A Z Battery was a short range
anti-aircraft weapon system, launching
diameter rockets from ground-based single and multiple
launchers, for the air defence of Great Britain in the
Second World War. The rocket motors were later adapted with a new warhead for air-to-ground use as the
RP-3.
Development
The
solid-fuel 3 inch (76 mm) rocket used by the Z Batteries was known as the UP-3 (
Unrotated Projectile) and had been developed in the late 1930s by the Projectile Development Establishment at
Fort Halstead in
Kent under the direction of
Alwyn Crow
Sir Alwyn Douglas Crow (10 May 1894 – 5 February 1965) was a British scientist involved in research into ballistics, projectiles and missiles from 1916 to 1953. At Fort Halstead he developed the Unrotated Projectile an antiaircraft weapon for ...
. The naval weapon had been enthusiastically backed by
Winston Churchill when he was
First Lord of the Admiralty
The First Lord of the Admiralty, or formally the Office of the First Lord of the Admiralty, was the political head of the English and later British Royal Navy. He was the government's senior adviser on all naval affairs, responsible for the di ...
at the outbreak of war. By June 1940, Churchill was
Prime Minister and he requested "large supplies of
ocketprojectors" for the anti-aircraft defence of the mainland. The development of British rockets was under the control of Professor
Frederick Lindemann
Frederick Alexander Lindemann, 1st Viscount Cherwell, ( ; 5 April 18863 July 1957) was a British physicist who was prime scientific adviser to Winston Churchill in World War II.
Lindemann was a brilliant intellectual, who cut through bureau ...
and he enthusiastically backed Churchill's suggestion.
The naval weapon was intended to bring down low-flying aircraft with a trailing wire, at the end of which was an explosive mine; the land-based system was intended to have a high explosive
warhead, detonated by a specially designed
photoelectric
The photoelectric effect is the emission of electrons when electromagnetic radiation, such as light, hits a material. Electrons emitted in this manner are called photoelectrons. The phenomenon is studied in condensed matter physics, and solid sta ...
(PE)
proximity fuse
A proximity fuze (or fuse) is a fuze that detonates an explosive device automatically when the distance to the target becomes smaller than a predetermined value. Proximity fuzes are designed for targets such as planes, missiles, ships at sea, an ...
. The rocket was propelled by special solvent-free
cordite, which was initially manufactured at
ROF Bishopton
The Royal Ordnance Factory was a WW2 Ministry of Supply Explosive Factory. It is sited adjacent to the village of Bishopton in Renfrewshire, Scotland. The factory was built to manufacture the propellant cordite for the British Army and the Roya ...
in Scotland; in December 1940, a new propellant factory was commissioned at
Ranskill
Ranskill is a village and civil parish in the Bassetlaw district of Nottinghamshire, England, with its nearest town being Retford approximately 5 miles (8 kilometres) south. The Ranskill parish according to the 2001 census has 2,226 residents, ...
, which was in production by the start of 1942. By August 1940, more than 7,000 rocket projectors were available to
Anti-Aircraft Command
Anti-Aircraft Command (AA Command, or "Ack-Ack Command") was a British Army command of the Second World War that controlled the Territorial Army anti-aircraft artillery and searchlight formations and units defending the United Kingdom.
Origin
...
but output of the rockets lagged and by April only 18,600 had been made, of which Anti-Aircraft Command was allocated 8,400, preference being granted to the
Admiralty
Admiralty most often refers to:
*Admiralty, Hong Kong
*Admiralty (United Kingdom), military department in command of the Royal Navy from 1707 to 1964
*The rank of admiral
*Admiralty law
Admiralty can also refer to:
Buildings
* Admiralty, Traf ...
; the command was only able to operate 840 launchers with ten rockets apiece.
In October 1940, an experimental Z Battery became operational at
Cardiff in South Wales under the command of Major
Duncan Sandys, Churchill's son-in-law. Trials against a radio-controlled
Queen Bee target aircraft were successful, although the Director of Artillery at the
Ministry of Supply suspected that the results were "fixed". Despite this Churchill and Lindemann drove the project forward and by 1942, 2.4 million rockets were being produced annually.
Service
The first Z Batteries were equipped with a single-rocket launcher, the Projector, 3-inch, Mark 1. It was soon found that the rockets did not perform as accurately as the trials had suggested and that the proximity fuses were rarely effective.
Salvo
A salvo is the simultaneous discharge of artillery or firearms including the firing of guns either to hit a target or to perform a salute. As a tactic in warfare, the intent is to cripple an enemy in one blow and prevent them from fighting b ...
-fire was introduced and projectors capable of firing an ever-larger number of rockets were developed. The Projector, 3-inch, No 2, Mk 1 was a twin launcher and the No 4 Mk 1 and Mk 2 fired ripples of 36 rockets.
During the
Battle of Britain
The Battle of Britain, also known as the Air Battle for England (german: die Luftschlacht um England), was a military campaign of the Second World War, in which the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) of the Royal Navy defended ...
in an attack on
RAF Kenley by
Dornier Do 17
The Dornier Do 17 is a twin-engined light bomber produced by Dornier Flugzeugwerke for the German Luftwaffe during World War II. Designed in the early 1930s as a '' Schnellbomber'' ("fast bomber") intended to be fast enough to outrun opposing ...
bombers, AC2 David Roberts brought down one of the two attacking aircraft destroyed, using the RAF's newest anti-aircraft weapon, a line of twenty-five rockets that deployed a barrage of cables suspended on parachutes. This weapon, the naval version of the Z Barrage, was an example of the hodge-podge of weapons issued to the RAF in the early war years. The other Dornier 17 was shot down by Corporal John Miller of the
Scots Guards, using a
Lewis gun; both men were awarded the
Military Medal.
From early 1942, the manning of Z Batteries began to be transferred to the
Home Guard
Home guard is a title given to various military organizations at various times, with the implication of an emergency or reserve force raised for local defense.
The term "home guard" was first officially used in the American Civil War, starting wi ...
, as the equipment was comparatively simple to operate and the rounds were lighter. The age limit for Home Guards to work on Z Batteries was 60, whereas it was 40 for those posted to conventional anti-aircraft guns and coast defence batteries, because of the heavier ammunition.
Ground attack version
The No 2 and No 4 projectors were used in the
North African Campaign, mounted on converted
QF 3-inch 20 cwt
The QF 3 inch 20 cwt anti-aircraft gun became the standard anti-aircraft gun used in the home defence of the United Kingdom against German airships and bombers and on the Western Front in World War I. It was also common on British warships ...
gun trailers. The emergency use of a No 4 projector against an Axis infantry attack in that theatre provided the inspiration for the No 8 Projector, better known as the
Land Mattress, a surface-to-surface rocket system, used by the
Canadian Army in 1945. The UP-3 rocket was also developed into the
RP-3 air-to-ground anti-tank rocket.
See also
*
AA Mine Discharger, a Japanese anti-aircraft mortar.
*
Holman Projector
The Holman Projector was an anti-aircraft weapon used by the Royal Navy during World War II, primarily between early 1940 and late 1941. The weapon was proposed and designed by Holmans, a machine tool manufacturer based at Camborne, Cornwall. A ...
, a steam-powered anti-aircraft grenade launcher.
*
Henschel Hs 297 / 7.3 cm Föhn-Gerät, a German anti-aircraft rocket system.
*
Bethnal Green disaster
Footnotes
References
Bibliography
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External links
A Brief Assessment of the role of Fort Halstead in Britain's early Rocket Programmes and the Atomic Bomb Project
BBC : "Z" Battery, Rocket AA in Hyde Park by Lionel FrancisMemories of the Home Guard
{{WWIIBritishCommGuns
Anti-aircraft weapons
World War II weapons of the United Kingdom
Weapons and ammunition introduced in 1940