The German 88: The Most Famous Gun of the Second World War

Chapter 1

The Legend

By late 1941 word had spread throughout the Allied ranks that the Germans had a secret weapon that could knock out any Allied tank at ranges beyond which the recipients could not respond. This ‘wonder weapon’ exceeded all other anti-tank guns then in service in range, armour penetration capability and all-round firepower, and a military legend was born.

The weapon in question, the 8.8cm FlaK 18 or 36, went on to become the most widely known of all German artillery pieces and was so feared that even now it retains the title of the most famous gun of the Second World War, despite the long list of other potential candidates for that title. In 1941 Allied intelligence personnel sought desperately to learn the ‘secrets’ of what became generally known to them as the ‘88’. It emerged that the 88 had not been designed primarily as an anti-tank weapon but was in fact an anti-aircraft gun (FlugzeugabwehrKanone or FliegerabwehrKanone – hence FlaK) pressed into the anti-armour role to utilise its latent firepower against ground targets, among which were the unfortunate Allied tanks.

In time the 88s grew into a family that encompassed dedicated tank and anti-tank guns as well as anti-aircraft guns, while numerous sub-variants, including self-propelled platforms, were to appear as the war continued. With time, more technically advanced models of the 88 were to materialise to expand the 88 family into three distinct branches, each with its own specific type of 88mm ammunition, and the group grew further still when captured Soviet anti-aircraft guns were converted to fire German 88mm ammunition. The 88, in its original anti-aircraft form, was one of the few German weapons that remained in series production throughout the war years. It became one of the mainstays of the German air-defence forces, for both the Heer (Army) and Luftwaffe (Air Force), and its deployment spread to other non-German armed forces as well. For some of these non-German armed forces the 88 remained a viable weapon until almost the end of the twentieth century.

The 88 did not spring out of nowhere. Had they but taken more notice of the fact, the 88 had been an anti-armour option within the German tactical establishment since the Spanish Civil War of 1936–1939. The unfortunate British Expeditionary Force (BEF) had first experienced the 88 in combat at Arras in May 1940; and the French had suffered from its firepower during the earlier Meuse crossings. By mid-1941 the 88 was making its lethal presence felt on the battlefields of North Africa and by the end of that year it was adding to its laurels on the post-Operation Barbarossa Eastern Front. From 1939 onwards the 88 acted as the mainstay of the air defence of the Dritter Reich.

The origins of the 88 can now be traced back to 1916, if not before.

The starting point, the 8.8cm FlaK 18. (TJ Gander Collection)

Beginnings

By 1916 military aircraft were beginning to make a significant impact on the tactical situation prevailing on the battlefields of the First World War, especially on the Western Front. Although aviation was still in its infancy in 1916, increasing use was being made of aircraft for reconnaissance and artillery observation, while the first tentative experiments in tactical bombing were being conducted. On both sides, by 1916 air-to-air combat was well established in attempts to deny the enemy the advantages of observing their actions or dispositions. Ground forces also sought some form of weapon with which to counter the airborne threat, not only against aircraft but also against observation balloons.

As far as the Germans were concerned the military balloon had been a potential adversary ever since the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. Various high barrel-elevation gun projects were mooted during the years that followed and in 1906 the German Erhardt concern (later to become part of the Rheinmetall-Borsig conglomerate) mounted a 5cm Ballon Abwehr Kanone (BAK) on an armoured truck chassis and demonstrated it to an unimpressed German General Staff. Daimler followed in 1909 with a 5.7cm FlaK Panzerkraftwagen. Neither of these vehicles was accepted for service, although the concept was to re-emerge before the end of 1914.

Early days. The Erhardt/Rheinmetall 5cm Ballon Abwehr Kanone (BAK) of 1906. (TJ Gander Collection)

A 1908 experiment combining a 6.5cm Rheinmetall gun with an Erhardt truck chassis. The vehicle and gun had a crew of six and, powered by a 80hp engine, could reach road speeds of up to 60km/h, while the gun itself could fire up to 25rds/min and reach an maximum altitude of 7,900m. This gun and vehicle combination remained a prototype. (TJ Gander Collection)

As early as 1914 a small German anti-aircraft arm had been formed. When the First World War began this infant arm was equipped with just eighteen guns. Most of them were simply field guns, usually of 77mm calibre, with their field carriages perched on precarious frameworks to provide the necessary high angles of barrel elevation and some degree of on-carriage traverse to track potential targets. As the usual barrel length was limited to about 27 calibres, the modest muzzle velocities resulted in extended times of projectile flight to the target and range was limited. Something better was needed and requests for more powerful, custom-built anti-aircraft weapons were placed with German industry. The result was a series of 57, 75, 77 and 80mm high-velocity guns with extended length barrels (to enhance muzzle velocities) and more serviceable high-elevation mountings. Some were positioned on self-propelled mountings. During late 1916 the first 88mm guns appeared.

The selection of the 88mm calibre was as a result of the fact that 88mm guns had long been established as standard German Navy weapons, mainly because a round of 88mm ammunition was the considered to be the largest and heaviest that a single man could handle as a fixed round, i.e. the projectile and propellant-carrying cartridge case were joined together as a single unit for loading to increase the possible rate of fire (the total round weight was 15.3kg). Production machinery for both barrels and ammunition was therefore readily to hand at the production facilities of Krupp AG and Rheinmetall-Borsig AG (hereafter referred to simply as Rheinmetall), and both produced the requested Geschütze 8.8cm KwFlaK (Kw – Kampfwagen – military vehicle).

The Krupp and Rheinmetall submissions emerged as almost identical designs. Both had 45-calibre barrels (i.e. the barrel length was 45 times the calibre of 88mm) that could fire a 9.6kg high-explosive, time-fuzed projectile (also of naval origin) at a muzzle velocity of from 765 to 785m/s to a practical operational height of about 6,850m. Maximum possible range was 10,800m. Both near-identical mountings were secured on flat-platform, twin-axled trailers that were stabilised in action by folding outrigger arms on each side. One advanced feature was that the trailer mountings were intended from the outset to be towed by motorised tractors, a most unusual procedure in 1916 and one that gave the guns a high degree of mobility. Their total towed weight was approximately 7,300kg. Aiming was primarily by on-carriage, direct-vision methods, but by late 1918 rudimentary forms of centralised fire control were being introduced.

An example of a Rheinmetall Geschütze 8.8cm KwFlaK ready for action with its L/45 barrel at maximum elevation. (P Chamberlain Collection)

A surviving example of the Krupp version of the Geschütze 8.8cm KwFlaK still on display at the Aberdeen Proving Ground Museum in Maryland. (TJ Gander)

Head-on view of the Krupp version of the Geschütze 8.8cm KwFlaK at the Aberdeen Proving Ground Museum in Maryland. (TJ Gander)

By the end of 1918 the German anti-aircraft arm was no more. What antiaircraft guns had survived the events leading up to the November 1918 Armistice were impounded by the Allies, either to be scrapped or handed out as war trophies, few of which seem to have survived. As the newly formed Reichswehr was intended to be limited in scope to the functions of an internal security force, the integral air defence for the German land forces was almost entirely dependent on rifle-calibre machine-guns, other than a few batteries (code-named Fahrabteilung) of Rheinmetall 75mm guns with 60-calibre barrels, which were considered to be unsatisfactory and destined to be sold to Spain as soon as 88s began to arrive. But already plans for the next steps in the 88 story were being made.

Development

The terms of the 1919 Treaty of Versailles imposed stringent sanctions on the German armament industrial infrastructure, and especially on the twin industrial giants of Krupp and Rheinmetall. Krupp AG of Essen was particularly affected, for it was forbidden by specific clauses in the Treaty from designing and manufacturing artillery having calibres below 170mm, a market sector that it had virtually made its own and from which it had hitherto gained the bulk of its income. In addition, the number of guns it could manufacture each year was strictly limited. As a result, during the early 1920s Krupp (and Rheinmetall) activities were constantly monitored by teams of Treaty observers to ensure the Treaty terms were being obeyed and implemented, so senior executives sought some way to overcome the restrictions that hampered their on-going commercial ambitions.

The strategy followed by Rheinmetall, as well as Krupp, was to form associations with defence manufacturers outside Germany and therefore not under the unwelcome gaze of the Treaty observers. Rheinmetall went on to develop links with concerns in Holland and Switzerland, while Krupp renewed a close association with AB Bofors of Sweden – the two concerns had previously created various forms of co-operation and licensing relationships dating from the 1880s (the first gun manufactured by AB Bofors was built under licence from Krupp).

The new Bofors/Krupp association was established by 1921. In broad terms a team of Krupp designers (at first just three) and technicians were allowed to utilise the AB Bofors facilities at Karlskoga in Sweden in return for access to Krupp manufacturing licences and techniques, design expertise and general know-how. AB Bofors provided access to their research and design premises and activities. Krupp also purchased an interest in the AB Bofors concern. As the 1920s progressed Bofors and Krupp personnel co-operated on a range of new artillery designs, and artillery and ballistic research in general. By 1922 the German part of this relationship was being surreptitiously subsidised by the German War Office. Together with Krupp AG the War Office established a ‘ghost’ office in Berlin named Koch und Kienzle, through which funds could be channelled to finance the team in Sweden without attracting scrutiny from Treaty observers or the German parliament.

Many of the co-operative Bofors/Krupp projects undertaken during the 1920s remained as ‘paper’ designs. However, one destined to reach the hardware stage was a 75mm anti-aircraft gun with a 60-calibre barrel which was intended to be able to cope with aerial targets having performances well above those of contemporary aircraft. The intention was that such a gun would meet a stated Swedish armed forces requirement and perhaps form the basis for the next generation of German anti-aircraft guns. An 80mm version was proposed to meet possible export orders, while 76.2mm variants were manufactured and delivered to the Soviet Union and Finland. Under the Bofors label, 75mm guns were ordered by the Swedish armed forces in both static and mobile forms and others were exported to nations such as Brazil. More 75mm guns were sent to Germany, but only in small numbers. They were adopted by the German Navy, most of them ending up defending German dockyard facilities.

But the German Army was less impressed. By the late 1920s the terms of the Treaty of Versailles were gradually becoming moribund and staff planners were increasingly taking measures to determine the nature of the next generation of weapons they considered necessary for the future. Using data gleaned from the operational reports of 1914–1918 they had decided that of the two artillery calibres allowed to them by the Treaty terms to arm the Reichswehr, namely 75mm and 105mm, neither was suitable for the field-service, ‘heavy’ anti-aircraft gun that they forecast would be needed. The 75mm calibre was regarded as too light in projectile terms, while a 105mm fixed round was considered to be too bulky and heavy to be handled comfortably by an individual. Once again, the 88mm calibre formed a convenient intermediary. The experience gained with their Bofors counterparts indicated to Krupp designers that the earlier Krupp/Bofors 75mm design could be readily utilised as the basis for an 88mm gun.

One of the results of the Krupp/Bofors association was the 76.2mm Model 1927 sold to Finland. This example now serves as a war memorial on the island fortress of Suomenlinna (Sveaborg) off Helsinki. (TJ Gander)

By 1930 the Krupp/Bofors association was in the process of winding down. In that year the Swedish government passed an edict that severely restricted the ownership of Swedish firms by overseas concerns. The Krupp teams therefore returned to Essen, taking with them the drawings of what was to become the basis for the 88. Once back in Essen, refinements were added and suitable enlargements of the Bofors/Krupp design were introduced so that by the beginning of 1932 the prototypes of the 88mm gun were ready for testing.

Soon after the initial testing phase the first production plans were quietly made so