At this time of the war, the fascist camp was already at the end of its journey, and Germany's domestic economy and resources were almost exhausted, and we must be wary of the Allies' bombing of the local area every day.

text/Seven Little Wolves

It was a bitter tears when mentioning the air defense forces of various Axis powers at the end of World War II. At this time of the war, the fascist camp was already at the end of its journey, and Germany's domestic economy and resources were almost exhausted, and we must be wary of the Allies' bombing of the local area every day.

The Potstan Railway Hub after being bombed (picture source kladpoisk)

so-called "poor thinks of change when you are poor". In this case, Germany has studied many economical and affordable air defense solutions, such as the Ba 349 " Caosnake " rocket interceptor we introduced before. But after all, you get what you pay for. There are too many German air defense black technologies like "grass snake" that "dead before you succeed"...

For example, the individual air defense weapon , which combines Gatlin and rockets - "Air Defense Iron Fist" (Fliegerfaust).

(Photo source pikabu)

Allied tank bombers, coupled with the economic situation in Germany at that time, forced Germany to hope for rockets with good quality and low price. Witnessing the performance of " Iron Fist " Anti-tank Bazooka in 1943 in response to the "T34 crisis" on the Eastern Front battlefield, the Germans decided to face the bazooka from the ground to the sky and began to develop an air-defense version of the bazooka.

(Photo source Hedenström/finna)

After all, tanks can be penetrated, let alone aircraft?

is different from ground targets. The maneuverability of the aircraft is incomparable to tanks, and the flight altitude of the aircraft itself also requires a long range of air defense weapons. Therefore, the initial positioning of the "aircraft iron fist" was to target fighter jets that dive to ground attacks at low altitudes. A squad of infantry can form a rocket "barrage" to intercept fighter jets at low altitudes. It can be said that the design idea of ​​"air defense iron fist" is similar to "grass snake", and both want to win by quantity.

In response to such requirements, the German Schneider Factory (HASAG) designed and manufactured the first generation of "air defense iron fist" type A in 1944. This type is a 4-unit rocket launcher, so it is far from meeting the requirements of the military's "barrage". This is easy to deal with. Just add a few more tubes, right? In the spring of 1945, the B-type 9-unit "Air Defense Iron Fist" was unveiled and was planned to be put into production that year.

(Photo source The Iron Armenian aka G.I. Haigs/Youtube)

Although the "air defense iron fist" seems to be a "shoulder resistance version" Gatling machine gun, its principle is completely different from Gatling and is simpler. First of all, the "Air Defense Iron Fist" does not turn the shooting tube like Gatlin, and the load capacity is only 9 rounds. When launching, four rockets were fired first, and the remaining five rockets were fired again after 0.1 seconds apart to prevent the rocket's exhaust gas from damaging the ammunition and interfering with their route.

(Photo source nuts-bolts)

It can be said that the design idea of ​​"air defense iron fist" was very advanced in that era, but... Are your 20mm caliber ammunition really used to masturbate?

(Photo source sassik.livejournal)

Although the "anti-air iron fist" is also called "iron fist", it is simply an "embroidery needle" compared with the "iron fist" anti-tank rocket launcher with a diameter of 100mm and a single ammunition weighing nearly two kilograms. Because it is necessary to be able to carry it alone, and to ensure the range and to meet the multi-pronged attack, the "Air Defense Iron Fist" directly sacrifices the charge amount and firepower of the ammunition, and the diameter of the single-shot bazooka is only 20mm.

(Photo source angrybirdsriogame)

This may be another common point between the "Air Defense Iron Fist" and the Gatling machine gun, because the general airborne version of Gatling's bullet caliber is 20mm, and even the caliber of some modern anti-equipment sniper rifles has reached 20mm... Moreover, the effective range of the "Air Defense Iron Fist" is only 500 meters.

And according to existing information, a "anti-air iron fist" rocket weighs only 90 grams. Except for the weight of the propulsion and bullet barrel, only 19 grams of explosives are used to output damage. Therefore, its 1.5-meter-long gun barrel is not for the purpose of discharging ammunition, but simply to increase the initial speed of the rocket, and ultimately to increase the range.

20mm caliber really loses the face of the rocket family... (Photo source sassik.livejournal+n

like "I bloomed in the killing, just like fireworks in the night sky." If the "air defense iron fist" leaves behind the image information, the style is probably like this:

A song "Fireworks are easy to cool" is given to you (Photo source Fliegerfaust / Youtube)

According to the records of the Nazi German military, the German army ordered 10,000 launchers and 4 million rockets in 1945, but in the end, only 80 "air defense iron fists" participated in the actual combat, and were all equipped in a force in Salbrücken, western Germany.

Later, people found a photo taken in front of the Adelon Hotel in Berlin in 1945. Two "air defense iron fists" appeared in the rubble in front of the hotel. This means that the "air defense iron fists" are not only equipped in the Salbrücken troops recorded by the German army, but the number of equipment may be far more than people imagined.

(Photo source myrodom.dreamwidth)

From Saarbrücken to Berlin, it almost spans the entire Germany (Photo source Google earth mapped by: Little Wolf)

In any case, the former doomsday individual air defense weapons did not shine at that time. Now they can only find the glory of the "air defense iron fist" from a few foreign hardcore Cosplay players and electronic games...

(Photo source pikabu)

(Photo source MJPWGaming/ Youtube)

"Air Defense Iron Fist" no longer exists, but the violent aesthetics of "multi-tube rockets" have been widely recognized.

In 1985, in the movie " Enjoy the Dragon Pond ", the quad-mounted rocket launcher of Arnold Schwarzenegger shoulder resistance was amazing. Its prototype was the M202 Flash rocket launcher born in the 1970s. At that time, it was mainly used to fire incendiary bombs to replace the flamethrower commonly used by the US military since World War II. Later, the modified M202A1 can also launch 66mm anti-tank rockets.

(Photo source Bombay Movie Goer)

Looking at the history of American infantry equipment, there are few such huge weapons. It is not the governor's body that can carry a full ammunition rocket launcher weighing 20 kilograms. And because of the different ammunition distribution positions, M202 The range of Flash is only about 200 meters. At the beginning of the 21st century, this kind of four-unit single-soldier rocket launcher gradually withdrew from the battlefield.

In July this year, our army showed several photos of a chemical defense unit of the Marine Corps shooting chemical defense rockets. In this group of photos, my country's smallest multi-barrel rocket launcher - FHJ-02 62mm multi-barrel rocket launcher launcher. Also as a single-mann flame-shot device, FHJ has 6 launchers, and the range has also increased to 800 meters.

(Photo source China Military)

But no matter how a single-soldier rocket launcher develops, it is hard to look up at the target of the sky, and it is still an attack on the ground. However, the concept of "single-soldier multi-tube air defense rocket launcher" proposed by the Germans more than half a century ago is advanced. Even a rocket will withdraw from the stage of history one day in the future.

Of course, there is also a relatively hardcore "cycle" air-to-air multi-tube rocket launch system... (Photo source Rough Diplomacy

After all, there must always be the first person in the world to eat crabs.