Nebelwerfer
Initially, two different mortars were fielded before they were replaced by a variety of rocket launchers ranging in size from 15 to 32 centimetres (5.9 to 12.6 in).
The thin walls of the rockets had the great advantage of allowing much larger quantities of gases, fluids or high explosives to be delivered than artillery or even mortar shells of the same weight.
[1][2] The loud, shrill howling noise of the incoming rockets led Allied soldiers in the Sicily campaign to give it the nicknames "Screaming Mimi" and "Moaning Minnie".
Nebel did, however, develop a powder-based rocket system with the same name that he used as a fighter pilot during World War I,[5] downing two British planes.
[7] Almost from the beginning, the army wanted more range than the 10 cm NbW 35's 3,000 metres (3,300 yd), but troop trials of two prototypes did not take place until May 1940.
This offered the opportunity for the Nebeltruppen to deliver large quantities of poison gas or smoke simultaneously.
The first weapon to be delivered to the troops was the 15 cm Nebelwerfer 41 in 1940, after the Battle of France, a purpose-designed rocket with gas, smoke and high-explosive warheads.
It was fired from a six-tube launcher mounted on a towed carriage adapted from that used by the 3.7 cm PaK 36 and had a range of 6,900 metres (7,500 yd).
It was only made with high-explosive warheads and was fired from a five-tube launcher that used the same carriage as the smaller weapon.
Separate production lines were set up under party control as the army refused to convert any of its existing factories, but not many actually appear to have been made.
[10] Production quantities are unknown, but photographic evidence shows the launcher mounted on lightly armored versions of the Sd.Kfz.
[12] To improve the mobility of the Nebelwerfer units, a ten-tube 15 centimetres (5.9 in) launcher was mounted on a lightly armored Sd.Kfz.
[11] The exact number built of the latter weapon is unknown, but evidence suggests that fewer than 100 were completed before the end of the war.
[15] Photographic evidence indicates that the Hungarians fitted three tubes under each wing of some of their twin-engined Me 210 Ca-1 heavy fighters.
[17] However, the high drag caused by the launchers reduced the speed and maneuverability of the launching aircraft, a handicap that could prove fatal if Allied fighters were encountered.
One experimental fitment trial program of up to 33 of the 21 cm (8.3 in) rockets, meant to be fired from a single aircraft in an upwards direction (much like the Schräge Musik upward firing autocannon on German Nachtjäger night fighters) was proposed for the Heinkel He 177A as the Grosszerstörer, mounted in the central fuselage and flying below American combat box bomber formations to down them, but the quintet of He 177A-5 airframes set aside for the Grosszerstörer program only flew as experimental airframes, seeing no active combat deployment.
After the crew had loaded and aimed the launcher, they had to take cover 10 to 15 metres (11 to 16 yd) away to avoid the exhaust flames, and would fire the rockets with an electric switch.
[21] The 1st, 2nd and 5th Nebelwerfer Battalions, each equipped with 24 10 cm Nbw 35 mortars in three batteries, were ready when the Germans invaded Poland in September 1939.
[22] One battery of Artillery Regiment 222 was converted to 10 cm NbW 35s and participated in the Norwegian Campaign.
[23] By May 1940, five more battalions had been formed, all equipped with 10 cm NbW 35 mortars, filling out the sequence from one to eight, but only the first five were combat ready when the Battle of France began on 10 May 1940.
The independent Nebelwerfer Battalions retained their mortars with the exception of the 8th, which received rockets before Operation Barbarossa.
Beginning in November 1941, the eight Decontamination Battalions were fully equipped with 28/32 cm NbW 41 rockets (some had sW.G.
