Katyusha BM-13 Russian rocket launcher, model 1941
Ark Models 35040

Dimensions: 193
No. of parts: 230

Soviet Russia began to develop a weapon, known worldwide as "Katyusha", in the 1920's. But only in the 21st of June, 1941 it was decided to serial production. The RS-132 (M-13) 132 mm missile hit a target at a range of more than 8 kilometers. The BM-13 rocket launcher was created in 1940. Originally a base for the BM-13 was the ZiS-6 truck. The BM-13 rocket launchers participated in all major battles of the Red Army between 1941 and 1945. A total of 6,800 BM-13 machines and 6 million missiles were manufactured in this period. 4,000 launchers were lost in combats. Large losses were due to the difficulty of masking and long reload time (at best 5 minutes). This gave the enemy the opportunity to discover and destroy launchers after the first volley.