What was so magical about the German 88mm gun? Was it this all-powerful cannon, which fired 16 km and sowed terror everywhere, as described by a persistent legend? No. When the Second World War broke out in 1939, the 88 gun was already six years old — and the original model was even older.
A former tank commander was once asked what what it felt like to be hit by an 88. "I can't say," he replied bitterly. All I remember is a bloody big bang and someone saying, "Fuck the war is over!" »
The 88 mm Flak 18 was an anti-aircraft gun. It entered service in 1933 after being designed by Krupp technicians who worked at the Swedish firm Bofors from 1920 to 1930. The restrictions of the Treaty of Versailles had prohibited the manufacture of weapons in Germany, which led Krupps to " exiling” their staff rather than kicking them out. But when Hitler came to power, German engineers returned to Germany with plans for an 88mm anti-aircraft gun. The design of this gun had nothing remarkable, except for the tube, made up of distinct sections. This allowed the replacement of a worn part while keeping the parts still in good condition. This also made it possible to mass-produce the gun barrel on non-specialized machine tools.
Experimentation and trials followed, giving rise to some slight modifications with a view to easier mass production; the new model was called Flak 36 of 88 mn. The Model 37 was born after further technical improvements were made, but the performance of the gun remained unchanged. It could fire 15 11.35 kg shells over 10,000 meters in one minute; and although considered only an anti-aircraft gun, it had a ground range of almost 15,000 m.
In 1939, when the war broke out, three models, the 88/18, the 88/36 and the 88/37 were the main assets of the German anti-aircraft defense on the national territory and in the theaters of operations, and during the two first years of the 2nd world war, the standard anti-tank guns of 37 mm and 50 mm were sufficient for the needs of the Germans. But, in 1941, the 88 suddenly appeared as the scarecrow of tank crews in the North African desert. The power of the 88 in the anti-tank role was not a necessity. The Wehrmacht had the 50mm Pak 38, a gun that could pierce 96mm of armor at almost 1,000m, and therefore perfectly capable of taking out any British tank of the time. But the fluidity of desert warfare favored tank attacks from any direction, and the division's 24 37mm and 50mm anti-tank guns were spread sparingly. It appeared to a clear-sighted German officer that the two dozen 88s of the anti-aircraft regiment of the Luftwaffe were of some interest in plugging the holes, and as air superiority belonged to the Germans at the time, they could afford to distract a certain number of anti-aircraft guns from their usual role and distribute them to the division's front as anti-tank weapons.
The Spanish proving ground
The idea seemed interesting but it could not be applied without the 88 being adapted to the task; a projectile with
high muzzle velocity alone does not make an anti-tank gun. It needs an adequate sighting system and above all the appropriate ammunition. In the case of the 88, both existed, thanks to the experience gained in 1935, by the Germans during the Spanish Civil War. During this conflict, the Luftwaffe sent the Condor Legion of volunteers, partly to aid General Franco and partly to test his new equipment and new theories - and with the Legion arrived a number of Flak 18s to defense of airfields. The value of this gun as an anti-aircraft weapon was demonstrated and its possibilities as a field gun or anti-tank gun were also known; measures were taken to equip it with an optical sight for direct fire as well as a projectile capable of piercing the armor of tanks.
This move was welcomed by military observers who urged equipping every gun on the battlefield with anti-tank ammunition, because tanks could move around their environment, evade specialized anti-tank weapons, appear in front of a field gun and cause them much inconvenience. The result was that it became common practice in the German military to equip each gun with some type of anti-tank projectile that could be used in an emergency.
The use of the 88 as ground-to-ground weapon seems to have been formalized by the Germans before the beginning of the 2nd world war. In the Procedures for the Attack on Fortified Defensive Positions published in Germany during the summer of 1939, it is stipulated that "additional assault detachments, closely followed by anti-tank guns and 88 mm guns, would be launched against any breach in the defenses of the front. What is interesting here is the distinction made between anti-tank guns and 88 mm guns:the subject was not treated in detail but the potential of the 88 as an assault gun was directly put forward. But these projects remained dormant until the situation in North Africa gave them a topical character.
The first appearance of the 88 as an anti-tank gun took place on April 14, 1941, when Australian infantry on the outskirts of Tobruk reported, during an attack, a large number of long-barreled guns on strange mounts. These guns had been brought by the German infantry in charge of the attack and they remained there without participating in the fight. Were they waiting, in accordance with the Procedures, to be launched against any breach in the defenses of the front? But in this particular case no breach was apparent and the guns were withdrawn. Their next appearance was more decisive when a battery was buried at Halfaya to form the nucleus of the German defense there.
It was vital for the survival of the 88 to bury him. Until then, the largest anti-tank gun on the battlefield was the 50mm Pak 38. He had a height of 1.10 m. atop his shield, making it easy to hide behind the nearest patch of desert brush. The 88 Flak 18, for its part, was 2.36 ni high in the battery position, and due to its platform and four stabilizing booms, it needed a hole 6.65 m long by 5 .95 m wide to be invisible. This meant a lot of work for the servants who had to dig this hole. But the 88s were nonetheless well concealed and while some German leaders felt these guns should be kept in the rear due to their size, their gunners thought differently. A British report of May 1942 reads:"The employment of the 88 mm gun with extreme audacity had a considerable effect... The gun was frequently brought into battery position on the flanks of armored formations at up to 1 400 meters from our tanks... The damage they caused was very significant. Another report reads:Experience shows that when buried on an exterior slope these guns are extremely difficult to spot at 900 yards. The installation of the German 88s was generally unorthodox and fake guns were made with scraps of wood and canvas to deceive the planes which allowed the adjustment of Allied fire. »
A British artillery officer, recounting in the Journal of the Royal Artillery the fighting he had experienced in 1942 described the Italian-German defensive position which had been abandoned after the battle of El Alamein:"The installation of the guns anti-tank was particularly interesting... The Italian guns were placed against all principles... The only goal seemed to be to have a good and deep frontal field of fire. To obtain it, the guns had to bury themselves on top of small mounds in a dominant position or on top of small ridges. It was not good quality work. »
The 88mm was a complete contrast. True, their field of fire was usually frontal, as justified by the power of the weapon, but they were set up and concealed artfully and also boldly. Near the minefield and on the very perimeter of the barbed wire, they could take down many tanks and were difficult to pin down by the infantry. And those goddamn guns had yet another appeal... Their construction was rudimentary but ingenious, their installation much more in keeping with our idea of scrolling and limited fields of fire. In other words, where the British Army expected to find anti-tank guns, they wasted their ammunition on fake wooden guns, with the real 88s carefully hidden.
At the time of the battle of El Alamein, the Afrikakorps had 86 of these weapons skillfully deployed with an anti-tank role. This, added to their precision, created the myth of their super-efficiency. The anti-tank shell had a small explosive charge that detonated after piercing the armor and could split 108 mm plates. This destructive capacity was effective even at an angle of 30° and at 1,000 meters. A formidable capability, especially when there were no British tanks at the time that had more than 80mm of armour. And the 88 could pierce 90mm of them at 2,000m, which meant that no British tank was safe at a range less than 2,000m, at which range tanks were utterly ineffective, because their 2-pounder guns , and later 6-pounders, had no high-explosive shells.
The situation remained critical until the arrival of the American-made Lee-Grant. This tank, which weighed only 28.5 tons, was armed with a 75 mm cannon mounted on the surface that fired explosive shells. The success of this tank led the British to change tactics and they equipped all their tank guns with high explosive shells.
Despite all its effectiveness in the fight against tanks, the 88 remained an anti-aircraft gun. And the leaders of the Luftwaffe were angry when they saw that 88 taken for an anti-tank mission were not returned to them. Theoretically the guns had to be returned on request but in practice a loaned gun was a lost gun for the Luftwaffe.
Anti-aircraft equipment, such as data transmission dials and range adjusters rockets were dismantled and misplaced, the sights modified, non-regulatory shields were installed.
And when the D.C.A. this resulted in them being returned to the workshop for reassembly to their true specifications.
Once, in July 1942, the British Army used their 3.7 inch anti-aircraft guns in a similar manner. The 2nd Regiment of the Royal Horse Artillery found that it had received four 3.7-inch anti-aircraft guns for anti-tank combat. But this gun was less suitable for combat against tanks than the 88. Technically, the 3.7 inch was a more modern weapon, intended for use with data transmission and remote control systems and which had no sight suitable for ground-to-ground firing. The gun weighed two tons more than the 88 and was larger. Moreover, the area assigned to the 3.7 inch guns was nothing better than a depression in the desert 800 m long by 400 m wide and which was already heavily manned with four companies of the Guard, three batteries of field guns, an anti-tank battery and two light anti-aircraft elements. This brought the commander of the 2nd regiment of R.H.A. to dismiss two of the guns. His position was never attacked and the guns were eventually withdrawn from the combat zone. This was the first and last appearance of the 3.7 inch anti-aircraft as an anti-tank gun. The main factor was an availability and priority factor.
To have any appreciable effect, large numbers of 3.7 inch guns would have had to be deployed and for this these guns would have had to be taken from the defenses of the Suez Canal and Alexandria, a dangerous eventuality given the superiority of Axis air power at this time. In addition, the servants would have needed considerable training. But the capabilities of the 3.7 inch were recognized; it was capable of piercing 117 mm of armor at an angle of 30° at 900 meters. It was slightly better than the 88, and so the tube was taken as a model for a 32-pounder anti-tank gun. It must have been a weapon of frightening possibilities, but equally frightening in size, and it was in development when the war ended in 1945.
Type Anti-aircraft gun
Manufacturer Krupp
Period of use 1928 -1945 (beyond in Eastern countries)
Weights and dimensions
Mass (unloaded) 7.2 t with undercarriage, 5 t static
overall length 7m62
Barrel length 56, 36, or 71 calibres (4m93)
Technical characteristics
Maximum range 15,000 m
Rate of fire 12-15 rounds per minute
Muzzle velocity 820 then 1000 m/s
The standardized anti-aircraft version of the 88 mm Flak 18 gun, as developed by Krupp engineers in 1932. Along with the 86/36 and 88/37 models, it was the main element of air defense systems Germans. Its future was assured when its suitability as an anti-tank gun was demonstrated, and its reputation lasted from 1939 until the end of World War II.