Rocket launchers.

Paul Lakowski · Post by **Paul Lakowski** » Tue Oct 21, 2003 6:54 pm

Why is there little evidence of the use of german rockets in MRLs.

I read that their MRL were every bit as good as Soviet MRL and they were produced in considerable numbers. I read 24,000 produced during the war [1/2 B4 1941] ...thats the same as the entire war production of 105mm & 150mm Howitzers and guns!!!

I read about 105mm how and 150mm how , but rarely see any mention of MRL units or fires. Is it assumed that when they say arty it includes MRL's ?

Were are they in the TOE...other than the Pzdivisions what other units had them?

BobM · Post by **BobM** » Wed Oct 22, 2003 1:39 am

Dear Paul

The western allies often called them multi barrel mortars - not rockets. If you read personal accounts of the war they quite frequently mention being under attack by these weapons

The panzer divisions rarely had such weapons, though their engineer battalions had the 280mm "stuka zu fuss"

In 1942 some infantry divisions had some in the divisional artillery.

Mostly they were in independant battalion, regiments or brigades.

This page has some info on the brigades in Normandy

http://w1.183.telia.com/~u18313395/norm ... gerob.html

Look under GHQ artillery units

Cheers

Bob

Paul Lakowski · Post by **Paul Lakowski** » Wed Oct 22, 2003 7:43 am

Thanks Bob

Heres what I got from another board!

For 1941-43 USSR had produced 6800 MRLs(katusha) and 6 million missiles and lost in action up to 4000 MRLs.

At the front line USSR had:

November 1941 - 45 "divisions" (artillery battalions)
January 1942 - 87
October 1942 - 350
at the end of 1944 - 519

Each "division" had 12 MRLs

BobM · Post by **BobM** » Wed Oct 22, 2003 3:46 pm

Dear Paul

The heavier M31 rockets only had 8 launchers in a battalion. The M13 rockets had 12.

Cheers

Bob

Desert_Fox5555 · Post by **Desert_Fox5555** » Thu Nov 20, 2003 10:07 pm

what about the panzerfaust and the panzerschreks? weren't those classified as German rocket launchers or bazookas?

Paul_9686 · Post by **Paul_9686** » Fri Nov 21, 2003 7:18 pm

Excuse me, Fox, but Paul Lakowski was speaking of artillery rocket launchers, not infantry anti-tank rocket launchers.

Yours,
Paul

Paul Lakowski · Post by **Paul Lakowski** » Sat Nov 22, 2003 12:37 pm

Paul_9686 wrote:Excuse me, Fox, but Paul Lakowski was speaking of artillery rocket launchers, not infantry anti-tank rocket launchers.
Yours,
Paul

It turns out that about 2/3 of these rockets where 28-32cm Napalm rockets with a range of about 2km, and were bloody effective. They were mostly used in engineering battalions to assault fortifications. The fact that 1/2 of all the rockets were produced in 1940 is probably because they intended to use them on the Maginote line?

Paul_9686 · Post by **Paul_9686** » Sat Nov 22, 2003 7:18 pm

Paul Lakowski wrote:

The fact that 1/2 of all the rockets were produced in 1940 is probably because they intended to use them on the Maginote line?

That sounds reasonable to me, Paul. No matter how enthusiastic they may have been about the panzers, the German high command most likely didn't want to put all their eggs in the same basket, so they would've made plans for refighting the WWI-style trench warfare if it was necessary. And to do that, they would need lots of artillery.

Yours,
Paul

Paul Lakowski · Post by **Paul Lakowski** » Sat Nov 22, 2003 9:46 pm

Paul_9686 wrote:Paul Lakowski wrote:
The fact that 1/2 of all the rockets were produced in 1940 is probably because they intended to use them on the Maginote line?
That sounds reasonable to me, Paul. No matter how enthusiastic they may have been about the panzers, the German high command most likely didn't want to put all their eggs in the same basket, so they would've made plans for refighting the WWI-style trench warfare if it was necessary. And to do that, they would need lots of artillery.

Yours,
Paul

I think the problem may have been more severe than this. Its my understanding that the bulk of the german general staff didn't believe in the "Blitzkrieg" and instead assumed that WW-II would be mostly like a WW-I trench warfare with better fire support...this is why the bulk of the german infantry divisions remained leg mobile horse drawn divisions through out the war!

Paul_9686 · Post by **Paul_9686** » Sun Nov 23, 2003 12:21 pm

Let's not forget how much mechanizing an army must cost, Paul. Even a dictatorship, where money seemingly is no object, may have difficulty mechanizing its army; for example, Soviet Russia's army didn't completely give up the horse until 1960.

Of course, it helps to have a "motorized" population. The USA was like that before WWII.

Yours,
Paul