The 10 cm Nebelwerfer 35 (10 cm NbW 35) was a heavy mortar used by Germany during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Much like the American M2 4.2 inch mortar it was intended to deliver chemical munitions, such as gas and smoke shells. Unlike the American weapon it appears to have had an ordinary

high-explosive shell A shell, in a military context, is a projectile whose payload contains an explosive, incendiary, or other chemical filling. Originally it was called a bombshell, but "shell" has come to be unambiguous in a military context. Modern usage ...

from the beginning. It was of conventional design, and was virtually a scaled-up 8 cm GrW 34. It broke down into the standard three loads for transport. The tube weighed , the baseplate and the bipod . Each could be man-packed for some distance, but small handcarts were issued for longer distances. Each mortar squad consisted of a squad leader, three gunners and three ammunition bearers. It was initially deployed in (german: Nebelwerfer "smoke mortar") battalions belonging to the Chemical Corps of the Heer; exactly how the American initially fielded their own 4.2 inch mortar in

chemical mortar battalion The United States chemical mortar battalions were army units attached to U.S. infantry divisions during World War II. They were armed with 4.2-inch (107 mm) chemical mortars. For this reason they were also called the "Four-deucers". Chemical morta ...

s. From 1941 they were replaced by the 10 cm Nebelwerfer 40 and the 15 cm Nebelwerfer 41

multiple rocket launcher A multiple rocket launcher (MRL) or multiple launch rocket system (MLRS) is a type of rocket artillery system that contains multiple launchers which are fixed to a single platform, and shoots its rocket ordnance in a fashion similar to a volle ...

Operational use

Initially they were deployed in ''Nebelwerfer'' battalions numbered 1 to 9, plus the ''Nebel-Lehr Abteilung (Demonstration Battalion)'' and saw service in the

Battle of France The Battle of France (french: bataille de France) (10 May – 25 June 1940), also known as the Western Campaign ('), the French Campaign (german: Frankreichfeldzug, ) and the Fall of France, was the Nazi Germany, German invasion of French Third Rep ...

and Russia during

Operation Barbarossa Operation Barbarossa (german: link=no, Unternehmen Barbarossa; ) was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and many of its Axis allies, starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during the Second World War. The operation, code-named after ...

. Specialist units using these mortars were also formed, such as ''Gebirgs-Werfer-Abteilung (Mountain Mortar Battalion) 10'' which was formed in Finland in early 1942 by expanding ''Nebelwerfer-Batterie 222''., This had itself been converted from ''8th Battery'' of ''Artillery Regiment 222'' of the ''181st Infantry Division'' during the

invasion of Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

. Following their replacement in the chemical corps, further uses were found for the mortars, including issue to Fallschirmjager units as Heavy Mortars.Grey Wolf, Battlefront Miniatures 2012

Notes

References

* Gander, Terry and Chamberlain, Peter. ''Weapons of the Third Reich: An Encyclopedic Survey of All Small Arms, Artillery and Special Weapons of the German Land Forces 1939-1945''. New York: Doubleday, 1979

External links

mortar page from TM-E 30-451 Handbook on German Military Forces
{{WWIIGermanGuns World War II field artillery World War II infantry mortars of Germany 100 mm artillery Chemical weapon delivery systems Military equipment introduced in the 1930s