WWII Tech Pubs Briefing

Written by
Duane Godwin

Surprised by the May 21 British counterattack south of Arras, FlaK guns of 7. Panzer-Division take on the 7th Royal Tank Regiment.  The attack threatened Rommel’s spearheads but faltered against the deadly accuracy and hitting power of the 88s.  With its failure died all hope of an Allied reprieve. However, this attack was instrumental in halting the Panzers before Dunkirk, and thus gaining a reprieve for the BEF to evacuate.

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Overview

The 1919 Treaty of Versailles forbid Germany to carry out any significant artillery development, so German armaments company Krupps worked with Bofors in Sweden in the late 1920s to produce a 75-mm anti-aircraft gun. The Wehrmacht requested a heavier gun, however, and Krupps came up with the 88-mm FlaK 18 that entered production after the Nazi Party took power in 1933.  The Flak 18 was a large gun with a long, one-piece barrel mounted on a pivoted cruciform carriage with two axles.  This arrangement allowed for a rapid deployment in which outriggers were lowered to support the gun and the wheel trailers were removed.

Combat experience in the Spanish Civil War led to some minor improvements, including a more robust transport carriage.  A multi-section barrel replaced the FlaK 18’s single unit in a model designated FlaK 36.  The multi-section barrel allowed faster service after heavy use, as only the worn section of barrel needed to be changed. However, this was later to cause extraction problems with the steel shell casings that the Germans were forced to use by the Allied blockade. FlaK 36s fitted with a revised fire-control data-transmission system that improved the performance of  static emplacements (rather than mobile guns) became FlaK 37s.  All three types served throughout the war.

The FlaK 18 gun first saw service in Spain during the Civil War, and it seems that armor-piercing projectiles were tested there or shortly after.  Regardless, the 88-mm (3.46-in) FlaK gun was certainly in use as an anti-tank gun by the time of Blitzkrieg.  While most anti-tank weapons are designed small enough to hide, the FlaK guns’ unusually great size meant that it could not be operated from concealment particularly on a mobile battlefield.  In compensation, their extremely long range and high rate of fire - equal to light anti-tank guns - let crews pick off opposition from the safety of distance.  FlaK gunners destroyed much Allied armor during Blitzkrieg.

Of course, the 88-mm (3.46-in) FlaK gun family was also the backbone of German anti-aircraft defence, and accounted for the bulk of aircraft shot down by anti-aircraft guns.  The guns were placed on railway cars, self-propelled vehicles, ships, and in static emplacements.  Allied airmen feared it with good reason.

These guns were also used by the Italians, and captured examples were used by the U.S. Army.  Other countries used them post-war; Yugoslavia still employed them as coastal guns deep into the 1990s.

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Specifications