The Katyusha is a type of rocket artillery first built and fielded by the Soviet Union in World War II. Multiple rocket launchers such as these deliver explosives to a target area more intensively than conventional artillery, but with lower accuracy and requiring a longer time to reload. They are fragile compared to artillery guns, but are cheap, easy to produce, and usable on almost any chassis. The Katyushas of World War II, the first self-propelled artillery mass-produced by the Soviet Union, were usually mounted on ordinary trucks. This mobility gave the Katyusha, and other self-propelled artillery, another advantage: being able to deliver a large blow all at once, and then move before being located and attacked with counter-battery fire.
BM-13 Katyusha multiple rocket launcher, based on a ZIS-5 truck.
A battery of Katyusha launchers fires at German forces during the Battle of Stalingrad, 6 October 1942
BM-13N Katyusha on a Lend-Lease Studebaker US6 '"`UNIQ--templatestyles-0000001A-QINU`"'2+1⁄2-ton 6×6 truck, at the Museum of the Great Patriotic War, Moscow (2006)
BM-31-12 on ZIS-12 at the Museum (Diorama) on Sapun Mountain, Sevastopol
Rocket artillery is artillery that uses rockets as the projectile. The use of rocket artillery dates back to medieval China where devices such as fire arrows were used. Fire arrows were also used in multiple launch systems and transported via carts. The first true rocket artillery was developed in South Asia by the Tipu Sultan the ruler of the Kingdom of Mysore. In the late nineteenth century, due to improvements in the power and range of conventional artillery, the use of early military rockets declined; they were finally used on a small scale by both sides during the American Civil War. Modern rocket artillery was first employed during World War II, in the form of the German Nebelwerfer family of rocket ordnance designs, Soviet Katyusha-series and numerous other systems employed on a smaller scale by the Western allies and Japan. In modern use, the rockets are often guided by an internal guiding system or GPS in order to maintain accuracy.
M270 MLRS
Illustration of a Korean rocket launcher of the 1500s
Rocket being lighted by Mysorean soldier (Illustration by Robert Home)
A painting showing the British forces confronted with Mysorean rockets