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44-694: The German Panzerwerfer refers to either of two different types of half-tracked multiple rocket launchers employed by Nazi Germany during the Second World War . The two self-propelled artillery vehicles are the 15 cm Panzerwerfer 42 auf Selbstfahrlafette Sd.Kfz.4/1 (based on the Opel Maultier , or "mule", half-track) and 15 cm Panzerwerfer 42 auf Schwerer Wehrmachtsschlepper (or Panzerwerfer auf SWS ). The Panzerwerfer 42 auf Maultier, Sd.Kfz. 4/1, first went into production in April 1943, and

88-620: A comeback in the 1930s, with development occurring in several countries that would use them in World War II. The White Motor Company, which had designed armored cars for the United States Army and United States Marines , continued after the First World War to develop armored cars and added tracks for the M2 half-track car and M3 half-track . There were many civilian half-track experiments in

132-647: A dispute between Linn and Lombard, led Linn to create the Linn Manufacturing Company, builder of the Linn tractor , for building and putting onto the market his own improved civilian half-track–style machines. Lombard attempted to follow but, for the most part, remained a pulling machine. Linn would later register "Haftrak" and "Catruk" as trademarks, the latter for a half-track meant to convert hydraulically from truck to crawler configuration. Tractors used to tow artillery and designs with front wheels and tracks at

176-432: A hide, came into action when given a nuclear fire mission, fired and immediately came out of action and moved to another hide adjacent to another firing position. These tactics became normal for missile units worldwide and were successfully used by Iraqi missile units in the 1990–1991 Gulf War . Similar tactics were adopted by M270 Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) platoons when it entered service, although in this case

220-573: A licence to produce them. This resulted in the Army Ordnance Department building a prototype in 1939. In September 1940 it went into production with the military M2 and M3 half-track versions. With the snow and ice of Canada in mind, Joseph-Armand Bombardier developed 7- and 12-passenger half-track autoneiges in the 1930s, starting what would become the Bombardier industrial conglomerate. The Bombardier vehicle had tracks for propulsion in

264-402: A motor home/traction engine run by an underslung four-cylinder Brennan gasoline engine to travel the unimproved roads of the day, with wheels at the front and tracks at the rear: the first payload-carrying half-track. By 1909 this was replaced by a smaller machine with two wheels at the front and a single track behind, since rural wooden bridges presented problems. Stability issues, together with

308-556: A number of cars from the personal car pool of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia to half-tracks in 1911. His system was named after him: the Kégresse track , which used a flexible belt rather than interlocking metal segments. He applied it to several vehicles in the imperial garage, including Rolls-Royce cars and Packard trucks. The Imperial Russian Army also fitted the system to a number of their Austin Armoured Cars . From 1916 onward, there

352-446: A truck chassis made it comparatively light and mobile, while its quick 7-10 second full salvo, slow reload, and complete lack of protection made switching positions its main tactic and best defence. Shoot and scoot tactics were first adopted by NATO in the early 1960s by its nuclear artillery units using towed 8-inch howitzers and truck-mounted MGR-1 Honest John rockets. These operated as single guns or launchers, typically deployed to

396-654: Is affected by the rate of fire of the manoeuvring guns and the time it takes them to come out of action. However, it is also very wearing on the gun crews and for sustained use relief crews are essential. South African Defence Force G6 Howitzers used the technique very effectively in Angola against Cuban forces in the Battle of Cuito Cuanavale . Trained by the German Bundeswehr , the Ukrainians have been using this tactic during

440-544: Is an artillery tactic of firing at a target and then immediately moving away from the location from where the shots were fired to avoid counter-battery fire , e.g. , from enemy artillery. The first recorded use of this tactic came from the Caucasian War where the Chechen Naib Talkhig of Shali became famous for his shoot-and-scoot tactics, termed nomadic artillery by Russians, in the 1830-1850s. According to

484-491: Is not difficult for someone who can drive a car to drive a half-track, which is a great advantage over fully tracked vehicles, which require specialized training. Half-tracks thus facilitate moving personnel and equipment successfully across varying terrain. The main disadvantage is the increased maintenance to maintain track tension, and the reduced life span of tracks (up to 10,000 km) compared to tires (up to 80,000 km). The French engineer Adolphe Kégresse converted

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528-421: Is that the tracks reduce the pressure on any given area of the ground by spreading the vehicle's weight over a larger area, which gives it greater mobility over soft terrain like mud and snow, while they do not require the complex steering mechanisms of fully tracked vehicles, relying instead on their front wheels to direct the vehicle, augmented in some cases by track braking controlled by the steering wheel. It

572-476: The Munitionskraftwagen , were made. The Panzerwerfer 42 auf Maultier was used for larger scale rocket barrages against Soviet positions where a large bombardment of a big area would be more effective than more accurate artillery fire. The Panzerwerfer's rocket barrages covered much larger areas and added more psychological elements to the fight: the amount of noise, smoke, splinters , and flying debris as

616-576: The Nebelwerfer by the German Wehrmacht , but they were unprepared for the effects of a mobile, armored, camouflaged, and highly destructive rocket launcher mounted on a half-track chassis. The British and Canadians were the first of the western Allies to see the German rocket launchers in action against troop concentrations and Allied positions. The 7th Werfer Brigade, made up of the 83rd and 84th Regiments,

660-561: The 102nd SS Werfer Abteilung, which was part of the 2nd SS Panzer Division Das Reich . The 7th Werfer Brigade fired 8,000 tons of ammunition, notably onto Hill 112 (during Operation Jupiter ) in support of its recapture by German forces on June 30. The British were usually at the receiving end of the Panzerwerfer rockets in Normandy, but the 15 cm Nebelwerfers were used in large numbers against American, British, and Canadian troops throughout

704-553: The 1920s and 1930s. The Citroën company sponsored several scientific expeditions crossing deserts in North Africa and Central Asia, using their autochenilles . After World War I, the US military wanted to develop a semi-tracked personnel carrier vehicle, so it looked at these civilian half-tracks. In the late 1920s the US Army purchased several Citroën-Kégresse vehicles for evaluation followed by

748-420: The 1943-introduced Schwerer Wehrmachtschlepper , was meant to replace the 3-tonne and 5-tonne capacity models – only some 825 examples were built before the war's end. A common feature of virtually all German World War II half-tracks was the so-called Schachtellaufwerk overlapped/interleaved roadwheel arrangement with a "slack track" system possessing no return rollers under the return run of track, used from

792-589: The Americans with their M2s and M3s . Half-tracks were widely used as mortar carriers , self-propelled anti-aircraft guns , self-propelled anti-tank guns , armored fighting vehicles and in other tasks. The Germans used a small 2 seater 1/2-ton class half-track "motorcycle", the Sd.Kfz. 2 (better known as the Kleines Kettenkraftrad HK 101 or Kettenkrad for short – Ketten meaning tracks, and krad being

836-587: The Russian historian and professor Nikolay Smirnov, he was one of the first commanders to use this tactic. The need for such tactics in World War II became obvious from the noticeable smoke signature produced by the use of anti-tank infantry weapons such as the German Panzerfaust anti-tank grenade launcher, the American M1 bazooka and its German Panzerschreck derivative anti-tank rocket launchers, and also by

880-624: The Soviets advanced from the east and the Allies from the west. The Panzerwerfer 42 auf Maultier weighed 7.1 tonnes, was six meters long, two meters wide, and nearly three meters high. It was capable of reaching speeds of up to 40 km/h. One of these half tracked vehicles generally carried a Nebelwerfer 41 launching system, which was specially designed to be mounted on the Opel-engine powered Panzerwerfer. The German engineers designed this system because of

924-599: The Spicer 4-speed transmissions used by the other manufacturers; had IHC Model FOK-1370 front drive axles instead of the Timken front axles used by their competitors; used IHC Model RHT-1590 axles in the rear instead of the Timken axles used by their competitors; and were constructed with fully welded armor with rounded rear corners instead of the bolted armor with square corners used by the other three manufacturers. In August 1944, Allied forces liberated Paris . The first vehicle to enter

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968-668: The Springfield Works; and in 1945 they built 589 M5A1 and 1 M5A3 units at Springfield Works. The IHC half-tracks differed visibly from the White, Diamond T, and AutoCar units in several ways. The IHC units had flat front fenders instead of fenders with compound curves; used the International Red Diamond 450 engines instead of the Hercules 160AX engines used by the other manufacturers; used IHC Model 1856 4-speed transmissions instead of

1012-511: The battlefield. In England, starting in 1905, David Roberts of Richard Hornsby & Sons had attempted to interest British military officials in a tracked vehicle, but failed. Holt bought the patents related to the "chain track" track-type tractor from Richard Hornsby & Sons in 1914 for £4,000. Unlike the Holt tractor, which had a steerable tiller wheel in front of the tracks, the Hornsby crawler

1056-650: The city was an M3 named "España Cañí" and driven by Spanish soldiers fighting under the French tricolor. There followed several days of parades in late August. One parade of 25 August 1944 was down the Champs-Élysées , with Charles de Gaulle leading throngs of Parisians, and French soldiers driving IH half-tracks. Half-tracks were used extensively in World War II, especially by the Germans with their armored Demag -designed Sd.Kfz. 250s and Hanomag -designed Sd.Kfz. 251s ; and by

1100-529: The conspicuous trails of smoke left behind by the Nebelwerfer batteries, which necessitated a self-propelled artillery piece for quick relocation after firing . The system contained 10 missile tubes, and generally carried 20 projectiles, enough for the vehicle to fire two full salvos. The effective range for a Panzerwerfer's rockets was about 4,000-6,500 meters, and the maximum range was less than 7,000. Though intended to provide fire support and operate well behind

1144-440: The counter-battery threat is high. These areas cover several square kilometres and the guns move around in them in pairs. The difficult decision is deciding how long guns can remain in one place before moving. This requires judgement about the enemy's counter-battery responsiveness. In these areas, the battery's command elements remain in one place and there are various options for replenishing the guns' on-board ammunition. The tactic

1188-570: The early wars of the Arab–Israeli conflict . Half-tracks continued in use by the Israeli Army where they were deemed to outperform fully tracked and fully wheeled vehicles for non-combat payload tasks such as carrying telecommunications equipment. As of March 2008, 600 half-tracks were still officially listed as on active duty. Many Second World War half-tracks were sold off to civilian users either as surplus stock or later due to obsolescence when

1232-598: The fully tracked armoured personnel carrier was introduced into service. Most were used in engineering-related tasks involving terrain that would be difficult for even four-wheel drive trucks, such as snow, sand and water-logged soil. Many were significantly modified for their new roles, including being fitted with winches, small cranes, and generators after the rear cabin sides were removed. Some World War II half-tracks were used as all-terrain fire department pumpers or tankers. Shoot-and-scoot Shoot-and-scoot (alternatively, fire-and-displace or fire-and-move )

1276-589: The hauling of logs in the northeastern US, with the Lombard Steam Log Hauler built by Alvin Lombard of Waterville, Maine , from 1899 to 1917. The vehicle resembled a railway steam locomotive, with sled steering (or wheels) in front and at the rear, crawlers driven by chains instead of the driving wheels of a locomotive. By 1907, dog and pony show operator H. H. Linn abandoned his gas-and-steam-powered four- and six-wheel-drive creations and had Lombard build

1320-686: The largest being the White Motor Company , the original designer, with a total of 15,414 accepted by the War Department. The other manufacturers, Autocar and Diamond T , built 12,168 and 12,421, respectively. These designs were produced under license in Canada, and were widely supplied under the Lend Lease program, with 5,000 supplied to the USSR alone. The fourth manufacturer of American-made half-tracks

1364-517: The launchers usually went first to a reload site after firing. It may be used by Indian Pinaka MBRL or Russian Grad , Uragan , and Smerch , although originally systems like Grad used more traditional tactics. The tactic has also been adapted for more general use with self-propelled gun batteries (such as the US M109 Paladin or German PzH2000 ). A refined version are gun manoeuvre areas developed by UK for use by AS-90 batteries when

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1408-958: The military abbreviation of the German word Kraftrad , the administrative German term for motorcycle), to pull small artillery guns, for ammunition haulage, general transport and as a ground towing vehicle for the Messerschmitt Me 262 jet fighter. Built by NSU Motorenwerke AG Neckarsulm and Stoewer Werke Stettin , a total of 8,345 vehicles were produced between 1940 and 1944. Other Wehrmacht models were: Larger German half-track tractors were used to tow anti-tank and field artillery pieces. The largest of these were also used by mechanical engineers to retrieve bogged down vehicles or perform repairs such as engine maintenance. Maultier half-tracks used to transport supplies to forward units were essentially civilian trucks which had had their rear axles replaced by Panzer I or Panzer II running gear. A replacement half-track design introduced later in World War II,

1452-478: The point of contact, some Panzerwerfer also had a machine gun mounted above the cab for protection against infantry attack. Known as the "Moaning Minnie" by Allied soldiers for the distinctive noise the rockets made when fired, it was less accurate than a dedicated artillery piece, but its ability to saturate an area with fire and its psychological effects on infantry made it a valuable asset. Half-track The main advantage of half-tracks over wheeled vehicles

1496-496: The rear and skis for steering in front. The skis could be replaced with wheels in the summer, but this was uncommon. The Red Army also experimented with half-tracks, such as the BA-30 , but found them expensive and unreliable. Although not a feature on American World War II vehicles, steering could be assisted by track braking, controlled by the steering wheel. In the US, 43,000 halftracks were produced by three primary manufacturers,

1540-658: The rear began to appear prior to the outbreak of war, often based on agricultural machines such as the Holt tractor . The basic half-track concept was originally showcased by the British during the war. With such tractors, the tactical use of heavier guns to supplement the light horse-drawn field guns became feasible. For example, in the British Army it allowed the heavy guns of the Royal Garrison Artillery to be used flexibly on

1584-584: The rockets hit and exploded was considerable. The extensive use on the Eastern Front showed that this weapon could be employed effectively on the Western Front as well. The weapon was finally introduced throughout the army on May 14, 1944, in France. The western Allies first went into action against the Panzerwerfer 42 after D-Day . American intelligence before D-Day pointed to the use of rocket launchers such as

1628-657: The small Kettenkrad to the nine-tonne capacity Sd.Kfz. 9 vehicle, and most famously used on Henschel's Tiger I and MAN's Panther main battle tanks. Half-tracks were extensively used after World War II until the late 1960s, mostly in form of surplus World War II vehicles. Half-tracks saw combat in the French colonial empire in the First Indochina War and the Algerian War ; in the Indo-Pakistani wars and conflicts ; and

1672-616: The summer of 1944. The Battle of the Bulge saw intensive use of German armored rocket launchers. The most concentrated, massed salvos were used in the Ardennes region of Belgium in 1944 during the weeks of the German offensive. Panzerwerfer saw extensive use during April and May 1945, as the Soviets were quickly advancing on Berlin and the German forces employed rocket artillery in a defensive mode. Rocket launchers were used in large numbers defending positions inside of Germany and close to Berlin as

1716-479: The various models of Nebelwerfer and Wurfrahmen 40 German barrage rocket systems. In modern times, moving after firing is important, as there are a multitude of electronic systems, such as counter-battery radar that can automatically detect artillery fire in near real-time and direct counter-battery fire from friendly artillery. Shoot and scoot was originally made possible and used by Soviet Katyusha rocket artillery, whose rudimentary construction of rails on

1760-639: Was a Russian project by the Putilov Plant to produce military half-tracks (the Austin-Putilov model), along the same lines, using trucks and French track parts. After the Russian Revolution and the establishment of the Soviet Union , Kégresse returned to his native France, where the system was used on Citroën cars between 1921 and 1937 for off-road and military vehicles. The concept originated with

1804-536: Was produced until March 1945. Hitler called for production of the vehicle in January 1942, and the vehicle saw its first tests on the Eastern Front in fall of 1943. Opel was the main manufacturer, producing most of the components, including the 3.6 liter, 6 cylinder Adam Opel engine, which had 68 horsepower and an 80-liter fuel capacity. Throughout the three years it was produced, 300 Panzerwerfer and 289 of its variant,

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1848-608: Was sent to Normandy from Beauvais after D-Day, and on June 10 it was in Falaise ; the next day, it was about 10 kilometers from Caen . The unit was part of the attack on the Orne Bridge, which was a British held position over the Orne River . The 84th Regiment of the brigade had fourteen combat ready Panzerwerfer, and the 83rd had about the same. Some other Werfer units were the 101st SS Werfer Abteilung, 101st Stellungs-Werfer Regiment, and

1892-450: Was steered by controlling power to each track. When World War I broke out, with the problem of trench warfare and the difficulty of transporting supplies to the front, the pulling power of crawling-type tractors drew the attention of the military. With tanks coming onto the scene, however, the combination of tracks and wheels seemed impractical when fully tracked or six-wheel, four-wheel drive vehicles were available. The half-track saw

1936-558: Was the International Motor Truck Corporation division of International Harvester . IH built approximately 12,853 half-tracks, which were shipped to Europe for use by British and French troops. In 1942, they produced 152 M5 units and 5 M14 units at the Springfield Works; in 1943 they produced 2,026 M9 units, 1,407 M0A1 units, 4,473 M5 units, 1,600 M14 units, and 400 M17 units, all at the Springfield Works; in 1944 they produced 1,100 M5A1 units and 1,100 M17 units also at

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