Rocket artillery has gone from fireworks to combat use
Rocket weapons were born in the East. There it was first used in combat. They also came up with batch loading and volley firing. Including with the help of batteries – harbingers of modern multiple launch rocket systems (MLRS) (" Fire Arrows" from China ", "HBO", 12.05.23).
But the further stage of the development of these weapons is connected with Europe, where combat missiles were used by the military of almost all states, and from where they migrated to the New World.
CONGREVE ROCKETS
Rockets and fireworks have been used in European countries for several centuries ago, but mainly for non-military purposes. The primacy in terms of combat missiles is usually given to the British, or rather to Sir William Congreve.
Rockets of his design, created probably not without the influence of the famous Mysore rockets, were used by the British navy during the shelling of Boulogne (1806) and Copenhagen (1807). They were also used during other wars. The inventor himself took part in many operations, observing the use of his "miracle weapon".
Congreve created a whole family of combat missiles: light – caliber 6, 9, 12 and 18 pounds, medium – caliber 24 and 32 pounds, and heavy - caliber 42 pounds. Already in 1814, Congreve opened the first factory in Europe for the production of combat missiles, develops tactics for their use in the army, composes the work "The device of the missile system".
Congreve advocated the mass use of combat missiles and offered to carry out their launches in volleys. To do this, he came up with a horse-drawn "rocket cart", which provided the possibility of a two-rocket salvo or simultaneous launches from single-shot machines. In addition, he has developed a line of multi–charge launchers - from 4 to 30 guides. These machines can be considered as prototypes of MLRS. Although the idea of multi-charge launchers was not supported by the British military.
It was Kongrev who also invented the delayed-action fuse and a number of other innovative devices.
A QUALITATIVE LEAP
Another Briton, William Hale, who proposed a combat rocket without a pole in 1844, provided a sharp jump, or more precisely, a groundwork for the breakthrough of rocket weapons in the future.
The Hale rocket stabilized in flight due to rotation around the longitudinal axis. The rotation was provided by deflecting the powder gases flowing through the holes located in the lower part of the rocket body. They were equipped with deflectors – guiding devices, which ensured the spinning of the rocket in flight. This increased the accuracy of shooting and ease of operation, although the flight range decreased. A launcher in the form of a hollow tube mounted on a support was used to fire missiles. The missiles could be combined into a package according to the type of today's MLRS.
The British military did not dare to replace the Congreve missiles with Hale's brainchild. But the United States in 1846 acquired the rights to manufacture Hale rockets, paying 20 thousand dollars for it. The deal also included a batch of 2 thousand ready-made missiles. Moreover, they were almost immediately tested in battle. During the war with Mexico (1846-1848), Hale missiles were equipped with an expeditionary force sent to Veracruz.
Later, Congreve and Hale missiles were used in the American Civil War. Moreover, the Northerners had a four-tube portable launcher of the batch type.
Hale missiles were delivered to the armies of Austria, Hungary, and Italy. But only in 1866-1867 they were adopted by the British army and Navy.
VICTORY MARCH
In Denmark, after the shelling of Copenhagen by the British, their own missile system was created in the shortest possible time, it was invented by army officer Andreas Schumacher. A factory for the production of combat missiles was also built. The first rocket division was formed in the Danish Navy in 1812, and in 1816 the first rocket company appeared in the army.
Their weapons of destruction of this class were created in Austria. The work was carried out under the supervision of artillery officer Vincenz von Augustin. He witnessed the use of combat missiles by the British in the "Battle of the Peoples" at Leipzig in 1813. After the war, he visited rocket factories in Britain and Denmark, and in 1815, at his suggestion, the first factory was founded in Austria – the "Military Rocket Institution" (Krieges-Raketen-Anstalt). The "institution" in Wiener Neustadt was visited twice by the future Lieutenant General, one of the devotees of Russian rocket science Konstantin Konstantinov.
In 1817, the Austrian army created the "rocket troops" – the Corps of Fireworks, in 1851 transformed into the Royal Imperial Rocket Corps (K.K. Raketeur Corps). It consisted of 15 missile batteries and individual parts. The first commander was von Augustin, who later rose to Feldzeichmeister (General of artillery).
Austrian specialists managed to achieve the superiority of their missiles over British, Danish and French counterparts. However, at the end of the 1850s, the Austrians purchased for 2 thousand. William Hale had the "secret" of creating his rocket, but they modified it to suit their needs.
FRENCH AND POLES
The French military, who fought on the side of Mysore during the Anglo-Mysore wars, appreciated the capabilities of the new weapon. Back in the 1790s, the Revolutionary Committee of Public Salvation made efforts to intensify work on rocket weapons. But the success of the British during the siege of Boulogne and Copenhagen, as well as their defeat of the French squadron on the Basque raid in April 1809, decided the matter.
The French army and Navy received missiles of national design. Napoleon personally supervised the test launches. In battle, the French first used missiles in the Cadiz area in 1811 (and the enemy also used Congreve missiles).
In 1813, having received, as a result of negotiations between Captain-adjutant de Brulard and the aforementioned Andreas Schumacher, half a dozen of his missiles of a new type – with detachable (replaceable) warheads, the French created modified versions of them.
An important contribution was made by specialists of the School of Pyrotechnics, founded in 1824 in Metz. Invaluable help was provided by Robert Bedford, a former employee of the Congreve rocket factory, who passed on many secrets.
In 1830, the French army received a rocket launcher, made on the basis of a mountain gun carriage and designed for four launch tubes. He could perform launches sequentially or in one gulp. All missile units of the French army received special boxes for transporting six missiles, which could be used directly for launching: in this case, the box was opened on one side, placed on a special support, after which the launch was carried out. This design can be considered as a prototype of a multi-loading transport and launch container used, for example, in American MLRS types M270 MLRS and M142 HIMARS.
Their combat missiles were also created in the Kingdom of Poland, which was formed following the Napoleonic Wars and was initially in a special position as part of the Russian Empire, including the ability to have its own army.
Rockets designed by Jozef Boehm were launched, among other things, in a salvo – from a three-rocket wheeled machine. By the way, Bem took up work on missiles on behalf of Grand Duke Konstantin Pavlovich, Commander-in-chief of the troops on the territory of the Kingdom of Poland.
FROM PRUSSIA TO SWITZERLAND
In Sweden, combat and lighting rockets were created with the participation of chemist and mineralogist Jens Berzelius and members of the Brandraketcommitten ("Committee on Fire Rockets") created by the National Academy of Military Sciences. At the same time, the Swedes used the results of a study of captured Congreve missiles handed over to them by the Danes.
Martin Westermeier, a German pyrotechnic engineer, took part in the work on the creation of combat missiles that entered service with the Royal Swedish Rocket Corps established in 1832. He worked for many years at the Austrian rocket company in Neustadt, and then at the same factory in Warsaw.
In Spain, in 1810-1811, the production of combat missiles for the Napoleonic army was established (an enterprise in Seville). Later, in the 1830s, the Spaniards already bought a batch of Congreve rockets from the British. In the early 1870s, the production of rockets of its own design was launched at the Seville plant.
In Switzerland, several specialists were engaged in the creation of missile weapons. Firstly, this is artillery captain Adolf Pictet, who developed rockets with buckshot and incendiary warheads (tests began in 1832). Secondly, it is Rudolf Lobauer, a professor of military sciences at the University of Bern, who in 1836 proposed replacing the long stabilizer pole with four stabilizers installed before launch using pins in the tail of the rocket. He also developed the design of a wooden tripod machine for such rockets with a guide groove in the middle.
But the professor was unlucky – his proposal got reviewed by the now Major Pictet, who criticized the project. But Pictet himself was unlucky – his project did not receive funding.
The head of the arsenal of weapons in the canton of Aargau, Lieutenant Colonel Muller, in the early 1840s, developed 51-mm combat missiles and a wagon-machine for them. A rocket battery appeared in Aargau – the first special unit of rocket scientists in Switzerland.
The Zurich pyrotechnic Georg Schweitzer also distinguished himself, who created more advanced models based on Hale rockets. He also prepared a project for the construction of a rocket factory and developed a plan for the development of the Swiss army rocket artillery.
It is worth mentioning the Hungarian emigrant Lukashi, who developed rockets based on Austrian models for the military of the canton of Basel, which could be equipped with various types of warheads – high-explosive, buckshot, incendiary, lighting.
Employed in the work on the production of missiles of the Lukashi design had to take an oath: "I swear under oath to keep the military missiles handed over to me in accordance with my official position, not to hand them over to anyone except the competent authorities, not to try to reveal the secret of their manufacture on my own and not to allow others to study them." But it didn't help – one Geneva publication wrote in detail about the missiles, which became the reason for a major scandal.
TECHNICAL HIGHLIGHTS
Among the design innovations noticeable against the background of the European missile diversity, it should be noted:
– missiles with interchangeable warheads developed in Austria, Denmark and France;
– missiles with warheads with ready-made striking elements (Austria);
– a rocket with delta-shaped stabilizers, created in Poland (its appearance is similar to the rockets of the mid-twentieth century);
It is also worth noting the work of the officer, mathematician and engineer Lion Martin, who in 1856 designed his "rotating rocket", and unlike William Hale also performed mathematical calculations. He published the results of his research in 1860 in the almanac of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
FANTASTIC PROJECT
According to some reports, in Romania back in the XVI century, variants of missiles were worked out, and even two-stage ones. Eli Carafoli and Mihai Nita in their report "Romanian rocket science in the XVI century" told about a treatise discovered in the city of Sibiu in Transylvania. Written in Old German, the treatise "On Rockets" belonged to the pen of Konrad Haas, chief of the Artillery Arsenal of Sibiu in 1529-1569. A more detailed review of the treatise was made by Dimitriu-Dora Todericiu, who discovered it, also known as Pierre Carnac, and published in 1969 in Bucharest.
The treatise gave a description and drawings of a two-stage solid-fuel rocket, ideologically similar to modern missiles of this type. The Haas sample had two powder stages and a warhead. Before the launch, specially designed gunpowder was ignited in the first stage, then the fire ignited the gunpowder in the second stage. At the same time, the first stage was not separated. Successful tests of the prototype rocket allowed, as Haas writes, to begin creating a three-stage rocket that works in a similar way.
The treatise considered the idea of using missiles to deliver a powerful charge of gunpowder over a long range along a ballistic trajectory. But whether these ideas were put into practice is not completely clear.
Vladimir Shcherbakov
Deputy Executive Editor of HBO
Vladimir Leonidovich Shcherbakov is a military expert, historian, and writer.
