Katyusha Rocket Launcher

Origins

In the 1930s the Jet Propulsion Research Institute (RNII) in Moscow developed solid-fuel rockets for aircraft and ground use. Two of its leaders, Ivan Kleimenov and Georgy Langemak, were arrested and shot in Stalin's purges in 1938, but work on the rockets continued. Aircraft rockets of 82mm and 132mm were used against Japanese aircraft at Khalkhin Gol in 1939. Engineers then designed a truck-mounted launcher for the 132mm M-13 rocket, and it was approved for production on the eve of the German invasion in June 1941. The launcher was officially called the BM-13, for 'combat vehicle' and the rocket's caliber. Soldiers named it Katyusha, after a popular song about a girl waiting for her soldier, perhaps prompted by the letter K stamped on early launchers from the Komintern factory in Voronezh.

Design & Construction

The BM-13 was a set of long launch rails mounted across the back of a truck, first the Soviet ZiS-6 and later, in large numbers, the American Studebaker US6 supplied under Lend-Lease. It carried 16 rockets, each about 1.4 meters long and weighing some 42 kilograms, with a warhead of roughly 5 kilograms of explosive. The rockets could reach about 8.5 kilometers. A full salvo took only about seven to ten seconds to fire, and the vehicle then left before the enemy could reply, while reloading took several minutes. Rockets were far less accurate than guns, but a battalion firing together could smother a large area in a few seconds, which had a great effect on troops caught in the open. Smaller BM-8 launchers fired 82mm rockets, and the heavy M-30 and M-31 rockets of 300mm were fired from simple frames and later from vehicles.

Combat Use

The first battery, under Captain Ivan Flerov, fired on German troops and trains at Orsha railway junction on 14 July 1941. The weapon was secret, and crews were ordered to destroy their launchers rather than let them be captured, as Flerov's battery did after it was encircled that October. Rocket units were designated Guards Mortar units and were controlled from high command. Their number grew rapidly through the war, from a few batteries in 1941 to many hundreds of battalions by 1945. At the Battle of Kursk in July 1943, Katyushas took part in the Soviet counter-preparation bombardment fired just before the German attack began, and in the heavy barrages that opened the Soviet counteroffensives against Orel and Belgorod. They were used in almost every major Soviet offensive of World War II, including the final assault on Berlin in 1945.

Legacy

The Katyusha made the multiple rocket launcher a standard weapon of modern armies. The Soviet BM-21 Grad, introduced in the 1960s, continued the idea with 40 rockets of 122mm, and it has been used in wars around the world. BM-13s themselves were used by Chinese and North Korean forces in Korea. The name Katyusha is still often applied to almost any light truck-mounted or improvised rocket launcher. The weapon is commemorated across Russia and the former Soviet republics, and many preserved launchers stand on memorials.