About Le Prieur rockets...

[willycoppens]

About Le Prieur rockets- were they considered to be a successful type of weapon ? Were they ignited electrically- by magneto,etc., and did the Germans ever have a similar weapon in their inventory? Thank you, willycoppens

Hi Willycoppens,

From 'Fighter Aircraft of the First World War':

"An Aircraft rocket also designed for anti-balloon work invented by Lt. Y.P.G. Le Prieur of the French Naval Air Service came into service in 1916. Four of these projectiles attached to the interplane struts on each side were ingnited simultaneously by an electric switch. Rockets were fitted to a large number of Nieuport scouts, and occassionally proved very effective. Other types sometimes equipped with rockets were the Sopwith Pup and Camel. At least one Spad (XIII) carried experimental rocket tubes. The rocket was rendered obsolete by the development of efficient incendiary ammunition."

I also have seen photos of Spad VII's with these rockets. There is an excellent article in OVER
THE FRONT Volume 4, Number 1 called 'The Thrills and Perils of Frying Sausages: Le Prieur Rockets in Action Over Three Fronts' by Jon Guttman. Examples of their use on the Western, Italian and Russian fronts are given. There seems to be a lack of confirmation on balloon kills scored with these rockets, but the PROBABILITY is present to their successful use. Because they were not guided to their targets, they were very inaccurate at longer ranges. I do not know of any German counterpart to this weapon.

One more point: It seems that because of the added weight of these rockets, the machinegun was often removed, thus leaving the pilot defenseless after the balloon attack.

regards

[willycoppens]

Dear wingedwarrior, thanks for the info! willy

[Matt_Bittner]

Believe it or not, one of the best sources of information on the Le Prieur rocket comes from Marc Chassard's book on Dorme and Guiguet.

[Gregvan]

Hi,

Yes, I second Matt's opinion about the Dorme and Guiget book - highly detailed discussion, with diagrams & photos, of the LePrieur system. Seems like we've dealt with this topic in at least one previous thread not long ago.

There were just a few German experiments with rockets, to my knowledge. Rudolf Nebel of Jasta 5 -this is based entirely on his own account- mounted two stovepipes under each wing of his Halberstadt D-type and installed four signal rockets and attached ignition wires connected to a firing button. He did not intend them for use against balloons, but aircraft. He claimed to have frightened one "English" pilot into surrender and to have shot the propeller off another British aircraft. He later affixed his new invention to the wings of an Albatros D.III, but the wings caught fire from the fiery exhaust of the rockets; Nebel was lucky to extinguish the flames in the slipstream, and no further experiments were made. All this is NOT (curiously) corroborated by Nebel's own logbook entries, which survive.

In Oct 1916, a "rocket squad" equipped with a Halberstadt D.II armed with 4 stick-stabilized rockets mounted on the outer wing struts left Berlin for trials against balloons (the Germans had captured at least one example of the LePrieur system, and this was no doubt the inspiration).Two weeks later the "Raketentrupp" was back in Berlin, the try-outs a failure. All of this info comes from Peter Grosz' wonderful "Halberstadt Fighters" book from Albatros.

Greg VanWyngarden