Rockets were originally invented not for sending cargo into space, but for firing at enemies. Their effectiveness in war was first demonstrated by the Chinese in the 13th century, when they used them against the Mongol invaders and successfully held them for several months. These early rockets, known as "fire arrows," were similar to the holiday rockets we use today in celebrations and fireworks, only more. A short tube filled with gunpowder was closed at one end and attached to a long stick.
When the gunpowder ignited, hot gases and smoke burst from the open end, producing a blow that carried the missile long distances towards the enemy.
As a weapon of destruction, these flaming arrows did not have much impact, but the psychological effect was remarkable. In the end, the Mongols adopted missiles for their own armament, and wherever the Mongolian armies went, they carried missile technology with them.
From the 13th to the 16th century, many developments in rocketry took place in Asia and Europe. In England, a monk named Roger Bacon worked on improved forms of gunpowder that greatly increased the range of missiles. In France, Jean Froissart discovered that more accurate flight could be achieved by firing rockets inside a tube. In the late 16th century, German fireworks maker Johann Schmidlap invented a two-stage rocket to reach higher altitudes.
Rocket technology also reached India via the Mongols in the 13th century. By the middle of the XIV century, the Indians were already waging rocket wars with might and main. It was in India that the next significant event took place.
Back then, rockets were made of bamboo and wood, and they were nothing more than fireworks. Haider Ali, ruler of Mysore, took this ordinary bamboo rocket and turned it into a lethal weapon, with one simple change - he forged them from iron. It is noteworthy that, despite centuries of use, no one ever thought of improving the rocket and making it out of iron. Haider Ali's forged soft iron missiles were primitive, but the explosive power of the black powder contained in a hull made of high-strength iron made the missiles extremely deadly.
Tipu Sultan's missile cache found in a village in the Shivamogga district of Karnataka in July 2018.
Haider Ali used these metal rockets extensively against the British East India Company during the Anglo-Mysore wars of the late 18th century. At the Battle of Pollilura in 1780, the British suffered one of their worst casualties on the subcontinent, in part due to the use of missiles that spread chaos and confusion among the British infantry. The missiles instilled such fear in the soldiers of the East India Company that they began to be called the "flying plague."
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Haider Ali's son, Tipu Sultan continued to expand the use of rocket weapons. Like his father, Tipu Sultan kept a rocket corps in his army specially trained in the use of missiles. These missilemen could quickly calculate the required angle of fire from the cylinder diameter and the distance to the target. The Sultan-type missiles had a range of more than a kilometer, or, according to some sources, two kilometers, which was significantly more than the European firearms of that time. Although the rockets were not accurate enough, accuracy became less important when they were fired upon at the British cavalry.
Colonel Bailey, a British officer, describes in painful detail the destruction caused by these Misorean missiles when his regiment clashed with Tipu Sultan's army on April 5, 1799.
“The parking place was in the upper part of the inclined plane, at the foot of which, on the opposite bank of the Kaveri River, stood the proud Seringapatam fortress, at a distance of three miles, from where they were already starting to shoot from huge caliber guns, and we were so harassed by rocket attacks that from these rockets it was impossible to move without danger….
Rocket and musket attacks from more than 20,000 enemy troops did not stop. The city could not be thicker. Each burst of blue lights was accompanied by a rain of rockets, some of which hit the head of the convoy, passing through its rear, causing death, wounds and gruesome lacerations from the long 6-9 meter long bamboo sticks that were invariably attached to them. At the moment when the rocket passes through the human body, it continues its flight under the influence of the combustible mixture, thus destroying ten or twenty people, until the combustible substance with which it is charged is consumed. The cries of our people from this unusual weapon were terrible: thighs, legs and arms, devoid of flesh, with bones sticking out in shattered state from every part of the body, were the sad consequences of these devilish machines of destruction."
Retreat from Seringapatam.
Despite great fear and confusion, the missiles were unable to finally tip the scales in favor of Tipu Sultan and his armies. The British stormed the fort at Seringapatam and that was the end of Tipu Sultan, the Tiger of Mysore. After the fall of Tipu Sultan, the British found 600 launchers, 700 operational missiles and 9,000 empty missiles in Mysore's arsenal. Some rockets acted as incendiary rockets, while others were loaded with swords and pointed spears tied to bamboo sticks. These sticks made the rockets very unstable towards the end of their flight, causing the blades to spin like flying scythes, chopping off everyone and everything that stood in their way.
An intact Mysore rocket at the Bangalore Museum.
Tipu Sultan's missiles made a deep impression on the British by launching a vigorous rocket program in the UK. Many of the missiles found at Seringapatam Fortress were sent to the Royal Woolwich Arsenal in Woolwich, where William Congreve designed and built an improved version called the Congreve Rocket. These missiles were effectively used during the Napoleonic Wars, the War of 1812, the First Anglo-Burmese War of 1824-1826, the Opium Wars and the War of the Triple Alliance of 1865-1870.
Today, only a few samples of the Mysore rocket have survived. Three of them are in the State Museum in Bangalore, and a couple in the Royal Artillery Museum in Woolwich, England. One of the three rockets in the Bangalore Museum is probably the only example of an entire rocket that has survived to this day - an iron cylinder tied to a bamboo pole with a hide.