVA had three towed 152mm howitzers, the D-20, the M-1943 (D-1), and the M-1937 -(ML)-20 and one self-propelled - the old JSU-152. The OF-540 HE-FRAG fired by the D-20 and ML-20 is a 95.7lb projectile with 13.75lbs of TNT for a bursting charge. Another pair of rounds, the OF-530,and 530A were generally used in the M-1943 the projectiles weighed 88lbs The 530 bursting charge was 15.1lbs of TNT, the 530A bursting charge was 12.5lbs of TNT. The lethal radii of the 152mm rounds was nearly half again as great as the smaller 843 series mortar rounds. Even if he has a misprint and meant to reference the 122mm howitzer - the lethal radii is still significantly greater for those rounds as well.
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