28/32 cm Nebelwerfer 41
German rocket launcher in World War II

The 28/32 cm Nebelwerfer 41 (28/32 cm NbW 41) was a German multiple rocket launcher used in the Second World War. It served with units of the so-called Nebeltruppen, the German equivalent of the U.S. Army's Chemical Corps. The Nebeltruppen had responsibility for poison gas and smoke weapons that were used instead to deliver high-explosives during the war. The name "Nebelwerfer" is best translated as "Smoke Mortar". It saw service from 1941 to 1945 in all theaters except Norway and the Balkans.
Description
The 28/32 cm NbW 41 was a six-barrelled rocket launcher mounted on a two-wheeled carriage. Two stabilizer arms and a spade under the towing ring served to steady the carriage while firing. It used two different rockets. The open metal frames of the launcher were sized to fit the 32-centimetre (13 in) rocket, but adapter rails were provided to allow the 28-centimetre (11 in) rockets to fit. The 28 cm Wurfkörper Spreng (Explosive missile) rocket weighed 82 kilograms (181 lb) and had a 50-kilogram (110 lb) high-explosive warhead.
“28/32 cm Nebelwerfer 41” enters the record as german rocket launcher in World War II. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Nebelwerfer, German and rocket can confirm, complicate or overturn.
Why this record matters
“28/32 cm Nebelwerfer 41” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Nebelwerfer, German and rocket provides the most credible route into that argument.
The record creator and administrative purpose are central evidence, because official documentation reflects both action and institutional priorities. The source revision retrieved here is dated Mar 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q4030523. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1941 and 1945.
Later summaries often reconcile disputed chronology or motive more neatly than the contemporary record permits. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Compare institutional narratives with records created by participants and affected communities. Dates and formal titles are useful anchors, but not substitutes for context.
- Event chronology
- Institutional context
- Locating named record creators
Contemporary correspondence, government or organizational records, oral histories and cited historical scholarship.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “28/32 cm Nebelwerfer 41”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow 28/32 cm Nebelwerfer 41 primary sources, 28/32 cm Nebelwerfer 41 archive and Nebelwerfer research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “28/32 cm Nebelwerfer 41”?
- What chronology connects this entry to wider political or social change?
- Which voices are present, absent or mediated by the institution?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “28/32 cm Nebelwerfer 41” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.