Steel Soviet Union

The German artillery, which was far behind the Soviet artillery in many parameters, performance and range, was able to successfully launch an artillery counterattack this time and it was not without reason that the Soviet artillery directly went on stage to engage in bombardment.

The German army, known as the "Germany, the Land of Black Technology" by military fans of later generations, has always been the pioneer and experimenter of various cutting-edge military weapon technologies. Although these cutting-edge weapons, which seemed to be black technology at the time, had limited performance. There are good and bad, and battlefield performance varies, but there is no doubt that these new weapons and equipment are transformative for battlefield rules and lead the future development of weapons.

The 150 mm 19 FES rocket-extended range artillery shell, which was used by the German army to fight back against the Soviet artillery and test its combat performance during this artillery counterattack, was such an epoch-making weapon.

The origin of this rocket extended-range artillery shell can be traced back to the SFH 18 150mm howitzer that is standard equipment for every infantry division of the German army.

This divisional heavy artillery was born in the early 1930s and was jointly developed by two German arms giants, Rheinmetall and Krupp. It happened to coincide with Hitler's rise to power and led Germany to break away from the shackles and confinement of the Treaty of Versailles. It began mass production and became the standard heavy artillery distribution unit for German infantry divisions. Each division was equipped with 12 guns for division heavy fire support.

However, the performance of this heavy howitzer, which has the precious blood of two arms giants, Krupp and Rheinmetall, in actual combat is completely inconsistent with its name and is shocking.

The standard divisional heavy artillery of this type of German infantry division has an ultimate range of less than 15 kilometers. It is not only difficult to match the maximum range of 20 kilometers of the Soviet A-19 122mm cannon howitzer.

Even the 17-kilometer maximum range of the Soviet ML-20 152mm howitzer, which exceeds its size in terms of caliber and projectile quality, can only be surpassed, let alone catch up with the B-152mm howitzer that terrified German soldiers. Type 4 203mm "Stalin Hammer" heavy howitzer.

The embarrassing situation of "out of reach and out of reach" made the German artillery, which was already inferior in number to the Soviet field artillery group, completely reduced to the Soviet artillery after the launch of Operation Barbarossa due to the inferior quality of the equipment in hand. The target of ridicule and training, the Soviet field artillery group, which was considered the strongest in the world at the same time, basically did not pay attention to the opponent's German artillery.

But fortunately, the German army, which suffered a defeat at the hands of the heavy artillery of the British and French coalition forces as early as the launch of the blitzkrieg against Europe, had already recognized the shortcomings and disadvantages of its artillery equipment and began to improve it.

In view of the fact that the SFH 18 150mm howitzer has become the standard equipment of all infantry divisions on the German front line, large-scale replacement of the artillery itself is not only expensive but also unrealistic.

The German artillery engineer team with an open mind took a new approach and started to make a big fuss about the artillery shells. The final product was this 150 mm 19 FES rocket extended range artillery shell.

The biggest difference between this type of rocket extended-range artillery shell and conventional high-explosive grenades is the internal structure of its projectile.

An additional rocket engine compartment is set up at the end of the projectile behind the warhead charging chamber. It is not connected to the projectile warhead charging chamber at the front and is separated by the projectile body.

The rocket engine compartment is equipped with a bottom protection plate to prevent the relatively fragile rocket engine from being damaged by powerful propellant with high chamber pressure when using conventional propellant to fire out the chamber.

After being ejected from the barrel, the projectiles of this type of artillery shell will continue to fly inertially in the air with the help of the launch kinetic energy provided by the propellant in the barrel, just like ordinary artillery shells.

When the propellant in the gun barrel provides kinetic energy and the projectile flies a far enough distance out of the gun barrel, it is about to be exhausted due to friction with the air and gravity during flight, approaching the ultimate range of the gun.

The delay fuse equipped in the rocket engine compartment will automatically trigger the rocket engine to start ignition operation, and the bottom protective plate of the projectile used to protect the fragile rocket engine from being damaged by the high-pressure propellant fell off.

Before the limited fuel is exhausted, the small rocket engine can allow the 150 mm projectile whose propellant kinetic energy has been exhausted to continue flying forward along the existing flight trajectory for a distance of up to three kilometers. Thus, without changing the artillery itself, the range of the artillery was increased by distributing new shells to front-line troops, which greatly saved military expenditures on improving artillery.

But as the saying goes, you can’t have your cake and eat it too. It occupies a considerable part of the rocket engine compartment in the already small projectile, so that the entire 150mm rocket extended range artillery shell is forced to be smaller on the basis of the original 150mm ordinary high-explosive grenade. With one-third of the warhead charge reduced, the power of the shells can be said to be not as good as before.

At the same time, because this kind of black-tech equipment was first developed by the German army and put into actual combat for the first time, there is no experience or precedent to learn from.

The Germans who crossed the river blindfolded designed this artillery shell that was too advanced for this era to be extremely complex. The delicate and fragile rocket engine needed to be carefully stored and cared for even when the artillery shell was not in use.

For projectiles that lack flight-stabilizing tails and guidance modules, there are often embarrassing situations where the rocket engine pushes the projectile and flies directly to an unknown location like a New Year's fireworks bomb.

But in any case, the development and equipment of the 150mm À19 FES rocket extended-range artillery shell finally gave the German artillery, which was "naturally short-handed", the capital to compete with the Soviet field artillery group on the same stage for the first time. The range was The SFH 18 150mm howitzer, which has been increased to 2 kilometers, can barely bring the Soviet artillery into the strike range.

The 150mm rocket extended-range high-explosive projectiles with the famous crimson rocket engine flight tail fell like raindrops densely on the Soviet artillery positions.

The Soviet artillery, which originally planned to deploy its own artillery positions outside the range of the German artillery, never expected that the German artillery on the opposite side, who had never dared to fart in the past, would use a new secret weapon this time. Return color.

The reserve shell boxes, which were originally piled randomly near each artillery position out of confidence to facilitate quick loading, immediately became a death reminder for the Soviet artillery. The huge explosion caused by the direct explosion of the German 150mm rocket extended-range high-explosive bomb turned most of the Soviet artillery positions into a deathly sea of ​​smoke and flames in just the blink of an eye.

The big explosion on the entire rear division artillery regiment position was so strong that even the division commander Colonel Donskoi, who was located in the forward observation and command post, was unsteady due to the shaking of the ground and almost fell down. He was partnered by the political commissar next to him. Colonel Donskoy, who forcibly righted his body before falling, immediately regained his composure and gave the order.

"Quick, call Gaskov and ask him what happened to his artillery regiment!"