Red explosion by Flak rather than black explosion ?

[Bertrand H]

Hi,

During the Phoney War the long of the German border according some French reports in many occasion aircraft noted when they were fired by Flak they had sometimes red explosion rather than the usual black clouds.

They thought that it could be an help for the LW fighters.

Does anybody know if these red explosions were fired by 8.8 cm Flak 18/36 and had a special role ?

TIA

bertrand

[Kari Lumppio]

Hallo!

I don't know if it fits to this case, but colour might be related to timing of the projectile. Different colours for different timings and as a result different altitudes.

Fire controller sees which color explosions are the nearest and can decide if altitude (timing) is right or not.

Cheers,
Kari

[edwest2]

I have heard of other colors, including a "flaming trail' after detonation. This was considered, by Allied pilots, to be an aid in aiming the Flak guns.

[Larry deZeng]

The use of Flak star shells and markers in color was quite common. "The Flak would also play its part, firing combinations of coloured shells to mark individual towns." For example, Hamburg was 2 side-by-side, Berlin was 2 one-above-the-other, Hannover was 3 side-by-side, etc. [Hinchliffe, Peter. The Other Battle: Luftwaffe Night Aces Versus Bomber Command. Osceola (WI): Motorbooks International, 1997. ISBN: 0-7603-0265-0. Hb. Dj. 352p. Illus. Glossary. Bibliography. Index. Pp. 149 and 151.]

Luftwaffe Flak units at the front attached to Heer commands as anti-tank batteries were called upon to fire colored signal shells to order the beginning of an attack, etc.

If you dig deep enough, you could find out what the different colors meant, although the meaning probably changed daily.


L..

[RSwank]

A little here on using red marking shells.

http://www.lonesentry.com/articles/t...al-arrows.html

[Bertrand H]

Thank you for your detailed answers. No doubt that these red explosions were an aiming for the flak gunners more than to warn possible fighters present in the sky at that time.

I note interesting details of the link that refers to "Flak Directional Arrows to Guide German Fighter Planes". Useful.

Bertrand