When a leg is removed from the handle, the spade part of the weapon locks into position as a base plate for the mortar.

The soldier carried 15 rounds of ammunition on a fabric belt for the mortar.

The spade mortar was used during the Winter War with Finland, where the weapon was found ineffective in the heavy snow.

Initially used on the Eastern Front in World War II, the spade mortar fell into disuse after 1942.

During the Iran–Iraq War, the Iranian Army developed a similar device, the 37 mm marsh mortar, for use on marshy ground, as 37 mm was the maximum shell size for which recoil did not drive the mortar into the soft ground.