If you want to learn about the 8.8 cm Flak in its anti-aircraft role, we've got you covered. Check out our newest video on our sister channel: kzbin.info/www/bejne/f5Kvo4KNmpuces0
@kawaiiarchive3579 ай бұрын
I laughed at the idea of the first armor to face the 8.8 cm was 2 mere T26s. It's like using a shotgun to kill a spider.
@bushsbakedbaby13749 ай бұрын
The second t26 after seeing his comrade get reduced to carbon 🗿
@shanepatrick45349 ай бұрын
Can you imagine what the heavy HE rounds would do to .5" of armor, or what happened to the occupants?
@graham26319 ай бұрын
The germans 37mm was bouncing off the KV 1, l think it was, they had nothing that could penetrate its armor. It was then they brought up a 8.8 and used it as an anti tank weapon. Why would they waste time with a heavy piece when their 37mm would go clean through a 26?
@edtrine86929 ай бұрын
@@graham2631 I heard the Germans used to call the 37mm the door knocker lol.
@sharonrigs79999 ай бұрын
It's like taking a .458 Win Mag for bunny hunting.
@oskar66619 ай бұрын
My grandfather served as a motorized infantryman in WW2 - subsequently becoming an aviator and flying in Korea/Vietnam, etc. After his service he moved to a small town in Germany, where he was affectionately known as "the Colonel" by the locals. At a restaurant he was approached by a large red-haired German of roughly his own age. He introduced himself and they exchanged some wartime stories. The German had been a member of a 8.8 FlaK unit. He explained that in one instance the unit had been on the move, but stopped for lunch. As was common practice, they deployed one of the unit's guns "just in case". In the middle of their meal, a dozen T-34's appeared in the distance. They engaged and destroyed seven of them with the one deployed gun, forcing the others to retreat.
@terraflow__bryanburdo45479 ай бұрын
My uncle was an American artillerist in the Battle of the Bulge. He described being shot at by an 88 as if a gigantic sniper rifle was taking shots at them, with such high velocity that the impact was before the sound of discharge.
@Theiliteritesbian9 ай бұрын
Read george wilsons book!
@davidhollenshead48929 ай бұрын
I would hate to be infantry facing any of these cannons, but at least it would be fast...
@islahinckley47469 ай бұрын
Any gun that fires shells at supersonic speed will do that though?
@terraflow__bryanburdo45479 ай бұрын
@@islahinckley4746 He was used to the 155 howitzers he was working with.
@islahinckley47468 ай бұрын
@@terraflow__bryanburdo4547 155s also fire supersonic shells, the 155mm gun m1 had a muzzle velocity that was 13m/s faster than the 88
@cesarvidelac9 ай бұрын
Sorry, the muzzle velocity is measured in meters per second, not milliseconds.
@irememberhistory9 ай бұрын
I hate narrators and AI who don’t know what the hell they are reading!
@cesarvidelac8 ай бұрын
@@irememberhistory Yes, also some humans don't know what they read, unfortunately.
@tomhart8376 ай бұрын
@@irememberhistory probably the vaunted AI
@jacqirius2 ай бұрын
he also read 7.5 degrees of FOV on the ZF 20 when it even says 17.5 in the text
@Wien19389 ай бұрын
15:25 There were NO SS Panzer Divisions in late 1941. Liebstandarte was a reinforced motorised infantry regiment equivalent to a German brigade size force, [Das] Reich & Totenkopf were both motorised infantry divisions. None had tanks, though each had a small number of StuGs.
@BeardedGuy_Tawhid9 ай бұрын
Das Jaegar!
@alexwilliamson14869 ай бұрын
Had the fortune to meet an old tanker from WW2 at Duxford, Land warfare museum, in the late 90s, I was still in Army at the time so our conversation inevitably lead to his exploits in Normandy not long after D Day. He said he was engaged by 88s and told of a number of his comrades killed, one anecdote which will live with me for ever, was when a solid shot entered his Sherman and landed between him and the radio operator, still red hit and smoking, his Sherman had a neat 88mm round hole in the glacis….daylight clearly now coming in.. He was knocked out 5 times throughout the campaign. I distinctly remember how small he and his comrade was, not because of age, but just his stature. An incredible generation. What a fearsome piece of ordinance this gun was. Great vid.
@michaelkenny85407 ай бұрын
Any solid shot that landed 'red-hot' and did not explode was either faulty or a round at the limit of its range-even both!.
@VolkerGoller9 ай бұрын
In Germany we called the thing 8 8 - “ eight eight” rather than “eighty eight”
@idkhowtonameme19 ай бұрын
Wäre mir neu 🤷
@soundofeighthooves9 ай бұрын
@@idkhowtonameme1 warst wohl nicht beim Militär.... Acht Achter
@jojoanggono32299 ай бұрын
I think it was simplified as ack ack
@peabase9 ай бұрын
As a child, I used to play on an 'Acht-Acht' at a nearby military museum in Tuusula, Finland. In Finnish service, it was known as 'Rämäpää' or 'Hothead', after the manufacturer, RMB or Rheinmetall Borsig.
@ArijitDey-k1m9 ай бұрын
Ja
@SuperDarkSamurai19 ай бұрын
One of my favorite field weapons of WWII and truly a well designed weapon. He forgot to mention the Flak 41 variant of the 88.
@AkiraNakamoto5 ай бұрын
88 flak and mg machine gun, two legends.
@nomenestomen34529 ай бұрын
The 88 was Germanys real wonder weapon, not these expensive and resource consuming rockets and jets that came either too little or too late. The 88 and the StuG. They both had the most K/D ratio of any German military brand with thousands of destroyed airplanes, tanks, bunkers, infantry, artillery etc.
@michaelkenny85407 ай бұрын
The 8.8cm was no better than the UK 3.7 inch AA gun or the 90mm AA gun. In fact the 8.8cm was inferior in performance to those AA guns. The reason the 8.8cm stood out is because no one else needed to lug a huge barn-door gun around to fight tanks. It was massive overkill and a waste of resources. The built a highly complex gun system and fitted it with all the latest AA equipment and then NEVER USED THAT EUIPMENT when it was used in the ground role. Also a Panzer Division had 200 75mm guns and 12 8.8cm. It was very much a rare gun among the German Army Artillery park.
@hendrajokomaraspati6 ай бұрын
@@michaelkenny8540 it is iconic , the 88 is a "Dual-Purpose Gun" while the 88 was used in small numbers , they are iconic and helped germany in the early stages of the war , like who tf expected an AA gun to be used as a sniper , North African Front as well as 1941 eastern front also cemented its fame . the 88 isnt a frontline AT gun , it is a dual purpose gun intended to be used at camouflaged position , the 88 is also well spent for a daul purpose gun
@kevincho11875 ай бұрын
@michaelkenny8540 Eh, it had a much better reload rate than thr 3.7 or the 90mm. Performance was the only real.problem. But this gun was made much earlier than the other two. The flak 18 is a interwar design.
@kevincho11875 ай бұрын
@@michaelkenny8540Also what are you smoking? The 88 was one of the most prolific medium caliber guns of the entire war. It was used in static aa, anti tank, the thing was everywhere.
@michaelkenny85405 ай бұрын
@@kevincho1187 No. In 1944 a Panzer Division has 12 8.8cm guns and over 200 75mm guns. Get back to me when 5% of anything is ' prolific'. It was never, at any time , 'everywhere'.
@MinhThu-xn2bt2 ай бұрын
Toward the end of the video, I expected a few words about the combination of the 88 with the Tiger tank.
@chooyongming1109 ай бұрын
10:33 rare picture of general rommel holding a camera
@MinhThu-xn2bt2 ай бұрын
There are plenty of them. There's a documentary I saw in theater circa 1965 : "Our General Rommel" An Anglo-German production It offers rarely seen footage of the Afrika Korps, in particular about the ill-fated 1942 British raid on Tobruk, Churchill's WW2 mini-Gallipoli, an occasion for the Italian garrison to win one of their rare successes. Unfortunately this good doc had completely disappeared like Harry Booth's "Blitz On Britain"(1963) The best documentary on the Battle Of Britain.
@23GreyFox9 ай бұрын
What do you mean with "they quickly realized"? The Flak 18 and later versions were designed from the beginning to attack ground targets as well. That's why AP rounds also existed long before WW2.
@stevenobrien5579 ай бұрын
They used them in the ground role in Spain too. This video is terrible.
@MrWhiskers656 ай бұрын
I believe it was the “Chieftain” or “Military History Visualized” which showed that the 88mm wasn’t always designed to be used as an anti tank and anti fortification gun, but was addressed to gun units that it had great effects in that role and should be adapted in that role immediately, which was implemented in 1938, before the war.
@MinhThu-xn2bt2 ай бұрын
10:34 Tripoli March 1941. Rommel photographying his tanks being unloaded.
@shanepatrick45349 ай бұрын
I just got a great 1/35 scale Dragon version of the 36-37. This video will help with building and painting for sure
@MinhThu-xn2bt2 ай бұрын
Corelli Barnett, author of "The Desert Generals" reported how, although the British 94mm AA gun was better than the 88, the High Command refused to use them as AT guns, just in the name of "Tradition" !
@geoffreyscheuerman23785 ай бұрын
I often here the eighty eight being reffered to as a Dual Purpose weapon against both tanks and aircraft. It was also used as conventional indirect fire artillery, particularly if standard 105 and 150 mm types were not available. It was not as effective in this role, however it nonetheless should be referred to as the tri-putpose eighty-eight.
@andrewstrongman3059 ай бұрын
The '88' was designed from the start to be a dual-purpose weapon, or they wouldn't have had any anti-tank ammunition for them.
@John14-6...2 ай бұрын
I always thought that but remember hearing that they were made for Flak use only and someone used them for anti-tank use in the Spanish civil war giving them a new role.
@andrewstrongman3052 ай бұрын
@@John14-6... No, they originated as naval guns and were first adapted as a multi-role artillery piece in 1916. Those used in WWII were more modern designs using the same calibre. The Germans were well aware of their capabilities.
@tarjei999 ай бұрын
The 88 got its anti-tank debut in the Spanish Civil war.
@sparkyfromel4 ай бұрын
during the Nationalists counterattack of the battle of Teruel , January 1938 , the condor legion anti aircraft unit had little plane to shoot at the mid winter weather was atrocious , instead they took to shoot the republicans T-26 B supplied by the Soviets to the republicans they had no armor piercing shells but such was the power of the shot that it didn't matter Von Thomas , the commander reported on the success of 88mm as a heavy sniper role to take armor and fortified building position
@davidpatterson98405 ай бұрын
Soon after returning from the war my father was sitting in his car near a rail yard where they were coupling cars. He heard the shriek of the brakes and instinctively dove into the floor on the passenger side. I'm sure that many others remember the sound of the 88 rounds coming in.
@JGCR599 ай бұрын
Great Video :) Maybe be off topic for this channel but it would be very interesting to showcase how the 8,8 cm Flak worked in its intented anti-aircraft role with range finding, central battery fire control, fuze setting and all
@kratzikatz19 ай бұрын
Available here on YT😊
@Xtariz3 ай бұрын
"Do you want AA, Anti ground or Artillery gun?" "Ja"
@Unlucky_RifleMan3319 ай бұрын
Synopsis "well designed big gun was useful because it was well designed and big"😂 great vid!
@prestonopp9 ай бұрын
You didn’t talk about the self propelled version on a half track that was designed as a bunker buster! Saw some use in the invasion of France, I believe as a result of the experience in Poland.
@geoffhunter77047 ай бұрын
Very true, it was Gen Rommel who advocated using the 88 as a Tank Killer in 1936 and promoted the fitting of sights this being trialled in Spain in 1937 and used in France in May 1940 to great effect.
@infolover_686 ай бұрын
The 88mm was called "the triple threat": as an antiaircraft, antitank, or counter-artillery gun.
@jpmtlhead395 ай бұрын
The Flak 8,8 cm cm gun was the most versatile gun of the war. The 75 mm L46 Pak 40 was the most Successfull AT of the war
@Cheduepallottole5 ай бұрын
My favorite gun. Thanks for this wonderful video
@zippy51319 ай бұрын
No mention of the Sdkfz8 from Krupp, a very interesting piece of kit used in Poland and then France... Never used again... Strange.
@h_ts039 ай бұрын
4:00 You mean Meters per Second? What would milliseconds even mean in this context?
@TallDude739 ай бұрын
Great gun. Is the voice over AI? The velocity is "m/s", so in meters per second, not milliseconds, at 4:02
@rubberwoody9 ай бұрын
The voiceover is not AI.
@michaelmcbride12049 ай бұрын
One Bad Mo-Fo!!!! Nuff said!!!
@randydewees73389 ай бұрын
The sight at 4X 17.5 degree FOV had an apparent field of view of 70 degrees. Quite large for the day, though I'd bet there was a pretty small "sweet spot". Good NTL for situational awareness.
@MrWhiskers656 ай бұрын
That Matilda at the beginning of the video was really moving! I didn’t think they could move that fast?
@IronWarhorsesFun9 ай бұрын
“I DON’T have to take this PaK from you! I got Flak for that!” Some German late war.
@twtnk94 ай бұрын
we were given a metal model of this fine weapon the total length of this mode is about 1meter ,we are a local rsl sub branch in new south wales AUSTRALIA on the central coast, we love it.
@othertalk33139 ай бұрын
3:40 - Why was the rate of fire so much lower when used in the ground attack role (15 per min) when compared to air attack (20 per min)?
@TanksEncyclopediaYT9 ай бұрын
Harder to load (breach is rather high up) and harder to aim (you have to actually hit the tank, you can near-miss the plane and the shrapnel will do the work)
@MinhThu-xn2bt2 ай бұрын
6:24 Although Power comes from the barrel of the gun It also happens that The gun can get its barrel blasted off Thus Two guns are better than one.
@Modernnannenginemarineengine2 ай бұрын
The 8.8cm calibre barrel was originally designed for Ships. With modifications it ends up with a Tapered barrel for high velocity AA WITH a barrel life of 400 rounds max.
@StarGate9603 ай бұрын
The most success AA gun eliminated all enemy object (Multi-purpose) arsenal
@JGCR599 ай бұрын
That engagement against the Bulgarians mentioned at 17:49 is ironic because those Bulgarian Tanks destroyed were most likely Panzer IVs
@stubi11039 ай бұрын
I am German and my father was Pilot as Nightfighter in WW 2 in Denmark. (2 te NJG3) We must not forget that the 8.8 revealed a major misplanning by the army, namely going into a multi-front war without sensible anti-tank guns. What would we have done without the 8.8 when we went to France? The French would be back on the Rhine in 1940 or further, many German successes were completely misinterpreted by our leadership. Imagine if we had managed to equip the 8.8 grenades with proximity fuses for anti-aircraft defense, just as MIT in the USA had managed to do in 1944, an incredible innovation. No Anglo-American bomber would have dared to fly to Germany more...
@anon-iraq26559 ай бұрын
That's a pattern for all German actions in ww2, going in unprepared Other exams I can think of is that Germany had information on the kv ranks from finish war but we're shocked by them and had few tanks that can stand up to them
@stubi11039 ай бұрын
@@anon-iraq2655 Thank you very much Sir but what is kv ranks?
@anon-iraq26559 ай бұрын
@@stubi1103 sorry kv tanks، it's a series of Russian heavy tanks
@stubi11039 ай бұрын
@@anon-iraq2655 Ok thank you. 👍
@Ed-ig7fj9 ай бұрын
As Terraflow (below) points out, the 88 round was supersonic; you didn't hear it coming until all hell broke loose. Bill Mauldin, the cartoonist/GI of "Willi and Joe" fame, drew several cartoons referring to the GI's hatred of the weapon. My Dad went peacefully ashore at Normandy about a week after the invasion, so he picked up a Luftwaffe Helmet and a Shore Battery badge off of dead Germans. The Luftwaffe ran the AA batteries, hence the helmet. To the end of his days, dad always called them Krauts. --Old Guy
@Tiberiotertio5 ай бұрын
And gues who we call wanks?
@tundralou9 ай бұрын
Did they give the crews any ear protection😅
@egay862925 ай бұрын
yeah, empty Pervitin bottles.
@angry_zergling5 ай бұрын
The flak that smiles back!
@dpeter63969 ай бұрын
Dress makers measure in cm !! Engineering is done in mm. Please!!! 76 yr old artillery guy.
@nos97849 ай бұрын
German big gun bore diameters were measured in cm.
@rubberwoody9 ай бұрын
Sometimes countries do things different than other countries
@Julianna.Domina9 ай бұрын
Germany has used Centimeters for big gun sizes for a long, long time
@robertsolomielke51346 ай бұрын
@@Julianna.Domina Yes true. It's western historians like to say 88 mm, or just 88" and we know instantly what it means. 8.8 cm is likely a Euro way of the same thing, but more formal.
@alhemicaribastovani90299 ай бұрын
Great video ❤
@JGCR599 ай бұрын
At 16:50 it should be Charkov in Ukaine (Kharkiv in ukrainian transcription) not Krakow in Poland.
@bwilliams4639 ай бұрын
I watched a vid on KZbin which stated that the first time the 88s were used in an anti-tank role was in the African campaign. I have to give credence to the information given here; can you tell us any books or reference materials about their earlier anti-tank usage?
@TanksEncyclopediaYT9 ай бұрын
There is a list of sources in the description. To answer your question, scriptwriter highlighted this one: www.amazon.com/No-155-8-8-Flak-Vol/dp/8372191344?&linkCode=sl1&tag=tankencyclope-20&linkId=14cab7e56d3859581f184ebff5dd6dc5&language=es_US&ref_=as_li_ss_tl
@bwilliams4639 ай бұрын
@@TanksEncyclopediaYT Thank you for the information.
@mylesdobinson15349 ай бұрын
Definitely Spain was the first. Also a question, did the British and Empire troops use their 3-inch and 3.7 anti air guns in the role of anti-Tank? I have seen them used in the role of artillery, especially in Italy
@fauzin33389 ай бұрын
@@mylesdobinson1534 Yes, but rarely due to how British Heavy Anti-Aircraft units were organized. They're predominantly organized to defend major objectives under the Royal Artillery Regiment, as was often the case in the Northern Africa campaign, instead of being incorporated into maneuver elements as the Germans did (Panzer, Panzergrenadier Div). The 3.7" was also a tad heavier and bulkier than the Flak 18/36, making its usage as an AT gun quite undesirable even if its tank-killing capability was potent. May someone correct me if I'm wrong here. IIRC, there was an engagement in Tobruk where the British forces utilized 3.7" guns in AT role and successfully took out a few tanks but were ultimately overrun by German infantry assaults. There were also cases of similar usage during the Invasion of France and after D-Day (but this is unclear). The 3.7" was ultimately developed into the 32-pounder AT gun, which was mounted on the A39 Tortoise heavy assault tank. The towed version was also developed but never adopted into the service. Such was the end of the British AT gun lineage, AFAIK.
@wbertie26049 ай бұрын
@@mylesdobinson1534 25 lbers tended to be used instead and were supplied with ammunition for the purpose
@kiowhatta19 ай бұрын
I wonder if the avg rounds per target was due to deflection, near misses or failed penetration
@teamgonzo92899 ай бұрын
Great color footage!!! 👍
@henkormel56109 ай бұрын
Why not mentoining the 50mm and 76mm Flak guns? It was well known by '39 the 37mm was only sufficient at that moment. The 88 was developed as a double purpose gun and was avalible in two lengts. Muzzle velocity is mesured in m/s, this meams meters per second not milisecond.
@rubberwoody9 ай бұрын
Because the video is on the 88. Not the 50
@henkormel56109 ай бұрын
@@rubberwoody The 88 dind't come falling out of the sky. It is a devellopment of the Great War dual purpose naval gun. The 50 mm and later the 76 mm replaced the 37 mm before the 88. It adds a timeline.
@rogerdarbyshire56644 ай бұрын
90 mm of anything fast is not going to be clever on the recieving end. No early to mid war tank was designed or built to take hits from something like this. Nor were German tanks, either. 17 pdr rounds could and did easily defeat all German tanks. And before anyone starts squeaking about inaccurate APDS rounds, those issues didn't apply to the anti tank gun rounds, only the Firefly's. And the other problem with the 88 was it's weight, totally impractical as a true AT gun.
@Losangelesharvey3 ай бұрын
to the narrator, I think you mean throughout "satisfactory" rather than "satisfying"
@Arltratlo3 ай бұрын
the 88s killed some Mathilda II from a distance, the Mathildas couldnt aim at the 88s...
@cvr5279 ай бұрын
Victor Davis Hanson makes the point that the Allied bombing campaigns forced Germany to spend 1/3 of their funds on anti-aircraft guns to defend German airspace. He didnt state it in the lecture I watched, but one of the secondary effects was that Germany could not employ as many flak guns on the Eastern Front as a result of this.
@michaelkenny85407 ай бұрын
The majority of 8.8cm guns in Germany were on fixed mounts. They were not mobile and could never be used 'in the east'.
@cvr5277 ай бұрын
@@michaelkenny8540 Nonsense! Your comment is completely absurd.
@michaelkenny85407 ай бұрын
@@cvr527 If you didn't know about the fixed mounts then you are even more ignorant than I had imagined.
@cvr5277 ай бұрын
@@michaelkenny8540 You dont have a clue what you are talking about. So just stop!
@michaelkenny85407 ай бұрын
@@cvr527 I am amazed you did not know about the majority AA guns in German being fixed in position and thus without any means of moving them. How could you be so ignorant?
@stevenwestswanson92639 ай бұрын
Great Video!
@WynnofThule9 ай бұрын
The 88 wasn't good because it had a higher MV or fired heavier shells or some other minutia. It was good because it was there and it worked. When you pointed it at something, you could be sure it'd soon be nothing.
@michaelpielorz92838 ай бұрын
a little bit confusing, just say No no no not the germans (:-)
@michaelkenny85407 ай бұрын
Wrong. It was massive overkill and if the British had used its 5.5 in howitzer as an anti-tank gun then it too would have destroyed every WW2 tank with a direct hit. Any gun of 8,8cm that scored a hit on a 1939-43 tank was going to destroy it. It was the use of a large calibre gun that was the ace and it could have been any gun of 8.8cm or over. The average ammo expenditure for the Flak 18/36 in Russia and North Africa was 10 rounds per claimed kill at medium ranges and 20 rounds at long range. For AA work it was 3,000 rounds per downed aircraft. I bet you didn't know that!
@WynnofThule7 ай бұрын
@@michaelkenny8540 I didn't know the exact numbers, but I knew tank/antitank hit rates were in that area and that it took a *lot* of shells to down an aircraft Needing that kind of volume of fire at a moment's notice only makes it more important that all the guns in a unit reliably work when they're asked to and can be repaired or replaced when they don't.
@ChristianFeider9 ай бұрын
there was a 8,8cm AA-Gun already in the first world war,check it out! it was actually mounted on trucks. But THATs not the version 18
@ChristianFeider9 ай бұрын
actually it was a AA/Anti-Balloon gun, later on also used as AT-gun,mounted on truck
@ChristianFeider9 ай бұрын
de.wikipedia.org/wiki/8,8-cm-Flak_16
@johnmosesbrowning18559 ай бұрын
The totally inadequate 3,6 cm PAK („Panzer Abwehr Kanone“) was nicknamed „Panzer Anklopf Kanone“ oder auch „Panzer Anklopf Gerät“, translating to „Tank Knock Canon“ or „Tank Knocking divice“, knocking here did not ment to knock out but knocking to alert the Tank Crew to the present of the german army.
@JGCR599 ай бұрын
The Flak 18 designation was a sort of cover, like the MG 13 and other such designations, the Reichswehr and early Wehrmacht pretended that these guns were just developments from late WW1 weapons to pay lip service to the ban on new weapons in the Versailles Treaty.
@Wardads19 ай бұрын
At 18.54 there is the 8.8cm Flak 16 .From WW One ( 1917)
@robertsolomielke51349 ай бұрын
TY-Good one. There was a dedicated AT version (Pak 43/41) said to have hit the engine of a T-34 and sent it 5 meters away. A great gun by all measure , but really I think the British 3.7 ' AA could do similar work if it ever had the chance?
@joseph-sj7do9 ай бұрын
British had 3,7 inch AA Gun (92mm) which was equal to the 88 , even used it at Army Exercises in 1936 when UK had first Tank Division in World before Germany had one Panzer Division , inexplicably the Tank Division was disbanded and it was decided 3,7 would be resyricted to AA only. Always pyuzzled the German Afrika Corps that it was not used as an Anti Tank Gun, Von Luck in his book (cannot temember title but very good tead) describes how only time he experienced them being used against Tanks was when Tobruk was captured and as the Panzers entered the Port the 3,7 AAs were levelled and foted on Panzers but did not have Armour Piercing Shells only High Explosive but they did serious damage to Panzers not enough to destroy them .
@bitterdrinker9 ай бұрын
What isn't mentioned in this video is that the 88mm was developed from a naval gun. AP rounds existed for it from the outset. The 3.7 was only ever envisioned as an AA gun. AT guns of different caliber already existed. Developing an AT capability would have been very costly.
@wbertie26049 ай бұрын
The 25lber was supplied with anti-tank rounds and booster charges so there was no great need to make the 3.7 inch dual purpose.
@jessphuqette17169 ай бұрын
Gods own 30-06 sniper rifle
@rokker3333 ай бұрын
"Wo unsere acht acht hinschießt, schaut kein Russe mehr aus dem Fenster"
@jokesonyou13738 ай бұрын
Great vid!
@tekis09 ай бұрын
Great video on the "88."
@Slaktrax9 ай бұрын
''840 milliseconds''? What is this? Does the narrator even understand anything to do with weapons?
@garyjohnson92979 ай бұрын
I thought that all through its deployment , that it was known as the Flak 88mm
@AndrewC.McPherson-xf5zw3 ай бұрын
Good month's work.
@TheWolvesCurse9 ай бұрын
meters per second, not milliseconds.
@thomaslinton57659 ай бұрын
The first combat experience of the .88 against armor was in Spain in 1937.
@michaelpielorz92838 ай бұрын
In 1940 the germans found out the british and french heavy tanks could be outwalked by the average infantryman(:-)
@thomaslinton57658 ай бұрын
@@michaelpielorz9283 They "knew" many false things. Ever try walking 13 mph? U.S doctrine for its professional infantry is that the average rate of march for trained infantry under favorable weather conditions is 2-1/2 mph over roads and 1 mph cross country - 1/13th of the rated off-road speed for the Char B. A normal foot march is planned to cover 20 miles per day.
@MinhThu-xn2bt2 ай бұрын
@@thomaslinton5765 whitewashing 'dolf. That was true only for some heavy tanks of ww1
@thomaslinton57652 ай бұрын
@@MinhThu-xn2bt That they were super slow in WW I? I was replying to a post about "1940."
@soundofeighthooves9 ай бұрын
the anti everything gun
@geoffhunter77049 ай бұрын
The 88MM was the best A/T Gun of WW2 its MV of 819 MPS (Mtrs per second) was very good compared with the British M1937 AA 94MM MV 792 MPS however this gun was AA only but the 88 as an AA gun it was mediocre at 27.000 FT, V the 94MM at 32.500Ft.Both the US and Russia developed their Standard AA Guns the 90MM/85MM as Tank guns @823 and 800 MPS respectively but the 90MM US AT Round was not quite able to knock out Panthers and Tigers with one shot it usually took 2-3 shots to brew up these tanks.
@michaelkenny85407 ай бұрын
No it was not. No gun designed as an AA gun is going to be better than a gun of the same calibre designed as an AT gun. The 88 AA was a huge target and on the front line would never last long once its position is discovered. In Normandy The Flak Arm REFUSED to let its guns be used for direct AA fire. The average number of 8.8cm rounds fired per tank claimed was 10 at medium ranges and 20 at long range.
@geoffhunter77047 ай бұрын
@@michaelkenny8540 You're wrong the 88 was the most feared A/T Gun of WW2 as the testimonies of many Allied Tank Crews verify but as an AA Gun it was mediocre the 105mm flak 41 was far superior but was rarely used as an A/T if at all and read Lt Peter Elstob's Warrior for the Working Day where he repeatedly states his fear of the 88mm as it would brew up his Sherman (s) in 1944/45.The 88 on its trailer as you say was bulky and it needed a clear field of fire as in Gazala May 1942 where the British Tank's were slaughtered at ranges of 1-1.5 miles and the A/T Hurricanes with their twin 40mm Vickers A/T Gunswere unavailable.
@michaelkenny85407 ай бұрын
@@geoffhunter7704 Don't you know the book you reference is a NOVEL?
@geoffhunter77047 ай бұрын
@@michaelkenny8540 Is there no limit to your ignorance Peter Elstob's biography was one of the first to be published after the war as most participants kept quiet including my father who served 1937-19 and was in the second wave on D Day and for you to denigrate Op Overlord Heroes from your mothers back bedroom is beneath contempt.
@michaelkenny85407 ай бұрын
@@geoffhunter7704 You quoted a book which is a novel. No amount of butt-hurt excuses can change that fact. You could have quoted a number of his books but you chose a work of fiction. The only denigration is of your research skills and inability to tell a book of fiction from a memoir.
@KuwaharaBMXRider9 ай бұрын
8.8 cm? They called it an 88mm or 88 not 8.8 cm
@jonyvole9 ай бұрын
During the war, in germany, calibres were most commonly measured in centimetres
@michaelkenny85407 ай бұрын
No sorry it is you who are wrong. It is always listed as 8.8cm in German documents.
@randomreal32289 ай бұрын
Why nobody tought of installing coastal gun to a tank?
@Evan_Bell9 ай бұрын
4:00 m/s is not the same as ms.
@MinhThu-xn2bt2 ай бұрын
8:55 Tripoli, March 1941.
@fizoblong95069 ай бұрын
12:20 "When the Germans attacked the SU..." they destroyed 60% of the SU airforce in 24h. Look at a map and tell me how this is possible, if they were not preparing to attack Germany. It was a preemptive and defensive strike.
@454FatJack9 ай бұрын
RBM was until 2000 🇫🇮coast artillery use😊
@lukebaker11679 ай бұрын
Top job - bar - it shoots its projectile at 840 metres per second, not 840 milliseconds!!!!
@Comm0ut9 ай бұрын
One little mentioned benefit of the ETO bombing campaigns is they diverted thousands of flak pieces to homeland defense which otherwise would have been devastating against Allied tanks.
@michaelkenny85407 ай бұрын
No. Nearly all the AA guns in Germany were on fixed mounts. They could not be used on the battlefield.
@showdown669 ай бұрын
1:05 the kill rings
@flip8499 ай бұрын
They got busy
@AndrewC.McPherson-xf5zw3 ай бұрын
Used for everything under the sun.
@lordterra13779 ай бұрын
Yet in Warthunder prewar German vehicles have to fight up to 1944 tanks. Amazing how balanced that game is....
@thomaslinton57659 ай бұрын
Kruup not "croop"
@kratzikatz19 ай бұрын
Krupp!
@thomaslinton57659 ай бұрын
@@kratzikatz1 Isn't it wonderful when the narrator does not pronounce the words correctly - or get the facts right?"
@hermanbinngavionohermanbin83712 ай бұрын
"4 inch of angled steel at 1km"
@ebutuoyYT9 ай бұрын
The best west to mitigate against Flak 8.8cm is with air superiority, a little ironic really.
@TigerBaron9 ай бұрын
They couldn't have chosen a finer gun for the Tiger.
@Jakez4085 ай бұрын
They were only suitable for defensive operations as the gun took too long to be set up and was also too slow to turn and fire at a close targets like tanks .It was a desperate attempt to halt T 34,s when the Germans had nothing to match it..
@billballbuster71869 ай бұрын
Yes the Germans had to use the 88, as their normal anti-tank guns were crap. Luckily the size of the 88 lent itself for ground use. It was never ideal as the gun was large and hard to hide. They were effective against British tanks because their tank guns were not supplied with HE shells. The US M3 Grant and M4 Sherman changed the situation, their large and accurate HE shells were capable of destroying the 88 at long range or at least killing their crews. At Arras there were only 20 A12 Matilda tanks and they mostly ran out of fuel. German tank claims were often greatly overexaggerated.
@jon90219 ай бұрын
10:35 the African “corpse”??…well I suppose that’s reasonably accurate actually…
@ВасилийПетровичКосых3 ай бұрын
Странно, что НИКТО не рассказывает о потерях среди расчетов зенитных орудиях, выставленных против советских и американских танков... Они все погибли!... Кстати, противотанковые 8.8 см зенитные орудия никак не задержали советские танки на пути в Берлин!
@georgecristiancripcia48199 ай бұрын
12:20 Here the story ends abruptly and it jumps to the soviet union attack.
@TheDrednaught3 ай бұрын
Weird music
@bak-mariterry9143Ай бұрын
Definitely not Frank Zappa .😅
@AndrewC.McPherson-xf5zw3 ай бұрын
Every tank encountered was a Tiger as well on the Western Front.