Quote:
Originally Posted by Larry deZeng
The moving was done by Flak-Transportbatterien, of which there were well over 100 at peak, with 3 or 4 of them attached to each Flak-Division and several others to each Flakkorps.
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It is great to be able to exchange messages with a living encyclopaedia, Larry! I have not seen the tables of organisation and equipment for flak batteries, but indirect evidence from Flakwaffe strength documents at Freiburg strongly suggests a few of them had their own prime movers, see example below:
On 1 March 1943 Luftgaukommando Rostov in the southern USSR had 8 Flaktransportbatterien, with a serviceability rating in both the vehicle (Kraftfahrzeugmäßig) and tactical (Taktisch) categories rated as 'voll' - fully serviceable. The same command had 15 batteries of 8,8 cm guns, of which 9 had a vehicle (Kraftfahrzeugmäßig) serviceability rating 'voll'. The other batteries had no rating in this category, niether 'bedingt' - limited serviceability, nor 'nicht' - unserviceable. The material (Materiell) serviceability ratings were 8 batteries 'voll' and the remaining 7 'bedingt'. Therefore all 15 batteries had at least some guns, and 9 of these batteries had a full complement of vehicles. This suggests to me that some flak batteries were provided with organic prime movers, while others, perhaps those further from the frontline, had to rely on the Flaktransportbatterien. It is also possible that a battery's complement of vehicles did not render it fully mobile without additional transport support from a Flaktransportbatterie, but I think that is less likely, since some batteries would have been expected to closely follow the movements of front-line units.
Dan