"Did Austrians ever use rockets?" Topic
9 Posts
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| Razor78 | 29 Aug 2013 12:39 p.m. PST |
I've recently read where the Austrians developed rockets in 1808. Were they ever used in combat? |
| summerfield | 29 Aug 2013 1:00 p.m. PST |
That is an interesting question. I beleive that they were used in sieges/blockades in 1813-14.
Stephen |
| enfant perdus | 29 Aug 2013 2:28 p.m. PST |
According to Hollins, they were only used once, during the Siege of Huningue/Hüningen in 1815. Development began in 1808 but was sidelined by the events 1809 and 1812. Interest was reignited, if you'll pardon the pun, by the presence of the British rocket troop in the Leipzig Campaign. |
| Sparker | 29 Aug 2013 2:39 p.m. PST |
And to this day there is a 'Leipzig' Troop in the Royal Horse Artillery.
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 Artilleryman  | 30 Aug 2013 2:17 a.m. PST |
Just to be picky it is actually O Battery 'The Rocket Troop' RHA and is the headquarters battery of 1st Royal Horse Artillery. 'Leipzig 1813' is a battle honour. There is some debate but it is generally accepted that they were the only British military unit at the battle. |
| Supercilius Maximus | 30 Aug 2013 2:58 a.m. PST |
Don't they toast the King of Sweden on the eve of the anniversary? |
| Artilleryman | 30 Aug 2013 3:28 a.m. PST |
Indeed they do. The flag on the badge is a dead giveaway. |
| Brechtel198 | 30 Aug 2013 4:27 a.m. PST |
The Austrians were the third European nation, after Britain and Denmark, to develop and field rocket units. A rocket laboratory with 46 men assigned to it was established in May 1815 at Wiener-Neustadt, southwest of Vienna. The first Austrian rocket battery (raketenbatterie) was formed by the middle of 1815 with four companies of artificers to support the new unit. The commander of the rocket establishment was Major Vincenz Augustin, but he never commanded a battery in the field, though he was present at the siege of Huningue, Alsace, France in the summer of 1815. This was the first and last employment of Austrian rockets in the Napoleonic period. For an excellent overview of the development of rockets, see The First Golden Age of Rocketry by Frank H. Winter, published by the Smithsonian Institute. B |
| Sparker | 30 Aug 2013 3:59 p.m. PST |
Just to be picky it is actually O Battery 'The Rocket Troop' RHA and is the headquarters battery of 1st Royal Horse Artillery Yeah – a bit…Trust me when your trying to sort out seasick Squaddies in the dark and you ask 'what unit' all you get is 'Leipzig Troop' not all that other George…. Does explain why they were signallers not missilemen though… In similar vein '148 Forward Observation (Meiktila) Battery 29 (Independent) Commando Regiment Royal Artillery' is known to all and sundry as '148'….thankfully! |
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