| A Battery of Katyusha Rocket Launchers Firing at the Nazi German Forces During the Battle of the Caucasus. The Battle of the Caucasus was a series of Axis and Soviet operations in the Caucasus after the Nazi German defeats at Stalingrad and Kursk. On July 25, 1942, German troops captured Rostov-on-Don, opening the Caucasus region of the southern Soviet Union to the Germans and threatening the oil fields beyond at Maikop, Grozny, and ultimately Baku. 2 days prior, Adolf Hitler had issued a directive to launch an operation into the Caucasus named Operation Edelweiß. German units would reach their high water mark in the Caucasus in early November 1942, getting as far as the town of Alagir and city of Ordzhonikidze, some 610 kilometers from their starting positions. Axis forces were compelled to withdraw from the area later that winter as Operation Little Saturn threatened to cut them off. In early 1943, the Germans began to withdraw and consolidate their positions in the region due to setbacks elsewhere. They established a defensive line (called the Kuban bridgehead) in the Taman Peninsula from which they hoped to eventually launch new operations in the Caucasus. The fighting remained reasonably static until September 1943 when the Germans ordered fresh withdrawals which effectively ended the period of fighting in the Caucasus. During the Winter Spring Campaign (January 1 – May 31, 1944), the Soviet army was able to launch an invasion of the Crimea from the Caucasus, which was fully recaptured by May 12, 1944. The Soviet Union’s BM-13 Katyusha multiple rocket launcher was a relatively cheap, deadly, and highly portable weapon fielded on the Eastern Front. It was the Soviets’ 1st mass-produced self-propelled artillery. A typical BM-13 battery included 10-man firing vehicles, 2 trucks carrying reload rockets, and 2 support trucks. Although not as accurate a conventional artillery, a BM-13 could saturate and devastate an area with a rocket salvo, then rapidly relocate before the Nazi Germans could retaliate. When massed in large numbers, BM-13 batteries had a demoralizing effect on Nazi German soldiers, who quickly learned to recognize the rockets’ distinctive screaming sound. The fin-stabilized M-13 rocket could carry a 10-pound (4.5 kilogram) warhead nearly 5 miles. Its simple design made it easy to mass produce. The BM-13 featured racks of parallel rails, each carrying 2 rockets. The crew raised the launcher into firing position atop its foldable frame and aimed it using a conventional artillery sight. A crewman sitting in the cabin would then fire the rockets. The M-13 rockets came packed in crates of 2, and an experienced crew could reload a BM-13’s rear-loading rails within 4 minutes. The BM-13’s launcher could be mounted to any truck chassis. The American Studebaker US6 was the most commonly used truck, carrying over half of all BM-13s produced by 1945. Soviet artillery units did not use a universal numbering or lettering system. so most units painted their vehicles in drab field colors without unique markings. The BM-13 was 1st used to great effect against Nazi German trains near the Orsha railway junction in July 1941, and the Soviets committed significant resources to expand their rocket artillery’s effectiveness. The introduction of larger and longer-range rockets allowed Katyusha crews to attack deeper field fortifications. By war’s end, the Soviet Union built over 10,000 multiple rocket launchers, including 3,200 BM-13s. | |
| Image Filename | wwii2126.jpg |
| Image Size | 1.91 MB |
| Image Dimensions | 7344 x 2696 |
| Photographer | Georgi Zelma |
| Photographer Title | Izvestia |
| Caption Author | Written or Adapted by Jason McDonald |
| Date Photographed | September 20, 1943 |
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| State or Province | Caucasus |
| Country | Soviet Union |
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| Status | Caption ©2026 MFA Productions LLC Please Do Not Duplicate or Distribute Without Permission; Image in the Public Domain |
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