Korean Hwacha in Action(video footage!)

eric789 · August 6, 2002, 03:00

I found a site that contains video footages of Hwacha, the Korean multiple bullet/rocket launcher which has 10 variants regarding their size, projectile and firepower.

Tongjeon, the bullet firing Hwacha: I'd rather call this the pre-modern version of the gatling gun.

source:http://chunghondang.com/movie/tongjeon.mpg

Singijeon, the rocket propelled arrow firing Hwacha: this is the smallest version reconstructed. Awesome!

source: http://chunghondang.com/movie/singijeon.mpg

I express my deep appreciation towards my Korean friend Jinsoo, whom I met at an AOK forum a while ago, for all the valuable information about Korean military history he has provided.

Singijeon Hwacha
Specification(Arrow projectile version)
height: 160§¯ width : 70§¯
Exhibitor : Kim, Yeon Soo
Launcher(Restored) for various Singijeon(arrow projectiles).
Fires 100 rounds simultaneously.
Picture of a launching Singijeon from Hwacha

ixnay · August 6, 2002, 03:09

Cool, but I thought it was going to be gameplay footage at first...

lockstep · August 6, 2002, 04:31

Hmm, the Koreans really seem to be in ...

dunk · August 6, 2002, 09:02

Very cool. The one with arrows didn't seem to be very accurate.

Amadan · August 6, 2002, 09:24

Quote:

Originally posted by dunk
Very cool. The one with arrows didn't seem to be very accurate.

Fireing into a large mass of attacking people, you wouldn't need to be to accurate.

Nice links!

Q Classic · August 6, 2002, 09:52

it's nice, although i still would like to see the kobukson in ptw instead of a hwacha, should the civ be included.

Coracle · August 6, 2002, 19:14

This seems to be somewhat similar to the French Montigny Mitralleuse - which was not a gatling gun/machine gun but a VOLLEY gun firing a cloud of bullets at one time. Wasn't all that effective.

Hiw accurate was this Korean thing, and do you have an information link on it? What year is it?

eric789 · August 7, 2002, 11:08

Quote:

Another article dated on Oct. 18, 1409, mentions the name of Choe Hae-san. On that day, King Taejong, Choson's third king, paid a visit to the test launching of ``hwacha'' (`fire cartwheel') and gave a horse each to two inventors, Choe Hae-san and Lee To.

Hwacha was a movable launcher mounted on a cartwheel, from which
gunpowder released dozens of arrows equipped with iron-made wings. This gadget had searing fire-power, highly effective in striking the enemy.

The hwacha was greatly upgraded and positioned in the frontier in 1451. Later the movable launcher was utilized against the Japanese Invasion of 1592, a token of what Choe and his son contributed to the advancement of firearms and weaponry.

A considerable number of articles related to the development of gunpowder-oriented weapons followed the time period when the Choe family cracked the secret code.

source:http://english.gija.com/click27.htm

Quote:

In 1451, The Korean King Munjong views a military exercise at his palace. Seven hundred soldiers take part, and weapons demonstrated included hwacha, a rocket-launcher on a cartwheel.

source: http://ejmas.com/kronos/NewHist1350-1699.htm

KenderBane · August 7, 2002, 16:40

Silly question ...

If artillery units can be captured (I've gained quite a few catapults by kill the last pikeman guarding the city), then what exactly happens to a UU artillery unit that is 'captured' ? Is it destroyed because the capturing civ cannot have that UU ? Or is it "converted" to some close type of artillery unit ?

dunk · August 8, 2002, 09:59

Quote:

Originally posted by Amadan

Fireing into a large mass of attacking people, you wouldn't need to be to accurate.

Nice links!

Seeing as how those things would pretty much only give you a single volley (imagine trying to reload that on a battlefield), I think accuracy would be important.

dunk · August 8, 2002, 10:01

Quote:

Originally posted by KenderBane
Silly question ...

If artillery units can be captured (I've gained quite a few catapults by kill the last pikeman guarding the city), then what exactly happens to a UU artillery unit that is 'captured' ? Is it destroyed because the capturing civ cannot have that UU ? Or is it "converted" to some close type of artillery unit ?

The way the game is now, it would always be destroyed. That's a good question.

eric789 · August 8, 2002, 14:49

Inaccuarcy and loading time are the two main dilema that every multiple rocket launcher has to face, even the modern ones.

The most likely and reasonable solution for inaccuarcy would be using them in mass to put the certain area of battlefield under the avalanche of fire.

Loading time problem should be solved by using smaller supplementary firearms to fill the gap.

And the Koreans exactly used Hwacha in the suggested ways. The Koreans knew how the weapon should be used. Hwachas were always used in mass.

At the Battle of Haengju in 1593, massive number of Hwachas were used against the Japanese. 2300 entrenched Koreans were assaulted by 30,000 Japanese and the Koreans had 300 Hwachas. So they didn't have to worry about the accuaracy of the hwachas. What about the the loading time problem? The Koreans owned impressive array of firearms to supplement the Hwachas. The Japanese withdrew the battlefield after 10,000 casualties were taken. The Japanese had plenty of European muskets which were superior to the Korean counterpart, Seungja, but didn't have anything heavier than the muskets in firepower. The battle gives us the lesson of how important balanced firepower and combined arms are.

Other Korean firearms and weapons.

Seungja: The portable Korean Infantry gun, which fires both bullets or lances to penetrate heavy armour.

This is the footage of a lance-firing Seungja.
source:http://chunghondang.com/movie/seungja.mpg

Suno: The Korean repeating crossbow
source:http://chunghondang.com/movie/suno.mpg

Wangu:The Korean mortar, which fires cannon balls or explosive shell called Bigeok.
source:http://chunghondang.com/movie/wangu.mpg

Peonjeon: The Korean composite bow using flying arrow, which has the max range of 900m.
http://chunghondang.com/movie/peonjeon.mpg

Bhwangja:The Korean light howitzer, which fires cannon balls or flying lances
Max range: 1.56km
Calibre:58mm
http://chunghondang.com/movie/bhwangja.mpg

Heonja:The Korean medium howitzer, which fires cannon balls or flying lances
Max range: 900m
Calibre:75mm
http://chunghondang.com/movie/heonja.mpg

Jija: The Korean medium howitzer, which fires cannon balls or flying lances
Max range:1km
Calibre:100mm
http://chunghondang.com/movie/jija.mpg

Cheonja:The Korean heavy howitzer, which fires cannon balls or flying lances
Max range:1.2km
Calibre:130mm
http://chunghondang.com/movie/cheonja.mpg

It is interesting to note that the Koreans used not only cannon balls for their cannons but heavy lances. The lances were used to destroy an enemy warship or barricade.

Coracle · August 8, 2002, 20:44

Quote:

Originally posted by dunk

The way the game is now, it would always be destroyed. That's a good question.

That's OK with me. Such units would require a lot of technical expertise and manufacturing stuff the other side didn't have.

But it would be nice if somehow technolgiies could be sometimes stolen by way of an invasion or battle.

Coracle · August 8, 2002, 20:45

Eric 789,

So you have any pure info sites, not only movies?

eric789 · August 9, 2002, 03:28

Coracle

I was unable to find a site dedicated to only Hwacha.

This site tells about the history of gunpowder weapons in Korea and the information about Hwacha is rather fragmented and unfocused.
http://english.gija.com/click27.htm

These sites were recommended by someone I know and the whole contents are written in Korean and also describe about gunpowder weapons in general including Hwacha. I try to run the on-line text translator for the contents of the sites but failed miserably due to too many wrongly translated ancient Korean military jargons thus I had to ask a help from someone who can read Korean and has decent knowledge about ancient Korean military history.

http://kimih87.hihome.com/weapon.htm
http://my.dreamwiz.com/rodermer/gunpowder.htm
http://war.defence.co.kr/g-3-2-6.htm
http://war.defence.co.kr/g-3-2-7.htm
http://war.defence.co.kr/g-3-2-4.htm
http://bora.dacom.co.kr/~warmm/hwacha.htm
http://www.newmurim.com/newmurim/han2/1a-7.htm