The BM-13 Multiple Rocket Launcher was one of the Soviet Union’s most feared weapons in World War II. Essentially, it was a ZIS-6 truck chassis, with a series of rocket guide rails mounted in the rear. It provided the Red Army with a mobile artillery platform. To the Russians, it was “Katyusha” (“Little Katie”), taken from a popular war time song about a girl missing her beloved soldier. The Germans knew it as “Stalin’s Organs” due to its similarity to church pipe organs.
Multiple rocket launchers like the Katyusha are an inexpensive and easy-to-manufacture alternative to traditional artillery. While they are more fragile, less accurate, and take longer to reload than regular guns, they have the ability to blanket an area of the battlefield with explosives quickly, and their mobility allow them to be deployed exactly where they are needed.
The BM-13 battery of four launchers could cover a 400,000 square meter area with over four tons of explosives in less than 10 seconds (roughly the same firepower as 72 traditional guns), and were often used in mass to shock the enemy. Nearly 10,000 Katyusha launchers were built during the war.
Multiple rocket launchers like the Katyusha are an inexpensive and easy-to-manufacture alternative to traditional artillery. While they are more fragile, less accurate, and take longer to reload than regular guns, they have the ability to blanket an area of the battlefield with explosives quickly, and their mobility allow them to be deployed exactly where they are needed.
The BM-13 battery of four launchers could cover a 400,000 square meter area with over four tons of explosives in less than 10 seconds (roughly the same firepower as 72 traditional guns), and were often used in mass to shock the enemy. Nearly 10,000 Katyusha launchers were built during the war.
- Includes unit flag and unit card for use with the Art of Tactic WWII game.
