how does flak ammunition work how does flak ammunition work

How did flak guns work in WW2? Proximity fusing is used on several types of ordinance to cause an airburst and greatly increase lethality against soft targets. (96) And so, there is evidence that there may soon be a pivot towards a Plan B; a long term insurgency, similar to the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. Measures 1 5/8 inches wide by 2 1/8 inches tall. Impact and timed rounds. 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. The first bomb in the stick was fitted with an impact fuze while the other bombs were fitted with pressure sensitive diaphragm actuated detonators. Procurement contracts increased from $60 million in 1942, to $200 million in 1943, to $300 million in 1944 and were topped by $450 million in 1945. Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. Trenches and firing pits and broken ground / shell holes provide decent cover against metal fragments from explosives that blow up when hitting the ground. Entering service in 1965, the Leopard 1 is one of the most famous tanks of the Cold War and Modern Era. All of these earlier methods have disadvantages. Front shows a flak 88 artillery gun in the center with a German eagle clutching a swastika in his talons at the top. Step 1: Loading. To work in shells, a fuze needed to be miniaturized, survive the high acceleration of cannon launch, and be reliable. university of phoenix alumni license plate frame. The .308 is the most preferred caliber for snipers all over the world. [ 12 August 2002, 09:22 AM: Message edited by: Martin Bull ], [ 12 August 2002, 04:29 PM: Message edited by: Martin Bull ], [ 13 August 2002, 12:48 PM: Message edited by: Martin Bull ], (You must log in or sign up to reply here. What does cholera look like under a microscope? If the Luftwaffe had this shell the Allied bombing campaign would have been far more costly, or stopped altogether. In Germany, more than 30 (perhaps as many as 50)[19] different proximity fuze designs were developed, or researched, for anti-aircraft use, but none saw service. As the missile cruises towards its target the laser energy simply beams out into space. This problem was resolved by taking advantage of the change in frequency of the reflected signal. Ammunition. We directly support the repository at WW2.ORG, and several other worthwhile projects that add to the historical record. 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. The Allied fuze used constructive and destructive interference to detect its target. It is used in mines and torpedoes. [9] Rockets have relatively low acceleration and no spin creating centrifugal force, so the stresses on the delicate electronic fuze are relatively benign. As these projects moved from development into prototype form in the late 1930s, Butement turned his attention to other concepts, and among these was the idea of a proximity fuse: Into this stepped W. A. S. Butement, designer of radar sets CD/CHL and GL, with a proposal on 30 October 1939 for two kinds of radio fuze: (1) a radar set would track the projectile, and the operator would transmit a signal to a radio receiver in the fuze when the range, the difficult quantity for the gunners to determine, was the same as that of the target and (2) a fuze would emit high-frequency radio waves that would interact with the target and produce, as a consequence of the high relative speed of target and projectile, a Doppler-frequency signal sensed in the oscillator.[24]. [29] As Tuve later put it in an interview: "We heard some rumors of circuits they were using in the rockets over in England, then they gave us the circuits, but I had already articulated the thing into the rockets, the bombs and shell. The amplitude of the reflected signal corresponded to the closeness of the target. Furthermore, they were required to carry written orders on their person when engaging these targets. There are two basic ways to do that, make the shell explode at the time when it is near the target, or make it explode when the shell is simply near the target. Flak in World War II takes the reader from the invasion of Poland in 1939 right to the last Japanese aircraft shot down by AA fire in August 1945. 31. How do you write a good story in Smash Bros screening? All of these suffered from the large size of pre-WWII electronics and their fragility, as well as the complexity of the required circuitry. However, British scientists were uncertain whether a fuze could be developed for anti-aircraft shells, which had to withstand much higher accelerations than rockets. A particularly successful application was the 90mm shell with VT fuze with the SCR-584 automatic tracking radar and the M-9 electronic fire control computer. Regular $179.99 (Save $50.00) $129.99. When the distance between the fuze and the target changed rapidly, then the phase relationship also changed rapidly. Because that flak did not actually "miss." By means of its fuzing, it exploded close enough to the aircraft to send an unseen shower of a thousand metal fragments flying out of it and into the aircraft. Automatic fuze setters were used as an 88 could fire 15-20 shells per minute and even the 128mm could manage 12 per minute. June 14, 2022; can you shoot someone stealing your car in florida . Making the right shell for your gun's role and gauge can be difficult as the sheer number of options is staggering. How do they get the shells to explode at the correct altitude? An HE-Frag shell with time fuse. EDIT: And it's only used against airborne targets because airplanes have to be light-weight in order to be able to fly; a cloud of tiny pellets like that will shred an airplane, but won't do much against a tank or battleship or other such armored targets. Notice: Function is_feed was called incorrectly.Conditional query tags do not work before the query is run. The US repeated it for N. Korea and N. Vietnam but failed again ( a whole another story) so luckily its not an era we will see again. This allowed for aiming at night and in bad weather.. The versatile 88mm cannon was Germany's main heavy antiaircraftor flakgun during World War II. Though deadly, the effective range of these bullets was only 350 yards (320 m), as the phosphorus charge burned quickly. Due to their specialist nature they tend to be more expensive and larger than their standard counterparts. Wooden precise replica of the German 88mm anti-aircraft FlaK guns and Tiger-I ammunition - 8.8cm Sprgr.Patr. Why do I stay the same weight no matter what I do? When the Allies began to use the term is not known. Check out the main categories below. But this was a false metric. Definitions of flak . A fireball from a kamikaze attack engulfs the USS Columbia during a battle near the Philippines in 1945. Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors. Radio frequency sensing (radar) is the main sensing principle for artillery shells. Prototype fuzes were then constructed in June 1940, and installed in "unrotated projectiles", the British cover name for solid-fueled rockets, and fired at targets supported by balloons. Flak damaged tens of thousands of bombers. Winchester 9mm Ammo 100 Ct. @JeremyECrawford already have a question. The Japanese did not develop a robust AA defensive system. 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. 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 . One may use a timed fuse in the shell. [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. Thousands of aircraft were shot down, and tens of thousands were damaged, not to mention the horrendous cost in lives and those wounded. Like other Turrets, Periscopes are typically used to aim and fire Coilguns. Acoustic proximity fuzes are actuated by the acoustic emissions from a target (example an aircraft's engine or ship's propeller). It must be remembered that Flak defences were designed, not to shoot bombers down, but to force them to drop their loads from a higher altitude and thus reduce their accuracy. Ammunition is used by Weapons, Vehicles, and player manned defenses. Time to blow. By accepting all cookies, you agree to our use of cookies to deliver and maintain our services and site, improve the quality of Reddit, personalize Reddit content and advertising, and measure the effectiveness of advertising. It is possible that this is a mistake by the author of the report, and that his is intended to refer to limbered guns . Butement, W. A. S., and P. E. Pollard; "Coastal Defence Apparatus", Butement, W. A. S., et al. 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! Nevertheless, it did a good job of stopping shell blasts, rocket fragments, and slow speed bullets fired at a moderate range. 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. Thanks for reading my nosense about the flak cannon. 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. The versatile 88mm cannon was Nazi Germany's main heavy anti-aircraft gun, also known as the Flugabwehrkanone (meaning "aircraft defense cannon"), which was soon shortened to "flak." One-Handed Flail The flail is a medieval weapon that's instantly familiar. They made the Allied heavy artillery far more devastating, as all the shells now exploded just before hitting the ground. "[27] The critical work of adapting the fuze for anti-aircraft shells was done in the United States, not in England. Reverse is maker marked S.H.u.Co. . Before then, they always return false. The US found that flak that was high generally caused some damage to bombers but was far less likely to shoot them down than flak that was low. A simulated battle conditions test was started on 12 August 1942. There are few weapons (aside from shotguns and large game hunting rifles) which have been built that fire projectiles between .50 caliber (0.50 inches/12.7 mm, roughly 13 mm caliber) and 20mm caliber, though the 14.5 mm caliber is used by some Soviet machineguns such as the KPV and antitank rifles such as PTRS, PTRD, and . Thomas Kirkman May 27, 2020 @ 1:20pm. Who does the voice of Vanessa on Phineas and Ferb? As opposed to earlier designs, the B Mark VI was a true incendiary rather than tracer ammunition. Same principle is used for special types of shrapnel ammo in the Carl Gustav recoilless rifle. Listed is also some of the guns captured from other countries and used by the German armed forces. The signals were in-phase one instant and out-of-phase a few hundred microseconds later. Viewed another way, the received signal frequency was Doppler-shifted from the oscillator frequency by the relative motion of the fuze and target. Acting like a normal bullet in flight, then after a short delay, it will explode into 5 more bullets. 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. AA shrapnel also killed and wounded tens of thousands of aircrew, significantly reducing the overall efficiency and morale.. It would have never been used in action. Discussion in 'Weapons & Technology in WWII' started by 9th Waffen SS, Aug 12, 2002. [34][37][38] The use of the Doppler effect developed by this group was later incorporated in all radio proximity fuzes for bomb, rocket, and mortar applications. 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. Incendiary projectiles, in particular those intended for armor penetration, are more effective if they explode after penetrating a surface layer, such that they explode inside the target. And if that don't work use more gun.". They were widely used by Germany throughout the war. Most Allied bombers and fighters were armoured against fighter attack, but not flak. I know that UT weapons aren't supposed to be something realistic, but if someone wanted to analyze for example the flak cannon, how would it do all the stuff it is supposed to do? (Yikes! http://bit.ly/subAIRBOYD Timeless classic about anti-aircraft flak. [9], Some explosive projectiles, such as high-explosive incendiary bullets, contain an incendiary charge intended to ignite explosives within the shell.[9]. This gun served as the main armament of the Tiger I heavy tank. Warpath Units. [31] Tuve claimed that despite being pleased by the outcome of the Butement et al. I think the TF2 Engineer summed it up perfectly: "How am I going to stop some big mean mother hubbard from tearing me a structurally superfluous new behind? Most, if not all, of the histories deal with the great air battles strictly in terms of aircraft vs. aircraft; the great fighter aces and how many bombers were shot down by Spitfires, Bf 109s, Fw 190s and Me 110 and Ju 88 night-fighters. 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. Rounds are shot into the air which then explode damaging aircraft with the explosion and shrapnel. Ignition is often delayed by varying means until after impact. The Army was suddenly extremely interested in the topic of radar, and sent Butement and Pollard to Bawdsey to form what became known as the "Army Cell". Exiting that black smoke is the invisible shrapnel that will hit the aircraft. Many postwar histories accepted the testimony of leading figures within the Luftwaffe that ground based AA defences achieved limited success in destroying Allied bombers. ARTICLES. Create an account to follow your favorite communities and start taking part in conversations. Flak, or Fliegerabwehrkanone, works by arming artillery class cannons for the use of Anti-Air duties. This doesnt take into account the number of aircraft that were severely damaged by flak.. Proximity fuzes are designed for targets such as planes, missiles, ships at sea, and ground forces. Stewart pledged his support for Ukraine while visiting a hospital in Essex, England, adding more fighter . The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other. This cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. [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. How many shells are fired to down an aircraft? Proximity fuzes are designed for targets such as planes, missiles, ships at sea, and ground forces. Although not intended to start fires, tracer bullets can have a mild incendiary effect. Answer (1 of 18): A good way of describing flak is a mid-air grenade. The 128mm FlaK 40 was one of the largest anti-aircraft weapon systems employed by the Germans in World War 2. In May 1940 a formal proposal from Butement, Edward S. Shire, and Amherst F.H. Flak Ammo is a type of bullet that spreads in flight, making it good for medium-ranged combat. Incendiary ammunition is a type of ammunition that contains a chemical that, upon hitting a hard obstacle, has the characteristic of causing fire/setting flammable materials in the vicinity of the impact on fire. Flak can refer to criticism or worse, explosive shells from an antiaircraft weapon. The allies had the edge with the VT fuse. Working with Western Electric Company and Raytheon Company, miniature hearing-aid tubes were modified to withstand this extreme stress. 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. All ammunition types are produced at Factories or Mass Production Factories. The B Mark VI incendiary bullets were first issued in June 1940 and tested operationally in the Hawker Hurricane and Supermarine Spitfire in the air battles over Dunkirk. <br /> Spreader: Used against swarms in order to spread out the shots and damage as many as possible. ; "Precision Radar,", Smith, Peter C. Kamikaze: To Die for the Emperor. [33] Later, the Ordnance Development Division of the National Bureau of Standards (which became the Harry Diamond Laboratories and later merged into the Army Research Laboratory in honor of its former chief in subsequent years) developed the first automated production techniques for manufacturing radio proximity fuzes at a low cost. what happened to the owners of warwick castle? [50] Once inspections of the finished product were complete, a sample of the fuzes produced from each lot was shipped to the National Bureau of Standards, where they were subjected to a series of rigorous tests at the specially built Control Testing Laboratory. There are currently 3 Camps in the game: Camp Liberty, Vanguard Division, and Martyrs Watch. All of this in one go, it would not be possible to do it like it is shown ingame. This was only partially true. Which aircraft type could withstand the most damage? [54], Vannevar Bush, head of the U.S. Office of Scientific Research and Development (OSRD) during the war, credited the proximity fuze with three significant effects. 50 Rounds of 140gr FMJ 9mm Subsonic Ammo by Sellier & Bellot. [20], The first reference to the concept of radar in the UK was made by W. A. S. Butement and P. E. Pollard, who constructed a small breadboard model of a pulsed radar in 1931. It is estimated that it increases the lethality by 5 to 10 times, compared to these other fuzes.[4][5]. 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 . Indeed, even before the kamikaze appeared the US Navy made major improvement to their ships AA defenses with better radar direction, improved AA directors and gunsights and most importantly, more guns. Copyrights 2023 All Rights Reserved by Scientific Know-How Inc. For a side-by-side comparison of all weapons, see the Weapons page! US $63.98 Scale 1/35 Resin parts - 130 pcs WWII Item 3518 German 88mm FLAK 36 ammo & ammo box Resin Kit. There is a Luftwaffe flying eagle clutching a swastika in his talons at the top. The shell bursts at the appropriate height above ground. The main suppliers were Crosley, RCA, Eastman Kodak, McQuay-Norris and Sylvania. Most of the official Allied histories downplayed its role. it's only used against airborne targets a cloud of tiny pellets "Shrapnel" shells, named for their inventor, are used to kill people with bits of metal even when those people are hiding behind walls, in a trench, etc. 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. Gun batteries aboard cruiser USSCleveland(CL-55) tested proximity-fuzed ammunition against radio-controlled drone aircraft targets over Chesapeake Bay. In other words, artillery is a system with a number of interacting components. [13], The proximity fuze was one of the most important technological innovations of World War II. Influence firing mechanisms often use a combination of acoustic and magnetic induction receivers. If you're taking flak, chances are you're in a bad situation and taking fire from an enemy. 8,8 cm Flak 41 Information about the 8,8 cm Flak 41. As the saying goes, the more flak that's incoming, the more certain you can be that you are over the target. This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. [64] [65], During WW2, the Germans had at least five acoustic fuzes for anti-aircraft use under development, though none saw operational service. All of the units in Warpath are the real units from World War II, from infantry units to rocket artillery. Any analysis that does not examine all components of the system, and acknowledge that interference with any part of it can sharply reduce its effectiveness, is incomplete. Blank ammunition, used in training and for salutes, has a paper, wax, or plastic wad or pellet in place of the bullet. It does not store any personal data. There were also over two thousand suppliers and subsuppliers, ranging from powder manufacturers to machine shops. Change), You are commenting using your Facebook account. Advanced Cannons and some simple weapons use custom shells designed by players through Ammo Controllers and customisers. They provide a more sophisticated trigger mechanism than the common contact fuze or timed fuze. These include rounds for the Gepard aerial flak system that Ukraine has successfully deployed against Iranian-made suicide drones, in particular. To craft you need a weapons box and some materials (Iron, wood, and gunpowder mostly). [39] It was not a fuze for anti-aircraft shells, the most valuable type. "[27][30] As Tuve understood, the circuitry of the fuze was rudimentary. This process continued for the last 10 months of the war, robbing German cities of vital flak defences. Additionally, targets with onboard electronics or computers can be damaged by metal fragments when they explode on the surface. The old man was a Vietnam vet and happened to be a gunner of said Flak guns. Winchester USA 5.56 Nato Ammunition 200 Rounds 55 Grain Full Metal Jacket. The reverse side is maker marked 'A' for the manufacturing firm of Assmann. Coilguns shoot high velocity bolts that deal damage to anything they hit. They lacked the guns, effective radar, and the cooperation between the Army and Navy was terrible. The flammable hydrogen gas of the zeppelins made incendiary bullets much more deadly than standard ones which would pass through the outer skin without igniting the gas. It uses Advanced Sniper Bullet for ammo. It was the invention of the VT radar proximity fuse. I would say the Germans and the Allies had guns and systems that were equal in effectiveness. .. undamaged item (including handmade items). The largest artillery pieces employed by the Army against Axis forces was the M1 240mm howitzer, which could fire 360-pound shell out to a range of 23,000 meters (14.3 miles). Personal thoughts on it:Probably the cannon works with some sort of a pneumatic contraption. 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. What is the safe score in JEE Mains 2021? The heavy gun could propel its 20.25-pound high-explosive shell to altitudes beyond 30,000 feet at a rate of about 15 projectiles per minute. 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. Flak proved a huge benefit to fighter pilots assigned to attack incoming raids. 2 Answers. (LogOut/ A contact fuze would explode when it hit the ground; it would not be very effective at scattering shrapnel. A German artillery crew relaxes next to their 88 mm gun. Each unit has its own specified abilities and stats. It was lightly armored, but extremely mobile . Flak as we know it ( the exploding ordinance variety ) works by using fuses. As a result, Ukrainian forces have . Work was split in 1942, with Tuve's group working on proximity fuzes for shells, while the National Bureau of Standards researchers focused on the technically easier task of bombs and rockets. Flak is a contraction of German Flugabwehrkanone (also referred to as Fliegerabwehrkanone) meaning "aircraft-defense cannon", the original purpose of the weapon. The figure of 16,000 rounds of German 88mm ammunition being required to shoot down a heavy bomber is often quoted to show just how wasteful and ineffective antiaircraft fire really was. The British shared a wide range of possible ideas for designing a fuze, including a photoelectric fuze and a radio fuze, with United States during the Tizard Mission in late 1940. The front shows an 88 flak artillery gun in the center. The most developmentally advanced of the German acoustic fuze designs was the Rheinmetall-Borsig Kranich (German for Crane) which was a mechanical device utilizing a diaphragm tone filter sensitive to frequencies between 140 and 500Hz connected to a resonating vibratory reed switch used to fire an electrical igniter. Also in 1944, fuzes were allocated to the British Army's Anti-Aircraft Command, that was engaged in defending Britain against the V-1 flying bomb. (LogOut/ Indeed when you compare these numbers to the more effective 128mm AA gun the numbers are intriguing. This led me to thinking of how AA guns and defences played a role in the air war over Europe and the Pacific.