'aerial torpedo'

[Kathie]

The South African Infantry spent July - september 1916 at Vimy Ridge. Tom Barbour writes almost every day about the 'aerial torpedos' which 'Fritz' kept sending over. He notes the numbeer and the impact. These are distinguished from what he simply calls 'shells'.

What were these and why were the different from other shells

Thanks

Kathie

[squirrel]

IIRC they were trench mortar bombs. I think there was a thread on this not so long ago so a search might bring something up.

[Max Poilu]

Probably Granatenwerfers - 'Grenade mortars' or aeriel darts, Pigeons, etc.

There has been quite a lot on these, this link is probably one of the best discussions:

http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/i...=Granatenwerfer

More here:

http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/i...Bgranatenwerfer

[centurion]

The term aerial torpedo has gone through a complex evolution and can be quite ambiguous. Originally (18th to late 19th Century) a torpedo was a mine either of the sea or land variety. Aerial torpedos were then mines (land and often with a timing device) attached to balloons (actually used at the siege of Venice where a wind change caused a number of blue on blue incidents). Torpedoes fired from ships (like the Whitehead) were first known as dirigible torpedos but this got shortened to plain torpedo which has become the modern understanding of the word. In the meantime attempts were used to produce dirigible aerial torpedos using at first miniature airships (which proved hopelessly impractical) and by WW1 various countries were trying to develop aerial torpedos (again the dirigible bit was dropped) based on unmanned aircraft. None were ready for action by wars end (although the Germans did have some glider based ones ready by Nov 1918 but the launch aircraft wasn't ready). Various countries persisted and in the mid wars the British did use some in Iraq of all places. These were in effect the first cruise missiles.

In the meantime the Germans developed the minenwerfer in the form of the Krupp trench howitzer of 1912. This fired a large 'toffee apple' stick bomb and the missiles from this were sometimes refered to as aerial mines or torpedos. The French Van Deuren mortars fired a form of stick bomb with very prominent fins which was generally refered to as an aerial torped and there were similar devices firing quite large rounds which were also called aerial torpedos. In general the term seems to have ben applied to rounds fired from non standard trench weapons where part or all of the round was outside the barrel when fired (or in the case of the Granatenwerfer there was no barrel at all it being a spigot mortar). I've never seen the term arial torpedo specifically pplied to the Granatenwerfer but this is not impossible or the term could have become more generally applied to any trench mortar round.

Why were they loathed? Well no one likes a large explosive device lobbed into their trench but I suspect that added dislike was the fact that, especially with the short range aerial torpedos using a relatively small firing chage, they could arrive with no advance warning whatsover.

[centurion]

One varient of the granatenwerfer could be particularly nasty

This weapon was originally called the “Priesterwerfer†or Priest thrower, not for any canonical or ordained missiles that might be hurled by it but because it was designed in 1914 by a Hungarian priest. It was put into service as a trench mortar by the German army in 1915 initially designated as the Granatenwerfer 15 and then as the Granatenwerfer 16 as an improved model was developed. Two types of projectile were used, the 1915 pattern bomb and the rebounding grenade. The latter effectively consisted of a very small and short mortar tube fitted around the grenade, when the missile struck the ground this fired the grenade back up into the air to maximise the blast effect. The Granatenwerfers were usually used in batteries of four.

[Max Poilu]

In the first link I gave there is some more on the origins of the 'Priest' name and a particularly good write up by Ralph. Also a picture there of the rebounding model - that was the only one of that model I have ever seen in the flesh.

[Kathie]

Thank you very much all of you for the information and especially for the photos.

Kathie

[PhilB]

There appear to be so many definitions for "torpedo" that it seems to mean little more than "bomb"!

[RegHannay]

Just come across this old topic. My grandfather makes mention of the aerial torpedo in his diaries being used around Houplines. (July 1915) and again Hohenzollern Redoubt craters (March 1916)

"The Huns treated us to two goes of "sausages" they are a kind of aerial torpedo full of high explosive." 1915.

 

"A recent type of small aerial torpedo was also sent over" 

"The enemy have thrown in a good many minenwerfers which are aerial torpedoes. These are most fearsome things, not so much on account of their killing qualities since they are very local in effect as the outer case is so thin as to no damage on bursting. The noise of the explosion is absolutely terrific and I have men with fractured eardrums due entirely to the explosion,"

 

He later writes about them being akin to psychological warfare.

Dave D