15 cm Nebelwerfer 41

Rocket development had begun during the 1920s and reached fruition in the late-1930s. These 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 to a range of 6,900 metres (7,500 yds), later also mounted on a halftrack as Panzerwerfer 42. Almost five and a half million 15 cm rockets and six thousand launchers were manufactured over the course of the war. == Ammunition ==

Like virtually all German rocket designs, 15 cm Wurfgranate 41 projectiles were spin-stabilized to increase accuracy. However, one unusual feature was that the rocket motor was in the front, the exhaust venturis being about two-thirds down the body from the nose, with the intent to optimize the blast and fragmentation effect of the rocket as the warhead would still be above the ground when it detonated. This proved to greatly complicate manufacture without much improvement and it was not copied on later rocket designs. The motor consisted of seven sticks of solid-fuel propellant and the exhaust ring had twenty-six venturis that were drilled at a 14° angle to impart spin. (During the First World War German mustard gas ammunition had been marked in yellow, and phosgene ammunition in green. This coding system may or may not be related to the later system used by the Wehrmacht.) == Photo gallery ==

File:German Nebelwerfer 41 rocket launcher front view.jpg|Nebelwerfer 41 rocket launcher on display at the Rock Island Arsenal museum, viewed from the front File:German Nebelwerfer 41 breach.jpg|Nebelwerfer 41 rocket launcher, breech view File:15 cm Nebelwerfer 41 side.png|15 cm Nebelwerfer 41 side File:15cmWgr41.jpg|Wgr. 41 projectile for the 15 cm Nbw 41 on display at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center File:15 cm wurfgranate 41.jpg|15 cm Wurfgranate 41 Spreng File:15 cm Wurfgranate 41 Spreng.jpg|15 cm Wurfgranate 41 Spreng Schematic ==Notes==