The 10 cm Nebelwerfer 40 (10 cm NbW 40) was a heavy mortar used by Germany during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. Much like the American M2 4.2 inch mortar it was intended to deliver chemical munitions, such as gas and smoke shells, as well as ordinary high-explosive shells. It was derived from

Rheinmetall Rheinmetall AG () is a German automotive and arms manufacturer, headquartered in Düsseldorf, Germany. The group was promoted to the DAX, Germany's leading stock market index, in March 2023. It is the largest German and fifth largest Europe ...

Nebelwerfer The () was a World War II Nazi Germany, German series of weapons. They were initially developed by and assigned to the German Army (Wehrmacht), Army's . Initially, two different mortars were fielded before they were replaced by a variety of roc ...

51 and 52 prototypes of the late 1930s which were attempts to develop a more accurate and longer-ranged mortar than the 10 cm Nebelwerfer 35. The NbW 40 is one of the better examples of German

overengineering Overengineering, or over-engineering, is the act of designing a product or providing a solution to a problem that is complicated in a way that provides no value or could have been designed to be simpler. It has been employed intentionally in si ...

since it fired a slightly heavier bomb over twice as far as the NbW 35, but weighed almost eight times more than the earlier model. It was an innovative breech-loading design with the wheels permanently attached to the carriage, from which it was fired, and which wasn't disassembled for transport. It replaced the NbW 35 in ( "smoke-mortar") battalions belonging to the Chemical Corps of the Heer; exactly how the American fielded their own M2s in

chemical mortar battalion Chemical mortar battalions were United States Army non-divisional units that were attached to infantry divisions during World War II. They were armed with 4.2-inch (107 mm) chemical mortars. For this reason they were also called the "Four-deucers ...

s. It was replaced by the 15 cm Nebelwerfer 41

multiple rocket launcher A multiple rocket launcher (MRL) or multiple launch rocket system (MLRS) is a type of rocket artillery system that contains multiple rocket launcher, launchers which are fixed to a single weapons platform, platform, and shoots its rocket (weapon ...

from 1941.

Operational use

They began to replace the ''10 cm Nebelwerfer 35'' mortars from late 1941 in the ''Nebelwerfer'' battalions, and were used by ''Gebirgs-Werfer-Abteilung (Mountain Mortar Battalion) 10'' plus the first battalion of the ''Nebel-Lehr Regiment (Demonstration Regiment)'' and saw service in the

North Africa North Africa (sometimes Northern Africa) is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region. However, it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of t ...

, Finland and Russia.

Gallery

File:10-cm nebelwerfer 40.jpg, A Nebelwerfer 40.

References

* Gander, Terry and Chamberlain, Peter. ''Weapons of the Third Reich: An Encyclopedic Survey of All Small Arms, Artillery and Special Weapons of the German Land Forces 1939–1945''. New York: Doubleday, 1979

External links

mortar page from TM-E 30-451 Handbook on German Military Forces on Lone Sentry

{{WWIIGermanGuns World War II mortars of Germany 100 mm artillery Chemical weapon delivery systems Weapons and ammunition introduced in 1941