Airplanes armed with rockets

[Gregvan]

Hi Angiolillo,

This topic has been explored several times on the forum before. If you do a search I'm sure you'll find some good information.

As Dan-San says, some experiments were carried out by Germans using rockets. Ltn Rudolf Nebel of Jasta 5 rigged up 2 stovepipes under each wing of his Halberstadt fighter and installed four signal-rockets, attaching electrical ignition cables connected to a firing button in the cockpit. He reported that he approached a large formation of 'English' aircraft (not balloons!) and set off all four rockets with a great pyrotechnic display. He claimed that one of the English pilots landed immediately behind German lines. He also said that 8 days later he tried it again and knocked the propeller off another enemy machine, which crashed. A week after that he had the rockets attached to an Albatros D.III, but the rockets' fiery exhaust ignited the wing fabric- he was lucky to exyinguish the flames in the slipstream. None of this is corroborated in Nebel's log book entries. Gontermann of Jasta 5 also tried out some rocket attacks on balloons, as I recall, and he also (reportedly) attacked balloons with a signal flare.

On October 16,1916, a German "Raketentrupp" esquipped with one Halberstadt D.II armed with four LePrieur-type stick-stabilized rockets mounted on the outer struts went to the 1. Armee for experiments in attacking balloons (obviously this idea was copied from the French- the Germans captured at least one Nieuport armed with LePrieurs). Two weeks later the Raketentrupp was back in Berlin, the experiments apparently a failure.

Meanwhile, Albert Ball tried to use rockets against aircraft while he was in 60 Squadron. On 15 September 1916, flying Nieuport A200, he set out with a full load of LePrieur rcokets, intending to attack German balloons. He instead found a German single-seater and fired all 8 rockets at it, but missed. On the same flight, his wingman 2/Lt A M Walters fired his salvo of rockets at an LVG, and reportedly saw one rockets enter the fuselage of the LVG which went down in flames. At 5 pm later that same day, Ball again took off with 8 LePrieurs intended for balloons. Instead he attacked a group of 3 Roland C.II's with the rockets. The rockets scattered their formation and he was able to shoot one down with his Lewis gun.

On 21 September Ball repeated this tactic against a formation of six single-seaters. He fired a full salvo of rockets at them, and then as they scattered he got underneath one of them and shot it down. So not really a rocket victory, but rocket-assisted.

On 3 July incidentally, Ball had attacked a balloon that was being hauled down, and fired off 8 rockets at it, and fired his Lewis at it (Buckingham ammunition) as well. All the rockets missed and exploded on the ground, and he failed to ignite the balloon. Earlier, on

Greg

[snafu]

Were Flechettes ever used against balloons? I seem to remember reading about a couple of examples.

[Angiolillo]

Thanks a lot, really precious! I used to have really huge problem in searching the forum archives, but I'll try again and see what happens.

Bye bye!

Andrea

[Gregvan]

Oops! Posted that last message a bit prematurely.

What I intended to say was, that on 25 June 1916, Ball had taken off in Nieuport 5173 to attack the German balloon line, and the Nieuport carried "several 40 pound phosphor bombs for the first sortie, but failed to destroy the balloon he selected." He tried again later the same day on another flight and succeeded in succeeded in destroying the balloon-but I don't know if he used the phosphorus bombs or his regular Lewis gun to do it.

Greg VanWyngarden