Mattress was the term applied to ground-based British-devised

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 ...

s during

World War II 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 ...

. Compared with the German and

Soviet The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

counterparts (the ''

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 ...

'' and ''

Katyusha Katyusha () is a diminutive of the Russian name Ekaterina or Yekaterina, the Russian form of Katherine Katherine (), also spelled Catherine and Catherina, other variations, is a feminine given name. The name and its variants are popular in c ...

'' launchers respectively), the western Allies deployed these weapons late in the war. Nevertheless, they did see useful service as

artillery Artillery consists of ranged weapons that launch Ammunition, munitions far beyond the range and power of infantry firearms. Early artillery development focused on the ability to breach defensive walls and fortifications during sieges, and l ...

support during the crossings of the

Rhine The Rhine ( ) is one of the List of rivers of Europe, major rivers in Europe. The river begins in the Swiss canton of Graubünden in the southeastern Swiss Alps. It forms part of the Swiss-Liechtenstein border, then part of the Austria–Swit ...

and the

Scheldt The Scheldt ( ; ; ) is a river that flows through northern France, western Belgium, and the southwestern part of Netherlands, the Netherlands, with its mouth at the North Sea. Its name is derived from an adjective corresponding to Old Englis ...

rivers.

Sea Mattress

The first multiple

rocket A rocket (from , and so named for its shape) is a vehicle that uses jet propulsion to accelerate without using any surrounding air. A rocket engine produces thrust by reaction to exhaust expelled at high speed. Rocket engines work entirely ...

launch system developed by the British was designed to be deployed on warships and landing craft and fired in support of troops in a landing action. The rockets were 5-inch

cordite Cordite is a family of smokeless propellants developed and produced in Britain since 1889 to replace black powder as a military firearm propellant. Like modern gunpowder, cordite is classified as a low explosive because of its slow burni ...

sticks and the launching system, known as a "mattress projector", was capable of projecting a salvo of 16 to 30 rockets in around 45 seconds. The weapon was also known as the "Stickleback". For naval assault on beaches, the specially-outfitted Landing Craft Tank (Rocket) - LCT(R) was devised, each of which carried over a thousand rockets intended to be fired

en masse Many words in the English vocabulary are of French origin, most coming from the Anglo-Norman spoken by the upper classes in England for several hundred years after the Norman Conquest, before the language settled into what became Modern Eng ...

against targets on the invasion beaches and intended for saturating the defenders' positions with rockets. They were used in the

Allied invasion of Italy The Allied invasion of Italy was the Allies of World War II, Allied Amphibious warfare, amphibious landing on mainland Italy that took place from 3 September 1943, during the Italian campaign (World War II), Italian campaign of World War II. T ...

and in the

Battle of Normandy Operation Overlord was the codename for the Battle of Normandy, the Allied operation that launched the successful liberation of German-occupied Western Europe during World War II. The operation was launched on 6 June 1944 (D-Day) with the N ...

Land Mattress

The so-called land mattress was a ground weapon named after its naval equivalent. It was originally developed by Lt. Col. Michael Wardell of the British army in 1944. Based on the British Z gun anti-aircraft rockets, it was tested in the summer of 1944 and saw some action with British and Canadian troops, with mixed results. The Land Mattress was based on the tube of the

RP-3 The RP-3 (from Rocket Projectile 3 inch) was a British air-to-ground rocket (weapon), rocket projectile introduced during the Second World War. The "3 inch" designation referred to the nominal diameter of the rocket motor tube. The use of a warhe ...

or "60-lb" rocket used as an air-to-ground weapon with naval 5-inch shells as warheads and consisted of a 16- or 30-tube launchering system mounted on a towed carriage. The land version had an operational range of . Rounds were fired at a rate of 4 per second. At the crossing of the

, over a thousand rockets were fired in six hours.

References

External links

* {{Commons category-inline, Land Mattress Rocket artillery World War II artillery of the United Kingdom World War II military equipment of Canada Weapons and ammunition introduced in 1944

Sea Mattress

Land Mattress

See also

References

External links