Author Topic: German 8.8 cm Anti-Aircraft  (Read 2198 times)

Offline BreakingBad

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German 8.8 cm Anti-Aircraft
« on: January 29, 2013, 09:39:01 AM »
Does anyone know how the Germans were able to get the 88 shells to explode at a given altitude against bombing raids.

I imagine there was a fuse that could somehow be adjusted on each individual shell.  Perhaps some form of 'dial' that would spin or adjust prior to firing which correlated to shell burst timing.

Problem as I see it though, the muzzle velocity was approximately 2,700 ft/s.  In order for it to explode within 100 ft, you would need a precision to 1/27th of a second (or even greater for a smaller window. 

Also it would seem as the shell reached it's apogee, it would begin to get slower and slower until v=0.

Then depending on the angle of the shot, as the planes approached from the horizon to a point vertical over the gun, the net distance from gun to plane would change quite quickly.

I imagine it was probably pretty hard to actually get shells to burst among the airplanes when you think of all the variables.

Offline Lusche

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Re: German 8.8 cm Anti-Aircraft
« Reply #1 on: January 29, 2013, 11:13:18 AM »
Does anyone know how the Germans were able to get the 88 shells to explode at a given altitude against bombing raids.

I imagine there was a fuse that could somehow be adjusted on each individual shell.

Each fuse had a timer in it. The timer (precision clockwork) was set for each shell individually just before the round was loaded into the gun








But it was basically the same mechanism all heavy AA guns from all nations used (before arrival of radar fuzed proximity shells). This is a US 90mm gun in ther pacific:



« Last Edit: January 29, 2013, 11:14:54 AM by Lusche »
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Offline CptA

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Re: German 8.8 cm Anti-Aircraft
« Reply #2 on: January 29, 2013, 11:14:36 AM »
The German 88mm Flak AA ammunition used a simple manually set mechanical time fuse.

Accurate AA fire required a well trained crew effort.

The rangefinder/gun director (Kommandogerat 36) gave the height and by refering to the firing tables, the proper azimuth, elevation, and fuse delay settings could be transmitted to the crew so that a time delay setting could be set into the fuse for each round fired.

Here is a link to the U.S. Technical Manual prepared during the war that covers the operation of the German Flak 88s.

TM E9-369A TECHNICAL MANUAL GERMAN 88-MM ANTIAIRCRAFT GUN MATERIEL 29 JUNE 1943

http://www.lexpev.nl/downloads/tme9369agerman88mmgun.pdf

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