German triple rocket mortar

Grzesio

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I was reading a popular Russian book about mortars and rocket launchers ("Mortars and rocket artillery, 100 years of history" by Victor Myryanin) some time ago, and I was really fooled, when, after dealing with popular prewar German rocket systems (e.g. 15 cm WGr and 28/32 cm Wk), which were described really reasonably, the author suddenly wrote:

German army put also into service a 280 mm three-barelled mortar, comprising of a supporting frame with traverse and elevation gears, a baseplate and smooth barrels with impact firing devices at rear ends. Front ends of the barrels were supported by the frame, rear ends put on the baseplate. The mortar was transported on a 3 t truck.
The mortar could be fired both from the ground or from the truck. Shots were fired one after another. After three shots, barrels were removed for reloading and a new set of loaded barrels was put in their place. General data: barrel weight 65 kg, baseplate weight 200 kg, rate of fire 6 shots in 10-15 minutes, traverse angle when fired from the ground 4,5 deg, max. range of a 75 kg rocket projectile 6500 m.


The mortar does not resemble any German artillery or rocket system known to me - neither in shape, nor characteristics... Was something like that built at all?
One possibility I see, is that author includes a couple of prewar sources in the bibliography, so maybe one of them described such a "wonder weapon", which was even planned bun never eventually materialized? Or was it just a propaganda?

Kind regards

Grzesio
 
Have never heard of this weapon either. Not even as a "Wunderwaffe". And as a German I ´m pretty well read on all weapons of the Wehrmacht. Wonder where this guy got his information from.
Maybe it was some obscure project but this weapon was surely never fielded.
And by the way: A 280 mm mortar fired from the back of a 3-t-truck? How did the crew manage to change the preloaded barrels (65 kg + 75 kg = 140 kg) without help?
Somethings wrong here, I guess!
 
With a crane possibly? ;)
Yep, the whole weapon looks strange - the rockets weight roughly the same as the 28 cm Wk Spr, but they have more than three times greater range - this could suggest, they had relatively big engine and pretty small warhead (according to German estimation, solid fuel weight constituted half of the total engine weight).
The barrels are pretty heavy in turn, two times heavier than the wooden 28 cm crates and four times heavier than steel crates...
Hmmm, just one thing came to my mind at the moment - couldn't this weapon work in the active/reactive fashion, like the Pueppchen did? Launching a rocket projectile from a closed barrel, thus propelling it with both the rocket thrust and gas pressure? This would explain great range, relatively heavy barrels and the baseplate, needed to receive the recoil? I wish we could know the muzzle velocity...

Regards

Grzesio
 
I have never seen a picture of any of those Skoda heavy mortars (there was a 210mm weapon as well), does anybody have some?
 
They sound like the 'Irish Troubles', whose 'Improvised Artillery' could loft bucket-sized bombs over several streets' roof-tops into 'secure' areas...
{ Shudder... }
 
Have never heard of this weapon either. Not even as a "Wunderwaffe". And as a German I ´m pretty well read on all weapons of the Wehrmacht. Wonder where this guy got his information from.
Maybe it was some obscure project but this weapon was surely never fielded.
And by the way: A 280 mm mortar fired from the back of a 3-t-truck? How did the crew manage to change the preloaded barrels (65 kg + 75 kg = 140 kg) without help?
Somethings wrong here, I guess!
No offense but modern Germans are the LEAST informed people when it comes to German WW1 and WW2 history...only learning select "facts" from your carefully censored his story books and videos...
At least Germans such as my Grandmother and their parents and their Parents were educated enough to know facts
 

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