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Why cant the 88mm Flak Fire at "Jabos"


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OK, I'm no grog, but I was watching some documentary on the History Channel recently about the air war in Europe (hardly an irrefutable source, I know. . .). They mentioned that one of the most effective uses of Jabos by the allies was for train-busting - really shut down the German ability to move men and materiel behind the lines. Apparently, in an effort to counter this, the Germans designed rail cars where the sides could be made to fall away, exposing 88mm Flaks on the bed to fire at attacking planes. This would seem to indicate that the 88mm could be effective at closer ranges such as what you would see on the CM battlefield.

Frankly, this surprised me because I had always thought an AA gun of the 88mm's size would be difficult to traverse quickly enough to fire at a nearby, fast-moving target like a strafing Jabo. Maybe the documentary got the calibre of the guns mounted on the rail cars wrong. . .

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Well, if you are the target of a strafing attack, then there won't be much relative motion of the attacking aircraft. After all, it will have to be heading right for you.

If the flak is on the train, then the aircraft will need to head directly for the train. Now, I would still think that smaller guns would be easier to use, but perhaps the plan is to try to shoot the plane down before it gets within rocket range?

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<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by sturner:

Who needs rockets? Six .50 caliber machineguns stop trains right nicely, thank you.

My Dad said you could get a very nice steam plume after one or two passes. Then you had a sitting target.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Yep. The documentary showed all sorts of great footage of .50cal AP rounds puncturing the locomotives' boiler. Big explosions. Made the claim that lack of functioning locomotives was a major contributor to the breakdown of the German transport system.

I assume your dad was a pilot in the war - what did he fly?? Curious.

[ 08-17-2001: Message edited by: YankeeDog ]

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