How much a/c shot the German FLAK?

As terrible any individual death of any young soldier is, I think more about the civilians who were killed by those airmen. War is hell, indeed.

Kai, great pics!

Thanks to all others throwing in thier knowledge. I always wonder about this much talk and admiration of the Luftwaffe heroes who defended German cities and her population, forgetting the guys at the Flak who did a great and honorable job, too.

Cheers,

 

Well, while I cannot give you figures for the number of planes lost to flak here are some interesting figures:

For a detailed analysis of AA gun effectiveness you can reference Appendix C in "The Strategy of Electromagnetic Conflict" Lt. Col Richard E. Fitts USAF ed. (Note, not all of this is from this source, I just list it as a good reference on the subject of AA effectiveness).

The US empirically figured out that it took 225 90mm rounds to down an aircraft (with radar fire control).
Vakin and Sustov in "Osnovy Radioprotivodystivya" state that 500 - 600 rounds of 85 mm were required.
The Luftwaffe estimated that as many as 800 rounds were required.
In addition, some variables that effect these numbers:
Type of fire control radar, optical, blind barrage all make a difference.
Target aircraft speed and height. As either increases the accuracy and probability of a kill fall off almost expotentially.
Countermeasures taken by the aircraft. For instance, the USAAF in Europe placed the following losses to flak and aircraft:
Date Flak Fighters
7/42 - 1/43 5 25
1/43 - 7/43 166 500
7/43 - 1/44 165 518
1/44 - 7/44 847 637

With the widespread introduction of APT 1 -4 Rug and Carpet jammers on US aircraft the loss rate from flak fell after this. The USAAF also changed the bomber box size from 18 aircraft in three stacked boxes to 12 in 3 spreading out the bombers more to reduce flak effectiveness.
So, as you can see, the question you have posed is very much a multi-faceted one that would be difficult to answer without a very long series of explainations.

 

a couple of questions:
(i) if an 88 is firing at say 20 rounds per minute at bombers overhead -(that is about its maximum rate of fire) ...what are the maximum rounds at this rate of fire before the barrel is overheated and time out is needed to cool down?
(ii) how many rounds could be fired before the barrel is worn out and needs replacement?
Just curious.thanks