This documentary dives into an in-depth look at the weapons and methods of German and Japanese anti-aircraft warfare. Also highlights the evasive actions that were utilized by U.S. bomber cr... Read allThis documentary dives into an in-depth look at the weapons and methods of German and Japanese anti-aircraft warfare. Also highlights the evasive actions that were utilized by U.S. bomber crews.This documentary dives into an in-depth look at the weapons and methods of German and Japanese anti-aircraft warfare. Also highlights the evasive actions that were utilized by U.S. bomber crews.
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Bombing the Reich
For basically as long as aircraft have been used in warfare, weapons have existed to bring them out of the sky. This short film from World War II goes over flak: heavy anti-aircraft artillery cannons designed to shoot down American bombers, and how to counter it. German triple A (anti-aircraft artillery) during world war 2 came in two main types, although many different models of guns were produced; heavy guns like the infamous 88 millimeter flak 37 to small caliber automatic weapons firing explosive rounds (known as cannons). Both these weapons have pros, cons, and different tactics regarding how they're employed on the battlefield. The larger guns fire a shell set to explode at a certain altitude after the projectile completes a certain number of rotations in the sky. German flak gunners are skilled enough to launch these projectiles 5 miles into the air towards american planes moving over 300 miles an hour. The smaller guns rely on shooting a greater volume of projectiles at the bombers. While not as powerful, they are typically attached to flexible mounts such as tripods which enable gunners to get enemy planes in their sights quickly and adjust accordingly. Shooting where your target is going to be (and not where it is currently) is critical on the heavy flak weapons. The film explains how the shells fired with these take about one second to climb 1000 feet. If a formation of planes is at 30 thousand feet altitude, the planes will be almost 2 miles in front of the gunner's point of aim by the time the shell explodes. In order to compensate for the plane's speed and altitude, the germans track the formation in an optical sight while a range finding computer calculates exactly where the gunners need to aim in order to make their hits. If a storm or something is causing the gunners to have a hard time finding the planes, the aircraft are tracked by radar. Once the computer tells the gunners where to aim, it continues to adjust the aim automatically in order to keep pace with the plane's location. When the plane flies out of range of that particular group of guns, a neighboring battery of guns begins tracking and firing at it. This method of anti-aircraft fire is called continuously pointed fire, as it is basically a continuous stream of gunfire trying to hit the bombers, and it also follows them. Because of this, it is the most dangerous type of flak. The second most hazardous is called predicted concentration. In this method, a station connected to several groups of anti-aircraft guns feeds them targeting data about (approximately) where a group of enemy planes will be in the sky a few seconds from now. Based on this, all the groups of guns will shoot simultaneously, hurling a devastating group of shells into the bomber force. This method was used less by the germans as it could be defeated simply by having the bomber pilots periodically change their courses slightly, and the flak bursts would happen on flight paths they're no longer on. However, it is important not to make the same slight variations in flight path over and over, as such patterns can be averaged out and fired upon. If flak gunners can't make hits on their targets for whatever reason, they have one last mode of fire called barrage. In this tactic, the flak shoots into a specific, cube shaped area of the sky where the planes are expected to pass. Poorly predicted, the individual flak shells are not very accurate, but with dozens of guns zoned in on this target, a dense concentration of fire is created. This is the least accurate type of flak, as the germans trade precision for sheer volume of fire, hoping that shooting more shells into the bomber stream will eventually hit something. We're then told that flak becomes less accurate the higher up it must travel. As a general rule, its accuracy is halved for every 5000 foot increase. There is a myth among bomber pilots that there is such thing as a perfect medium altitude, at which the heavy shells are not yet dangerous and where the lighter guns can't reach. This is not true. Most anti-air weapons used by the germans can reach 5000 feet easily. Heavier guns can't set their shells to detonate any lower than 3000, but can reach as high as 37000. What this essentially means is the safest places for bombers to be is at either extremely high or extremely low altitudes. When flying at the latter, the heavy guns are a non-issue and the lighter ones will have a very difficult time keeping you in their sights, as objects closer to the ground have high lateral velocity. Finally, we're told that we need to put it all together: keep the enemy flak operators guessing by utilizing all the evasive tactics shown in this film. Variations in altitude, speed and direction are all viable tactics, and remember, a moving target is always more difficult to hit and kill. As someone who really likes ww2 related things, this is a classic video. It is pretty ironic how the information shown has not mattered in over 70 years but it is still interesting to watch. All the things shown here are obsolete. Nowadays, missiles can destroy planes and move at 5 times the speed of sound, which simply means no plane can outrun them. Even as far back as ww2, you can see by watching this that the germans had advanced strategies when it came to trying to defend their country from bombers, and the Allies had to counter this by coming up with their own strategies and adapting. No matter the year, that is pretty much what war is.
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- nickenchuggets
- Nov 16, 2023
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- Flak: Evading Air Defenses
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- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime16 minutes
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