Type 89 Grenade Discharger

Known as the “knee mortar” by Allied forces in the Pacific Theater, this light mortar weapons system was capable of firing multiple munitions from 50mm HE to smoke and incendiaries. It entered service in 1929 as a replacement to the Type 10 unit and was operated by a crew of three soldiers. The Type 89 was able to attain a rate of fire of approximately 25 rounds per minute.

The version used for PACOPS will be based on the 5cm leGrW 36, and the ammunition will be cloned from the 5cm GrW HE ammunition with adjustments to some parameters. These weapons will be added to the existing Japanese basic infantry company establishment, and may at a later date also be added to a newly created mortar section or other units that had organic light mortar.

Establishment Editor

I cloned the ammunition file from the 5cm GrW HE.

This is a clone of the 5cm leGrW 36 where I adjusted the weight from 1.0 to 4.7 kg.

On the performance tab the crew is changed from one to three and all other data is left as is pending further research. The bombard checkbox is not ticked (it was not for the original file) as I believe that is generally reserved for heavy artillery pieces.

The “basic package” required to move into the game test of an existing scenario.

The clone of the Heer WF - VGD - Gren Coy file continues as bicycles, horse-drawn wagons and infantry carts are added to their equipment lists with minor quantity adjustments.

The additions have actually dropped the Combat Power of a basic infantry company from 3 to 2 and the anti-personnel firepower rating from 59 to 53. To validate the work, I also placed a generic German unit in the game using the estab file WF – FJ – Jg Coy, one of the estabs that utilize the 5cm leGrW 36 which my Type 89 is modeled after. They also do not have a Bombardment firepower rating but have a Combat Power rating of 4 due to their additional weapons systems.