"88 battery security" Topic

The Germans had a couple of batteries of 88s (well, at least one) in the far north of Finland throughout the war. Since it was a fairly isolated outpost, did they have a security element (say a platoon of infantry or the like) or would the gunners have had to pull their own security? I know the battery was surrounded with barbed wire, but it doesn't appear that they mounted a regular guard duty on the perimeter. Wondering if anyone had any idea what the arrangements would have been or what typical security arrangements would have been.

There is a possible parallel with the detached German Flak Korps that was stationed at Ploesti, to provide AA for the Romanian oilfields. That unit had Luftwaffe ground infantry elements for security, but I can't find any more specifics other than that they had PzII tanks, and single and quad 20mm AA on halftracks in '43 and '44. When they finally pulled out of Romania in late '44 when the Rumanians switched sides, they had to do a fighting withdrawal to Germany. Since the Rumanians had Ft-17 tanks in rear area security roles, there would be a great potential for obscure tank combat scenarios. Anyhow, I digress and my point is that there should probably be some kind of Luftwaffe field ground unit for security.

My guess is that they provided their own security element.

The Luftwaffe had lots and lots of troops to provide ground security – so many that the Germans formed whole divisions of them; there were 1,700,000 people in the Luftwaffe in 1941, mostly in non-flying positions

The Luftwaffe provided most of its own security everywhere, including Alarmeinheiten to guard air-bases from partisans in Russia

The Luftwaffe provided most of its own security everywhere

Aaaaand, let me hijack this thread to complain that no one makes infantry in fleigerbluse in 28mm/1:56.

Here is the KStN for an 88mm battery,

link

it has an overall strength of almost 170 men and includes 150 rifles, a dozen SMGs and four LMGs.

I don't really think they needed additional elements to provide battery security.

Most excellent – thanks, Martin!

No problem, it is very easy to forget what large units artillery batteries are as we tend to just count gun tubes.