World War 2 became a catalyst for weapons that had been unimaginable only a few years before,
but one of them would shake infantrymen to their very core. It was the multiple rocket launcher,
a spectacularly devastating tool that was as effective
on the enemy's morale as it was on its numbers.
From the shrieking horror of the German Nebelwerfer that routed the green US
recruits at the Battle of Kasserine Pass to the dreary wails of Stalin's organ that sent German
soldiers running for their lives when they heard its uncanny sounds outside the gates of Moscow,
the emerging technology proved to be a terrifyingly effective weapon.
After the Americans saw the sheer power of the German and Soviet rocket launchers,
they decided to create their version.
But while the Nebelwerfer was a towed launcher and the Katyusha was installed on a truck,
the US decided to take it a step further and mount their novel weapon on a Sherman tank.
With the mobility and heavy armor of the mighty Sherman, the T34 Calliope rocket
launcher would soon become the war's most terrifying rocket launcher system.
As the Germans were eventually forced into an ever more desperate defensive war, the Calliope would
strike fear into the last Nazi bastions, its maddening song resonating through the Saarland
and spearheading the advance of the Allies while portending the inevitable fall of the Third Reich…
Nightmare Fuel
The Germans had introduced multiple rocket launcher systems since the beginning of the war.
Developed in secret as far back as the early 1930s, the Nebelwerfer was designed
as a highly versatile launcher capable of unleashing anything,
from grenades to state-of-the-art rockets and dreadful chemical warheads.
Fortunately for everyone involved, the Germans abstained from using chemical weapons,
but they were more than willing to unleash their novel finless,
electrically activated rockets into the unsuspecting Allied armies.
Despite not being as devastating as conventional artillery solutions
-especially against fortified targets- the multiple rocket launcher proved an effective
weapon that came at a fraction of the cost of artillery fire.
Not only that, but the Germans soon discovered that the massive light
spectacle and the unnerving, relentless wailing the weapon produced had a significant effect on
the psychological state of the unfortunate men on the receiving end of the barrels.
During the first-ever clash between German and American
troops in the Battle of Kasserine Pass in Tunisia, Field Marshal Erwin Rommel
unleashed a Nebelwerfer battalion on the inexperienced US defenders.
The attack, supplemented by rampaging Panzer units descending from the hills,
swallowed the Allies in a frightening display of burning lights, smoke, fire, and overwhelming
noise that led many to believe they were facing an insurmountable force of unprecedented lethality.
The impressed GIs then started abandoning their posts, leading to a chained retreat
that ended in a crushing defeat. After that, the rocket launcher became a crucial psychological
warfare weapon that was much easier and cheaper to implement than conventional artillery solutions.
The Germans, however, would soon get a taste of their own medicine;
during their incursion into the Soviet Union, they were violently introduced to Katyusha,
or Stalin's organ, as they would soon nickname the weapon because of the sound it made.
This truck-mounted rocket launcher would crush the
will of many Germans thanks to its overwhelming show of power.
A New Player
Aware of the devastating capabilities of the rocket launchers, the US was eager to
develop its own solution. Like the German and Soviet weapons, the US was looking for
a highly mobile and cheap system to produce and deploy using already available vehicles.
By 1943, rocket launchers were not uncommon and had lost their significant impact on the soldiers.
However, they still offered fantastic coverage against
unarmored personnel and continued to be a much more affordable solution for artillery units.
Despite coming late into the rocket launching game, the Americans had an essential advantage:
they could learn from German and Soviet mistakes.
As revolutionary as the Nebelwerfer was, it had numerous disadvantages that became even
more prominent as the war dragged on. For one, the rocket launcher expelled
massive amounts of smoke and dust, forcing the crew to operate it from a distance.
In addition, the remote-control procedure and the need for a towing vehicle made
the unit difficult to reposition after firing, leaving it vulnerable to quick counterattacks.
The Stalin's organ solved the issue using a highly mobile truck as the rocket launcher platform. Even
so, the lightly armored vehicle was a vulnerable target that lacked the means to defend itself from
infantry attacks and had to be constantly escorted by other vehicles and servicemen.
For the US, the solution was obvious: mount the weapon on top of a heavily
armored yet highly mobile tank that could not only move after
an attack but also defend itself against infantry or other armored combat vehicles.
As such, the T34 Calliope was born. The Allied High Command had planned to use the new rocket
launcher on the first landings in Normandy, as they believed the additional firepower would
prove a game-changer against the heavily fortified German positions in France.
They were also confident that having the ability to saturate a large area
with artillery-sized shells in mere seconds and without the
cost of deploying cumbersome and highly vulnerable artillery units could have a
massive impact on the success and speed of the Allied incursion into Europe.
Rocket Tank
The development of the Calliope was quick and straightforward,
with American engineers opting to use the equipment and resources
already available to the troops to guarantee an expedited deployment.
They selected the M4 Sherman as the platform for the rocket launcher as it was one of the
Western Front's most widely used armored vehicles. In addition, it provided the
system with the mobility and protection required to be as effective as possible.
A rack of 60 plastic tubes was mounted on top of the tank, each designed to unleash an M8
114-millimeter rocket. The rocket launching setup was connected to the Sherman's main gun
turret so that the rockets would be pointed at the same place the main gun was targeting.
The weapon’s aiming configuration gave it a tremendous advantage over other rocket
launching systems, as it could correct course on the fly, and no crew member had to be exposed.
Additionally, the 60-rocket capability far surpassed the 6-rocket configuration of the
Nebelwerfer and even the largest version of the Katyusha, which had 48 launching tubes.
Meanwhile, the American rocket launcher had a 4-kilometer range,
making it a powerful and agile rocket launching system unlike any other weapon of its kind.
Setbacks
The hastiness with which the weapon was concocted would eventually lead to several issues.
Due to its high center of gravity, the Calliope was deemed unfit for landing operations. Thus,
it was taken off the D-Day landing operations scheme.
Instead, 30 Shermans were equipped with the launcher for the subsequent incursion into
German borders, but another flaw prevented the Calliope from seeing any action in 1944.
What’s more, the M4 Shermans carrying rocket launchers
could not use their main gun with the rocket array mounted to their turrets.
As such, the tanks had to expel the rack using a specialized ejection system to
transform back into a regular Sherman and use their main gun.
When the 30 initial Calliopes were about to be used for the first time on the
Western Front against German defenses, the Wehrmacht launched the Ardennes offensive,
which would devolve into the Battle of the Bulge and force the Allies to turn
all the available T34s into regular Shermans to contain the offensive.
Combat Action
As promising as the Calliope concept was, it wouldn't be until 1945 that
the rocket launcher system would be used in combat. Five armored divisions were
supported by Calliope-equipped Sherman tanks for the final thrust into Germany.
The T34s entered battle during the Wehrmacht's darkest hour as it struggled to defend its
homeland from the unyielding advance of the Allies. Under such circumstances,
the American rocket launcher proved invaluable because of its psychological weapon attributes.
With defeat looming ever closer, the sight of an imposing Sherman tank equipped with
a fearsome rack of rocket launchers was a highly demoralizing affront.
When the system was unleashed, it released a fear-inducing storm of 60 rockets, each
shrieking ominously as it left an ominous trail of fire and smoke across the sky.
The rockets then pummeled the ground violently in a saturation barrage that could obliterate
entire platoons if not adequately covered. As the tired and depleted
German troops fought to stay alive while their regime crumbled to pieces, Calliope
attacks instilled terror into their hearts, forcing numerous groups to abandon the fight.
Nevertheless, the psychological effect the T34 had could only go so far.
In absolute numbers and military statistics, the weapon was considered deficient, rarely dealing
significant damage to German assets and having to switch to tank mode more often than not.
As if that weren't enough, the high profile of the Calliope made it a
prime target for German anti-tank crews, who could often identify the T34 all the
way across the battlefield and prioritize its destruction over all other Allied vehicles.
For those reasons, the Calliope was a disappointing solution that
could never achieve the effectiveness its creators intended or the reliability of the
Nebelwerfer and the Stalin's organ. Even so, the design was crucial in
developing other influential rocket launcher weapons, such as the T72 and the M17.
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