They only have so many explosive factories. And they likely burn more propellant than the equivalent artillery shell for less range.
AHC/WI: Germany with rocket artillery by 1914
- Thread starter Otto Kretschmer
- Start date
Coulsdon Eagle
Monthly Donor
A good Stokes mortar team could get six bombs in the air before the first bomb landed.
It’s still going to take resources and skilled manpower from your chemical industry. And not crossing over on any components would be a significant challenge.
One of the reasons rocket artillery is so effective is because it can deliver lots of ordnance on target fast
Most casualties from artillery strikes are happen in the first few moments before people have a chance to get to cover
Most casualties from artillery strikes are happen in the first few moments before people have a chance to get to cover
Otto Kretschmer
Banned
Which is why I said it could be decisive if used skillfully in the early phases of the war
As I mentioned upthread the Soviet Katyusha system was a 50 minute reload cycle. Modern systems of course avoid this with a "pack replacement" system.
The Soviets managed to have a dramatic impact thanks to have a huge number of the launchers mounted on just about anything they could get their hands on.
Motor Vehicles were few and far between at the start of WW I (as an example the entire British Army has 80 trucks, word-wide, when the war started) and the trucks of the time were SLOW. (the late war U.S. "Liberty Truck" capped out at a blistering 15 MPH on a level paved road, which blew the doors off the British AEC Y 3 ton at 12 mph), although faster than horses (a draft horse might be able to manage 6-7 mph for a short stretch, depending on load).
WW I was fought at a walking pace.
Marathag makes a good point, the problem with rockets is that is they leave a massive contrail so you can see where they are coming from. You'd need to turn tail very quickly after attacking and given the shitty conditions of the front, this might not be easy to tow away quickly, horses or trucks.
Later in the war on defense the Rockets could be pre-zeroed in on certain areas in front of the German trenches
When enemy troops are advancing towards German trenches they would be in the open , extremely vulnerable to a rocket strike
marathag
Banned
Steam still had an advantage here, like the Sentinel Steam Trucks of the UK
With pneumatic rubber tires, rather than solids, these could reach 45mph , though during this era, UK road Regulations limited these to 8mph, so wasn't a mechanical limit, even though the company recommended no faster than 12mph.
When the war ended, higher speeds were allowed. while rated as a '30HP' motor, Steam HP and ICE HP are not interchangeable
After all, as '20HP' Stanley Steamer got the World Speed Record in 1908, of 127mph. There is no shifting transmission like you would think, it's all done with timing of the steam injected into the cylinders, and you have 100% torque at 1rpm
from the BBC page
Sentinel number 753 was made by engineers Alley and MacLellan in Glasgow in 1914. It is the oldest Sentinel in existence and the only surviving Scottish built Sentinel waggon.
In 1905 Alley and MacLellan began to make steam wagons and soon captured a large share of the market with their undertype standard 4 ton waggon.
This Sentinel was sold new to Alexander Runcie, Carrier of Inverurie and spent its working life in the locality. By 1945 it was working with McIntosh of Forgue's haulage fleet near Huntly and eventually was recovered from their yard, partly dismantled, in 1966 for preservation.
'Standard' Sentinels were remarkably simple and robust steam waggons that featured an efficient vertical boiler whose steam generating capacity, in the hands of an experienced fireman, gave the vehicle its advantage over its competitors. The small boiler ran at a relatively high pressure, 230 psi, and delivered superheated steam to the eight valve twin cylinder engine.
To aid efficiency, exhaust steam preheated the boiler feed water to close to boiling in normal running conditions. Standard waggons were generally used with a trailer, enabling them to move loads of around 10 tons.
a repost from elsewhere I did in another thread
___________
one of those old posts, on Draft Horses vs Steam
______________________________________________________________
Job One is to get rid of these old friends
For efficiency, you're putting in Oats at 8000 BTU/lbs and Hay is similar into these guys. Each one of those needs around 25 pounds of Hay and 20 pounds of Oats when doing work. It's not much less when not working hard, you got to feed them each day, working or not. Then 15-20 gallons of clean water for how much they are working.
That's your Dual 'One HP' engine. On a wagon, 5-7 mph, with an expected working time of 8 hours, a 40 mile trip for 45 pounds of Fodder and 18 Gallons of water for moving 1.5 tons of cargo.
If you want more weight pulled or to be slightly faster for your Wagon moved cargo, you add two or four more Horses, but for continuous heavy loads, you need Oxen, that are even slower.
Union Army used six horses to pull a limber and 12 Pounder Napoleon cannon, to be able to move the two ton gun and limber into position quickly, but four was more common at the end of the War, from shortages of decent horses, Each pair of horses would have their own driver on the Left horse.
A Sentinel Steam wagon, using 1890s technology, uses 4.3 gallons of water and 7.4 lb. of lump lignite coal per mile. 6 ton payload Top speed 30mph. Driver and Fireman
So to move 6 tons of cargo 40 miles, that's 175 Gallons of water, 300 pounds of coal and an hour and 20 minutes of time to get to the destination
The horse drawn wagons to move the same amount of cargo, thats 4 wagon loads, 8 horses, four Driver/Teamster
144 Gallons of Water, 360 pounds of Fodder, and takes 8 hours.
I have come across costs of the era
The waggon could work a 40 or 50 mile day and be ready for a repeat journey the next day. Horses could not stand this. In rush hours waggons could cope with the extra work whereas horses
would be working near their limit and could not do more. In terms of ton-miles, the waggon working rate was reckoned to be 1¼ old pence per ton-mile as against 2¾ old pence per ton-mile for horses. This latter figure is considered to be very low, horse costs were often 4 to 6 old pence per ton-mile (ref. 1).
marathag
Banned
yes, but the the decision time loop was slow, unless you had an eager officer of rank narby to order opportunity fire at those targets
Now that is something I had never even HEARD of.Steam still had an advantage here, like the Sentinel Steam Trucks of the UK
With pneumatic rubber tires, rather than solids, these could reach 45mph , though during this era, UK road Regulations limited these to 8mph, so wasn't a mechanical limit, even though the company recommended no faster than 12mph.
When the war ended, higher speeds were allowed. while rated as a '30HP' motor, Steam HP and ICE HP are not interchangeable
After all, as '20HP' Stanley Steamer got the World Speed Record in 1908, of 127mph. There is no shifting transmission like you would think, it's all done with timing of the steam injected into the cylinders, and you have 100% torque at 1rpm
from the BBC page
View attachment 661838
Sentinel number 753 was made by engineers Alley and MacLellan in Glasgow in 1914. It is the oldest Sentinel in existence and the only surviving Scottish built Sentinel waggon.
In 1905 Alley and MacLellan began to make steam wagons and soon captured a large share of the market with their undertype standard 4 ton waggon.
This Sentinel was sold new to Alexander Runcie, Carrier of Inverurie and spent its working life in the locality. By 1945 it was working with McIntosh of Forgue's haulage fleet near Huntly and eventually was recovered from their yard, partly dismantled, in 1966 for preservation.
'Standard' Sentinels were remarkably simple and robust steam waggons that featured an efficient vertical boiler whose steam generating capacity, in the hands of an experienced fireman, gave the vehicle its advantage over its competitors. The small boiler ran at a relatively high pressure, 230 psi, and delivered superheated steam to the eight valve twin cylinder engine.
To aid efficiency, exhaust steam preheated the boiler feed water to close to boiling in normal running conditions. Standard waggons were generally used with a trailer, enabling them to move loads of around 10 tons.
a repost from elsewhere I did in another thread
___________
one of those old posts, on Draft Horses vs Steam
______________________________________________________________
Job One is to get rid of these old friends
For efficiency, you're putting in Oats at 8000 BTU/lbs and Hay is similar into these guys. Each one of those needs around 25 pounds of Hay and 20 pounds of Oats when doing work. It's not much less when not working hard, you got to feed them each day, working or not. Then 15-20 gallons of clean water for how much they are working.
That's your Dual 'One HP' engine. On a wagon, 5-7 mph, with an expected working time of 8 hours, a 40 mile trip for 45 pounds of Fodder and 18 Gallons of water for moving 1.5 tons of cargo.
If you want more weight pulled or to be slightly faster for your Wagon moved cargo, you add two or four more Horses, but for continuous heavy loads, you need Oxen, that are even slower.
Union Army used six horses to pull a limber and 12 Pounder Napoleon cannon, to be able to move the two ton gun and limber into position quickly, but four was more common at the end of the War, from shortages of decent horses, Each pair of horses would have their own driver on the Left horse.
A Sentinel Steam wagon, using 1890s technology, uses 4.3 gallons of water and 7.4 lb. of lump lignite coal per mile. 6 ton payload Top speed 30mph. Driver and Fireman
So to move 6 tons of cargo 40 miles, that's 175 Gallons of water, 300 pounds of coal and an hour and 20 minutes of time to get to the destination
The horse drawn wagons to move the same amount of cargo, thats 4 wagon loads, 8 horses, four Driver/Teamster
144 Gallons of Water, 360 pounds of Fodder, and takes 8 hours.
I have come across costs of the era
The waggon could work a 40 or 50 mile day and be ready for a repeat journey the next day. Horses could not stand this. In rush hours waggons could cope with the extra work whereas horses
would be working near their limit and could not do more. In terms of ton-miles, the waggon working rate was reckoned to be 1¼ old pence per ton-mile as against 2¾ old pence per ton-mile for horses. This latter figure is considered to be very low, horse costs were often 4 to 6 old pence per ton-mile (ref. 1).
I learned something brand new!
My day is complete. Thank you.
Such batteries would only work in the early days, before they were known about. Afterwards, they'd probably be prime targets.
They could quickly wheel them into tunnels like the Japanese did with their artillery on Iwo Jima and Okinawa
Not a lot of tunnels available where the war was fought in august-september 1914.