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| The Treaty of Versailles banned Germany from possessing anti-aircraft guns, until the 1932 Geneva Disarmament Conference granted equal defensive rights with other sovereign states. This leaded to the appearance of the 88mm Flak 18 (FlugzeugAbwehrKannone) , which replaced the secretly developed 75mm Flak L/60. The 88mm Flak was originally intended exclusively for anti-aircraft defense, being used to protect important military or supply sites from air attack, but it became famous as an antitank gun. At the fronts, the Flak guns were assigned other combat tasks such as antitank use, supporting troops under pressure in ground combat, and on the coasts they they even fired on sea targets and fought off attemps to land. |
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| At its very first use by the Legion Kondor volunteer unit in the Spanish Civil War, the Flak gun was also used on the front lines to attack bunkers and pinpoint targets with anti-tank shells, or against enemy troops, using time-fuze shells with high exploding points. The 88mm Flak gun stood out on all fronts because of its mobility, rapid rate of fire (15 to 25 rounds per minute, depending on the crew's level of training) and number of possible uses. The Flak also played an outstanding part in penetrating the Maginot line in 1940. In this action antitank shells were fired to put the crews of many concrete bunkers and armored turrets out of action. The best range for firing on bunkers proved to be 600 to 2000 meters. |
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| left: 88mm Flak advancing in France. Shields were issued particularly
to those units that had the task of protecting the front-line troops. The
supply of ammunition is in the box on the rear of the truck. The AA guns
used in ground combat were often not camouflaged since they could rely
on their long-range antitank capability for protection.
right: An 88mm Flak ant-aircraft battery goes to take position. The guns is towed by a 12-ton Daimler-Benz Kfz. 8 Zugkraftwagen. Fastened to the rear fender of each trailer is a cable drum on which a communication wire is rolled. It was used for connections between the command post and the guns. |
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| In the Western campain in May 1940 the 88mm Flak was the only weapon that penetrated the heavy French and British tank armor. One famous but desperate action of the 88mm Flak took place on 21 May 1940, when 74 British heavy tanks drove through the German line of advance near Arras. The 37mm anti-tank guns of the German regiments prove inadequate to penetrate the armor of the the British tanks, and were overrun. Fortunately for the Germans, 105mm field artillery and 88mm dual-purpose guns were deployed well in the rear to provide indirect fire and anti-aircraft support. Although not positioned specifically as an anti-tank screen, the German gun crews were able to defeat the triumphant British tank columns who were driving in open country. |
| To 88mm FLAK page II |
