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, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

. Much like the American

M2 4.2 inch mortar The M2 4.2-inch mortar was a U.S. rifled 4.2-inch (107 mm) mortar used during the Second World War, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War. It entered service in 1943. It was nicknamed the "Goon Gun" (from its large bullet-shaped shells, mono ...

it was intended to deliver chemical munitions, such as gas and smoke shells, as well as ordinary

high-explosive shell A shell, in a military context, is a projectile whose payload contains an explosive, incendiary, or other chemical filling. Originally it was called a bombshell, but "shell" has come to be unambiguous in a military context. Modern usage ...

s. It was derived from

Rheinmetall Rheinmetall AG is a German automotive and arms manufacturer, headquartered in Düsseldorf, Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of ...

Nebelwerfer The Nebelwerfer (smoke mortar) was a World War II German series of weapons. They were initially developed by and assigned to the Wehrmacht's "smoke troops" (''Nebeltruppen''). Initially, two different mortars were fielded before they were replace ...

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 10 cm Nebelwerfer 35 (10 cm NbW 35) was a heavy mortar used by Germany during World War II. Much like the American M2 4.2 inch mortar it was intended to deliver chemical munitions, such as gas and smoke shells. Unlike the America ...

. 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 in an elaborate or complicated manner, where a simpler solution can be demonstrated to exist with the same efficiency and effectiveness as ...

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

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; exactly how the American fielded their own M2s in

chemical mortar battalion The United States chemical mortar battalions were army units attached to U.S. 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". Chemical morta ...

s. It was replaced by the 15 cm

Nebelwerfer 41 The Nebelwerfer (smoke mortar) was a World War II German series of weapons. They were initially developed by and assigned to the Wehrmacht's "smoke troops" (''Nebeltruppen''). Initially, two different mortars were fielded before they were repl ...

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

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, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in 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