"Nazi Germany's 88mm Gun: The Deadliest 'Gun' of" Topic

…World War II?

"The November 21, 1944, daylight flight of Teddy's Rough Riders was anything but routine for American pilot Werner G. Göring, nephew of Nazi Reichsminister of Aviation Hermann Göring, and the other nine men on the ill-fated B-17 Flying Fortress. Before the day was over, the plane had flown some four hours eastward in an armada of 1,291 bombers to strike Leuna, a large chemical complex lying deep inside Germany. The plane suffered nearly fatal damage from fierce air defense fire from the 88mm Fliegerabwehrkanone (FlaK) and other anti-aircraft guns. As they worked their way back toward safety in England, the two port engines began smoking and had to be shut down and the two remaining engines cranked up as much as possible to keep the Fortress in the air…"
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Amicalement
Armand

I think you are missing a point. There were over 20,000 88mm guns produced and being on the defensive to hit the target you needed to fly over them. Every nation produced an AA gun in 90mm caliber (OK Russia AA gun was 85mm and not sure about the Japanese) but the Germans were not flying strategic missions during the day so did not get the impact of these guns. It got so bad for the Germans that a number of American AA units in Europe were dissolved and the men transferred to other units.

Actually, the AA using fuse VT were the deadliest AA guns. When used against the V1s by the British many were shot down. The only limiting factor was that the Allies did not want the fuse to fall into the hands of the Germans. The fuse was heavily used by the Navy in the Pacific theater (little chance of the Japanese getting ahold of the shell).

Never knew that about use of the VT being restricted to prevent it being studied by the enemy. That is interesting, as indeed is your point about late war Allied superiority in AA (potential but rarely needed)

My understanding about the VT/Proximity fuse is that – to prevent the enemy recovering and reverse-engineering a copy – the rounds were only to be used over water. Shooting over the English Channel against V1s was fine, as was naval engagements in the Pacific but on land it was held back until the latter stages of the Ardennes offensive in 1944. Eisenhower relented and permitted the fuses to be used, and they stunned the Germans on occasion when accurate airbursts detonated at optimal distances over infantry formations.

Back on the primary topic, 88mm guns in the ground role could use the clockwork fuses for their own airburst effect. It was more difficult to set up but certainly caused a lot of concern to the Allies, not least because the high muzzle velocity permitted no advance warning, since it was travelling faster than sound.

Thanks!

Amicalement
Armand

…88mm guns in the ground role could use the clockwork fuses for their own airburst effect. It was more difficult to set up but certainly caused a lot of concern…

Indeed airburst was nothing new in artillery, dating back to the mortars and bombards of the 17 and 18th centuries.

And the rockets' red glare,
the bombs bursting in air…

This is actually why US proximity fuzes were labelled at VT. VT for "Variable Time". Because a "variable time" fuze was nothing new, and any word of the Allies using new "variable time" fuzes would explain airbursts, even if they were somehow mysteriously more effective variable time fuzes than anyone had ever made.

Of course there was nothing about how a radar-proximity fuze worked that had anything to do with variable time.

-Mark
(aka: Mk 1)

Back on the primary topic, 88mm guns in the ground role could use the clockwork fuses for their own airburst effect. It was more difficult to set up but certainly caused a lot of concern to the Allies, not least because the high muzzle velocity permitted no advance warning, since it was travelling faster than sound.

In Normandy Pickert (Flak Commander) specifically mentions that clockwork fuses were in short supply and were only used for AA work.