homepage Forums Air Combat & Civil Aviation Battle of Britain + Battle of Britain II Here's what happened (Continued)

Folks,

Dux:

I've been accused of telling people how to make a watch when all they really wanted was the time of day. Risking further blame in that direction we will discuss the topic of AA, AAA, Archie or just plain Flack.

You will know all this but some readers who actually get out of the house due to other interests now and then may not. The earliest known use of weapons specifically for the anti-aircraft role appears to have occurred during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. After the disaster at Sedan, Paris was besieged and French troops outside the city started an attempt at resupply via balloon. Krupps quickly modified a 1-pounder (20mm) gun to be mounted on top of a horse-drawn carriage for the purposes of shooting down these impudent French balloons.

Given this early history, it is perhaps not surprising that it was only in Germany that development of anti-aircraft guns continued. In 1909 a number of Krupp's designs were adopted in the role, including adaptations of their 65mm 9-pounder, a 75mm 12-pounder, and even a 105mm gun. By the start of World War I the 75mm had become the standard German weapon, and came mounted on a large traverse that could be easily picked up on a wagon for movement.

During the First World War all armies deployed AA guns often based on their smaller field pieces, notably the French 75 mm and Russian 76.2 mm. Typically they were simply propped up on some sort of embankment to get the business end pointed skyward. Ahhh but they found that AA gunnery was a difficult business. The problem was of successfully aiming a shell to burst close to its target's future position, with various factors affecting the shells' predicted trajectory. This was called deflection gun-laying. We've all heard of deflection shooting haven't we?

With little experience in the role, no means of measuring target, range, height or speed the difficulty of observing their shell bursts relative to the target disappointed gunners proved unable to get their fuse setting correct and most rounds burst well below their targets. Discovering this, rude British fliers gave German anti-aircraft fire the mocking nickname, "Archie"). The exception to this rule many pilots found to their ultimate dismay were the guns protecting spotting balloons. In that case the altitude could be accurately measured from the length of the cable holding the balloon.

As aircraft started to be used against ground targets on the battlefield, the AA guns could not be traversed quickly enough at close targets and, being relatively few were less affective than wished for. Because the enemy was hesitant to announce their plans in advance guns were not always in the right place at the right time. For some reason they were often unpopular with other troops on the same side as well. Especially true when projectiles fired into the air at planes that uncharitably moved out of the way fell amongst said troops. So the guns changed positions frequently.

Soon the forces on both sides were adding various machine-gun based weapons mounted on poles. These short-range weapons proved more deadly and, as evidence of their accuracy, the "Red Baron" is believed to have been shot down by an anti-aircraft Vickers machine gun.

The moral of this story: Keep well away from them balloons kiddo.