Pic : Everyone's 'favourite' 88

My Easter holiday took me to the Muckleburgh Collection in North Norfolk. To be honest, the collection hadn't progressed too much since I was last there 12 years ago - rather low-key, I thought.

Still, for me the 'star' exhibit was this 8.8cm Flak 37, still in the paint scheme used when it appeared in an episode of 'Band of Brothers'....

 

Martin,

Did you find any evidence of their plan to restore some of the invasion defences?

Ian

 

No, I'm afraid not....the person I asked obviously hadn't any idea what I was talking about, and the actual museum was a considerable distance from the sea.

I really was rather disappointed - I remembered it as being rather better years ago. The rare Churchill Crocodile, for instance, was marooned 'way down by the main entrance and used as a 'signpost'. You couldn't park anywhere near the tank and again, it was a very long walk from the main building.

Odd.

 

i love the old chevy sitting there in the foreground, lol but i enjoy the flak gun especially as it appeared in band of brothers (what a great miniseries)

 

Do any of you know if the 88 was copied and used by other countries after the war ? It seems like such a successful weapon.

 

i did some research, and did not see any "new" types of the 88....perhaps i have missed something?

 

What a weapon that was....

 

What a weapon and what a waste, as a proper AA gun is a terribly complex piece of machinery, working in a multiple gun battery with a fire control system connected to a central plotting device, which supplies a continuously update aiming point and fuse delay setting to the entire battery.

Using this precious machine in the simple task of holing tanks must have seemed anathema to the mathematical minds who designed this fine instrument.

The gun was needlessly complex for the AT task, cost a lot more than it needed to, and had an horrendously tall profile.

I never understood why the Germans did not develop a simple ground mount for AT purposes. They did that later with the PaK43, mating a 8.8cm L71 barrel to a 15cm mFH18 howitzer mount.

 

I've read that the 88 served on with Spain until long after the war (late 70's even???) but have only seen one poor picture of it in a parade, maybe someone here has another picture? I've been trawling about for one for a long time.
Cheers,
Adam

 

Looking at that picture a second time just makes me further appreciate the work that Germans put into their camouflage schemes.

 

very neat pic, i love german camo. i am trying to camo an old army truck that way....a bit sloppy though...

 

If I remember correctly Za the 88 AA on wheels was fast to move and also could be set in firing position within 15 minutes or less. Of course the high profile made it easy to see but it seems that the feared reputation actually gave it more protection that anything else.

And maybe for the films the AA version of 88 looks better than other AT guns BTW....

 

It could be done in less than that in an emergency, it would be only a matter of lowering the side balancing legs and unlocking the gun.

However this would leave you with a target the size of a truck, because the 88 sure is a big gun. Also the gun would be very unstable and each shot would severely misalign the gun from the target.

To do it properly you would lower the entire piece to the ground detaching the wheel bogies and hammering the four leg spikes into the ground for stability. See here



The spikes I'm talking about are that perforated vertical 'thing' at the end of the leg.



Hey! I told you it was big!

Even better than this would be to get hold of a goo provision of time, and dig a proper gun position, leaving the gun barrel only a few decimeters from ground level. This would take forever, as it would entail quite a few cubic meters of dirt being dug up, but assuming you were taking up a proper defensive position tis would be ok.

When laying the entire battery for it's proper AA use, then you would have to dig firing pits for the entire battery, all properly laid out and oriented relative to the central fire control unit. Also you would have to dig for the ammunition storage, living quarters, etc, quite an undertaking.



See here for a lot of pics illustrating the great complexity of this gun. As I say, a fine AA gun but too damn complicated to be wasted as an AT gun. Excess engineering, and too valuable to use as a target for artillery.