Quote:
Originally Posted by JayWhit
Thank You ALL for your answers and help.
It was getting me frustrated as Flak units are virtually ignored in the histories I have. Except for the "88's" as they were famous for brewing up French and Engllish armour. Before us Yanks joined the land war.
One last clarification question:
The Railway units; Are these the ones we see in photographs, mounted in front of and interspersed with the freight cars to proect a train?
Mostly 2.0 & 3.7 cm weapons?
Not Heavy Flak guns that needed rails to move? Yes/No?
My German is non-existant, although in the 70's I could order a beer and ask for the location of the toilet.
(Stationed in Europe for three years 74-77).
Mostly in the Med, but some NATO cruises.
So I am over 50 myself.
Once again, Thanks to everyone for their answers and help.
Jay Whittle
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Great reply, Jay. No problemo.
Yes, the railway Flak-Abteilungen could be either schwere, gemischte or leichte. The one above, schw.Flak-Abt. 473(E) would have had 8.8 cm guns. Only rarely did a schw.Flak-Abt.(E) have anything heavier that that. The schw. Abt. were usually one battery to a train and were deployed on sidings in a marshalling yard or near a vital factory. The leichte Flak-Abt.(E) came in more varied arrangements, but they were used the same way and additionally to protect a wider selection of targets.
The railway Flak that had the Flak flatcars mixed in with normal freight cars were designated as follows: le.Flak-Abt.(ETr.). "ETr." is the abbreviation for Eisenbahn-Transport, meaning that they accompanied regular freight and sometimes passenger trains to protect them from low-flying aircraft.
The heavy railway guns that we have seen in film and photos that were rolled out from a tunnel, fired, and rolled back in to reload, were not Luftwaffe. They belonged to Heeres (Army) Eisenbahn-Artillerie-Abteilungen. Another example of these would be the famous "Anzio Annie" that shelled the Allied troops in the Anzio beachhead, January - May 1944.
Hope that helps,
Larry
Stationed in Germany (1958-59), Ethiopia (1961-62), Germany again (1963-66) and Vietnam/Thailand (1967-68).