Flak Scrapbook
88 mm Flak gun and crew with two more similar visible in the background
German anti aircraft artillery - Flak or Flugabwehrkanone - has been an interest of mine for a long time and I purchased a large selection of images many years ago from number of sources. Some of these are included in this scrap book. I do not class myself as an expert in the subject however. Both 103 and 576 Sqn will have consistently encountered these during their day and night WW2 operations
Luftwaffe controlled the bulk of German flak units from the 1930s. The smallest tactical unit of anti-aircraft artillery was a battery which usually consisted of four to six guns. The larger unit was a battalion consisting of three to five gun batteries and a searchlight battery. Battalions would be "light" (leichte), "mixed" (gemischte), or "heavy" (schwere), referring to the size of guns in their batteries. Flak guns in use were in two light calibres and three heavy calibres – light 20 mm and 37 mm and the heavy 88 mm, 105 mm, and 128 mm. The Germans also used various other types of similar weapons captured or commandeered from occupied countries to boost their own stocks. The battalions were organized into regiments, brigades, divisions and flak corps.
During WW2 attacks by RAF and later USAAF bombers on German cities led to increases in the number of flak units in Germany. Later in the war these units were reinforced by the use of German youths, male and female, too young for regular military service but quite adequate to train as auxiliaries.
I will add galleries and brief background info under each heading below in due course.
1/ Light Flak.
Machine guns and 20 mm auto-cannon
2/ Medium Flak
37 mm - 3.7 cm auto-cannon and similar
3/ Heavy Flak.
88 mm - 8.8 cm cannon upwards
4/ Searchlights
5/ Rangefinders
6/ Flak Towers
7/ Flak miscellany
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Flak and Searchlights Le Havre. Early 40s
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