8.8 cm Flak

Origins

The Treaty of Versailles banned Germany from developing most modern weapons after the First World War. In the late 1920s designers from the Krupp company worked on a new 88mm anti-aircraft gun in Sweden, at the Bofors works, out of sight of the Allied inspectors. The gun went into production in Germany after 1933 as the 8.8 cm Flak 18. The number '18' was a deliberate deception, suggesting a design dating from 1918 and so allowed under the treaty. Flak is short for Fliegerabwehrkanone, anti-aircraft gun. The Flak 36 followed in 1936 with a barrel made in several sections, so that a worn part could be replaced, and an improved carriage. The Flak 37 differed mainly in its fire-control instruments, which received firing data from a central predictor.

Design & Construction

The gun was mounted on a cross-shaped platform that could be lowered to the ground, giving a stable base and allowing it to fire in any direction. For travel the platform was lifted onto two single-axle trailers and towed, often by a half-track tractor. The 56-caliber barrel fired a high-explosive shell of about 9.4 kilograms at a muzzle velocity of roughly 820 meters a second. Against aircraft it could reach about 8,000 meters in practice, and a trained crew of around ten men could fire 15 to 20 rounds a minute. Batteries were directed by optical rangefinders and mechanical predictors, and later by radar. The same high velocity that sent shells to bomber height gave armor-piercing shot a flat trajectory and great penetration against tanks. From 1940 many guns were given shields and direct-fire sights for ground combat.

Combat Use

The 88 was first used in combat by the German Condor Legion in the Spanish Civil War, where it was also fired at ground targets. In France in May 1940, during the British counterattack at Arras, Erwin Rommel used 88s and field guns to stop British Matilda tanks that ordinary German anti-tank guns could not penetrate. In North Africa, dug-in 88s wrecked British tank attacks, most famously at Halfaya Pass in June 1941. In Russia they were one of the few German weapons that could deal with the Soviet T-34 and KV-1 in 1941. The main job of most 88s, however, was air defense. Thousands of them ringed German cities and industrial sites against the British and American bomber offensives, and they were the most numerous heavy gun of the Luftwaffe's flak arm. The number of shells needed for each bomber brought down was very high, with one widely quoted German figure of about 16,000 rounds for the Flak 36 in 1944, but flak also forced bombers to fly higher and bomb less accurately. At the Battle of Kursk in July 1943, German 88s supported the German attack against both Soviet aircraft and tanks, alongside the new Tiger tanks armed with an 88mm gun derived from the Flak 36.

Legacy

The success of the 88 led to a family of related weapons. The Tiger I's 8.8 cm KwK 36 was developed from the Flak gun. The longer and more powerful 8.8 cm Pak 43 was a purpose-built anti-tank gun of the same caliber, and a version of it armed the Ferdinand tank destroyer, later renamed Elefant, and the Tiger II. The improved Flak 41 anti-aircraft gun appeared in small numbers from 1942. Among Allied soldiers the 88 gained a fearsome reputation, and almost any German gun was blamed on it. Its double role showed how a powerful, high-velocity gun could be adapted to jobs its designers had not planned for in World War II.