The 8 cm Raketen-Vielfachwerfer was a copy of the

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

BM-8 Katyusha

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 ...

produced in

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

during the

Second World War 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 ...

History

The Soviet BM-8 Katyusha rocket launchers first encountered 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 ...

left a big impression on the invading Germans. Proposals to copy the Katyusha for German use were soon made but there wasn't much spare industrial capacity available for new projects. There also wasn't a great deal of enthusiasm for the project because the

German Army The German Army (, "army") is the land component of the armed forces of Germany. The present-day German Army was founded in 1955 as part of the newly formed West German ''Bundeswehr'' together with the ''Marine'' (German Navy) and the ''Luftwaf ...

had already committed to the production of spin-stabilized rocket systems such as the

Nebelwerfer The Nebelwerfer (smoke mortar) was a World War II Nazi Germany, German series of weapons. They were initially developed by and assigned to the German Army (Wehrmacht), Wehrmacht's "smoke troops" (''Nebeltruppen''). Initially, two different mortar ...

. Since the

Waffen-SS The (, "Armed SS") was the combat branch of the Nazi Party's ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) organisation. Its formations included men from Nazi Germany, along with Waffen-SS foreign volunteers and conscripts, volunteers and conscripts from both occup ...

was the military wing of the

Nazi Party The Nazi Party, officially the National Socialist German Workers' Party (german: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP), was a far-right politics, far-right political party in Germany active between 1920 and 1945 that crea ...

it was often in competition with the Wehrmacht for resources. This meant the Waffen-SS often used its political influence to create its own network of suppliers outside the influence of the Wehrmacht to supply its troops. A product of this competition for resources was the 8 cm Raketen-Vielfachwerfer which was almost a direct copy of the BM-8 and often armed Waffen-SS units.

Design

Launcher

The launcher consisted of two rows of parallel perforated steel rails which the rockets were mounted on. The launch rails could launch either German or captured Russian rockets. The rails were then mounted on tubular steel frames on a variety of vehicles. Two of the most common mounts were an armored

SOMUA MCG Somua, an acronym for ''Société d'outillage mécanique et d'usinage d'artillerie'', was a French company that manufactured machinery and vehicles. A subsidiary of Schneider-Creusot, Somua was based in Saint-Ouen, a suburb of Paris. Overview ...

German designation ''S307(f)'' half-track modified by

Alfred Becker Alfred Becker (20 August 1899 – 26 December 1981) was a German engineer and artillery officer who served during the World War I, First and World War II, Second World Wars. During the Second World War he took captured British and French vehicl ...

for use by the

Wehrmacht The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the ''Heer'' (army), the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmacht''" replaced the previous ...

or a German Sd.Kfz. 4 half-track.

Rocket

The rocket called the 8 cm Raketen Sprenggranate was a simple

cordite Cordite is a family of smokeless propellants developed and produced in the United Kingdom since 1889 to replace black powder as a military propellant. Like modern gunpowder, cordite is classified as a low explosive because of its slow burni ...

fueled, fin stabilized, diameter, high-explosive rocket patterned closely on the Russian M-8. The body was simple and inexpensive to produce due to the use of stamped sheet metal components, unlike the more expensive machined venturis used by spin-stabilized rockets. The fins of the 8 cm Raketen Sprenggranate differed from the M-8 and were mounted at 2° to impart spin to improve accuracy.

Rocket Comparison

Photo Gallery

File:Bundesarchiv Bild 101I-300-1863-30, Riva-Bella, Waffenvorführung Panzerwerfer.jpg, A weapons demonstration of a 24-round 8 cm Rakaten-Vielfachwerfer on an armoured

half-track. Located in Northern France, Atlantic Coast, Riva Bella, 30 May 1944. File:Bundesarchiv Bild 101I-300-1863-33A, Riva-Bella, Waffenvorführung Panzerwerfer, Rommel.jpg, A collection of German officers including Generalfeldmarschall

Erwin Rommel Johannes Erwin Eugen Rommel () (15 November 1891 – 14 October 1944) was a German field marshal during World War II. Popularly known as the Desert Fox (, ), he served in the ''Wehrmacht'' (armed forces) of Nazi Germany, as well as servi ...

at Riva Bella 30 May 1944. File:Bundesarchiv Bild 101I-300-1863-35, Riva-Bella, Waffenvorführung Panzerwerfer, Rommel.jpg File:Bundesarchiv Bild 101I-300-1863-07, Riva-Bella, Panzerwerfer, Einschläge.jpg, Shell splashes in the waters off Riva Bella (

Sword Beach Sword, commonly known as Sword Beach, was the code name given to one of the five main landing areas along the Normandy coast during the initial assault phase, Operation Neptune, of Operation Overlord. The Allied invasion of German-occupied Fr ...

), May 30, 1944.

Notes

References

* * Chamberlain, Peter (1975). Mortars and Rockets. Gander, Terry. New York: Arco Pub. Co. * Spielberger, Walter (1989). Die Halbketten-Vehicles des deutschen Heeres 1909–1945. Motorbuch Verlag.

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:8 cm Rakaten-Vielfachwerfer Rocket artillery World War II artillery of Germany Weapons and ammunition introduced in 1943