Weird WW2 German Rocket Gun

The German use of shaped-charge anti-tank rockets is well-known, particularly handheld systems like the Panzerschrek and Panzerfaust. However, less well-known is the Raketenwerfer 43 'Dolly', a rocket weapon that resembled a tiny artillery gun.

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Credits: The National Archives; Library of Congress; Ben Norwood
Primary Source: "Germany's Rocket and Recoilless Weapons", US Army's Intelligence Bulletin, March 1945

[Willigula]

Short and sweet and informative. Not stretched out to 20 minutes to cram in more ads by re-hashing the same material. Thanks, Dr. Felton!

[robinblackmoor]

For me about every 3rd video the man does, I say, " I never knew about this thing." I am almost 60 and study this era a lot, and Mark keeps surprising me.

[Joseph-zsb]

Here in the U.S., there's virtually no outlet to see history like this, which is unfortunate. The German army had some of the most curious weapons. I'm always interested in the videos that Dr. Felton posts. Well done. Cheers from the States.

[WildBillCox]

The carriage was adapted from an early war "cone bore" Antitank gun, the 2.8cm sPzB41, also called the 28/20 due to its emergent caliber.

[SCP-POOL]

Dr. Felton, I was just about to ask how this fits into the Panzerfaust & then that's literally the last thing you covered. So as usual I walk away from a Dr. Felton video without any questions on the topic! I seriously wish I had teachers like yourself when I was in school!

[Kalashnik]

1/35 scale model company "Dragon Models" makes a neat kit of this thing as well as the 2.8cm sPzB41 which someone else mentioned. It had a neat "squeeze bore" barrel which increased velocity of the projectile as it made its way through. There's so much I never knew existed in WWII thanks to these model companies.

[therideneverends]

I like how they went from the most expensive solution to the problem to quite literally one so cheap it was revolutionary in its sparseness

[landmine]

It ceases to amaze me How Dr Felton is always able to pull a surprise out of his History class.
Thank you.

Mark Felton always has very interesting videos.

[MrMenefrego]

From the dramatic opening music proclaiming yet another intriguing historical video to the often unpredictable conclusion, Dr. Felton continually delivers the most fascinating and often obscure tales regarding WWII.

[carlosfaliveni]

It's always a pleasure to hear Mark Felton's voice.

[DubGathoni]

0:49, Note this is not fully the case.
The ammunition of this and the Panzerschrek are NOT interchangeable, the Panzerschrek rounds having a different fin layout. If you find Panzerschrek ammunition, do not put it in Raketenwerfer 43. Source: Forgotten Weapons Panzerschrek

[consco]

Quite amazed that Mark doesn’t have his own “history channel” on Netflix or Apple or Prime.

[PitFriend]

A more sensible use was attaching the Stielgranate 41 rocket to the already existing but obsolete and ineffective PaK 36 3.7cm anti-tank guns rather than building a completely different weapon. It made the already existing guns effective again.

[fordfairlanedr]

Anytime of the day is a good time for a Mark Felton video

[Aris]

Oh...without even watching the video...thats a puppchen...now to watch the video and learn more about it. Mark never fails to teach me something new.

[laifamohammed]

It's the best support gun in company of heroes 2
It's just so quick to reposition and retreat-able

[johnmcpherson]

The big advatage of this weapon over the shoulder fired ones was range. It had a maximum effective range of 500 meters

[stephenle-surf]

For prepared ambush, especially in urban environments you could see the advantage of this. About the only advantage to the piat launcher was it's lack of back blast so I'm guessing this to could be used in confined spaces. Remarkable and unique information Dr Felton 👏 thank you.

[cheeksakimbo]

Love using these in the game "Company of heroes 2" they're small enough to shove into buildings and bunkers for cover, but still can knock out some of the bigger tanks with just a few shots.