Stokes Mortar Bomb

Thb compound was introduced by the Britbh at the l>attte of Loos, Sept. 24, 1915, as a filling for 4.2-in. howitwT shell. It was later also used in 4-in. Stokee-mortar bombs and gas grenades and was the British standard lacrinia<%r throughout the war. 

Fig. 1.31 From left to right a Livens container (phosgene), a 4 Stokes (Mortar Bomb (chloropicrin) and a 6" shell (mustard gas), found buried at Bramley in 1987 (reproduced with permission of the Chemical Defence Establishment, Porton Down). They all exhibit an advanced state of corrosion.

The Battle of Arras also saw the widespread use of the Stokes Mortar. Like the Projector, its design was extremely simple a steel tube raised at an angle by two struts. It fired four-inch mortar bombs, each containing two litres of gas. A well-trained crew could fire fifteen bombs and have them all in the air before the first one hit its target, with pin-point accuracy, as much as 1,000 yards away. 

At the end of World War I, there were four million shells in the United States inventory. World War I ordnance such as the Livens projectile and Stokes mortar were outmoded by World War II, resulting in burials and dumping. Leaking ordnance was a continual problem. Add to that the 1,343,728 World War II chemical bombs, and the 13,550,613 World War II chemical mortar rounds not used in World War II, and the probability of substantial buried chemical weapons becomes a certainty, in addition to the tremendous numbers of currently stockpiled ordnance. Also, even current inventory ordnance would have an occasional leaking or damaged munition. In addition, experimental ordnance, grenades, rockets, candles, spray tanks, smoke pots, and cylinders are also burial candidates. Where is the question state and local regulators need to repeatedly ask. 

In 1916 the British introduced a new means of projecting gas, the 4-inch Stokes mortar, developed from the 3-inch version of this weapon, which had been the standard mortar in the British Army. Because of their inability to manufacture gas shells, the British first used the mortar to fire improvised smokes and incendiaries. The Stokes gas shell, or bomb, as the British called it, contained six pounds of agent as compared to three pounds for the British 4.5-inch heavy howitzer shell. 

Stokes Trench Mortar. Named after the inventor, Sir Wilfrid S. Stokes, this is a Brit light 3 (7.6cm) muzzle-loading mortar that fires a projectile (Stokes bomb) weighing 11 lbs. See also under Cannon in Vol 2, C27-R to C28-L Refs 1) J. Quick, Dictionary of Weapons and Military Terms , McGraw-Hill (1973), 423 2) C. Chant, How Weapons Work , Henry Regnery, Chicago (1976), 64... 

Military sites often span several wars or decades. The constant improvement in the weapons of war may suddenly render a particular ordnance item obsolete. A timeline should be constructed for major changes in ordnance and then the site should he considered against that backdrop. The advent of the Dahlgren gun, breach loading caimon, chemical weapons, modern mortars, airplane-deployed bombs and the demise of smaller guns such as the 3-in. Stokes, 75-mm or larger 30-caliber ammunition in rifles in favor of 22-caliber bullets should be considered as these events would be motivation to dispose of substantial quantities of obsolete ordnance. 

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