"austrian rockets?" Topic

i had read some years ago that austria was one other power besides the U.K. that had rockets. I haven't seen them on any o.b. Any knowledge on this?

Not a Austrian Army collector but everywhere I have ever read (including Hollins it would seem to be a work in progress and never used in battle.

They did not utilise them.
It is discussed here TMP link

As a teenager, I knew the daughter of the then CO of 50 Regt RA. One of their batteries claimed a battled honour alongside the Austrians. They'd 'acquired' the battle honour from a rocket troop when they became a missile battery…

Apart from the length of her legs, that is all I can remember!

Austrian Rockets were probably used in 1815 against the French it seems in the invasion of France.

The Royal Artillery Rocket Troop was at Leipzig where it received the only British honour for that important battle.
Stephen

That was 'O Battery, The Rocket Troop' RHA' at Leipzig. They served with the Swedes and have the Swedish Flag as their battery heraldry.

I have a picture of the Austrian Rockets of the Napoleonic Wars on display at the Austrian Army Museum in Vienna (Wien), Austria.

And here is an Austrian Balloon from the same period:

And some Austrian Rockets circa the 1850-60's"

From by blog at: smallwargaming.blogspot.de

thank you

Awesome _ I've been looking for some evidence like this for months TY

The Austrians began their development of a rocket arm in 1808. Chief Fireworks Master Anton Mager was the head of rocket production and his work was influenced by Congreve's work. Mager successfully tested his rockets in the presence of the Archduke Charles but nothing much else was done with them until an Austrian artillery officer, Major Vincent Augustin, who had been at Leipzig and had witnessed the British rocket battery in action.

He went to Great Britain after Napoleon's first abdication, but the British were close-mouthed on their rocket program. Therefore, Augustin went to Denmark to see their program.

Because of Augustin's work a rocket laboratory and production facility was established at Wienerneustadt near Vienna in May 1815 and produced 2,400 rockets and a rocket battery was also established. It was employed during the Austrian siege of Hunigue in 1815.

The Danes, who had been the target of British rocket fire at Copenhagen in September 1807, developed an effective military rocket under the supervision of Lieutenant Andreas Schumacher, an engineer officer in the Danish army. He copied a recovered English rocket in the mess at Copenhagen and the work he did was successful by 1811. They were put into production and were used against the allies at the siege of Hamburg in 1814 in conjunction with Davout's defense of the city. Schumacher cooperated openly with the French in Hamburg and together they developed functioning rockets.

Other French work was done on rockets after they recovered a Congreve rocket somewhat intact after a British raid on the Ile d'Aix in 1809. A board of officers and French scientists was convened by Napoleon and under the supervision of an army artillery officer, Captain Charles Moreton de Chabrillon, and a naval artillery officer, Captain Pierre Bourree successfully manufactured functioning rockets which were tested at Toulon. Based on those tests, four rocket factories were established at the naval arsenals at Lorient, Rochefort, Brest, and Cherbourg. The intent was to employ the new rockets at sieges and they were used at the siege of Cadiz, but the rockets did not perform as expected and the promising project was dropped.

B