July-August - Air Defense Artillery School

Nebelwerfer 41
\Vhen the Red Army retook Veliki Luki the first specimens
of a peculiar German weapon were captured and
examined. This weapon, the existence of which was, of
course, known to military men, was the N ebelwerfer 41
which means Fog (or Smoke) Thrower Model 1941. The
Russians referred to it as a six-barreled rocket mortar which
is a good descriptive term.
The Nebelwerfer is mounted on a somewhat modified
carriage of the German 37mm antitank gun and consists
of six thin-walled launching tubes, 150mm in diameter and
open at both ends. The six tubes are mounted around a
central shaft in such a way that they can be spun around
it and that the whole assemblv can be elevated as a unit.
A finger like projection at the'rear end of the launching
tubes prevents the rocket shells from sliding out backwards
when the tubes are elevated. Inside the launching
tubes there are three straight guide rails about ;.3 of an inch
deep.
The rocket projectiles, according to Russian sources,
weigh 25 kilograms (about 55 Ibs.) before firing. They are
ignited electrically, the fastest rate of fire observed was the
discharge of all six tubes in as many seconds. Full range
seems to be around 6000 yards, the flight of the projectiles
is fairly steady, the accuracy is also fair, although far inferior
to artillery fire under similar conditions, as can be
expected from projectiles with a steadily shifting center of
gravity.
\"hile the name Nebelwerfer indicates that the weapon
was primarily developed as a chemical mortar for the laying
of smoke screens, most of the shells used by the Germans
at Veliki Luki and at Stalingrad seem to have been of the
high-explosive variety.
And just as the name Smoke Thrower is not quite correct
the designation 41 seems to be misleading too. The
weapon may have been adopted in 1941 but it is much
older. In fact it seems to go back in a straight line to the
"aerial torpedoes" (LlIfttorpedos) advocated by the Swedish
Baron von Unge during the first decade of this century.
In Professor Otto von Eberhard's book Freier Fall, 1Vurf
WId SchllSs (in vol. II of the Handbllclz der physikalischen
Wid teclmiscllen l\tIecllallik, Berlin 1928) I find a mathematical
development of the theory of rocket motion in the
course of which Professor van Eberhard mentions that von
Unge's Lufttorpedos "had a weight of 50 kilograms and
attained a range of from 4000 to 5000 meters." These
figures are the same as those given for the rocket projectiles
of the Nehelwerfer and it is very likely that the one is
merely a somewhat modernized rehash of the other.
It must be remembered too that van Unge's invention became
the property of the Krupp works and that the latter
spent some considerable sums on developing them without
having anY"financial returns either during the period of
the German Empire nor during the period of the German
Republic.
B~ Wi"~ Le~
Lieutenant Colonel von Unge spoke about his aerial)
torpedoes for the first time in 1900. He advocated rocket1
propelled shells patterned after the stickless war rocket5f
invented by William Hale, with curved vanes in the ex
haus! nozzle which produced a spin around the long.tudinal
axis so that the heavy and cumbersome "guiding
stick"l became superfluous. In order to increase the range
of these projectiles yon Unge advocated firing them from
a short howitzer with a muzzle velocity of only about 300
feet per second. Such a slight muzzle velocity, he reasoned
would give considerable ballistic advantages without neCt"
sitating too sturdy a construction of the rocket itself. The
idea was not quite new since a similar method had beenl
used occasionally in pyrotechnic displays for amusement
purposes. Skyrockets launched in that manner seemed t
originate from a point in mid air since the "ballistic aScent
naturally could not be seen at night.
In 1901 a corporation with the name of "1\llars" \\"a'
founded in Stockholm to develop von Unge's principles
The results of these eJ\:periments were never published.
but some facts became known later on in a roundabout
manner. The propelling charge was the same in composi
tion and method of manufacture as that of the line-throwing
rocket used by coastal life saving units. It was a black
powder mixture with an excess of coal, hammered into1
the rocket tube by hand. The shell was attached to theI
top of the rocket tube, its charge consisted of dynamite
the fuze was of the percussion type, set off without a dela\
ring by striking the target. Nitrogelatin was also tried. a,I
were time fuses which were ignited by the propellingI
charge.
The weight of the high-explosive charge was two kilo-l
grams (4.4 Ibs.). The overall length of the aerial tor'i
'The stick of the ordinary Congreve war rockets of the early part of tlx
19th century was 16 feet long, the rocket tube 40.6 inches.
British Combi"" p/UJI
Nebelwerfer captured near Medjez-e1-Bab by the British.