"Italian 88s in North Africa" Topic

Hi,

I've read that it was common for the 88s the Italians used to not have a gunshield (mainly from Battlefront) has anyone heard of this from other sources or have much info on this?

Thanks

Well since the 88s were initially used as anti-aircraft there would have been less of a need for gun shields.
In an anti-tank role , more of a need for one. So I can see the Italians converting AA guns without gun shields to AT guns.
Just my opinion.

All the photos of 88s in Italian use in the desert I have seen are minus gunshields. Mind you, that us only half a dozen photos.

Look up the Italian Cannone da 90/53. It was the equivalent of the 88 and sometimes better.

While they did occasionally have gun shields, using that on what is actually an anti aircraft gun is more of a hindrance than a help, unless they were dedicated strictly to the ground role.

Their best defence was the fact that they could out-range just about anything on the field in the direct fire role. Additionally, as towed, they had a crew of six plus a couple more as drivers, co-drivers, specialized artillery battery positions, so each gun might have had really a dozen or more guys available per piece. Get that many guys digging a pit of two or so feet and those things were a whole lot harder to spot with the barrels hugging the ground, at least until they opened up.

The photos where I have definitely seen them with gun shields are where they are on either truck or tracked mounts and dedicated to the ground role as self propelled artillery.

Here is a link to what Google has to say about this gun. Actually quite useful!
link

All AA guns of all nations could 'outrange' the equivalent sized standard artillery piece. That is because such guns were very specialised weapons for a specific task, very long-range firing. As such they were considerably more expensive than standard guns and using them as regular bombardment weapons was about the same as using a fleet Rolls Royce limousines to deliver coal.