Multiple Rocket Systems of WW2

i dont think the British used these much and not sure if they were around for the battle of Britain.

The Russians and Germans used them a lot but i read a link from owen that the Canadians tried them with mixed results.

what were the different versions and how effective wre they.

cheers owen

 

The British and Canadians did indeed use rocket systems. In the NW Europe campaign the Land Matress system was introduced and saw some successful use at the Rhine crossings. The so-called land mattress was a ground-based unit named after it's naval equivalent. Based on the "z gun" anti-aircraft rockets, it was tested in the summer of 1944 and saw some action with British and Canadian troops with mixed results. The land mattress used 3-inch rockets with 5-inch warheads and consisted of a 16- or 30-tube launching system mounted on a towed carriage. The land version had an operational range of 8000 yards.

<!-- Saved in parser cache with key enwiki:pcache:idhash:5476060-0!1!0!0!!en!2 and timestamp 20060712151936 -->This is quite a useful book on the subject.

Ross

 

Two instances of rocket fire. During the blitz in Southampton a German bomber came in quite low over the docks and was lit up by the fires below. We could see it very clearly, At that moment it ran into a barrage of rocket fire and vanished.

The second time was on the river Maas in Holland. We had penetrated deep into the enemy lines on a mission, laying there in the stinking mud amongst the rushes, the enemy came within feet of us, two of them, chattering away and laughing, and fired a bloody moaning minnie right over the top of us as we lay in the freezing mud...damn near deafened us.

Not nice,Sapper

 

video clip of Canadian rocket battery, firing 8 salvos from 12x30 tube launchers, thats some 2880 rockets, in support of Seaforths and 5th Camerons, March 1945.

 

Hi - This is my first post to this excellent site.

I’d never before heard about a weapon called the Land Mattress, until I started to carry out research into my Father’s military service during WW2. For anyone interested, I will give a brief history of the British unit that was to use it and some information about the weapon itself.

My Dad was called up to the reformed 7th Battalion, The Lincolnshire Regiment (disbanded in 1919) in July 1940. They were deployed on anti-invasion duties on the east coast. Then they along with around 36 other infantry battalions were chosen to be converted into Light Anti-Aircraft Regiments of the Royal Artillery in late 1941. My Dad’s unit became the 102nd Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment, R.A.

After intensive training, they served mainly in South East England, became British 1 Corp Troops prior to the invasion of N.W. Europe and landed in Normandy on 13 June 1944. When the First Canadian Army became activated, British 1 Corp and they came under this command and had close links with the 49th (Polar Bears) Infantry Division and the 51st Highland Division.

The regiment fought in Belgium as an ad-hoc infantry unit in late October 1944 and entered Breda in the Netherlands 10 days after it’s Liberation by the Polish 1st Arrmoured Division. It was on this same day, that 337 & 338 Batteries of the 102nd LAA were to become associated with the “Land Service Mattress” as it was called in the war diary. 336 Battery continued to use the self propelled 40mm Bofors.

The weapon itself, was developed by the Canadians in the UK, but did not interest the traditionalists of the British Royal Artillery. The Canadians decided to use it themselves and it arrived in Holland in late October 1944. The weapon was first used by the Canadians during the assault on Flushing and then to support the Polish 1st Armoured Division in the push to capture the Moerdijk Bridge.

It was then decided to train 2 British Batteries, who would alternate with the Canadian 1st Rocket Battery in it‘s use. There is in existence, a 24 page booklet called The Land Mattress in Canadian Service written by Doug Knight which was published by Service Publications in 2003 (www.servicepub.com). It records the development and deployment of the Land Mattress during it’s short life from late October 1944 to early May 1945 (very informative). After cessation of hostilities, this particular version of the weapon would never be used again.

There were 2 types built and they were the 30 barrel Tilling-Stephens and the 32 barrel Meyer-Dunsford. There is one of the Tilling-Stephens left in existence today and it resides in the Canadian War Museum.

2 short clips of film footage can also be procured from the Imperial War Museum’s film archives and the reference numbers are A70 237-2 & A70 237-3. They show the launchers being loaded and fired. The film’s description is Operation Veritable: Rocket projectiles are fired by 102 LAA Regiment, Royal Artillery against the Siegfried line, south east of Nijmegen, The Netherlands.

I hope that someone will find this article of interest. I certainly enjoyed discovering where my Dad served during WW2 and what his unit did.

 

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The nebelwurfers were used quite extensively during the Italian campaign and this may sound strange but I recently tried to find out the sound on the receiving end of this weapon by going on to some of the German newsreel sites on YouTube and found many firings but no actual sound on the receiving end I suppose this is quite natural but the whole idea of this terrifying demoralising weapon was the sound you got on the receiving end each bomb had a tail fin that created a different spine chilling sound like a banshee hence the name moaning minnie’s but our mob called them a few unprintable names the higher the trajectory the longer it took for the bombs to reach the ground and the more time you had to pray they didn’t land to close
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Regards niccar

 

The Nebelwerfer was certainly an effective weapon:

World War 2 - German Nebelwerfer Artillery Attack - Video

YouTube - The Nebelwerfer

YouTube - German WW2 Nebelwerfer artillery firing

The Maultier (and other stuff):
YouTube - Panzerwerfer/Nebelwerfer/Maultier Half trak rocket launcher

tom

 

The Katyusha rockets habitually named in my country as:

"Los organillos de Stalin"
"The small organs of Stalin"


Jan.

 

At Kenley there was a parachute and cable system in place for low flying enemy aircraft, first used on 18th August 1940. This device comprised of a 480 foot length of steel cable carried 600 feet high by a rocket, at the top of the trajectory the cable was released, a parachute opened and suspended the cable hopefully in the path of an aircraft. If the latter struck the cable a second parachute opened at the bottom of the line and the unfortunate aircraft was left towing away the contraption. With the drag factor there was a good chance that the aircraft would crash out of control. The launchers were placed at 60 foot intervals, fired in salvoes of nine or more.

Not quite the same thing but this was in the Battle of Britain.
http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/battle-specifics/6167-battle-britain-new-facts.html

 

Thanks for that

 

On the goodwood offensive, we captured a nebelwefer and turned it around against the enemy. The enemies reaction was explosive. Resulting in a message from on high saying...That was very nice, but would you kindly desist from using it.
Sapper

 

Niccar -
you are right - there is no other sound like that of incoming nebelwerfers - especialy when three are lined up against you - with a banshee type howl it's like the end is very close...apart from the effect on the ear drums

Sapper - we were presented with a Panther Tank the day after "Smokey Smith" of the Seaforths of Canada won his V.C. - we used it against the makers but that too was frowned upon from the top end !
Cheers

 

T34 Calliope being loaded.

 

Hi - This is my first post to this excellent site.

I’d never before heard about a weapon called the Land Mattress, until I started to carry out research into my Father’s military service during WW2. For anyone interested, I will give a brief history of the British unit that was to use it and some information about the weapon itself.

My Dad was called up to the reformed 7<SUP>th</SUP> Battalion, The Lincolnshire Regiment (disbanded in 1919) in July 1940. They were deployed on anti-invasion duties on the east coast. Then they along with around 36 other infantry battalions were chosen to be converted into Light Anti-Aircraft Regiments of the Royal Artillery in late 1941. My Dad’s unit became the 102<SUP>nd</SUP> Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment, R.A.

After intensive training, they served mainly in South East England, became British 1 Corp Troops prior to the invasion of N.W. Europe and landed in Normandy on 13 June 1944. When the First Canadian Army became activated, British 1 Corp and they came under this command and had close links with the 49<SUP>th</SUP> (Polar Bears) Infantry Division and the 51<SUP>st</SUP> Highland Division.

The regiment fought in Belgium as an ad-hoc infantry unit in late October 1944 and entered Breda in the Netherlands 10 days after it’s Liberation by the Polish 1<SUP>st</SUP> Armoured Division. It was on this same day, that 337 & 338 Batteries of the 102<SUP>nd</SUP> LAA were to become associated with the “Land Service Mattress” as it was called in the war diary. 336 Battery continued to use the self propelled 40mm Bofors.

The weapon itself, was developed by the Canadians in the UK, but did not interest the traditionalists of the British Royal Artillery. The Canadians decided to use it themselves and it arrived in Holland in late October 1944. The weapon was first used by the Canadians during the assault on Flushing and then to support the Polish 1<SUP>st</SUP> Armoured Division in the push to capture the Moerdijk Bridge.

It was then decided to train 2 British Batteries, who would alternate with the Canadian 1<SUP>st</SUP> Rocket Battery in it‘s use. There is in existence, a 24 page booklet called The Land Mattress in Canadian Service written by Doug Knight which was published by Service Publications in 2003 (www.servicepub.com). It records the development and deployment of the Land Mattress during it’s short life from late October 1944 to early May 1945 (very informative). After cessation of hostilities, this particular version of the weapon would never be used again.

There were 2 types built and they were the 30 barrel Tilling-Stephens and the 32 barrel Meyer-Dunsford. There is one of the Tilling-Stephens left in existence today and it resides in the Canadian War Museum.

2 short clips of film footage can also be procured from the Imperial War Museum’s film archives and the reference numbers are A70 237-2 & A70 237-3. They show the launchers being loaded and fired. The film’s description is Operation Veritable: Rocket projectiles are fired by 102 LAA Regiment, Royal Artillery against the Siegfried line, south east of Nijmegen, The Netherlands.

I hope that someone will find this article of interest. I certainly enjoyed discovering where my Dad served during WW2 and what his unit did.

Just came across my first post to this Forum. Since I wrote the above, I have confirmed that 337 and 338 Batteries of my Dad's Regiment were indeed the British units who were the main users of the Land Service Mattress and were trained and superimposed on 1 Canadian Rocket Battery for operational purposes. The permanent staff of the Canadian Rocket Battery were a training cadre.

 

Welcome to the forum Rob