Casual WWII history is replete with examples of Germans using their Flak 88mm guns to destroy Allied tanks. There's enough examples of veterans claiming every anti-tank gun or even artillery shell was from an 88mm and of course every tank a Tiger tank with an 88mm... Stephen Ambrose takes the veterans words at face value and its compounded when translated to screen in Saving Private Ryan and Band of Brothers.
Yet in real examples, whether its in France 1940 (Arras), North Africa (Hellfire Pass and many other examples), or Normandy (Operation Goodwood) or Market Garden (Eindhoven, Nijmegen, and Son Bridge), and various examples on the Eastern Front, the legend of the 88mm gun lives on. The few examples of their use shouldn't represent the whole by default, however.
To be specific, I'm referring to the Flak 18/36/37 and later Flak 41 models... the 88mm that was originally configured as an anti-aircraft with the four stabilizer outriggers.
This does not include the Anti-Tank 88mm platforms in the form of the Pak 43 or 43/41. These equipped dedicated heavy anti-tank battalions (schwere Panzerjager Abteilung) and acted as bigger brothers to the more common 75mm Pak 40's.
This question comes up again because in finding the battalion locations for the 1st SS at the start of Operation Spring. On the excellent Weapons and Warfare blog post on the operation, it lists the following for the 1st SS's Flak battalion locations:
"... defended by Max Junge’s 2nd SS Panzer-Grenadier Battalion of Sandig’s 2nd Regiment, together with the 3rd SS (88mm) Flak Company"
"The other two SS 88mm Flak companies were at Caillouet and St Aignan where the rest of Knittel’s 1st SS Reconnaissance Battalion provided yet another reserve."
There is no reference to them being used in the anti-tank role nor is there mention of their use in the operation and if they actually destroyed any Allied tanks. This is also one of the few references I've actually seen providing pinpoint locations of the Flak guns.
At present, I'm not looking to include any divisional or independent Flak battalions in the game, unless I have explicit examples where they are consistently used as anti-tank guns.
Keen observers will note that there are no Flak battalions in the divisional formations in Last Blitzkrieg: Wacht am Rhein, The Battle of the Bulge. The exception here is the Luftwaffe 84 Flak Bn under Peiper, but he used this unit as a rear guard unit and they were only equipped with 20mm guns. There are the 88mm guns in the independent Panzerjager battalions, however, but as I mentioned above, these were dedicated AT units, yet I have never found any mention of their use in the Bulge. All you often read are the generic accounts of American troops saying their tanks were "destroyed by some 88's". And by many accounts, the 88mm in the Flak battalions were used... duh... as anti-aircraft protection against Allied aircraft.
Note, however, Brazen Chariots: Battles for Tobruk, 1941 and Baptism By Fire: The Battle of Kasserine do have Luftwaffe 88mm Flak guns as AV. Why? Because there is actually replete examples of their use. The infamous use of the 88mm by Rommel is quite true and their impact was great. Hence not only the need to represent the 88mm Flak battalions, but to break them down into constituent company-sized batteries as each was assigned to specific hot spots or reserves as they were central to the defense and support of the Afrika Korps. These Luftwaffe crews were also heavily trained to fire against tanks.
Going back to Normandy, sure there were examples of 88mm guns being used. Operation Goodwood is one of them and the action around Cagny is an example of one. Yet, as I understand it, the exact unit that the 88mm has not been established. The 21st Panzer Division did have a whole battalion of 88mm guns but these are listed as "8,8 cm Pak (mot. Z.)" (88mm Panzerabwehrkanone Towed Motorized Transport) and hence a dedicated AT unit. Their 305th Flak Battalion did have the Flak 88mm but again, I'm hard pressed to find examples of this unit's use at anti-tank.
But what about other Flak battalions in Normandy? Yep, the III Flak Corps was spread throughout Normandy and I recall some examples of them being used against the Americans near Isigny. And per Zetterling in his indispensable Normandy 1944, he notes
Quote:
...the corps was mainly employed in the air defence role, not in the anti-tank role. This is also reflected in the claims by the corps during the Normandy battle
Air Craft shot down 462
Tanks destroyed 92
Armoured Cars destroyed 14
Of the tanks destroyed about twelve fell victims to the man-held Panzerfaust close range antitank weapon.
Zetterling later notes:
Quote:
...the corps was supplied with Flakkampfgruppen. These were created for ground combat. However, they did not arrive at the corps until it already was in Normandy. When these Flakkampfgruppen arrived, they were deemed to be insufficiently trained. Consequently they were placed in the Trun area to train and were not sent into combat until the British Goodwood offensive opertation in July. Each Flakkampfgruppe consisted of four Flakkamftruppen, which each had two 8,8 cm Flak guns. Three such Flakkamfgruppen were created.
The Flakkampfgruppen were not very successful in combat. The results were not in proportion to the casualties.11 They lost about 35 8,8 cm guns and 70 light Flak guns, while the number of tanks they knocked out were assessed to be twenty.
But what of the other 88's in other divisions? Hold on Tex... even a number of Infantry Divisions had 88mm in their Artillery Regiments but these were more to supplement lack of indirect fire howitzers than direct fire anti-tank guns... sure they could be used as anti-tank or anti-aircraft, but given the sore lack of artillery (many German artillery units were relegated to using captured French, Russian, or Czech guns), they were better used in "indirect fire" mode. And I purposely use air quotes here because given the high velocity of the 88mm, it's hard to get a nice arc to have the shell come down at an decent angle. As I understand it, they were quite poor as artillery and I don't count the 88mm on the same level as the 105mm or 150mm German howitzers.
In general, I'm hesitant to include an Anti-aircraft units in ground based games. Even the Americans with their excess Anti-Aircraft battalions cannot conceivably have these units represented as individual ground units despite the examples in the Battle of the Bulge of the 90mm guns facing off against Peiper or the Halftrack mounted Bofors being used in fighting retreats against the Germans towards Bastogne.
Sorry, a handful of brave actions don't mean a whole battalion's worth of guns gets represented. And as all of these units were broken and assigned across the regiments, divisional HQ, reserve, etc., they were never concentrated to fight as a whole unit. Just assume the batteries and sections of Quad .50's,. 37mm, 40mm Bofors, and 90mm AA gun are integrated into the existing units. I'm a bit surprised I haven't seen any stink about not having any German 88mm Flak units or American AA units in the game. Hmm... maybe gamers are already keen on their over-represented use in history...
Note that Operation Konrad does have many 88mm Flak units in the game as the few that supported the German offensive do have good references of their support in the attack as well as their use in defense within Budapest against Soviet tanks and infantry.
And remember, if a German 88mm Flak gun can earn this many kill rings, it'll get a counter in the game.
