Katyusha rockets firing on first day of Operation Barbarossa

Katyusha rockets firing on June 22nd 1941, the first day of Operation Barbarossa, Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union.

Only 40 such mobile rocket launchers were built and ready to be used by the Soviet Army at the start of Operation Barbarossa. It was the first self-propelled artillery piece to be mass produced in the Soviet Union.

The Katyusha rockets instilled fear in German soldiers over the course of the war. They named the weapon “Stalin’s organs”, due to the appearance of its launch pad and the terrifying sound it made. The weapon was mentioned in many memoirs by German soldiers on the Eastern Front.

The Katyusha Multiple Rocket Launcher was so effective that it’s still in use today (of course, a developed modern version).

Book suggestions ⤵️

📖 Barbarossa (Alan Clark, 1965)

📖 Eastern Inferno: Journals of a German Panzerjäger on the Eastern Front, 1941-1943 (Hans Roth, Christine Alexander – editor, Mason Kunze – editor, 2010)