88mm Flak 18, 36 and 37
German heavy anti-aircraft gun

88mm Flak 36

88mm Flak 18, 36 and 37
Type: heavy anti-aircraft gun, but often used as anti-tank or field gun.
History: The terms of the 1919 Versaille treaty laid down strict guidelines as to what
artillery production could be be carried out in Germany, so the largest German armaments company, Krupp of Essen, sent a team to Sweden to carry on research and development outside the imposed restrictions.

German 88mm Flak 36 in North Africa at the moment of firing.

Working with Bofors the Krupps team worked initially on a 75-mm (2.95-in) anti-aircraft gun using clandestine German army funds, but the army was not particularly happy with the result and asked for something heavier. The 'Swedish' Krupp team accordingly produced a new and advanced 88-mm (3.465-in) gun that by 1933 was in series production at Essen as the NSDAP came to power.
This new gun was the 8.8-cm Flak 18
(Flak standing for Fliegerabwehrkanone,
or anti-aircraft gun), and it was an immediate success. It was a longbarrelled gun mounted on a pivoted cruciform carriage which was in turn carried on the move by twin axles that
allowed the gun to be rapidly placed into the firing position. The Flak 18 had a one-piece barrel but was later supplemented by an improved version, the 88mm Flak 36, which had a multisection barrel on which only the worn part nearest the chamber needed to be changed after prolonged firing.

The 88mm Flak 37 in an emplacement for heavy anti-aircraft guns in Germany.

Then came the 88mm Flak 37, which was a Flak 36 with a revised system of fire-control data transmission more suited to static use than field use. In practice the three models were interchangeable to a high degree, and it was not unusual to see a Flak 18 barrel
on a Flak 37 carriage. Several changes were introduced to the weapons once they were in service, including a revised twin-axle carriage arrangement, and the 88mm Flak series was adapted to be carried on a variety of self-propelled mountings, including railway flatcars.

The 88mm Flak series became one of the most celebrated weapons in the entire German army, for it went on to be as famous as an anti-tank weapon as it was as an anti-aircraft gun: following the gun's 'blooding' in Spain during the Civil War and again in France in 1940, it was discovered that the high muzzle velocity coupled with an efficient and
heavy projectile made the weapon ideal as a 'tank killer'. This became very evident during the early North African against British Matilda tanks and later Eastern Front campaigns against Russian T-34 and KV-1, but the 88mm Flak series was really too high and bulky for the anti-tank role and had to rely on its range and power rather than concealment in action.

A 88 gun of the Luftwaffe fires on Soviet positions during the German summer offensive of 1942 in southern Russia.

As anti-aircraft guns the 88mm Flak series was the mainstay of the German field armies and of the defence of the Reich under Luftwaffe control. The type was never replaced by later models as had been planned, and in August 1944 there were 10,704 of all three models in service. Production was undertaken at several centres, and a wide range of ammunition was produced for these weapons, including a high proportion of armour-piercing.

An unusual picture of a 88 mm Pak 43/41 anti-tank gun in combat in Russia. The gun is slowly sinking into the mud.

By the end of the war versions for static emplacement only were being produced, but by then the 88 gun series had been used on selfpropelled platforms, railway mountings, coastal defence locations, light shipping and in several experimental forms.
The 88 guns were also used by the Italian army, and for a while in late 1944 the type was even used operationally by the US Army along the German borders when its own supply lines became overextended.
Many were used by several armies post-war, and the Yugoslav army used the 88 gun as a coastal gun until the Civil war.
Users: Germany, Italy.

88 guns during the heavy fighting at Salerno, Southern Italy. 44 rings on this barrel denote the number of 'tank kills'.