almark - sherman tank 1941-45

TH E solid fuel rocket is no newcomer to modern warfare for its first recordeduse in battle dates back to AD 1232, but after the fall from grace of theCongreve and Hale rockets towards the end of the nineteenth century little usewas made of it until the German Army re -introduced the rocket in an offensiverole from 1940 onwards. Actually they could have had rockets in serviceduring World War I, for Krupps had purchased the solid fuel rocket patents ofthe Swedish experimenter Lieutenant-Colonel von Unge in 1909. While therockets then produced w ere extensively tested, they did not go into productionas they were virtually hand-made and the slow-burning black powder propellantsthen in use were prone to damage during storage and transport. Thisdamage manifested itself in erratic burning and general unreliability. It was notuntil the advent of the large grain double-based propellants after about 1935that a storeable and reliable mass-produced rocket could be manufactured.