The "Totter" Rocket in World War II

I have always had an interest in weird and wonderful rockets. World War II saw a great spread of odd rockets, rockets being fired for instance to automatically signal an intrusion into/through an anti-submarine net or boom defence. However some of the more imaginative designs were in the field of anti aircraft defence. 

Totter (type) Rockets and their cousins would be fired to warn of approaching enemy aircraft at their simplest. At their most complex they could be fired from land, or often from a ship or landing craft to provide very localised air defence. 

A small tug may have 3 or 4 of these rockets on it. If the vessel came under aerial attack, especially by dive bombing the rockets would be fired. At apogee, the highest part of the flight,  the rocket would burn out and a parachute pop out.  As the parachute floated down it would unwind a thin metal wire. Once unwound the wire would dangle below the parachute almost all the way to the ground. In effect a small barrage balloon was created. If the attacking aircraft flew into these wires, it could foul its propeller, bind around the wings and control surfaces or otherwise cripple the plane and bring it down at best, or at least put the pilot off his aim.

Later designs had a small bomb/grenade on the end of this wire. As the plane flew into the wire and passed through it, the motion of the plane would haul the wire, with bomb up and up until it fouled the wing and then..BANG!

On my other pages, reached by the link at the bottom of the page, are sectioned drawings of rockets similar to the Totter rocket. 

On the naval pages of ships in Plymouth Sound in World War II, reached via the link at the bottom of this page, can be seen small ships with barrage rockets on. In the image below, the barrage rocket is sticking up mounted on top of the bridge house at it`s back (stern side) edge.

I had never seen a Totter rocket in the flesh until this summer of 2004, when my wife and I visited Newhaven Fort on the South Coast of England. Here they have the original rocket seen on this page. The fort is excellent with lots to see and has a great many original artefacts, not just piles of clinical artworks and "interpretations."