FlaK 88

FlaK 88 mm gun was a German anti-aircraft and anti-tank artillery gun used during World War II. The FlaK 88 is featured in many of the Call of Duty games.

Background
The anti-aircraft gun was not very useful during World War I because it could not fire high enough and it couldn't fire rapidly enough to shoot down much planes. Soon the German Krupp company developed the new guns in partnership with Bofors of Sweden. The original design that led to the 88 was a 75 mm model. During the prototype phase, the army asked for a gun with considerably greater capability than the 75. The designers started over, using another common German calibre, 88 mm.

Use in Combat
The forces of Nazi Germany employed the 88 extensively in World War II, not only in its original role as an anti-aircraft gun, where it performed well, but also as an anti-tank gun. Throughout the entire war the 88 mm gun had only a few rivals.

The German Condor Legion made extensive use of the FlaK 88 in the Spanish Civil War, where its usefulness as an anti-tank weapon and a general artillery piece exceeded its role as an anti-aircraft weapon. Erwin Rommel also used the 88 as an anti-tank weapon, first in France and later in North Africa. His timely use of the gun to blunt the British counterattack at Arras ended any hope of a breakout from the blitzkrieg encirclement of May 1940.

In Libya and Egypt, he lured British tanks into traps by baiting them with apparently retreating panzers. When the British pursued, concealed 88s picked them off at ranges far beyond those of the 2-pdr and 6-pdr guns of the British tanks. The unparalleled penetration of the 88's shells destroyed many Allied tanks and other armoured vehicles. The British 8th Army eventually learned to coordinate their heavy artillery with their ground advances, destroying the relatively immobile 88s in their emplacements once they revealed their positions.

The FlaK 88 saw continuous use on the Russian Front. It played a crucial role in the early months of Operation Barbarossa. The appearance of the outstanding T-34 shocked the Wehrmacht Panzer Truppen, whose 37 mm and 50 mm tank guns could only penetrate the Russian tank's steel armour at extremely close range. Until the Panzer IVF2 and the Tiger reached the front, the 88 was the only weapon that possessed the punch to stop the Russian T-34 and KV tanks.

The success of the 88 caused the Allies to take steps to defend against it in new tank design. Stopgap measures included adding more armour, or even using sandbags, to defeat the 88's projectiles. The Germans took advantage of this effective design in the armament of vehicles such as the Tiger tank and the Elefant tank destroyer (with an 88 mm Pak 43/2 anti-tank gun).