NBW92

[ganderson52]

I cannot find this mortar(?) weapon on the web or any tank manuals etc. nor have I ever seen anything except smoke dischargers on the tanks.

Can anyone explain to me what it is??

Puzzled!

[plloyd]

Do you mean the Nebelwerfer? Literally the name means smoke mortar (bomb thrower). There is also the nebelwerfer which is a rocket launcher, referred to as a "smoke mortar" during development to throw off spies. That is one most wargamers are familiar with. It looks like this:

[KNomad]

I believe you are referrring to the Nahverteidigungswaffe.

More accurately an accessory than a weapon, it allowed the crews of German AFVs to defend themselves from close-assaulting Allied infantry.

LINK: The Nahverteidigungswaffe

[ganderson52]

As I suspected, thanks for tracking it down for me.

However, I have a problem in that it is obviously a fixed barrel, and as such must have been pretty much a lousy weapon, also most of the information actually points to the thing being a smoke discharger rather than a mortar.

Therefore it's effectiveness in SPWAW is surely vastly overated.

thanks again.
George

[KNomad]

ORIGINAL: ganderson52

... it's effectiveness in SPWAW is surely vastly overated.

Seems to me it would be pretty lethal if it worked as designed.

3.4.2.24 Nahverteidigungswaffe (Close Defense Weapon)

A Nahverteidigungswaffe was mounted in the roof at the left rear (at the same time as the 40 mm thick turret roof, starting in March 1944). The Nahverteidigungswaffe was used to fire the Sprenggranatpatrone 326 Lp (explosive shells), Schnellnebelkerzen 39 (quick smoke candies), Rauchsichtzeichen orange 160 (orange smoke signals), and Leuchtgeschossen R (flare signals) with the Zundschraube C 43 St (propellant charge). The Nahverteidigungswaffe, aimed at a fixed angle of about 500, could be traversed 3600. An armor plug could be inserted into the bore to seal it when not in use. The Sprenggranatpatrone 326 Lp with a 1 second delay fuze was propelled out to 7 to 10 meters and exploded about 0.5 to 2 meters above the ground. Individual fragments flew in a circle for up to 100 meters. All turret hatches and openings were to be closed when this round was fired.

The Nahverteidigungswaffe (close defense weapon) was mounted in the roof at the left rear (introduced at the same time as the 40 mm thick turret roof, starting in late March 1944 with Fgst.Nr.250991.