Nebelwerfer - Organizational History

Organizational History

The 1st, 2nd and 5th Nebelwerfer Battalions, each equipped with twenty-four 10 cm Nbw 35 mortars in three batteries, were ready when the Germans invaded Poland in September 1939. The 1st and 2nd Battalions participated in that campaign while the 5th remained in Western Germany. One battery of Artillery Regiment 222 was converted to 10 cm NbW 35s and participated in the Norwegian Campaign. By May 1940 five more battalions had been formed, all equipped with 10 cm NbW 35 mortars, filling out the sequence from 1 to 8, but only the first five were combat ready when the Battle of France began on 10 May 1940.

The first 15 cm NbW 41 rocket launchers were delivered in July 1940, forming three new regiments, the 51st though 53rd Nebelwerfer Regiments, each with three battalions. The 54th Regiment was formed from the 1st and 7th Nebelwerfer Battalions. The Nebel-Lehr Regiment was formed from the Nebeltruppen school in Celle on 29 April 1941 with two battalions, one each with 10 cm NbW 35 mortars and 15 cm NbW 41 rockets. The independent Nebelwerfer Battalions retained their mortars with the exception of the 8th, which received rockets before Operation Barbarossa. The only way of differentiating the units equipped with mortars during this period from those with rockets being the "d." or "do." suffix added to the designations of the rocket-equipped units. Beginning in November 1941 the eight Decontamination Battalions were fully equipped with 28/32 cm NbW 41 rockets (some had sW.G. 40 and 41 launching frames earlier) and reorganized into three Heavy Werfer Regiments.

During early 1942 the 10th Mountain Werfer Battalion was formed from the 104th Decontamination Battalion and sent to 20th Mountain Army in Finland. In late 1943 Werfer-Battalion 11 was organized from two batteries already in Finland, including the battery from Artillery Regiment 222 that participated in the invasion of Norway. A new Panzerwerfer battery was sent from Germany to be its third battery at the same time. Both battalions retreated into Northern Norway after the Finnsh armistice in September 1944 after the Vyborg–Petrozavodsk Offensive

The 9th Nebelwerfer Battalion was given rockets, redesignated as the first battalion of Werfer-Regiment 71 and sent to North Africa late that year. Most of the second battalion were sent to Tunisia in early 1943 where they surrendered in May. The remainder of the regiment fought in Sicily and mainland Italy for the rest of the war.

Panzerwerfer batteries began to reinforce the Werfer Regiments beginning in mid-1943 and the regiments were paired into brigades beginning in early 1944. In late 1944 the brigades were redesignated as Volks-Werfer Brigades although no organizational changes occurred. A total of fifteen Werfer and Volks-Werfer Brigades were formed, plus one Positional Werfer Brigade (Stellungs-Werfer-Brigade) during the war.