Once, looking at the photos in the "Military Album", I was surprised to see photographs dedicated to the capture of Mtsensk by the Germans in the fall of 1941. Why with surprise? Yes, because on it German soldiers were photographed against the background of not only our wrecked tanks, but also the "Katyusha" !!! The fact is that since childhood, like many citizens of the USSR, it was told to me, and shown in many films, that the secret of "Katyusha" was carefully guarded by our troops, sending special forces to destroy a single lost installation. I remember my grandfather's story about that. how one day they came to the position of "Katyusha", which was surrounded, and they saw that the crews blew up themselves and the vehicles, just not to fall into the hands of the enemy. During perestroika, when many materials about the Great Patriotic War began to be published, the secret began to be revealed that the Katyusha, or rather, the installations themselves, were captured by the Germans in the first months of the war, but the shells for it were captured by them only during the defeat of the Crimean Front, during the operation "Bustard Hunt", that is, in 1942. And here…
However, judge for yourself.
In the photo, German soldiers are posing against the background of the "Katyusha"
And the most interesting thing in this photo is that there are rockets on the guides. Moreover, there is such a snapshot:
Of course, the Germans were more photographed against the background of the destroyed tanks of the 4th and 11th tank brigades, which fought for the city, but there are enough of them to conclude that there is NO SECRET our BM "Katyusha" for the Germans since the autumn of 1941 did not imagine.
To the credit of the German command, it very closely monitored the appearance of new weapons from the enemy during the period of hostilities. And all the materials on the captured Katyushas were sent to the rear and investigated there. As a result, everything was revealed: the design of the launcher, the design of the projectile and the composition of the powder. Shots were fired and … the German specialists were horrified, they could not calculate the exact dispersion ellipse of our RS … After that, the Germans lost their special interest in the Katyushas.
And here we can only draw one conclusion that, having assessed the quality of the Katyushas and their shells, the Germans saw only their shortcomings, without seeing the main thing that this system, with its massive use, could be very useful for their ground forces, during total war.
It is no secret that the Germans used captured equipment very massively, for example, on the Atlantic Wall, they used our "howitzer cannons" without a twinge of conscience.
and other artillery systems …
Canadian soldiers are examining captured guns in Normandy, the photo easily recognizes the Soviet M-30 howitzer and the F-22USV cannon
German artillerymen of the Afrika Korps fire from the Soviet F22 cannon
Russian cannon of the Obukhov plant, model 1913, on a coastal position in Norway
And I think that if the Germans in 1944 on the Atlantic coast had several divisions of "Katyushas" or similar machines, the production of which for the German industry was not difficult, in the composition of which even the "Hitler Youth" could be involved, I fully admit that the landing of the allied forces would have been SIGNIFICANTLY hampered, and possibly disrupted, in some areas.
Yes, in 1944, for the "SS" troops, such a machine was produced,
But only in the amount of 20 copies, and on a half-track armored chassis, which of course increased the cross-country ability and security, but increased the cost of production. For France, with its not poorly developed road system, it was quite possible to do with a wheeled chassis, and not even an increased cross-country ability.
But for our happiness and the happiness of our allies, the Germans did not understand this. They followed their own, more complicated path. Certainly, grief from wit …
