Austria's newest anti-personnel rockets came in two models, heavy and light. The light model weighed between five and fifty kilograms and could be fired by a single soldier.
Heavy anti-personnel rockets, on the other hand, usually weighed over a hundred kilograms and needed a launcher to fire. Their destructive power, however, was astonishing.
Neither model could be compared to the primitive Congreve Rocket, whether in range, accuracy, or radius of destruction.
The French were no strangers to rockets. During the recent siege, they had already experienced their power several times.
These flying bombs were more terrifying than artillery in urban street fighting. With their advance through Sélestat proving difficult, Benoît de Coulon had thought of the barricades that had served France so well in the past.
If civilians could use them, so could the army. Benoît de Coulon truly lived up to his reputation as a French military genius. He had grasped the tactics behind barricades with ease and improved them through his own understanding.
But the barricades that had been so effective in France were useless against this new weapon. These flying bombs could easily soar over them and kill the French soldiers behind.
Their weaknesses, however, were obvious. Their explosions were powerful, but they were poor at killing, and their accuracy was dismal. Most men hit by one were simply out of luck.
So when the sky filled with rising rockets, the French soldiers showed little alarm.
Benoît Valentin, who had just returned to duty after recovering from his wounds, even had time to joke with Captain Pierre.
"Captain, how many unlucky souls do you think will be going to heaven this time?"
"Shut up, private! If it weren't for those unlucky souls last time, you'd already be meeting God!"
"Captain, this is the first time I've heard