The FlaK 88 of the Wehrmacht

The Legendary 88 mm gun (eighty-eight) is a German anti-aircraft and anti-tank artillery gun from World War II. They were widely used throughout the war, and could be found on almost every battlefield. Developments of the original models led to a wide variety of guns.

The name applies to a series of anti-aircraft guns officially called the 8,8 cm FlaK 18, 36 or 37. FlaK is a German contraction of either Fl(ugzeug)a(bwehr)-K(anone) or Fl(ug)a(bwehr)-K(anone) (hence the capital K, nowadays one word) meaning anti-aircraft gun, the original purpose of the eighty-eight. In informal German use, the guns were universally known as the Acht-acht (8-8), a contraction of Acht-komma-acht Zentimeter (German: "8,8 cm" - comma being used as the decimal separator in German). 88er Flak der deutschen Wehrmacht 2.Weltkrieg

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Autos & Vehicles

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• flak guns
• FlaK 88
• german guns
• ww2 aa guns
• nazi artillery
• hitler
• german soldiers
• marines
• artillery
• war combat battle army big
• yt:crop=16:9

[spritz0]

What I LOVE about the 88 is that if you had a very large stock of ammo and a well-trained crew you could knock out many more enemy tanks than a regular tank- due to having in effect the SAME optics scope AND no ammo storage constrictions!

[monkeynuts76]

I want to shoot my school with one of these

[ugowar]

WehrmAcht-Acht

[blublahblah]

BOOM BOOM the 88 was BOOM BOOM BOOM the reputation with BOOM notorious BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM mounntian of this wea.. BOOM BOOM tiger 1 BOOM ...er 2 tanks BOOM BOOM gurreing BOOM BOOM no fighter BOOM BOOM ...rich.

[MrThePsychologist]

i love this sound boom booM boOM bOOM BOOM!

[mrceebees14]

A huge shell with tremendous velocity that could be fired well behind the lines and into a pickle barrel.

It was engineering genius.

[TheSpritz0]

@KilonBerlin that was the whole basis of my theory, STATIC warfare defending a sector against mass Soviet human-wave armored assaults. Of course the Germans also had mobile 88's as well in a variety of mounts.

[kikusiakikusia]

What a disappointment were the US bombers to let 'no less than 102 K German troops pass up the Italian peninsula in August 1943'

[KilonBerlin]

@spritz0 Nice "knock out many more tanks"-theory... but movement? This only worked in great formations, together with armoured vehicles, infantry and air sovereignity or support, with scout and fighter planes..

The defensive use of the weapon since 1943 was a big advantage for the Nazis, because so the shortage of trucks and gasoline wasn't that fatal. See Ardennes Offensive, where SS-Tanks had no more gas; US troops copied scorched earth and destroyed their own gas while withdrawing.

[KilonBerlin]

btw, did the western allies had a similiar "PaK/Flak"? PaK = Panzerabwehrkanone, anti-tank gun. I think the IS-Series (IS, IS-2 and the IS-3 that was produced far to late, I think the first one was ready in May 1945 and it needs 2-3 month for the front.

[KilonBerlin]

@GrenadierBiermann There were some things which the Nazis really wanted to show in the "Deutsche Wochenschau" (weekly news in cinema) to show the wonder weapon... There's a 1944 Wochenschau showing a starting V2, but filmed from a very long distance, but you see that its damn fast.. The speaker says that they don't show it exactly because of espionage and the top secret-status of the german high-tech weapons and that the "Vergeltungsfeuer" (revenge fire) on London is going on.

[DarkBlitzkrieg46]

4:44 - 4:52 EPIC