Fog troop
The Nebeltruppe , also Werfertruppe , was a branch of the army of the German Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS , which was originally set up for chemical warfare . While maintaining this designation the Nebeltruppe included the " rocket launcher " called Rocket Artillery of the Army.
It was used mainly during the Second World War from 1939 to 1945.
General
The tactical mission of the Nebeltruppe consisted of
- the deployment of smoke and chemical warfare agents
- the gas sensing
- and the decontamination of soldiers, equipment and terrain.
The fog troops were trained at the facilities of the Heeresgasschutzschule in Berlin and the Nebeltruppenschule in Celle , and later also at the Heeresgasschutzschulen in Bromberg and Thorn .
The Wehrmacht developed launching weapons for the tactical use of gas and smoke bullets. Adolf Hitler personally ordered the production of warfare agents in preparation for a gas war, but military considerations and the existing scarcity of raw materials prevented the high command of the Wehrmacht from using warfare agents. Since no gas weapons were used by the Allies either, there was no significant military use of gas or other warfare agents in Europe during the Second World War .
Nebelwerfertuppe
The use of rocket launchers, on the other hand, became particularly important after Wehrmacht units were caught in the fire of Soviet Katyusha rocket launchers on the Eastern Front for the first time in 1941 and suffered heavy losses due to the destructive effects of this previously unknown area weapon . These mobile and powerful rocket launchers, referred to by German soldiers as Stalin organs , the Wehrmacht had nothing to match. It was therefore decided to further develop the smoke troop launchers , originally intended as smoke tracking devices for firing smoke and warfare ammunition, and to make them available as planned for artillery use.
The name Nebelwerfer was retained as the camouflage name for the new rocket launchers.
Assembly of a heavy throwing frame 40 on Sd.Kfz. 251 of the 24th Panzer Division and loaded with projectiles, Voronezh, summer 1942
Light towing vehicle 3 t (Sd.Kfz. 11) with heavy throwing device 41, Eastern Front 1942
Light towing vehicle 1 t (Sd.Kfz. 10), Eastern Front, summer 1943
Loading a 15 cm smoke cannon, Eastern Front, summer 1942
Sergeant at the ignition of a launcher
Preparation of the launch racks
Firing of a rocket launcher (heavy throwing device 41) with a 28 cm thrown body explosive against insurgents in Warsaw in 1944
Mission history
The first large-scale deployment of the new Nebelwerfer regiments occurred in the summer of 1942 during the heavy fighting around Sevastopol : The heavy throwing regiments 1 and 70 and the throwing divisions 1 and 4 under the Niemann special staff, using 21 batteries with 576 tubes, set fire to the besieged fortress city . Explosive and flame oil rockets with a caliber of up to 32 cm were used.
From the beginning of 1943 smoke throwers were also used in the Africa campaign , including in Operation Spring Wind on the Kasserine Pass .
From then on, smoke throwers formed a welcome reinforcement component of the army or corps artillery. Their special combat value resulted from the high rate of fire, the raid-like, area-wide effect and the force of destruction caused by the mixture of explosive and incendiary ammunition . The fire of a launcher regiment with over 300 rocket projectiles per second achieved considerable destructive power and a demoralizing effect, comparable to that of Stuka attacks . Just one volley from a battery of 15 cm smoke cannons covered a target area 350 meters wide and several hundred meters deep, in which every enemy movement was instantly paralyzed.
The technical and logistical effort for the smoke cannon units was relatively low. However, the range was limited and exposed the thrower to the danger of direct enemy fire; the battery, consisting of six launchers, therefore had to change its position after each volley, as the smoke trail from the rocket propellants revealed the flight path and the firing position. It was not until autumn 1942 that a propellant was introduced using diglycol , which did not leave any telltale plumes of smoke when fired. A high degree of mobility was therefore required for the throwing operation. In view of the shortage of vehicles and fuel, the absolutely necessary motorization of the troops therefore caused problems.
Weapon systems
| Caliber / type | Range | V 0 | introduction | Mount | comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 cm fog thrower 35 | 3,000 m | 193 | 1939 | Grenade launcher | modified grenade launcher 34 with larger caliber |
| 15 cm fog thrower 41 | 5,500 m | 340 | 1940 | Spreading carriage of the 3.7 cm Pak 35/36 | six tubes per launcher, called "Moaning Minnie" by the Allied soldiers |
| 21 cm fog thrower 42 | 7,850 m | 320 | 1942 | Spreading carriage of the 3.7 cm Pak 35/36 | Bundle of five tubes |
| Heavy 28 cm thrower 40 | 1,925 m | 145 | 1940 | Firing from wooden, from 1941 steel packing boxes | |
| 30 cm fog thrower 42 | 4,550 m | 230 | 1943 | Firing from packing boxes, from heavy throwing equipment or from heavy throwing frames 40; Country designation "Stuka on foot" or "Howling cow" | |
| 30cm rocket launcher 56 | 1944 | Carriage of the 5 cm Pak 38 | as a unit launcher for all types of ammunition | ||
| 8 cm multiple thrower "Himmler organ" | 6,000 m | 335 | 1944 | GW Somua 303 (f) | with SS multiple thrower batteries 521 and 522 |
Outside of the actual fog troops, launchers were also used by other branches of service:
- The pioneer troops used heavy launchers to shoot mine lanes and destroy enemy field positions or bunkers. The tank pioneers used the medium armored personnel carrier 251 as a weapon carrier for the throwing frame 40 , called "Stuka on foot" in Landser jargon , in which the launcher grenades were fired directly from the transport packaging by the SPW or from the ground.
- The armored troops received armored launcher departments from 1944: ten tubes of the 15 cm Nebelwerwer 41 were used as armored launchers with a rotating base on an armored 3 t half-track truck of the Maultier type , followed from 1945 by the heavy Wehrmacht tug .
- The Air Force took off in 1943 21-cm launcher grenades to fight US bombers fighter aircraft of the types Messerschmitt Bf 109 , Focke-Wulf Fw 190 and Messerschmitt Bf 110 a. The single-engine interceptors were equipped with two, the twin-engine Bf 110 with four tubes. The launcher Grenade 21 was also of battle planes successfully used to attack ground targets.
- The Kriegsmarine successfully tested the use of 28 cm thrown grenades against land targets in the Baltic Sea under the camouflage name "Project Ursel" . U 511 under Kapitänleutnant Steinhoff fired rockets for the first time off Peenemünde on June 4, 1942 from aboard a submerged submarine . However, there was no military use.
See also
- Rocket artillery of the Bundeswehr
- Artillery troops from the Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS
- NBC defense force
literature
- Joachim Engelmann, Horst Scheibert: German Artillery 1934-1945. Starke Verlag, Limburg 1974.
- Hans Rielau: The history of the fog troop . Federal Ministry of Defense (Ed.), Cologne 1966.
- Military regulation: H.Dv. 210 Training regulations for the Nebeltruppe 1938–1944.
