Rheinbote Rheinbote ( " Rhine Messenger " ) was a German short range ballistic rocket developed during World War II . It was intended to replace , or at least supplement , large - bore artillery by providing fire support at long ranges in an easily transportable form . History . One of the problems for the German military , and indeed any mobile military force , is the weight of the artillery and , more importantly , its ammunition . In traditional combat two forces would meet on the battlefield and then wait while the artillery was brought forward to settle the battle , notably if one side was in prepared defenses . Of course this hurry - up - and - wait was exactly what the Blitzkrieg was attempting to avoid , by moving so quickly the enemy forces would not have any time to organize a defense . However this meant that the infantry would be facing forces that were dug in and provided with artillery support , with no such support of their own . In the opening stages of World War II the Luftwaffe was so overwhelming that they were able to address this by providing " flying artillery " in the form of the Junkers Ju 87 " Stuka " dive bomber , but this was an expensive solution to the problem . A better solution would be very long - range artillery , organized into the army or corps level instead of the battalion . Units facing dug - in troops would call in artillery from far to the rear , and the artillery would only have to be moved after the troops had moved fairly long distances . This would also mean that a single supply line and organizational group would be able to provide fire support to the entire army , greatly reducing the logistics required . However this is difficult to achieve , as normal artillery grows in weight dramatically as the range is increased . Artillery capable of supporting an army over a front of , say , 150 km , would be considerably heavier and slower moving than a number of smaller guns . The longest range systems until that point had been the World War I Paris Gun s , which had a range of just over 100 km but were so huge as to be completely immobile . The solution was the rocket . Rockets can be made to fire to any appreciable range , but their weight scales roughly linearly instead of exponentially with range ( at least for shorter range systems ) . On the downside , rocket artillery was notoriously inaccurate , a problem accentuated with increased range . Although a rocket might have the range to replace a large gun , it was not clear that it would be able to hit targets at that range . Rheinbote was built in order to test that question . Developed in 1943 by the Rheinmetall - Borsig company , the first test flights were carried out that year . Several changes were made to the system , but the basic design remained the same : a long and skinny rocket stabilized with fins at the extreme rear . The Rheinbote carried a 40 kg warhead to an effective range of 160 km . The final version consisted of a four - stage rocket fueled by diglycol propellant , and reached over 220 km in testing . For shorter ranges some of the stages could be removed . It was launched from a simple rail on a mobile trailer . Over 220 were constructed and fired against Antwerp between November 1944 and the end of the war . Some were fired from positions near the town of Nunspeet in the Netherlands . The concept of long - range artillery rockets on the battlefield would remain undeveloped after the war . Even Rheinbote was not used in its intended role , but instead as a smaller version of the V - 2 missile in the strategic role ( for which its 40 kg warhead was essentially useless ) due to its poor accuracy . It was not until the introduction of lower - cost guidance systems that rocket artillery was able to provide the accuracy needed at longer ranges , and since the 1970s such systems have become a part of many armed forces .