Figure 1.--Here we see Luftwaffe men by a SdKfz 10/2 2cm FLAK halftrack on a town street. Note tht even in the town that the streets were not paved. We at first thought it was somewhere in the Soviet Union, possibly the Ukraine. Notice the street signs in Cyrilic. A Russian reader tells us that one in Serbian Cyrillic reads--'Zhel'eznichka Stanica' (railway station). This would mean Serbia. The uppaved town streets would mean a backward area. The boys seemingly are at ease with the soldiers which rather surprised us. One curious matter is that Yugoslavs flags can still be seen. We would have expected the Germans to tear down the flags when they entered a town.

There were two types of guns associated with the air war, plane armamnt and anti-aircraft guns. The first type of guns were the plane armament, the guns and cannon with which aircraft were armed. Fighters were armed wuth both heavy machine guns and light cannons. The Me-109 had a cannon in its nose from the beginning of the War. American and British fighters were armed with machine guns. While the American fighters stayed with the reliable .50 calibre machine guns, the British on their later models of the Hurricanes and Spitfires and also the newer Tempests and Typhoons added 20mm cannons. The British finally realized that even eight 0.30 calibre machine guns were no match against the range and destructive power of a 20mm cannon. The American machine guns would be suplmented by rockets in the later phase of the War. This helped make planes effective anti-tank weapons. Bombers came with machine guns for protection. This was why the B-17 was called the Flying Fortress. They did not, however, prove adequate to fight through German fighter defenses. For this long range escorts were needed. The Americans in the final year of the War deployed guns on the new B-29s that were radar guided. The second type of guns were anti-aircraft guns. This also included both machine guns and cannons. Just as there was a rapid evolution of aircraft during the War so did anti-aircraft weapons rapidly evolve. The finest anti-aircraft weapon for much of the War was the German 88mm which interestingly appeared very early in the War. The Germans because of the strength of the Luftwaffe at first found they had little need for anti-aircaft weaopons in the first years of the War. They soon found that the 88mm was a very effective tank killer and was widely used for this purpose in both the East and the West. It was the Germans who first worked out how important anti-tank artillery was in mobil tank warfare. As the War progressed and the Allies strategic bombing campaign begam, the Germans were forced to divert more and more of their artillery to anti-aircraft gun prduction and and defenses. The Germans has to deploy huge numbers of these in massive FLAK belts around the major cities. And importantly, vast quantities of amunition had to be diverted for this purpose. On the Allied side there was less need for anti-aircraft guns in the later phase of the War although the guns along the coast managed to shoot down a number of V-1s (June-July 1944). In the first few years of the war the German 88mm was probably the best anti-aircraft gun on land, but that was all changed with the American 90mm radar controlled anti-aircraft gun, especially when microwave radar was perfected (1944). Also critical for the Americans was the Bofor anti-aircraft guns deployed as a naval weapon in the Pacific (1943). The Bolfors and proximnity fuses played an important role in carrier warfare and beating back the Kamikazees in the final year of the War.

Aircraft Armament

The first type of weapons associated with the air war was the plane armament, the guns and cannon with which aircraft were armed. Fighters were armed wuth both heavy machine guns and light cannons. The Me-109 had a cannon in its nose from the beginning of the War. American and British fighters were armed with machine guns. While the American fighters stayed with the reliable 0.50 calibre machine guns. The debate between machine guns and cannon is an ongoing discussion among military historians. The British on their later models of the Hurricanes and Spitfires and also the newer Tempests and Typhoons added 20mm cannons. The British finally decided that even eight 0.30 calibre machine guns were no match against the range and destructive power of a 20mm cannon. The problem with World War II aircraft cannons, however, is lift capcity. World ar II air crft, especially the small German Me-109 and Japanese Zero could carry only a limited number of havy cannon shells. The American machine guns would be suplmented by rockets in the later phase of the War. This helped make planes effective anti-tank weapons, although the poor accurcy mean that often what stopped the tanks was the softer targets, supporting the tanks such as fuel tnkers. Bombers came with machine guns for protection. This was why the B-17 was called the Flying Fortress. They did not, however, prove adequate to fight through German fighter defenses. For this long range escorts were needed. The Americans in the final year of the War deployed guns on the new B-29s that were radar guided. One important issue concerning aircraft armament is the ability to destroy tanks. Here the a bility of both Allied, Foviet, and German aircraft to destroy a tank is stronly overated in World War II lore.

Anti-Aircraft Guns

Created: 9:51 PM 11/12/2012
Last updated: 4:46 PM 1/26/2017