World War I Ack-Ack

After reading the "What Killed MvR?" thread, I began wondering about just what anti-aircraft weaponry consisted of during WWI. I know there was always intense rifle fire from the trenches, of course, but were there actual units whose mission was dedicated soley to anti-aircraft defense? Did the weaponry consist only of machine guns or were there heavier artillery pieces used to lay out flak as in WWII.

Thanks for any input.

[Vigilant]

There were indeed special AA artillery pieces. I doubt a normal gun (even a howitzer) would have had the elevation necessary to hit a plane.

I saw a British example at the weekend at the IWM. It consisted of a 13-pounder mounted on a Thornycroft J-type lorry.

I would guess that dedicated AA machine-guns were only a feature of the latter part of the war, when there was a sufficiency of MGs in the armies. The ground was getting much deadlier for pilots - witness the way in which MvR overflew three (IIRC) AA MG sections on his short last flight.

Regards,

Vigilant.

[rammjaeger]

Germany possessed a little number of special designed Flak (at first named BAK = Ballon-Abwehr-Kanone) in the first days of the war and finished the war with 2576 Fla-Kanonen (MG not included!)!

Also howitzers and light field artillery were used and called "Behelfs-Flak" (= improvised Flak) because it was necessary to set these howitzers on special designed wooden or metal platforms or Pivots to achieve the necessary angle of fire. Some artillery pieces were digged in to allow the fire against airplanes.

Maybe you can find my old thread "Louis, der Bombenschmeisser". This French aircrew was shot down by two German howitzers on improvised platforms on 5.November 1914. The involved soldiers were surprised about their own success.

VBR

Hannes

I was recently reading "The Price of Glory: Verdun 1916", and found the following passage in the description of events on the eve of the battle (20 Feb 1916):

"Night fell. At Revigny, thirty miles behind Verdun, the vigilant crew of a 75 fired at, and brought down in flames a Zeppelin setting out to raid communications; an unprecedented feat."

Quite unprecedented, I'm sure - and it also must have been a hell of a shot!

Rich

[leo]

The last time I was in Vienna I purchased a book about Flak in the AH forces. One of the AA pieces they used as ealy as 1916 was an 88m Krupp that could reach 6850 meters. They had a wide variety of other weapons and warning networks set up to track enemy, mostly Italian, warplanes.

leo

Leo et al

Were those 88s set up in batteries so as to lay out a field of flak or were they just lone guns taking a pot shot here and there?

In other words, was a battery of guns place together and elevated with fuses set to lay out a field of fire at a specific altitude or was it hoped a plane would just happen to fly across at the right angle?

Hope you get my drift.

[leo]

I have your drift. The guns were organized into batteries of, in the case of the German 88's, six guns. The austrians also used a 75 mm Skoda anti aircraft gun along with an earlier Skod 80mm cannon. They had search lights for night an a warning system equipped with telephones. I am not sure how many batteries there were and their placement. Tney would have been, I guess, at the Naval Bases on the Adriatic and in and around Vienna.

leo

Archibald Certainly NOT!

[Soderbaum]

Hi

I also visited Imperial War Museum this weekend and they have in their great exhibition hall an German 7,7 cm Flak canon which were widely and succesfully used by German Flak units during the War.

VBR
Gunnar