Recoilless Rocket Launcher
During World War Two the Wehrmacht (German Army) developed several hand held devices to stop vehicles like the Panzerfaust, the Panzerbuchse (Bazooka) and anti-tank rifles. Developments on a new generation of anti-aircraft weapons was in full order. The Germans experimented with newly designed guns like the Henschel Hs 293, improved ordnance and developed a scala of anti-aircraft rockets in all shapes and sizes. Air-to-Air missiles like the Orkan, Surface-to-air rockets like the Rheintochter or Feuerlilie F55, Surface-to-surface weapons like the V1 missile, V2 Rocket or specialized Anti-shipping missiles like the Fritz X, even the drones were in use during WW2 like the Argus As 292. Although crudely made by today’s standards these developments made way for the rockets armies use today.
One of these developments led to a hand held anti-air bazooka-like gun. The Fliegerfaust (Eng. Pilot’s Fist) or Luftfaust (Eng. Air Fist) was a multi barreled unguided rocket launcher of small caliber designed by Hugo Schneider AG (HASAG) who had experience with the development of a recoilless rocket launcher, the 88 mm Panzerbuchse (Panzerschreck) and the infamous Panzerfaust. The Luftfaust seems to be the first name for the device but this was changed into Fliegerfaust later in the war. The name change was a more psychological choice comparing the weapon to the Panzerfaust Anti-tank weapon (German source). Others speak of different names for different types (English source), where the first two types (model A & model B) were named Luftfaust and only the third model was named Fliegerfaust.
Versions and Specifications
The first version, Fliegerfaust A, had four 100 cm long barrels stacked on top of each other and fired four 20 mm rockets. The second version, Fliegerfaust B had nine 150 cm long barrels arranged in a circular pattern and fully loaded weighed 6,5 kilograms, it fired nine 20 mm rockets.
The Fliegerfaust launched 20 mm rockets, 90 grams each with 19 grams of explosives and were spin stabilized. These kind of rockets were already in use by the German Luftwaffe aircraft cannons. The 20 mm rockets were fired in two volleys with 0,2 seconds apart, this formed a hit circle of approximately 60 meters in diameter at 500 meters distance. When fired it rested on the shoulder of a soldier with its rear end, it was a recoilless launch. The Fliegerfaust used a magazine with 9 small rockets.
A six tube Fliegerfaust version with an enlarged caliber was in development. The plan was to use the 30 mm rocket, fired by the Mk 108 cannon. This cannon and type of rockets was used in Luftwaffe airplanes like the Messerschmitt Bf 109, Messerschmitt Bf 110, Messerschmitt 163, Messerschmitt 262, Focke Wulf Fw 190. But it was not finished at the war’s end. The Fliegerschreck did manage to complete its development before the end of the war. The Fliegerschreck wasn’t a new weapon though. It was a new type of ammunition for the Panzerschreck, a special anti-air rocket for this type of German bazooka. After firing and reaching a specific distance it exploded and released 144 small incendiary explosive charges to create an area of effect. Although finished at the end of the war it was not issued to frontline troops.
The Fliegerfaust B came in a wooden case, a box, with eight reloads. The 2 cm rockets should have reached a speed of 380 meters/ second but in the field they reached a speed of only 250 meters/ second. They should have an effective range of 300 to 700 meters (it was calculated for 500 meters) and would self-destruct at 800 meters, but hardly reached that distance. The weapon was not as effective as hoped but gave the pilots a good scare and helped the infantry units to have some hand-held weapons against allied ground attack planes. The trigger section of the fliegerfaust/ Luftfaust is identical to the Panzerfaust anti tank weapons.
Besides an anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapon HASAG developed the Flare gun LP 42 – Leuchtpistole 42. During World War One the HASAG firm made ammunition, in between wars it stepped back onto manufacturing civilian items. From the early 1930-ies they started to produce ammunition again. When it was ordered to produce the Panzerfaust in huge numbers, a construction team of forced laborers from different concentration camps was used to keep up with the army’s demand. After World War Two the machines in the HASAG factory were dismantled by the Russians and transported to the Soviet Union for a recovery program.
Surviving Luftfaust – Fliegerfaust
After tests 10.000 Fliegerfaust and 40.000 rounds were ordered. A combat test was executed with the Fliegerfaust B in the Saarbrücken area in 1945. This is the only known report of the weapon during World War Two but photos show dispersed Fliegerfaust B launchers in the rubble after the Battle of Berlin. The Luftfaust B – or Fliegerfaust B on the photos above was found in the Dresden area, therefore we can assume it was more widely spread in the last days of the war than the one report shows us. The 1st U.S. Army captured a copy with ammunition from the HASAG company in Leipzig, the Soviet Army probably got a copy during the Battle of Berlin.
One Fliegerfaust A is shown in the Overloon War Museum in the Netherlands and in the Bundeswehr Museum Military History in Dresden, two Fliegerfaust B are known to exist today, one in Dresden in bad shape and the other in the Moscow museum but it is not on display. One Fliegerfaust B, Luftfaust model B replica can be seen in the MM Park Museum in northern France.
This idea and development of the Luftfaust and Fliegerfaust eventually led to weapons we know today like the Stinger, NLAW, Javelin and other hand-held anti-air devices called Man-Portable Air-Defense Systems (MANPADS or MPADS).
