FlaK is the German abbreviation Fl(ug)a(bwehr)-K(anone), denoting an anti-aircraft (anti-aircraft) gun, which was the original purpose of this gun. Unofficially, the Germans called them "Acht-Acht" (eight-eight), shortening the full name "8.8-cm-Flugabwehrkanone".

Large-caliber semi-automatic anti-aircraft guns were created in Germany during the First World War. But the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles forbade the Germans to have anti-aircraft artillery and all guns were destroyed. Work on their creation was resumed secretly in the second half of the 20s and was carried out by German designers both in Germany itself and in Sweden, Holland and other countries. At the same time, all new field and anti-aircraft guns designed in Germany during these years received the number 18, that is, the "model of 1918" in the designation. In the case of requests from the governments of England or France, the Germans could answer that these were not new guns, but old ones, created back in 1918, during the First World War.
The design of an 88-mm anti-aircraft gun by a group of designers from the Krupp company began in 1931 in Sweden. Then the technical documentation was delivered to Essen, where the first samples of guns were made. Since 1933, anti-aircraft guns, designated "88-mm anti-aircraft gun arr. 18 - Flak-18", began to enter the troops.


The gun had a semi-automatic shutter, which was in itself an achievement for that time. The spent cartridges were ejected automatically, so that a trained crew could produce 15-20 rounds per minute. Shooting was carried out from a pedestal carriage, which had four beds arranged crosswise. The beds with their jacks rested on the ground. In the stowed position, the gun was mounted on the Sd.Anh.201, which was a four-wheeled sprung wagon and had two wheel travel, the middle of the wagon was formed by the base of the gun carriage and bed.


The 8.8 cm Flak-18 gun received its baptism of fire in Spain as part of the Condor Legion. According to the results combat use part of the Flak-18 guns was equipped with an armor shield to cover the calculation. In 1936, the upgraded 8.8 cm Flak-36 gun was put into service. The internal structure of both guns and ballistics were the same. For better maintenance, the barrel design of the Flak-36 was made composite - now it was enough to change the most worn (usually lower) third, instead of changing the entire barrel. A special trailer Sd.Anh.202 was used as a wagon. The carriage design has been simplified. An 8-ton half-track tractor Sd.Kfz.7 "Klaus-Maffei" was used as an anti-aircraft towing vehicle.


By September 1, 1939, as part of ground units The Luftwaffe consisted of 2,459 8.8 cm Flak-18 and Flak-36 cannons. The ground forces first received 8.8 cm cannons in 1941. In August 1944, the Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe had 10,930 Flak-18 type guns that were used on all fronts and in the air defense of the Reich.
During the French campaign, it turned out that 37-mm anti-tank guns were absolutely powerless against the armor of most French tanks. But the remaining "unemployed" (German aircraft dominated the air) 88-mm anti-aircraft guns perfectly coped with this task.


More greater value these guns as anti-tank weapons came to light during the fighting in North Africa and on the Eastern Front. While the British, for example, in North Africa, limited the role of their very powerful 3.7-inch anti-aircraft guns to fighting aircraft, the Germans used their 88-mm guns to fire at both aircraft and tanks, they even made two armor-piercing guns with different penetration projectile. In November 1941, the entire Afrika Korps had only 35 88-mm guns (their cost was then 33,600 Reichsmarks), but, moving along with the tanks, these guns inflicted huge losses on the Allied tanks.


For clarity, historical quotes from two books describing the role of these guns in the Afrika Korps.

Mitcham Samuel W. "Rommel's Greatest Victory"

The 88mm gun fired its 21-pound projectile over 2 miles with exceptional accuracy. For example, in the battle of Sidi Omar in November 1941, a British tank regiment lost 48 out of 52 tanks. All of them were destroyed by 88-mm guns. None of the British tanks even managed to get close enough to fire on german guns. The historian of the 9th Royal Lancers writes:
“A direct hit (from an 88-mm gun) was like hitting a huge sledgehammer on a tank. The projectile punched a neat round hole about 4 inches in diameter, a whirlwind of red-hot fragments burst into the tower. Such a hit usually meant death ... Until the very end of the war, 88-mm guns remained our most dangerous enemy "...

General Nering reacted immediately. He shouted to Colonel Alvin Woltz, commander of the 135th Motorized Anti-Aircraft Regiment: "Aircraft forward!" 16 deadly 88mm anti-aircraft guns were quickly pushed forward, and the regiment deployed in a line about 1.5 miles long, organizing a system of crossfire. The British tankers, having finished with the grenadiers, attacked the last line of defense just at the moment when Woltz completed its preparation. It quickly became clear that the "Grants" could not withstand the impact of 88-mm shells fired from a distance of 1200 yards. Soon 24 "Grants" were already burning, and the survivors hurried to retreat ...


Shooting "on the move" - ​​the frame is fixed "in the march" - without removing the wheels

Alexander Bevin Hitler's 10 Fatal Mistakes:

Rommel had only one "secret" weapon, an 88mm anti-aircraft gun, which, as he and other German generals learned during the 1940 campaign, could penetrate up to 83mm of armor at 2,000 yards. This made the 88 mm guns a very formidable anti-tank gun...

When the British Matildas moved on June 15, 1941 to Halfaya, which the British soldiers called the "Devil's Fire Gorge", their commander managed to send his last radiogram: "They are tearing my tanks to pieces." Only one of the thirteen Matildas managed to survive under the deadly fire of four 88-mm German guns. The British attack failed...


On the eastern front, 88-mm guns were also in combat formations. tank units. When the last encountered the new soviet tanks T-34 and KV anti-aircraft guns came into play. This tactic was used by the German military until the end of the war.
The successful use of these guns as anti-tank guns led to the creation of a separate series called the PaK 88 (Panzerabwehr-Kanone - anti-tank gun), and they also served as a model for the creation of turret weapons for the Tiger and Tiger II tanks (King Tiger) .

FlaK 36 mounted on Sd.Kfz. 6/2

Description

Automatic anti-aircraft gun 3.7 cm FlaK 36 It is used on the German ZSU of the second rank and is characterized by a fairly high efficiency both against aircraft and against tanks.

Historically, these guns were actively used during civil war in Spain and at the beginning of World War II, allowing you to effectively deal with aircraft, as well as light tanks interwar period, armored vehicles, gun crews and infantry.

Vehicles equipped with these weapons

Main characteristics

Tell about performance characteristics guns or machine guns.

The composition of the tapes

There are 3 ribbons available for this weapon in the game:

  • Standard belt - Armor Piercing + Fragmentation Incendiary Tracer.
  • PzGr - Armor-piercing projectile. Recommended for use against tanks.
  • Sprgr.18 - Fragmentation Incendiary Tracer. Should only be used against unarmored targets (SPAs and aircraft).

The technical characteristics of the tapes are given in the tables:

Tape name Armor penetration: 10m Armor penetration: 100m Armor penetration: 500m Armor penetration: 1000m Armor penetration: 1500m Armor penetration: 2000m
Standard 55 48 35 22 16 14
PzGr 55 48 35 22 16 14
Sprgr.18 6 6 6 6 6 6

Use in combat

Describe the gun/machine gun in the game - its distinctive features, tactics of use against the main opponents. Refrain from creating a "guide" - don't impose a single point of view, but give the reader food for thought.

Advantages and disadvantages

Advantages:

  • Huge firepower.
  • Large ammo (320 shells / 40 cassettes)
  • Excellent gun stability
  • Good ballistics.

Flaws:

  • Quite slow rotation of the gun.

Historical reference

The first serial 3.7 cm automatic anti-aircraft gun was the 3.7 cm Flak 18. Its prototype was the ST-10 gun, created by Rheinmetall in the late 1920s. The automatics of the gun worked due to the recoil energy with a short barrel stroke. Shooting was carried out from a pedestal carriage, which was supported by a cruciform base on the ground. In the stowed position, the gun was mounted on a four-wheeled cart. The 3.7-cm cannon of the Rheinmetall company, together with the 2-cm automatic cannon, were sold in 1930 by the BYuTAST office Soviet Union. In fact, only complete technological documentation and a set of semi-finished products were delivered, while the guns themselves were not delivered. In the USSR, the gun received the name "37-mm automatic anti-aircraft gun mod. 1930". Sometimes it was called the 37-mm cannon "H" (German). The production of the gun was started in 1931 at the plant number 8, where the gun received the index 4K. In 1931, 3 guns were presented. For 1932, the plan was 25 guns, the plant presented 3, but the military acceptance did not accept a single one. At the end of 1932, the system had to be discontinued. Not a single 37-mm cannon mod. 1930

In Germany, the 3.7-cm Rheinmetall automatic gun entered service in 1935 under the name 3.7 cm Flak 18. One of the significant drawbacks was the four-wheeled wagon. It turned out to be heavy and clumsy, so a new four-bed carriage with a detachable two-wheel drive was developed to replace it.

A 3.7 cm anti-aircraft automatic gun with a new two-wheeled carriage and a number of changes in the design of the machine was called 3.7 cm Flak 36. The cost of such a machine was 24 thousand RM. Sometimes the literature mentions the 3.7 cm Flak 37 mount - this is the same Flak 36 mount, but with a different sight (Flakvisier 37 instead of Flakvisier 36).

In addition to regular gun carriages arr. 1936, 3.7 cm Flak 18 and Flak 36 assault rifles were installed on railway platforms and various vehicles, both armored and unarmored.

Media

see also

  • link to an article about the cannon/machine gun variant;
  • links to approximate analogues in other nations and branches.

In July 1944, at the Nibelungenwerke enterprise, a new heavy self-propelled guns, created on the basis of the Pz.Kpfw.VI Ausf. B "Tiger II" ("Royal Tiger"). The first series of "jagdtigers" (as the new self-propelled guns were called) included self-propelled guns with a chassis designed by Dr. Erwin Aders (Chief Engineer of Henschel & Son), and with a chassis designed by Dr. Ferdinand Porsche

In 1941, the fighting on the Eastern Front revealed one fact that became very unpleasant for the Wehrmacht. It turned out that the level of development Soviet technology significantly exceeded the expected - this was especially evident in the collision of German troops with the latest tanks KV and T-34, the armor of which most of the standard anti-tank weapons pierced with difficulty. The real salvation in the fight against these giants turned out to be 8.8-centimeter (in Germany, caliber artillery systems traditionally measured in centimeters) FlaK 36 anti-aircraft guns and their other modifications - FlaK 37 and FlaK 18. Only the armor-piercing shells of these anti-aircraft guns, accelerated by powerful powder charges to an initial speed of 820 m / s, could penetrate 75-mm KV armor or flash 45-mm forehead "thirty-four". In the German units, these guns were called "eight-eight" and they tried to transfer them to the most tank-dangerous sectors of the front.

The designers of the Krupp corporation developed the FlaK 18 back in 1928, and the first prototypes were assembled outside of Germany - at the factory of the Swedish company Bofors. This was due to the arms production restrictions placed on Germany after the end of World War I. The Krupp factories in Essen started self assembly these artillery systems only in 1932.

Artillerymen of the Wehrmacht African Corps prepare an 88 mm FlaK 36 anti-aircraft gun for firing, 1940–41
Source - waralbum.ru

In 1940, the designers created the 88-mm FlaK 36 gun, which was equipped with wheeled carts for quick movement, as well as an electric trigger and an armored shield to protect the crew from bullets and shrapnel when firing at ground targets. In fact, this weapon was created as a universal means of combating enemy aircraft and tanks.

A serious drawback of the 88 mm anti-aircraft guns was their high striking silhouette and significant cost - the price for versatility. The Wehrmacht's weapons department (hereinafter - USV) demanded that the designers create a cheaper anti-tank gun based on the FlaK 36, which was carried out at the end of 1942 by the Krupp corporation.

The new 88mm Pak 43 gun turned out to be one of the best anti-tank artillery systems of the Second World War (hereinafter referred to as WWII). Its 71-caliber barrel made it possible to accelerate armor-piercing shells to a speed of 1000 m / s, and sub-caliber - up to 1130 m / s. Thanks to this, the Pak 43 could hit almost any Soviet tank from a distance of two kilometers.


German gunners deploy an 88mm Pak 43 anti-tank gun
Source - waralbum.ru

The main disadvantage of this anti-tank gun was its high weight - 4.4 tons. Therefore, if the calculation of the gun entered the battle, then a change of position or retreat became a serious problem. The low mobility of such a successful artillery system could not but lead the designers to the idea of ​​installing it on armored chassis.

The installation of the Pak 43 gun on the first German serial heavy tank Pz.Kpfw.VI "Tiger" turned out to be impossible due to the considerable dimensions of the latter. Therefore, the armored "predator" in 1942 was armed with a KwK 36 tank gun of the same caliber (88 mm), but shorter - only 4.9 meters versus 6.2. Naturally, the ballistics of this gun was worse than those of the KwK 43 and StuK 43 (cannons based on the Pak 43 for installation on tanks and self-propelled guns, respectively), but it was quite enough to knock out the Soviet KV-1 and T-34.

StuK 43 was installed on heavy anti-tank self-propelled units(or, as they were called in the Wehrmacht, “jagdpanzers”) “Ferdinand”. They redesigned the chassis of the Tiger (P) tank designed by Ferdinand Porsche, which the industry hastened to manufacture on Hitler’s personal order even before the USV adopted the Tiger, designed by Henschel & Son engineers. At the Nibelungenwerke plant in the Austrian city of Sankt Valentin, armored cabins were built over the chassis with a frontal armor of 200 mm, which was monstrous for that time. StuK 43 was placed in the wheelhouse, having received a self-propelled gun, which became one of the most terrible opponents of the Soviet troops in the Battle of Kursk. Fortunately for Soviet tankers, "Ferdinand" German industry produced little - only about 90 pieces. Besides, chassis these self-propelled guns turned out to be rather unreliable, besides, the lack of machine-gun armament let the vehicles down, as a result of which self-propelled guns became defenseless in the event of close combat against infantry. Therefore, despite powerful armor and armament, a significant number of these vehicles were lost in the battles of the summer of 1943.


Self-propelled guns "Ferdinand" with 88-mm gun StuK 43 in the armored museum in Kubinka
Source - tankmuseum.ru

German designers took into account the experience of using heavy Jagdpanzers, and in July 1944, at the same Nibelungenwerke enterprise, a new heavy self-propelled guns created on the basis of the Pz.Kpfw.VI Ausf. B "Tiger II" ("Royal Tiger"). It is curious that this time the story of the prematurely manufactured chassis for Porsche-designed tanks was repeated, only now they were assembled not 100 pieces, but only 7. Aders (chief engineer and head of new development at Henschel & Son), and with a chassis designed by Dr. Ferdinand Porsche. Subsequent cars were produced only on the chassis of the Aders design, but they, like the Ferdinands, were assembled very little. The total number of Jagdtigers produced is estimated at approximately 70-88 units, each of which weighed 75.2 tons - the Jagdtigers became the heaviest of all mass-produced German armored vehicles. For comparison, the mass of the "Royal Tiger" reached 68 tons, and the modern german tank"Leopard-ІІ" A5 weighs 62 tons.


High-ranking representatives of the Wehrmacht and the company "Henschel and Son" (Erwin Aders - in a dark suit on the right), September 5, 1942
Source - pokazuha.ru

The Jagdtiger had a standard German layout - in front was the control compartment with a transmission installed in it, behind it was the fighting compartment, located in the wheelhouse and the middle part of the hull. The engine compartment was placed in the stern with a V-shaped 12-cylinder four-stroke liquid-cooled carburetor engine manufactured by Maybach, model HL 230 P30. Working volume power plant reached 23,095 cm³, and it developed a maximum power of 700 hp. With. at 3000 rpm. However, the mass of the self-propelled guns for such an engine was too large, so the self-propelled gun developed a speed of no more than 38 km / h on the highway, and 17 km / h on rough terrain.


The assembly shop of the Nibelungenwerke plant with the hulls of the Jagdtigers being assembled
Source - weaponscollection.com

The thickness of the upper frontal plate at the cabin of the Jagdtigr reached 250 mm, the hull - 150 mm, the lower armor plate - 120 mm. Both body armor parts were located at an angle of 50 °. The German designers protected the sides and stern of the self-propelled gun with an 80 mm layer of steel, the bottom and roof of the hull - 40 mm, and the roof of the wheelhouse - 45 mm. It is interesting that the front armor plates of the felling were made from pre-war armor, which was taken from the stocks of the Kriegsmarine.

In 1944, they planned to collect 150 Jagdtigers, but these plans were not destined to come true. On October 16, 1944, the allied aviation subjected the factory in St. Valentin to a massive bombardment, dropping about 143 tons of bombs on it. Production at the enterprise was partially restored, but it could no longer fulfill the state order in full. They tried to get out of the situation by transferring part of the order to the Am Jung Lokomotivfabrik company located in Yungenthal, but even there the actions of enemy aircraft frustrated all plans.


View of the workshop of the Nibelungenwerke tank building plant after the bombardment by Allied aircraft on October 16, 1944. In the foreground are the damaged hulls of the Jagdtigers.
Source - waralbum.ru

Initially, all Jagdtigers were armed with a powerful 128-mm Pak 80 gun. This gun was very heavy, so it was mounted not in the front deck of the cabin (it simply could not withstand excessive load), but on a specially designed pedestal installed on the floor of the fighting compartment. The gun had big amount shortcomings - in particular, its return was so significant that the self-propelled guns could only fire from a place, otherwise its undercarriage risked failure. If, on the march, the gun was not fixed on a special rack, then from the swaying of the barrel, the guidance mechanism could at least deregulate, and at the maximum - fail. But the biggest drawback of the Pak 80 guns at the beginning of 1945 was their shortage - there was simply nothing to install on the new tank chassis.


Engine compartment"Yagdtigra"
Source - scalemodels.ru

On February 26, 1945, Hitler issued an order according to which the production of the Jagdtiger self-propelled guns received the highest priority. By the next order, he demanded that all stocks of 128-mm barrels be transferred to the Nibelungenwerke plant. It was also ordered to send 128-mm Pak 44 towed guns on carriages there. In the event of a shortage of 128-mm artillery systems, enterprises should have used 88-mm tank KwK 43/3 and StuK 43/3, installed on the "royal tigers" and self-propelled guns "Jagdpanther", or even anti-tank guns Pak 43/3 L / 71.

In March 1945, only three Jagdtigers were assembled in St. Valentine, which was primarily due to a lack of trunks. In April, out of seven self-propelled guns produced, four vehicles with chassis numbers 305078, 305079, 305080 and 305081 were armed with 88-mm guns. By May 4, the factory produced the last three vehicles with chassis numbers 305082, 305083 and 305084, for which 128-mm guns were found.


"Jagdtigr" with a 128-mm Pak 80 gun in the stowed position
Source - russkiytankist.3dn.ru

By this time, tankers from two divisions arrived at the plant to receive new vehicles - the 1st company of the 653rd battalion of heavy tank destroyers (commander - Lieutenant Hans Knippenberg) and the 501st SS heavy tank battalion, led by Untersturmführer Waldemar Warneke. Self-propelled gunners lost their vehicles in the spring battles in Germany and the Benelux countries (where the forces of the 653rd battalion were scattered into groups of several vehicles each to support infantry units), and the 501st battalion lost almost all of its materiel (only four vehicles) during the unsuccessful March offensive in the Lake Balaton area.

There is no reliable information about what kind of guns the Jagdtigers that fell into one or another unit were armed with. Researcher Andrew Devey, in his book Jagdtiger Der stärkste König, claims that the SS got the last four vehicles produced at the factory and equipped with 128-mm guns, and the rest of the vehicles, including the 88-mm KwK43 / 3 Jagdtiger, received self-propelled gunners of the 653rd battalion. However, after the surrender of Berlin on May 1, the command of the army battalion disbanded it, so the crews, in accordance with the order, blew up their cars and went home.

The SS tankers did not like this outcome of the war, and they were already approaching St. Valentine Soviet troops, from which nothing good could be expected, since the Red Army soldiers tried not to take prisoners of the SS. Therefore, the crews of the remaining Jagdtigers refueled their vehicles on their own, loaded ammunition into them and moved west to break through to the Allied positions and surrender there. Tankers abandoned two cars on the road due to the failure of their running gear. With another “jagdtiger”, they blocked the bridge in order to make it difficult for the Soviet units walking on the heels, and the only car with all the armored SS crews drove out to the Americans. Thus, not a single 88-mm self-propelled gun "Jagdtigr" took part in the hostilities.


Jagdtiger pattern 8.8 cm Pak 43/3
Source - world-of-tanks.eu

In 1996, the archaeological society Simonides Military Archaelogy Group announced that its members had discovered the remains of the Jagdtiger with chassis number 305081 in Poland. The search engines did not find traces of the gun, but they found a special a steel liner used to install a smaller diameter barrel. Amateur archaeologists have not yet provided any photographs to confirm their words.

After the defeat in the First World War, the Treaty of Versailles of Germany was forbidden to have anti-aircraft artillery in general, and the existing anti-aircraft guns were to be destroyed. Therefore, from the end of the 1920s until 1933, German designers worked secretly on anti-aircraft guns both in Germany and in Sweden, Holland and other countries. At the beginning of the 1930s, anti-aircraft units were also created in Germany, which, for the purpose of secrecy, until 1935 were called "railway battalions". For the same reason, all new field and anti-aircraft guns designed in Germany in 1928-1933 were called “mod. 18". Thus, in the case of requests from the governments of England and France, the Germans could answer that these were not new guns, but old ones, created back in 1918 during the First World War.

In the early 1930s, in connection with the rapid development of aviation, an increase in the speed and range of flight, the creation of all-metal aircraft and the use of aviation armor, the issue of covering troops from attack aircraft became acute.
The existing anti-aircraft guns created during the First World War did not match much modern requirements in terms of rate of fire and aiming speed, and rifle-caliber anti-aircraft machine guns did not satisfy in terms of range and power of action.

Under these conditions, small-caliber anti-aircraft guns (MZA), caliber 20-50 mm, turned out to be in demand. Having good indicators of rate of fire, range of effective fire and damaging effect of the projectile.

Anti-aircraft gun 2.0 cm FlaK 30(German 2.0 cm Flugzeugabwehrkanone 30 - 20 mm anti-aircraft gun model 1930). Developed by Rheinmetall in 1930. The Wehrmacht began to receive guns from 1934. In addition, the 20-mm Flak 30 was exported by Rheinmetall to Holland and China.

The advantages of the 2-cm Flak 30 assault rifle were the simplicity of the device, the ability to quickly disassemble and assemble, and relatively low weight.

On August 28, 1930, an agreement was signed with the German company BYuTAST (front office of the Rheinmetall company) on the supply to the USSR, among other guns, of a 20-mm anti-aircraft automatic gun. The Rheinmetall company supplied all the documentation for a 20-mm anti-aircraft gun, two samples guns and one spare oscillating part.
After testing the 20-mm cannon of the Rheinmetall company, it was put into service under the name 20-mm automatic anti-aircraft and anti-tank gun model 1930. Production of the 20-mm gun model 1930 was transferred to plant No. 8 (Podlipki, Moscow region ), where she was assigned the index 2K. Serial production of guns was started by plant No. 8 in 1932. However, the quality of the produced assault rifles turned out to be extremely low. Military acceptance refused to accept anti-aircraft guns. As a result, the scammers from the Kalinin plant (No. gun production.

Based on the results of the combat use of the 20-mm Flak 30 in Spain, the Mauser company carried out its modernization. The modernized model was called 2.0 cm Flak 38. The new installation had the same ballistics and ammunition.

All changes in the device were aimed at increasing the rate of fire, which increased from 245 rds / min to 420-480 rds / min. It had a height reach: 2200-3700 m, firing range: up to 4800 m. Weight in combat position: 450 kg, weight in stowed position: 770 kg.
Light automatic guns Flak-30 and Flak-38 were basically the same design. Both guns were mounted on a light wheeled carriage, providing in a combat position a circular fire with a maximum elevation angle of 90 °.

The principle of operation of the mechanisms of the machine gun arr. 38 remained the same - the use of recoil force with a short barrel stroke. The increase in the rate of fire was achieved by reducing the weight of the moving parts and increasing their speeds, in connection with which special shock absorber buffers were introduced. In addition, the introduction of a copier spatial accelerator made it possible to combine the release of the shutter with the transfer of kinetic energy to it.
The automatic building sights of these guns developed vertical and lateral lead and made it possible to point the guns directly at the target. The input data to the sights were entered manually and determined by eye, except for the range, which was measured by a stereo rangefinder.

Changes to the carriages were minimal, in particular, a second speed was introduced in manual guidance drives.
There was a special disassembled "pack" version for mountain army units. In this version, the Flak 38 gun remained the same, but a small and, accordingly, lighter carriage was used. The gun was called the 2 cm Gebirgeflak 38 mountain anti-aircraft gun and was a weapon designed to destroy both air and ground targets.
The 20-mm Flak 38 began to enter the troops in the second half of 1940.

Flak-30 and Flak-38 anti-aircraft guns were a very widely used air defense weapon of the Wehrmacht, Luftwaffe and SS troops. A company of such guns (12 pieces) was part of the anti-tank division of all infantry divisions, the same company was an integral part of each motorized anti-aircraft division of the RGK, attached to tank and motorized divisions.

In addition to being towed, it was created a large number of self-propelled guns. Trucks, tanks, various tractors and armored personnel carriers were used as chassis.
In addition to their direct purpose, by the end of the war they were increasingly used to combat manpower and light armored vehicles of the enemy.

The scale of the use of Flak-30/38 guns is evidenced by the fact that in May 1944 ground troops had 6,355 cannons of this type, and the Luftwaffe units providing German air defense - more than 20,000 20-mm cannons.

To increase the density of fire based on the Flak-38, a quad installation was developed 2 cm Flakvierling 38. The effectiveness of the anti-aircraft installation was very high.

Although the Germans throughout the war constantly experienced a shortage of these anti-aircraft installations. Flakvirling 38 were used in the German army, in the air defense units of the Luftwaffe and in the German Navy.

To increase mobility, many different anti-aircraft self-propelled guns were created on their basis.



There was a version intended for installation on armored trains. An installation was being developed, the fire of which was supposed to be controlled using radar.

In addition to the Flak-30 and Flak-38 in German air defense, a 20-mm machine gun was used in smaller quantities. 2 cm Flak 28.
This anti-aircraft gun traces its lineage to the German "Becker gun", which was developed back in the First World War. The Oerlikon company, named after its location - a suburb of Zurich, acquired all the rights to develop a gun.
By 1927, the Oerlikon company had developed and put on the conveyor a model called Oerlikon S (three years later it became simply 1S). Compared to the original model, it was chambered for a more powerful 20x110mm cartridge and featured a higher muzzle velocity of 830m/s.

In Germany, the gun was widely used as a means of air defense ships, however, there were also field versions of the gun, which were widely used in the Wehrmacht and the anti-aircraft troops of the Luftwaffe, under the designation - 2 cm Flak 28 And 2 cm VKPL vz. 36.

Between 1940 and 1944, the volume of transactions of the parent company Werkzeugmaschinenfabrik Oerlikon (WO) with only the Axis powers - Germany, Italy and Romania - amounted to 543.4 million Swiss francs. francs, and included the supply of 7013 20-mm guns, 14.76 million pieces of cartridges for them, 12,520 spare barrels and 40 thousand cartridge boxes (such Swiss "neutrality"!).
Several hundred of these anti-aircraft guns were captured in Czechoslovakia, Belgium and Norway.

In the USSR, the word "Oerlikon" became a household name for all small-caliber anti-aircraft artillery during the Second World War.

For all their merits, 20-mm anti-aircraft guns were unable to guarantee 100% penetration of the Il-2 attack aircraft armor.
To correct this situation in 1943, by the Mauser company, by applying 3-cm aircraft gun MK-103 on the carriage of a 2-cm Flak 38 automatic anti-aircraft gun, the Flak 103/38 anti-aircraft gun was created. The gun had a two-way belt feed. The action of the machine mechanisms was based on a mixed principle: the barrel bore was unlocked and the bolt was cocked due to the energy of the powder gases discharged through the side channel in the barrel, and the feed mechanisms were operated due to the energy of the rolling barrel.

In serial production Flak 103/38 launched in 1944. A total of 371 guns were produced.
In addition to single-barreled, in a small number, twin and quad 30-mm installations were produced.

In 1942-1943 the Waffen-Werke enterprise in Brune based on the 3-cm aircraft gun MK 103 created an anti-aircraft automatic gun MK 303 Br. It was distinguished from the Flak 103/38 gun by better ballistics. For projectile weighing 320 g starting speed its MK 303 Br was 1080 m/s versus 900 m/s for Flak 103/38. For a projectile weighing 440 g, these values ​​were 1000 m/s and 800 m/s, respectively.

Automation worked both due to the energy of the gases discharged from the bore, and due to the recoil of the barrel during its short course. The shutter is wedge. The delivery of cartridges was carried out by the rammer along the entire path of the movement of the cartridge into the chamber. The muzzle brake had an efficiency of 30%.
The production of MK 303 Br guns began in October 1944. A total of 32 guns were delivered by the end of the year, and another 190 in 1945.

30-mm installations were much more effective than 20-mm ones, but the Germans did not have time to launch a large-scale production of these anti-aircraft guns.

In violation of the "Versailles" agreements, the company "Rheinmetall" in the late 20's began work on the creation of a 3.7-cm automatic anti-aircraft gun.
The automatics of the gun worked due to the recoil energy with a short barrel stroke. Shooting was carried out from a pedestal carriage, which was supported by a cruciform base on the ground. In the stowed position, the gun was mounted on a four-wheeled cart.

The 37-mm anti-aircraft gun was intended to fight aircraft flying at low altitudes (1500-3000 meters) and to fight ground armored targets.

The 3.7-cm Rheinmetall gun, together with the 2-cm automatic gun, were sold in 1930 by the BYuTAST office to the Soviet Union. In fact, only complete technological documentation and a set of semi-finished products were delivered, while the guns themselves were not delivered.
In the USSR, the gun received the name "37-mm automatic anti-aircraft gun mod. 1930". Sometimes it was called the 37-mm cannon "H" (German). The production of the gun was started in 1931 at the plant number 8, where the gun received the index 4K. In 1931, 3 guns were presented. For 1932, the plan was 25 guns, the plant presented 3, but the military acceptance did not accept a single one. At the end of 1932, the system had to be discontinued. Not a single 37-mm cannon mod. 1930

The Rheinmetall 3.7 cm automatic gun entered service in 1935 under the name 3.7 cm Flak 18. One of the significant drawbacks was the four-wheeled wagon. It turned out to be heavy and clumsy, so a new four-bed carriage with a detachable two-wheel drive was developed to replace it.
3.7-cm anti-aircraft automatic gun with a new two-wheeled carriage and a number of changes in the design of the machine was named 3.7 cm Flak 36.

There was another option 3.7 cm Flak 37, which differed only in a complex, controlled sight with a calculating device and a proactive system.

In addition to regular gun carriages arr. 1936, 3.7 cm Flak 18 and Flak 36 assault rifles were installed on railway platforms and various trucks and armored personnel carriers, as well as on tank chassis.

The production of Flak 36 and 37 was carried out until the very end of the war at three factories (one of them was in Czechoslovakia). By the end of the war, the Luftwaffe and the Wehrmacht had about 4,000 37 mm anti-aircraft guns.

Already during the war, on the basis of 3.7 cm Flak 36, Rheinmetall developed a new 3.7 cm machine gun Flak 43.

Automatic arr. 43 had a fundamentally new automation scheme, when some of the operations were carried out due to the energy of the exhaust gases, and some - due to the rolling parts. The Flak 43 magazine held 8 rounds, while the Flak 36 had a 6 round magazine.

3.7 cm machine guns arr. 43 were installed on both single and twin mounts.

During the Second World War, there was a "difficult" level of heights for anti-aircraft guns from 1500 m to 3000. Here, the aircraft turned out to be inaccessible to light anti-aircraft guns, and this height was too low for heavy anti-aircraft artillery guns. In order to solve the problem, it seemed natural to create anti-aircraft guns of some intermediate caliber.

The German designers of the Rheinmetall company offered the military a cannon, known under the index 5 cm Flak 41.

The action of automation is based on a mixed principle. Unlocking the bore, extracting the sleeve, throwing the bolt back and compressing the spring of the bolt knurler occurred due to the energy of the powder gases discharged through the side channel in the barrel. And the supply of cartridges was carried out due to the energy of the rolling barrel. In addition, a partial fixed roll-out of the barrel was used in automation.
The bore was locked with a wedge sliding bolt. The supply of the machine with cartridges is lateral, along the horizontal feed table using a clip for 5 cartridges.
In the stowed position, the installation was transported on a four-wheeled cart. In combat position, both moves rolled back.

The first copy appeared in 1936. The refinement process was very slow, as a result, the gun was put into mass production only in 1940.
A total of 60 anti-aircraft guns of this brand were produced. As soon as the first of them entered the active army in 1941, major shortcomings were revealed (as if they were not at the training ground).
The main problem was the ammunition, which was poorly adapted for use in an anti-aircraft gun.

Despite the relatively large caliber, the 50mm rounds lacked power. In addition, the flashes of shots blinded the gunner, even on a clear sunny day. The carriage turned out to be too bulky and uncomfortable in real combat conditions. The horizontal aiming mechanism was too weak and worked slowly.

Flak 41 was produced in two versions. The mobile anti-aircraft gun moved on a biaxial carriage. The stationary gun was intended for the defense of strategically important objects, such as the Ruhr dams. Despite the fact that the gun turned out, to put it mildly, unsuccessful, it continued to serve until the end of the war. True, by that time there were only 24 units left.

In fairness, it should be said that guns of this caliber were never created in any of the warring countries.
The anti-aircraft 57-mm S-60 was created in the USSR by V.G. Grabin after the war.

Assessing the actions of German small-caliber artillery, it is worth noting its exceptional effectiveness. The anti-aircraft cover of the German troops was much better than the Soviet one, especially for initial period war.

It was anti-aircraft fire that destroyed most of the IL-2s lost for combat reasons.
The very high losses of the IL-2 should be explained, first of all, by the specifics of the combat use of these attack aircraft. Unlike bombers and fighters, they worked exclusively from low altitudes - which means that more often and longer than other aircraft, they were in the field of actual fire from German small-caliber anti-aircraft artillery.
The extreme danger posed to our aviation by German small-caliber anti-aircraft guns was due, firstly, to the perfection of the material part of this. The design of anti-aircraft installations made it possible to very quickly maneuver trajectories in the vertical and horizontal planes, each gun was equipped with an anti-aircraft artillery fire control device, which gave corrections for the speed and course of the aircraft; tracer shells made it easier to adjust the fire. Finally, German anti-aircraft guns had a high rate of fire; so, the 37-mm Flak 36 installation fired 188 rounds per minute, and the 20-mm Flak 38 - 480.
Secondly, the saturation of these means of troops and air defense rear facilities among the Germans was very high. The number of barrels covering the targets of the Il-2 strikes continuously increased, and at the beginning of 1945, up to 200-250 20- and 37-mm shells could be fired per second (!) at an attack aircraft operating in the German fortified area.
The reaction time was very short, from the moment of discovery to the opening of fire. The small-caliber anti-aircraft battery was ready to give the first aimed shot already 20 seconds after the detection of Soviet aircraft; corrections for changing the course of the IL-2, the angle of their dive, speed, range to the target, the Germans entered within 2-3 seconds. The concentration of fire of several guns used by them on one target also increased the probability of hitting

According to materials:
http://www.xliby.ru/transport_i_aviacija/tehnika_i_vooruzhenie_1998_08/p3.php
http://zonawar.ru/artileru/leg_zenit_2mw.html
http://www.plam.ru/hist/_sokoly_umytye_krovyu_pochemu_sovetskie_vvs_voevali_huzhe_lyuftvaffe/p3.php
A.B. Shirokograd "God of War of the Third Reich"