Re: Re:Midgard Serpent

Note that in the early war years the Germans used two large smoke
throwing
mortars - the 10cm Nebelwerfer 35, which was a conventional Brandt type
mortar (basically a scaled-up version of the 8cm s.Gr.W. 34), and the
very
much more complex breech-loading 10cm Nebelwerfer 40. The NbW 40's only
asset was it's very long range - 6350 meters as opposed to 3000 meters
for
the NbW 35. The Nebelwerfer 35 saw considerable use in the early war
years,
at the crossing of the Meuse for one. The Nebelwerfer 40 was used in
very
small numbers since it was very complex and expensive, and came into
service
only shortly before the first rockets (the Nebelwerfer 41). Both types
of
mortars could fire HE and Gas shells in addition to smoke. Hope this
helps.
----- Original Message -----
From: "K.H.Ranitzsch" <KH.Ranitzsch@t-online.de>
To: <gzg-l@csua.berkeley.edu>
Sent: Sunday, October 13, 2002 7:13 AM
Subject: Re:Midgard Serpent

>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Alan and Carmel Brain" <aebrain@webone.com.au>
> > From: "Brian Burger" <yh728@victoria.tc.ca>
> >
> > > Karl, could you give a bit of German-English translation help? I
ran
> that
> > > Midgard Serpent page
(http://www.geocities.com/madsin72/midgard.html)
> thru
> > > Babelfish, and mostly understood what it gave back, but it also
left
me
> > > with the following line: "580 large pressluftflaschen and a large
nebula
> > > thrower".
> > >  The orginal German seems to be "580 grosse Pressluftflaschen
> > > und einen grossen Nebelwerfer geben".
> >
> > 50 large compressed(?) air/gas flasks and a large Nebelwerfer.
>
> Correct
>
> > Nebel = Fog
> > Werfer = Thrower or Projector (a Werfel is a die, something that is
> thrown)
> >
> > A Nebelwerfer is a Chemical/Smoke Projector.
>
> In the early 1930's (the date of the project) those would have been a
type
> of light mortar designed for throwing smoke shells.
>
> > Except... that in WW2 the large salvo rocket launchers, sometimes
> described
> > as "multiple barrelled mortars" weren't usually used for making
instant
> > smokescreens, they usually had HE warheads.
>
> These rocket launchers were only developed in the late 1930's and not
used
> operationally in the early years of WWII.
>
> Greetings
> Karl Heinz
>
>