how does flak ammunition work

You are at a gateway to WWII discussion, research, exploration, & analysis. And with all that jungle, he said nothing shredded them better than Flak fire and napalm fire. While it fits well into the Allied narrative of how the strategic bombing campaign robbed the German army of valuable munitions, it was only partially true. But this was a false metric. Feb 19, 2014 Jack Beckett, Guest Author. By 1944, a large proportion of the American electronics industry concentrated on making the fuzes. After that a fresh shot could be positioned in a more favorable position by possibly a telescopic actuator using the gas compressed previously. The tweet exchange occurred on November 28 - December 4, 2014 and is below. Protective vests called flak jackets were first used in World War II; the word flak comes from the abbreviated form of the German word Flugabwehrkanone, a type of antiaircraft gun. While smaller shells without fuzes will need to actually hit the aircraft to damage it, most all other AAA will have some type of fuzing. They were widely used by Germany throughout the war. Is Wolfram|Alpha just an online equation solver. [7], One fighter pilot who was shot down by incendiary ammunition while flying in the Battle of Britain describes his experience:[8].mw-parser-output .templatequote{overflow:hidden;margin:1em 0;padding:0 40px}.mw-parser-output .templatequote .templatequotecite{line-height:1.5em;text-align:left;padding-left:1.6em;margin-top:0}, "I could smell powder smoke, hot and strong, but it didn't make me feel tough this time. Nevertheless, it did a good job of stopping shell blasts, rocket fragments, and slow speed bullets fired at a moderate range. Step 1: Loading. Fine condition. Sure, in UT99 there is some sort of piston that pushes ammo into the firing chamber, but it's placement makes it impossible to get access to ammo from the magazine, there is no space for that. While no one invention won the war, the proximity fuze must be listed among the very small group of developments, such as radar, upon which victory very largely depended. "[27][30] As Tuve understood, the circuitry of the fuze was rudimentary. . Sign upfor our newsletterhere. Firing Coilguns draws power from connected Supercapacitors, as well as ammunition . When the flak batteries pinpointed an aircraft the guns were fired in salvos designed to burst in a sphere of 60 yards in diameter in which it was hoped to entrap the target. fine for not having a boat licence qld; cherokee brick products Flak damaged tens of thousands of bombers. Some of these guns saw limited use. Each pocket could carry 1 en bloc clip with 8 rounds for the M1 Rifle or 2 stripper clips with 5 rounds for the M1903 rifle. Vote! After so many seconds, the shell would detonate like a times bomb. [9] Information was also shared with Canada in 1940 and the National Research Council of Canada delegated work on the fuze to a team at the University of Toronto. This gun served as the main armament of the Tiger I heavy tank. Others mentioned how flak guns were used in Vietnam, I went on an immersion trip with my college down to one of the poorest counties in the U.S. met a pastor there and helped him fix up his church, and some of the nearby buildings. They never pooled their resources, instead each would go their own way, often siting individual radars in the same place., Two myths about flak: one it was not very effective, from an Allied point of view, and second the Allied bombing campaign against Germany created a second front siphoning off thousands of men to man the guns and robbing the German army of valuable men. The old man was a Vietnam vet and happened to be a gunner of said Flak guns. Entering service in 1965, the Leopard 1 is one of the most famous tanks of the Cold War and Modern Era. Not FLAK in particular but I wanted to clear up a bit about fragmentation shells in general. [43] The design had four or five tubes. In this video, you'll find out the percentages of where Allied bombers got hit the most. As opposed to earlier designs, the B Mark VI was a true incendiary rather than tracer ammunition. The same is true of bombers. If you're taking flak, chances are you're in a bad situation and taking fire from an enemy. A fireball from a kamikaze attack engulfs the USS Columbia during a battle near the Philippines in 1945. Flak as we know it ( the exploding ordinance variety ) works by using fuses. Proximity fuzes are designed for targets such as planes, missiles, ships at sea, and ground forces. 2 Answers. Vote! 60.0. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. Join in if you dare! The proximity fuze makes the problem simpler than the previous methods. How doesit compare with fighter interceptors for effectiveness? There was a variant of the Stielgranate 41 (hollowed charge, stick grenade) for the 3,7 cm Flak weapons (18, 36, 37, 43) to emergency fight back heavy armored vehicles. ARTICLES. Spreader: Used against swarms in order to spread out the shots and damage as many as possible. Proximity fuzes are designed for targets such as planes, missiles, ships at sea, and ground forces. The only Allied option was tactical infatry inserted to upset the German air defenses and provide a diversion for the larger forces to come in after. (U.S. Navy) It even potentially saved the life of one of its creators, Dr. Van Allen. Change). It took away from the narrative of how successful the Allied bombing campaign was and the heavy price they paid. All of this in one go, it would not be possible to do it like it is shown ingame. Warpath Units. "[27] The critical work of adapting the fuze for anti-aircraft shells was done in the United States, not in England. The flak also blew up the trees, which created additional deadly shrapnel. Allied AA guns were equally effective. The Marine heavy AA guns on Guadalcanal, for example, in 1942 forced Japanese to bombers to fly higher reducing their accuracy to a great extent, but you never hear or read about it. The War Office proved uninterested in the concept and told the two to work on other issues. Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features. Regular $49.99 (Save $15.00) The fabricated sniper rifle also doesn't need a scope attachment since it comes as part of the gun . It does not store any personal data. Although flak jackets offered some basic protection against small caliber bullets and shell fragments (which was valued by their users), ultimately they proved to be less effective than hoped. [55], At first the fuzes were only used in situations where they could not be captured by the Germans. A ship's propeller rotating in water produces a powerful hydroacoustic noise which can be picked up using a hydrophone and used for homing and detonation. It was one of the most recognizable and most feared German weapons of the war. The cannon was fully automatic and effective against aircraft flying at altitudes up to 4,200 m. The cannon was produced in both towed and self-propelled versions. Firing pin: Strikes the back of the flare and causes it to explode and shoot off down the barrel. Notes. This led me to thinking of how AA guns and defences played a role in the air war over Europe and the Pacific. For smaller artillery, anything except a direct hit often killed very few or nobody if the soldiers were in cover. <br /> [25] Pye's research was transferred to the United States as part of the technology package delivered by the Tizard Mission when the United States entered the war. In December of that year the British Air Ministry purchased the design. While it doesn't do as much damage per shot as the Longneck (165 damage compared to the Longneck's 280) it can be fired 8 times before needing to be reloaded. hospital valet job description how does flak ammunition work. As the missile cruises towards its target the laser energy simply beams out into space. As the missile passes its target some of the energy strikes the target and is reflected to the missile, where detectors sense it and detonate the warhead. Similarly, incendiary ammunition was used against non-rigid observation balloons. Proximity fuzes are also useful for producing air bursts against ground targets. Flak Ammo is a type of bullet that spreads in flight, making it good for medium-ranged combat. It would have never been used in action. All of these suffered from the large size of pre-WWII electronics and their fragility, as well as the complexity of the required circuitry. The Columbia survived, but 13 crew members were killed. The Flak 88 was a legendary WWII-era anti-air and an anti-tank gun used by Nazi Germany and their allies.Jul 22, 2018, Four were the different FlaKs produced and improved from 1933 until the end of WWII, 8.8 cm. Design of the type began as early as 1936 under the charge of the Rheinmetall-Borsig concern and then known as the "Gerat 40", intended as an in-the-field gun system for the German Army. [13], The proximity fuze was one of the most important technological innovations of World War II. At the start of The Blitz, it was estimated that it took 20,000 rounds to shoot down a single aircraft, [6] other estimates put the figure as high as 100,000[7] or as low as 2,500. how does flak ammunition work They made the Allied heavy artillery far more devastating, as all the shells now exploded just before hitting the ground. In December 1940, Tuve invited Harry Diamond and Wilbur S. Hinman, Jr, of the United States National Bureau of Standards (NBS) to investigate Berkner's improved fuze and develop a proximity fuze for rockets and bombs to use against the German Luftwaffe. e Weapons. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrapnel_shell. ; "Precision Radar,", Smith, Peter C. Kamikaze: To Die for the Emperor. But when the reflected signal was out of phase then the combined radio signal amplitude would decrease, which would decrease the plate current. For a side-by-side comparison of all weapons, see the Weapons page! How do they get the shells to explode at the correct altitude? (Yikes! The Allied fuze used constructive and destructive interference to detect its target. Pye's group was apparently unable to get their rugged pentodes to function reliably under high pressures until 6 August 1941, which was after the successful tests by the American group. (LogOut/ Indeed when you compare these numbers to the more effective 128mm AA gun the numbers are intriguing. The blast from the first bomb was used to trigger the fuze of the second bomb which would explode above ground and in this turn would detonate the third bomb with the process repeated all the way till the last bomb in the string. (LogOut/ how does flak ammunition work. An American team under Admiral Harold G. Bowen, Sr. correctly deduced that the tubes were meant for experiments with proximity fuzes for bombs and rockets. Despite intense work by the Germans to finish the project, it was finally put out of action by a raid on 6 July 1944 before a single shell . Measures 1 5/8 inches wide by 2 1/8 inches tall. When the Allies began to use the term is not known. As the shell approaches a reflecting object, an interference pattern is created. vs. Varian patent suit (which saved the U.S. Navy millions of dollars), the fuze design delivered by the Tizard Mission was "not the one we made to work! https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Cheney_hunting_incident. US Navy development and early production was outsourced to the Wurlitzer company, at their barrel organ factory in North Tonawanda, New York.[49]. British military researchers at the Telecommunications Research Establishment (TRE) Samuel C. Curran, William A. S. Butement, Edward S. Shire, and Amherst F. H. Thomson conceived of the idea of a proximity fuze in the early stages of World War II. [26][27], Looking for a short-term solution to the valve problem, in 1940 the British ordered 20,000 miniature tubes from Western Electric Company and Radio Corporation of America that were intended for use in hearing aids. The first time incendiary ammunition was widely used was in World WarI, more specifically in 1916. It found use in both the Army and the Navy, and was employed in the defense of London. The probability of a direct hit on a small moving target is low; a shell that just misses the target will not explode. To shoot right click with the loaded gun in your hand and it should shoot. Flak is defined as the bursting shells shot at aircraft from enemy guns on the ground, or criticism or opposition. Heaven High, Hell Deep 1917-1918, Normal Archibald, "The Battle of Britain: Armament of the Competing Fighters", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Incendiary_ammunition&oldid=1134758731, Articles with unsourced statements from November 2021, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 20 January 2023, at 13:29. Combat Extended adds a plethora of new features to the game, many of which are not immediately apparent. Acting like a normal bullet in flight, then after a short delay, it will explode into 5 more bullets. And any flak that comes his way for winding up any opponents doesn't bother him, nor secretly please him, too much. Answer (1 of 18): A good way of describing flak is a mid-air grenade. [10] These included acoustic fuzes triggered by engine sound, one based on electrostatic fields developed by Rheinmetall Borsig, and radio fuzes. Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. In mid-November 1939, a German neon lamp tube and a design of a prototype proximity fuze based on capacitive effects was received by British Intelligence as part of the Oslo Report. Its interesting at how effective the flak was but still a gradual attrition and conversely how difficult it was for Allied Bombers ability to find and to destroy the targets they wanted ( which then evolved into area bombing) but they still threw enormous resources into strategic bombing. The NDRC research highlighted the speed of sound as a major limitation in the design and use of acoustic fuzes, particularly in relation to missiles and high-speed aircraft. They lacked the guns, effective radar, and the cooperation between the Army and Navy was terrible. The gun pits were arranged to enable the high altitude flak guns ( probably British army 3.7 in guns) fire in unison to create a box pattern when the shells exploded at the preset height and would follow the track of the bombers That was the means a lethal zone was put where the bombers were expected to be. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. A German artillery crew relaxes next to their 88 mm gun. The British Mk VI bullet was copied by the United States in simplified form, for both their .30 and .50 aircraft bullets. 14 December, 2014. Built around a miniature radio transmitter and receiver, the VT fuse overcame the major disadvantage of the time and contact fuses and was capable of detecting its target and detonating within 75 feet. Check out the main categories below. When an 88mm projectile exploded at altitude, it sent out jagged On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. 50 Rounds of 115gr FMJ 9mm Ammo by Winchester. Flak, or Fliegerabwehrkanone, works by arming artillery class cannons for the use of Anti-Air duties. This permitted the purchase of over 22 million fuzes for approximately one billion dollars ($14.6 billion in 2021 USD[51]). The obvious choice would be the Luftwaffes AA defenses, but I would point to the US Navys development of the VT fuse or radar equipped proximity fuse. Armor Penetration Table. The 88 earned its reputation as the best overall gun of the war. The famous flak gun became one of the most feared anti-tank weapons of the Second World War, serving everywhere from the sands of North Africa to the snowy wastelands of the Russian front. They suggested the system would be useful for the coast artillery units, who could accurately measure the range to shipping even at night. These included planar electrodes and packing the components in wax and oil to equalize the stresses. When the target was far away, little of the oscillator's transmitted energy would be reflected to the fuze. Stewart pledged his support for Ukraine while visiting a hospital in Essex, England, adding more fighter . Some sectioned shells from the First World War. "I've never really looked at it like that," he said. The Hush-Kit Book of Warplanes will feature the finest cuts from this site along with exclusive new articles, explosive photography and gorgeous bespoke illustrations. Ah. Due to the increase of people asking what kind of shell they should use with their gun that has X and Y stats, here is a guide to help you pick. The versatile 88mm cannon was Germany's main heavy antiaircraftor flakgun during World War II. They showered the Soviets with aa guns, keeping them in a position. Life on Royal Navy aircraft carrier(1960), Hush-Kit Joe talking 10 favouriteaircraft, The case for the P-47 Thunderbolt being the greatest fighter of the Second WorldWar, The Republic P-47 Thunderbolt MafiaFamily, 10 things you need to know about the P-47Thunderbolt. We directly support the repository at WW2.ORG, and several other worthwhile projects that add to the historical record. Notice: Function is_feed was called incorrectly.Conditional query tags do not work before the query is run. [64] [65], During WW2, the Germans had at least five acoustic fuzes for anti-aircraft use under development, though none saw operational service. It examines heavy flak defences, flak over the battlefield, the failure of ship AA defences early in the war; specifically the Bismarck and the sinking of the Prince of Wales and Repulse in 1941, AA defences against the worlds first cruise missile (V-1), right up to the human guided missile that was the kamikaze in the Pacific., I was inspired after reading Edward B. Westermanns book Flak: German Anti-Aircraft Defenses 1914-1945. Use a gun. If my health was such that I was still in to historical board and miniatures games I betcha this would, umm, lets say, engender energetic conversation, in that realm. Like its World War II namesake, the Flakpanzer 38 (t), the Gepard was based on the hull of an existing tank. The most common type of shell contains shotround pellets of lead or steelinstead . As the war progress and the manpower shortage increased thousands of able-bodied flak men were transferred to the army. Flak came into English as an abbreviation for the German word Fliegerabwehrkanone, meaning aircraft-defense gun. When the reflected signal was in phase, the oscillator amplitude would increase and the oscillator's plate current would also increase. Follow up question, why do AA guns turn the sky red when theyre being fired? Items that can be anointed include weapons, shields, and grenade mods. A proximity fuze (or fuse) is a fuze that detonates an explosive device automatically when the distance to the target becomes smaller than a predetermined value. How many shells does a flak gun fire per minute? This process continued for the last 10 months of the war, robbing German cities of vital flak defences. A simulated battle conditions test was started on 12 August 1942. It would have defended an airbase about 5 miles away and could have protected the city proper about the same distance away but over water. 8,8 cm Kw K 36 (L/56) Information about the 8,8 cm Kw K 35 (L/56). I was wondering how such weapon could possibly work, how would cycling ammo work with such a shape and configuration, how does the weapon remove used cartridges from the barrel, how the heck does fresh ammo get in the barrel in the first place (you just see a new shot move magically into the firing chamber). AA shrapnel also killed and wounded tens of thousands of aircrew, significantly reducing the overall efficiency and morale.. They provide a more sophisticated trigger mechanism than the common contact fuze or timed fuze. All aircraft were susceptible to flak. Create an account to follow your favorite communities and start taking part in conversations. [citation needed] The British then adopted the simplified design as the Mk VII bullet. His in-depth and comprehensive study of German flak defences clearly showed how effective they really were. . Although it gave accurate ranges, it could not produce good azimuth indications or elevation figures. It was from the cannon shells and incendiary bullets that had hit my machineBullets were going between my legs, and I remember seeing a bright flash of an incendiary bullet going past my leg into the gas tankThen a little red tongue licked out inquiringly from under the gas tank in front of my feet and became a hot little bonfire in one corner of the cockpit.". The first bomb in the stick was fitted with an impact fuze while the other bombs were fitted with pressure sensitive diaphragm actuated detonators. I would point to the Luftwaffe flak defenses of the Ruhr, their larger cities like Berlin and their oil refineries. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads. Shrapnel wounds became so common that eventually any wound from a metal fragment tended to be called "shrapnel" in general: from hang grenades, from debris thrown by an explosion, etc. After the war, the British Bombing Survey Unit (BBSU) continued this line of thinking describing German AA defences as plentiful but not very lethal. At the same time the official RAF history of the air war estimated that German flak accounted for 37 percent of Bomber Commands losses between July 1942 and April 1945. The three drones were destroyed with just four projectiles.[9][42]. The main suppliers were Crosley, RCA, Eastman Kodak, McQuay-Norris and Sylvania. Empyrion - Galactic Survival > General Discussions > Topic Details. 4. . These guns have enough damage potential to down a single-engine aircraft with a single shot, with 2 or 3 needed to down larger aircraft. Flak, or Fliegerabwehrkanone, works by arming artillery class cannons for the use of Anti-Air duties. And if that don't work use more gun.". [68], During WW2, pressure activated fuzes were developed for sticks (or trains) of bombs to create above ground airbursts. amtifo backup camera troubleshooting. Getting that right was harder than you would think with the limited means of getting the planes altitude and speed right and they would only have a few minutes at most to do so. Coilguns shoot high velocity bolts that deal damage to anything they hit. Weapons and Ammunition. When I say sheer firepower, in January 1944 20,625 flak guns were protecting the Reich, and even a German Flak officer estimated 4,000 x 88mm shells were needed to down one bomber. It was first tested as a part of a detonation device for bombs that were to be dropped over bomber aircraft, part of the UK's Air Ministry's "bombs on bombers" concept. The B Mark VI incendiary bullet was packed with nitrocellulose, and a small steel ball was placed in the tip of the bullet to ensure that the chemical exploded on impact. Reddit and its partners use cookies and similar technologies to provide you with a better experience. Thompson was sent to the British Air Defence Establishment based on the second of the two concepts. [8] With a proximity fuze, the shell or missile need only pass close by the target at some time during its flight. [21][22], In 1936, the Air Ministry took over Bawdsey Manor in Suffolk to further develop their prototype radar systems that would emerge the next year as Chain Home.

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