“There we were, on top of that hill. An 88mm gun fired six shots and blew up five tanks. The bullets hit at a speed of 1,000 meters per second, the grenades could be seen whistling through the sky. They came like lightning. Just how deadly the 88mm anti-aircraft gun was is shown by the statement made by the tanker Robert Watt (of the 3rd Royal Tank Regiment) in the documentary Great Tank Battles, El Alamein. A weapon that, although initially serving as an anti-aircraft weapon, eventually became the terror of the world allied tanks.
The weapon was so terrifying that it even wiped out the tanker community. And when they saw the cannon of the deadly “Flak 88”, as it was nicknamed, all they could think about was saving their lives. Watt himself reveals it against his will like this: “After the shot, something suddenly caught your attention.” It was another tank that was on fire. And you breathed a sigh of relief. It was awful, someone had died in that tank, but one was relieved. You knew from your shooting experience that if you were half a degree further in sight it would have been you. And that’s hard to live with, it’s going to be difficult.”
Both on the ground and in the sky, the “Flak 88” was a stubborn enemy. “When they used the .88 as an anti-tank gun, we were on the losing side,” explains Watt. Popular World War II explorer Antony Beevor, in his work D-Day. The Battle of Normandy” shares the same opinion and describes it there as impressive. “British and American tank crews faced many dangers. “The 88mm anti-aircraft gun, used against ground targets with frightening accuracy, could hit them even from a mile away,” adds the expert in the aforementioned book.
The ultimate weapon is born
The origin of this gun must be in the 1920s, as stated by Lucas Molina and José María Manrique in their work “The German 88 mm gun”. In it, they point out that after the end of World War I, the Treaty of Versailles “prohibited Germany from possessing certain types of weapons,” including anti-aircraft guns. Eager to advance at the military level, German engineers secretly moved to Sweden to develop a device capable of shooting down aircraft, under the direction of the Bofors company. Although the result was not mass-produced, it served to lay the foundation for future anti-aircraft guns.
The beginning of the 1930s prompted German experts to develop the “8.8 cm anti-aircraft gun 18”, as explained by the Ministry of Defense in its dossier “88/56 mm Flak.36 Special Trailer SdAh anti-aircraft gun”. 202′. Conceived to protect airfields, the gun had a crew of eight and had to be moved from one place to another with the help of a half-track tractor, although for its benefit it had been manufactured using the latest technology. “Its caliber and excellent muzzle velocity allowed it to engage all present and future targets, and the semi-automatic bolt provided a good rate of fire,” the report continues.
This version came to Spain during the Civil War through the hands of the Condor Legion, having completed its development in 1933. It couldn’t have come at a better time for the insurgents as they were in trouble and looking to confront the aviation republicans. With everything and despite its effectiveness, the Krupp company (which was responsible for its development) improved its characteristics and created the “Flak 36”, which was also trained in our country. “The powerful German ’88’ anti-aircraft gun (88mm Flak 36) became the backbone of Germany’s defenses from the moment it was first deployed to Spain in the winter of 1936-1937,” adds Hugh Thomas in The Spanish Civil War: 1936-1939.
Although their use at the time was limited to airspace, the Ministry of Defense confirms in its dossier that their precision led the Franco army to use them as artillery to destroy defensive positions found on their advance; including those found in Bilbao’s “Iron Belt”). In turn, this document also notes that it was also during the Civil War when they first faced the Republican tanks of the USSR. In particular, the equally fearsome Soviet T-26.
“It’s likely they were used to destroy Republic tanks. The T-26s were infinitely better than the national main battle tanks. In fact, they offered rewards for capturing intact T-26s to use in combat. In addition to a gun, which was important for the time, they had good armor. However, it was not until the campaign in Africa that its anti-vehicle use became common,” Joan Parés, a World War II scholar and member of the historical association First Allied Airborne Catalunya, explained in a statement to ABC. The Spanish experience allowed the Germans to improve the Flak 88 and develop two later versions, the 37 and the 41.
tin opener
Despite the fact that its use as an anti-tank weapon became widespread after the African campaign – its biggest proponent was the popular Erwin Rommel – it seems that by the 1940s the 88 proved ideal for destroying enemy tanks. As Bob Carruthers explains in German Tank Destroyers, the invasion of France was underway when an enlightened man thought of firing this anti-aircraft vehicle against the British Matilda II. His idea could not have been better, because he managed to penetrate armor, which was one of the thickest at the time, reaching up to 78 mm.
“The Matilda was one of the best tanks at the beginning of the war. The problem was that it was based on a WWI idea: tanks were supposed to be used as infantry support. That means escorting the soldiers on foot and not acting like the Germans would do later. So it was extremely slow and very difficult. Due to its great robustness, the German anti-tank guns of the time (Pak 36) could not harm it,” adds Parés ABC.
In his biography of the “Desert Fox,” Brigadier General Desmond Young, who fought Rommel in Africa, recalls that the first campaign he saw the 88 in was the French. It was not a pleasant surprise as they prevented the success of the Allied offensive in the Arras region. “The English attack could only be stopped by the fire of an artillery regiment and an anti-aircraft battery equipped with 88-mm guns (this gun, like our I-tanks, was an unpleasant surprise even for the Germans). ),” he notes.
However, only after the campaign in Africa and through Rommel did this gun become a real monster for Allied tanks. In North Africa, the 88 was improved with front panels and, favored by the terrain, pleased the Germans. In the words of George Bradford (“Great Tank Battles of World War II”), one of the battles in which this weapon proved its effectiveness was the Battleaxe operation in June 1941. This is also stated by Andrew Roberts in “The Storm of the ‘ was established’: ‘The counter-offensive […] it failed between June 15 and 17. anti-tank fire […] He did no less than 15 of the 18 Matildas.”
Alejandro Fernández Blanco, in the article “The impressive German 88” (published in this newspaper), points out that the effectiveness of the 88 during this campaign was incredible: “Only one of these guns, Corporal Hübner’s, destroyed 9 tanks in the process.” Action. Later in the Battle of Bir-Hacheim, before the capture of Tobruk, the English lost 298 tanks, of which 153 fell to the 88 tanks.
The future after Africa
After being used in Africa, the 88 came to Europe as the ideal weapon for destroying main battle tanks. Such was its effectiveness that its cannon was adapted to vehicles and other later cannons. “By the end of the war almost all the guns were 88 caliber guns. The Pak 43, an anti-tank gun, carried an 88 caliber gun and also the mythical Tiger tank. It was almost ubiquitous. And all thanks to the first Flak 88, which was the father of them all,” concludes Parés in his statements to ABC. As if that wasn’t enough, the Germans redesigned the piece with more parts to diversify production, avoid burdening Krupp with labor, and get as many off the assembly line as possible.
From then on, versions of the Flak 88 could be seen in all areas of operation. Among them, Normandy stood out, where the American Shermans had to compete against them. The Shermans couldn’t do anything about them. If an 88 fired at them, they were dead. Unless the armor slope caused the projectile to miss and ricochet,” Parés says. That happened a couple of times, by the way. “While there was an option thanks to the sloped armor, they were usually ‘fried’ when they took a hit from an .88,” he concludes.
deadly
But… How could an anti-aircraft gun be so effective against ground targets? In the words of Parés, due to several factors:
1-the projectile. “The 88 used a projectile weighing about 10 kilos, which left the barrel at a speed of almost 900 meters per second. If we consider that the firing rate of a regular semi-automatic pistol is around 340 meters per second, and that of a G36 rifle is around 600 meters per second, we can imagine the result. “The velocity and thickness of the projectile made it deadly for tanks,” the recreation researcher points out.
2-The reaching. “He had a long reach. It was intended for firing at aircraft. That means being able to reach 2,000 – 3,000 meters. On land, that means shooting at a target that is very far away and barely visible. “It was an incredible advantage to be able to shoot accurately at such a distant target when the first tank battles were fought at 500 meters,” says Parés.
3-The influence of the terrain. “It was very useful in Africa because it was a land sea. This allowed crews to see and fire at the enemy from long ranges without fear of encountering an obstacle. In Europe it was different. The fights were fought at shorter ranges, but that wasn’t the reason why they were less effective,” concludes the recreation researcher.
This article was originally published in 2017.
