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Aviation History
1944
1944 - 0343.PDF
FEBRUARY 17TH, 1944 FLIGHT 177 Flak OUTPOST DEFENCE : Light flak on an island in the North Sea. This is a typical example of a complete German A.A. gun emplacement widely employed for static defence. The gun is a 37 mm. Flak. Note the standard range-finder. Continuous Development : Organisation and Formations : Tactical Conceptions : Equipment By V. L. IN the years following Germany's capitulation relent less efforts were made to rebuild her anti-aircraft artillery. The newly created streamlined Reichswehr had only one A.A. gun, the K.W.G.14. already then obsolete and capable of only 30 deg. elevation. The process of re-equipment and reorgani- —fr&on. at first secret and after 1933 open, was con cluded in 1935 when, on March 15th, the entire A.A. artillery was placed under the Luftwaffe for further expansion. The subsequent despatch of A.A. units accompanying the "Condor" Legion to Spain proved a valuable source of experience. , On the battlefields of Spain the Germans learnt the 'need for increased mobility of their A.A. guns, and all later developments have faithfully taken this lesson into account. At the outbreak of this war a 'large number of motorised Flak units, to gether with their signal and staff organisations, were retransferred to the army so as to ensure a constant A.A. protection for the ground 3 o, 000 2. S. 00 o go,000 I S.ooo 10, 000 l N GRUBERG forces against low-flying attack by Allied aircraft. At this juncture it is important to differentiate between the Via and the Flak units. The former were in existence with the army for several years before the war. For its better protection the infantry had Fla companies and battalions equipped with A.A. machine guns. To day the Fla companies, equipped with 40 mm. M.G. "Vierlings" and single- barrel 20 mm. guns, are in corporated in the Panzer- grenadier and armoured regiments; their task is the local protection of these units, of which they form an integral part and whose uniform they wear. The Fla weapon has also been employed against ground targets. A much later creation is the Flak (Fliegerabwehr Kanone). As already men tioned, at the outbreak of the war most of the Flak formations were still with the Luftwaffe. Only a rela tively limited number of army Flak units were sent to Russia at the beginning of hostilities, appearing there for the first time on June 22nd, 1941. The develop ment of this weapon. M/M *- 8 8 Ceilings of Heavy Flak. (Trajectory to max. ceiling in broken lines, to effective ceiling in full lines.x
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