German Anti-aircraft Flak
The Germans produced an incredible number of
"Flak" guns to protect their troops in the field and eventually to provide
a moderately effective system of radar directed
Flak and searchlight systems to protect their major industrial cities, in
particular those of the Ruhr valley.
Flak was the nightmare of bomber crews as it wasn't predictable, you couldn't
see it coming and if you swerved to avoid the bursts
in front, you could just as easily fly into the next set of shells. They
exploded in daylight with puffs of black smoke
with little red interiors, and made muffled "krumppp" sounds (due to the
high levels of noise in the Allied bombers).
At night they flashed quickly yellow or red and disappeared. When one hit
close the shards of shrapnel banged through the
aircraft and pinged off of more solid members.
With a direct hit from an
88 mm or larger shell the aircraft would stagger, sometimes stall, fill with
smoke and screaming wounded airmen.
Sometimes a wing would fold up and the bomber would go straight down in
flames. Other times the entire aircraft would
simply vanish in a dirty ball of fire, smoke and bits of plane and man. Many
other times the aircraft and men would fly on,
riddled with holes but still fighting. Only to have to try to land somewhere
with damaged under carriages, missing engines
and wounded or dead crew. Often they bombed their targets only to die in
a crash landing.
