14.5×114mm maximum cartridge dimensions. I./43 (Major Wegener) employed these guns against a commando landing raid called Operation Agreement by the British Royal Navy near Tobruk. It fires 450 to 550 12.7x99mm armor penetrating rounds per minute. 7 half-track becoming a common prime mover. [9] The Battle of France also saw the introduction of vehicle-mounted 8.8 cm Flak 18s, the so-called "Bunkerknacker" on the Sd.Kfz. These shields could be retro-fitted on older Flak 18s as well. 100 Bullet HD Wallpapers and Background Images. There was also the kampfpistole. In this context, a 20 mm, 12.7 mm, or even 7.92 mm anti-tank rifle made sense. Krupp responded with another prototype of the long-barreled 8.8 cm gun, which was further developed into the anti-tank and tank destroyer 8.8 cm PaK 43 gun used for the Elefant and Jagdpanther, and turret-mounted 8.8 cm KwK 43 heavy tank gun of the Tiger II. [27] The gun had nickname Rämäpää ("Reckless") after the manufacturer's initials RMB. Auctions & Sales 18. The later model was the Flak 37, which included updated instrumentation to allow the gun layers to follow directions from the single director more easily. The financial costs associated with anti-aircraft cannon were substantial, especially when compared with fighter aircraft. [9] The 8.8 cm Flak was used against heavily armored tanks such as the Char B1 bis and Matilda II, whose frontal armour could not be penetrated by the standard light 3.7 cm anti-tank gun. Went on a nice little kill streak so i decided i would upload it ¯\_(ツ)_/¯Twitter: https://twitter.com/BFVikingMusic: In addition to these Krupp designs, Rheinmetall later created a more powerful anti-aircraft gun, the 8.8 cm Flak 41,[N 1] which was produced in relatively small numbers. Rheinmetall responded with a new 88 mm design with a longer cartridge and a longer barrel. Trailers 8. While the artillery got the 2 pounder, a cheaper, lighter alternative was needed for the Infantry to help deal with tanks and other armored vehicles. [9] This was twice as many heavy AA guns as the Air Defence of Great Britain (ADGB) had at the time, with France and the United States having even fewer. The 8.8 cm Flak 18/36/37/41 is a German 88   mm anti-aircraft and anti-tank artillery gun, developed in the 1930s. The main armament of the Tiger II heavy tank, the KwK 43 tank gun, was the PaK 43 adapted for tank use, and it was considered for the Panther II tank. [citation needed] The use of the 88 mm in direct support of the infantry brought the gun crews in close proximity to the enemy and made the crews susceptible to infantry fire. Land Rovers 5. The 79th Field Artillery Battalion (Provisional) was formed from personnel of the 79th and 179th Field Artillery Groups to fire captured German artillery pieces at the height of an ammunition shortage. pp 293. [9], By August 1944, there were 10,704 Flak 18, 36 and 37 guns in service, now complemented also by the 10.5 cm Flak 38 and 39, and the formidable 12.8 cm Flak 40, owing to the increase in US and British bombing raids during 1943 and 1944. Motorcycles & Bicycles 10. [N 3]. pressure to certify for sale to consumers. They go through them just like they were a piece of paper". The Flak 18 was mounted on a cruciform gun carriage. $8,995 This gun would be very hard to upgrade. The Flak 18/36/37 was roughly comparable to its Italian and Allied counterparts. An AP shell is made from solid steel with a high carbon contents, which increases the hardness of the steel. Given appropriate ammunition it proved quite capable in both roles. Radio Equipment 14. Bad weather grounded the main bomber force, but the assault succeeded, mainly because of the concentrated and accurate fire of the supporting 88 mm guns. This gun served as the main armament of the Tiger I heavy tank. The Yugoslav Army (VJ) also used Flak carriages mounted with double 262 mm rocket launch tubes from the M-87 Orkan MLRS, instead of the 88 mm gun. It was the main armament of the Tiger I heavy tank. The earliest and most simple anti-tank shell was the basic armor piercing, or AP, shell. However, production did not take place as no Flak 41 barrels were available.[13]. Contemporary anti-tank weapons, too, were very small. The exterior shape of the case was designed to promote reliable case feeding and extraction in bolt action rifles and machine guns alike, under extreme conditions. The first solution saw the Spitzgeschoss mit Kern, more commonly called the K Bullet, being issued in larger quantities. The Allied weapons' capabilities were augmented by the introduction of proximity fuzes. Krupp had the majority ownership in Bofors since 1921. After other parts were strengthened this functioned as desired. Several of the Finnish guns survive in museums and as memorials. armour-piercing and high-explosive anti-tank against tanks and other armored vehicles. Flak 37 gun at the Deutsches Panzermuseum, Munster, Germany, Flak 37 gun at the Anti-aircraft Museum in Hyrylä, Finland, Flak 36 gun in position at Bir Hakeim, North Africa, June 1942, Flak 36 battery in firing position, Germany, 1943, FuMG 39 “Würzburg” radar at an anti-aircraft position on the Atlantic Wall, France, 1942, 8.8 cm Flak 36 with Flak Rohr 18 barrel at the, Comparison with similar anti-aircraft guns, Weapons of comparable role, performance and era, In German, the comma is used as the decimal separator, hence official punctuation was actually "8,8 cm" and not "8.8 cm". D97/1+ Geräteliste, Oberkommando des Heeres, Heereswaffenamt, s.45, Berlin 1.7.43, Learn how and when to remove this template message, Royal Australian Armoured Corps Memorial and Army Tank Museum, Royal Museum of the Armed Forces and Military History, Historical Military Museum of Cartagena (Spain), United States Army Air Defense Artillery Museum, National Museum of the United States Air Force, signalers' phonetic spelling of letters "AA", "The Rise of North Vietnam's Air Defenses", "Lexikon der Wehrmacht - Fugabwehrwaffen (Flak)", "TM E9-369A: German 88-mm Antiaircraft Gun Materiel – Technical Manual, U.S. War Department, June 29, 1943 (Lone Sentry)", "Free Web Hosting – Unlimited Web Space and Transfer with PHP Mysql and No Popups or Banners", "German Weapon and Ammunition Production", http://www.panzerworld.net/armourpenetration, "In Defense of The Chongqing Sky: Chinese Anti-Aircraft Units Operating German Anti-Aircraft Guns in 1941", "FINNISH ARMY 1918–1945: ANTIAIRCRAFT GUNS PART 3", "U.S. Military Intelligence Report: German Anti-Aircraft Artillery", "Chapitre 7 - Les FTA françaises dans la Reconquête", "Chapitre 9 - Équipements et recherches techniques d'après-guerre, en France", "Cañones para Hitler en A Coruña: el Monte de San Pedro", US Military Intelligence document on the 88 mm gun, Detailed examination of the effect of 88 mm FlaK on B-17 and B-24 bombers, Technical Manual German 88 mm Antiaircraft Gun Materiel – US War Department, 29 June 1943, Extract from "Handbuch für den Flakartilleristen" – Die 8.8 cm – Flak 1939, Lance-grenade individuel Mle F1 (LGI Mle F1), https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=8.8_cm_Flak_18/36/37/41&oldid=995846482, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles needing additional references from April 2014, All articles needing additional references, All Wikipedia articles written in American English, Articles with unsourced statements from July 2011, Articles with unsourced statements from October 2008, Articles with unsourced statements from April 2014, Articles with unsourced statements from December 2020, Articles with unsourced statements from June 2009, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, One, 32 grooves with right-hand increasing twist from 1/45 to 1/30. The batteries began arriving in Italy a few days after Italy entered the war, and were initially assigned in part to the Milizia Volontaria per la Sicurezza Nazionale (Voluntary Militia for National Security, MACA), for the protection of the Italian main cities and partly sent in Libya, for the protection of ports. I have owned it 22 years and never fired it, in fact I am not sure it ever was shot. In fact all 8.8 cm Flak guns were capable of operation in the dual role.[11]. A Boys Mk.1. Armor plate penetration is achieved by the kinetic energy of the shell. The makers of the gun were inspired by weapons used to hunt African big game, like the Elephant gun. The loaders would keep the weapon fed with live ammunition which would fire immediately upon insertion—all while the gun layer aimed the weapon according to the data. [31], During the Yugoslav wars in the 1990s, various Flak guns were used, mainly by the naval artillery of the Yugoslav People's Army (JNA). They were captured by the Japanese Imperial Army during the Sino-Japanese War. [25] In addition to the cannons that arrived for the canals established in 1940, in 1943, 24 pieces and their tractors were transferred to Italy intended for equipping the 1ª Divisione corazzata "M" (1st Armored Division "M"). The Kommandogerät systems were introduced starting in 1925, and the Kommandogerät p40 was the standard system during the majority of the war. In the entire Battle of France, the weapon destroyed 152 tanks and 151 bunkers. This resulted in the Giant Würzburg, which had sufficient accuracy to precisely control guns without direct visual contact. Download for free on all your devices - Computer, Smartphone, or Tablet. The following museums include 8.8 cm Flak guns in their collections. Development of the original model led to a wide variety of guns. As an anti-aircraft gun it fired a 9.2 kilogram (20 lb) shell at a muzzle velocity of 840 m/s to an effective ceiling of 8000 meters,[33] with a maximum ceiling of 9900 meters. The bullet weighed a tremendous 802 grains (52 grams) compared to the 185 grains (12 grams) of the infantry rifle version. The name applies to a series of related guns, the first one officially called the 8.8 cm Flak 18, the improved 8.8 cm Flak 36, and later the 8.8 cm Flak 37. More guns were sent later, and some 88 mm guns were also supplied to Spanish army units. [citation needed], The Flak 36 guns were briefly issued in late 1944 to the American Seventh Army as captured weapons. The resulting piece was 74 calibers long (78 with the muzzle brake). Indeed, with the automatic loading system, the gun layers' job was to keep the gun barrel trained on the target area based on the signals from the controller. In early 1937 in the fighting around Malaga, a battery of 88 mm guns was assigned to support an infantry brigade. Chow, Roy "Mistakes and Myths in German 8.8cm Flak Identification", German Flak Defences vs Allied Heavy Bombers: 1942–45 [4] Its successful use as an improvised anti-tank gun led to the development of a tank gun based upon it: the 8.8 cm KwK 36, with the "KwK" abbreviation standing for Kampfwagen-Kanone (literally "battle vehicle cannon", or "fighting vehicle cannon"), meant to be placed in a gun turret as the tank's primary armament. Boys Anti-Tank Rifle: Mk I and Mk I* Improvements April 11, 2019 Ian McCollum 17 These rifles are lots #1087 and #1088 at Morphy’s April 2019 auction: The Boys Anti-Tank Rifle was adopted by the British military in 1937, and remained in production until 1943 when it was replaced by […] On 14 September 1942, Flak-Abt. The 8.8 cm Flak was powerful enough to penetrate over 84 mm of armor at a range of 2 km, making it an unparalleled anti-tank weapon during the early days of the war and still formidable against all but the heaviest tanks at the end. D 2030 – 8,8 cm Panzerjägerkanone 43/2 (L/71), Beschreibung, 28 January 1944. This early model, the Flak 18, used a single-piece barrel with a length of 56 calibers, leading to the commonly seen designation L/56. It allowed general area fire without line of sight, but had poor accuracy compared to the visual systems. Chinese Type 56 and Type 58 heavy machine guns, This page was last edited on 24 December 2020, at 23:56. Americans would define the shoulder angle at alpha/2 = 22.5 degrees. Operation Barbarossa: the Complete Organisational and Statistical Analysis, and Military Simulation Volume IIB. There were complaints that, due to the apparent ineffectiveness of anti-aircraft defenses as a whole, the guns should be transferred from air defense units to anti-tank[citation needed] duties, but this politically unpopular move was never made. Starting from October 1942, several batteries, while remaining in German possession, were used by Italian personnel (officers and troops) for the protection of military infrastructures and cities, this practice was further intensified in 1943, reaching more than 100 batteries. Flak German Anti Aircraft Defenses 1914–45. The higher-level tactical unit was usually a mixed anti-aircraft battalion (gemischte Flak-Abteilung). Greece had at least 24 guns (8.8) that were used against the Regia Aeronautica during the Italian invasion of Greece in 1940. The gun would then fire and recoil; during the return stroke, the empty case would be thrown backward by levers, after which a cam would engage and recock the gun. II and GL Mk. The less open terrain in Italy and Northern France was less suitable for long-range AT guns. Lulu Publishing. The Panzer III's 37 mm was considered a good anti-tank gun in 1940. The cartridge has been manufactured in Bulgaria, China, Egypt, Hungary, Iraq, North Korea, Poland, Romania, Russia, and the former Czechoslovakia. In 1943–1944 Finland bought 90 8.8 cm FlaK 37 cannons from Germany and they were used for air defence of largest cities in Finland. [N 4] It totaled 12 such guns on average, supplemented by light guns. According to the official guidelines the 14.5×114 case can handle up to 360 MPa (52,213 psi) piezo pressure. Prototype 88s were first produced in 1928. [22] Just as important, the success of the 8.8 cm Flaks spawned the development of dedicated 8.8 cm caliber PAKs (see discussion below) which were even more adept at anti-tank mission due to their lower silhouette design. The 14.5×114mm has 42.53 ml (655 grains H2O) cartridge case capacity. Westermann, Edward B (2001). 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