What do flak guns fire

As I understand it, the effectiveness of 'Flak','Ack-Ack' etc went in tandem with the development of radar. During the 'Blitz' on Britain, radar development was in a very early stage and the 'Ack-Ack' was woefully ineffective. This would give precise data of enemy aircraft position and height, etc. This information was processed through a 'Predictor' the American called it a 'Director' which combined this information with other factors such as muzzle velocity, ambient temperature, wind direction, etc.

This would determine a coinciding position for shell and aircraft; giving the necessary bearing, fuze setting and gun elevation. This is obviously very complex and 'dead-time' was a constant problem ; that is the time taken for the gunner to set the fuze by hand, load and fire which will nearly always vary.

The 'proximity fuze' moved the game ahead considerably. To put it very simply, the fuze contained its own tiny 'radio transmitter'. The fuze sends out a signal as it flies through the air; detonating upon receiving an 'echo' back from a target.

Again, this is based on the radar concept. Your last point is very good. Was it worth it? I really don't know. Certainly, as mentioned above, AA during the Blitz was useless. It served to reassure the populace that 'something was being done'.

A lot of Allied aircraft were lost to heavy flak over the Reich, but as you say, think of all those guns, shells and men.

What does everyone else think?? Martin Bull , Aug 12, Otto likes this. Joined: Jul 11, Messages: 1, Likes Received: Good stuff Martin, you mention the time taken to set the fuse for AA rounds- was this done by hand, or did the Predictor system handle the fuses?

That's one point I'm not clear on. Also, I wonder about the reliability of the fuses Martin hit it right on- a proximity fuse consisted of a very small, simple radio transmitter. The transmitter sent out a signal, and as soon as it recieved a signal back from a pre-set distance, the round would detonate.

This made AA fire vastly more effective, as the shells would now detonate only feet away from the target. Proximity fuses were in fact such a big deal, that the US did not even use them immediately, I'm pretty sure.

When they were invented, I believe in late 42, the US did not want to use them for fear of one being captured. They figured the fuses would be more useful to Japan and Germany, both of whom were consistently being attacked by allied aircraft. And on the question of more AA Since early on the idea was just to throw as much Flak up as possible, more guns would have probably meant more kills. An even bigger issue would have been had the Germans had invented the proximity fuse.

Had this happened, the allied bomber offensive would have been far less effective, if even possible CrazyD , Aug 12, This is interesting stuff - I've been browsing around the 'Net on this. I may be overestimating the importance of radar a little, certainly for the Germans. Although the Wurzburg A radar was developed for AA use, results proved disappointing so it seems that German flak batteries relied mainly on the Kommandogerat Optical Predictor for each 4-gun battery working in close conjunction at night with searchlights.

They then relied on sheer firepower with heavy use of the dreaded 'box barrages' fired by multiples of up to 40 guns. Automatic fuze setters were used as an 88 could fire shells per minute and even the mm could manage 12 per minute. When I say 'sheer firepower', in January 20, flak guns were protecting the Reich, and even a German Flak officer estimated 4, x 88mm shells were needed to down one bomber.

So Martin- it seems according to those numbers, more Flak would probably have been useless overkill I have read before can't remember where that the Radar used by the germans was generally inefficient. Maybe that explains the ridiculous ammo-kill ratio.

By the time the Brits had better radar, I wonder what their ration was? Or was the battle of britian basically over by that point. Come to think of it, did any other nations use FlaK in anywhere near the quantity Germany did? I can't think of any No - as I mentioned before, throughout the entire Battle of Britain period, British anti-aircraft was almost totally useless.

Later in the war, German aircraft were almost totally left to nightfighters. Then came the V1s, and AA was much more effective against these, and, I believe, the proximity fuze was used again.

Joined: Jul 17, Messages: 2, Likes Received: Found this on a site The German Flak arm was also being strengthened by increasing the size of the 88 mm light batteries from 4 guns to 8. To guard the more important targets Grossbatterien comprising 2 or 3 of the enlarged single batteries were created up to 40 heavy flak guns firing rectangular patterns of shells known as box barrages that proved deadly.

Each battery, large or small, was controlled by a single predictor which meant that up to 18 guns might engage one bomber at a time. The firepower also increased as larger calibre guns were introduced including a mm weapon and the largest of all a massive mm gun. In Flak accounted for 3, American planes destroyed, less than planes lost to enemy fighters in the same time period. Constant demand for front line troops for the German army meant that many of the flak crews included elderly men, schoolboys, and even POWs.

Heavier flak guns gradually appeared mainly the mm 4. The mm FLAK 40 consisted of two barrels 3 ft apart on a single mounting. An incredible 56 bombers were destroyed or crippled by flak during a B raid on Merseburg in November of A true proximity fuse or variable time fuse was never developed by Germany despite extensive efforts to do so. Allied planners estimated that German FLAK would be about three times more deadly if they had proximity fused shells The guns were grouped in fours with a predictor a device used to estimate where the aircraft would be by the time the shell reached it and thus provide information as to where to aim.

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It felt to me like a plane flying through the flak of an economy. You fired off a tweet about ISIS recently that got you some flak. They looked younger now than when weighed down in camouflage, flak jackets and helmets. When NYC Prep premiered, it got a lot of flak for the sheer gall of its unreality.

High Command in England thought the Germans might have come up with a new weapon as no flak or enemy fighters were seen. It was a tough mission because the flak was so heavy and the other defenses were greater because the factories were important.

As one of the boys in the bomber crew had been hit in the knee by flak , he had it all wrapped up in bloody cloths.