Steelrain Artillery

Sd.Kfz. 301.t Whippet "Fliegende Kuh"/ Steelrain Artillery Half-Track
File:AR SteelRain.jpg
A Steelrain, unpainted
Minor Faction	Allied Reservists
Other Faction(s)	None
Unit Type	Armoured Truck
Designation	Tactical Artillery
Production Building	Command Centre
Secondary Ability	Fire All Missiles
Cost	Unknown
Production Time	Unknown
Heroic Upgrade	Doubled missile capacity
Dev. Status	Conceptual

Country of Origin	Germany
Produced by/ Recovered from	Bavarian Motor Works, Munich
Key Features	» "Hermes" missile (x4)  » Missile autoloader  » Half-track chassis  » 64 channel radio/radar receiver/transmitter  » Blue thunderbolt decals

Tactical Analysis

• Some stay dry: The Steelrain is the Reservists' light artillery. Mobile and armed with guided missiles, the Steelrain can devastate the enemy with a steady barrage of missiles or hammer them with a withering volley.

• Some feel the rain: The Steelrain is capable of continuously pounding your enemies with a steady rain of one missile per second or so. In addition, the missiles can track targets with pinpoint accuracy, ensuring maximum effectiveness against vehicles

• Some get the downpour: Alternatively, the Steelrain can launch all of its missiles at once, at the cost of not being able to fire for a short while the Steelrain replenishes its missiles.

• Some get stuck in the thunderstorm: Some Steelrain artillery pieces sport twice the number of rockets, allowing for twice as many missiles to be fired before the Steelrain requires a reload.

Operational History

Though the Taifun is the most famous variant of the Whippet, it had many other uses that Germany needed to not be defenseless against her foes. Since mobile artillery was seen as similar enough to tanks, they were banned by the Versailles Treaty. To get around this without calling to attention the reborn Kaiserreich's frequent cheating or flagrant disregard of restrictions, large rocket frames were put on the sides of the new Whippet Half Track.

The resulting vehicle could reach their destination quickly, let loose their entire load, and immediately retreat. Though intended as a stop-gap measure, it proved much more effective than initially theorized. The rockets themselves sounded vaguely like a cow mooing, so it was dubbed the "Fliegende Kuh" (German: "flying cow"). The German army built large numbers of them prior to the war.

When World War II broke out, Poland and Germany were attacked, and the "Fliegende Kuh" was quick to respond. Despite being ten years old, this was a time when it was thought that conventional guns were obsolete as artillery, to be replaced by rockets. However, where the Germans planned to fire on relatively static targets, the Soviets were pushing in massive tank columns instead, which caught up with the "Fliegende Kuh"'s and destroyed them quickly. The tactic was so shocking the Germans called it "Blitzkrieg" ("Lightning War").

Ironically, Allied artillery became dominated by the relatively conventional M100 Artillery Track, but the "Fliegende Kuh" had its place as a more mobile artillery piece. Most importantly, it was given a radar system and guided missiles that were far more accurate, which helped when bombarding Soviet forward positions. Not only that, it could unleash its payload all at once, while an M-100 required sustained bombardment to deal significant damage. So effective was it in this role that it is still used in the German army, and other national armies have also integrated it into their units, where it is known as the Steelrain Artillery.

Behind the Scenes

• The vehicle itself was a suggestion by Psychotic Loner.
• The Steelrain is based on the WWII Wurfrahmen 40 system, popularly known as the "Walking Stuka".
• The rockets are Mercury rockets in miniature format.