Stalin Organs – Russian Rocket Launcher

One of the most famous weapon of World War II was the "Katyusha" (Katie) used by the Red Army, respectfully named "Stalin Organs" by the German soldiers.

This weapon was a multiple rocket launcher, which was generally mounted on a truck chassis and is still in service, in more advance form, with the troops of many of the world's armies.

In its massed concentration, Stalin Organs or the "Katyusha" was supposed to provide destructive artillery fire in large scale attacks, in order to make large-scale breakthrough operation possible.

This took place in the course of World War II: at Stalingrad in November of 1942, Orel in July of 1943, where the 11th Guard Army fired 400 salvos at their breakthrough point, in Operation Bagratian in the central sector on June 22, 1944, on the Oder on April 16, 1945.

In the storming of Berlin, the 1st White Russion Front had 1000 "Katyusha", which could fire 18,000 rockets in one salvo, at their disposal. They were lovingly called "Maria Ivanova" by the Russian soldiers.

Stalin Organs Development

One of the first Stalin Organs build on ZIS-6 chassis on 1938

In 1919, means were made available for the "Gas-Dynamic Laboratory" (GDL) to investigate the revolutionary theories of the Engineer Nikolai Ivanovich Tikhomirov, who sought to developed a missile that was simultaneously missile and launcher.

On March 3, 1928, the first rocket launch with smokeless powdered was carried out. The projectile flew some 1300 meters. The most urgent problem was the stabilizing the projectile, whose targeting accuracy was very inprecise and showed much scattering.

In April 1939, the designers from the Rocket Institute of Moscow, Popov and Galkovski, developed two self-propelled rocket launchers.

The model modified by Popov fired over the cab toward the front of the chassis and had sixteen launchers. Thus the BM-13 (Boyovaya Maszina = War Machine) "Eresa" launcher was created.

photo credit: Academic dictionaries and encyclopedias

To be sure, not all the rockets could be launched at the same time at first. The rockets, which were fired mechanically from the cab at intervals of half a second, first had to be primed for launching. As of 1943, all the rockets were launched with one ignition process.

In September 1939 the "Eresa" was released for combat testing. The rocket were ignited electircally by special pyro-cartridges. Both single and salvo fire were possible. The ignition could be controlled from the truck cab as well as outside the vehicle. Six launchers, in this order was produced.

The State Defense Committee was very impressed by a demontration of the rocket weapon, and decided in the spring of 1941 to begin mass production. At the same time of the German attack on the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, seven firing facilites and 3000 projectiles were located in Moscow.

On the same day, series production of the BM-13 salvo launcher begin in th "Kompressor" works in Moscow. Production could be maintainded only until October 1941, though, after which this armament factory was relocated to Chelyabinsk in the Ural mountains, where production resumed in February of 1942.

Written by: Michael Froedrowitz (Stalin Organs)

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