25084 - German 88mm Flak Gun Commander and Ammunition Handler

German Flak Crewman and Officer

The full crew for a Flak 36/37 was eleven men: 2 gunners, 1 loader, 1 fuze setter, 5 ammunition handlers, 1 commander and a driver. A trained crew could deploy a gun in 2 1⁄2 minutes and fire at a ground target up to nine miles away – a distance that exceeded almost every Allied tank’s main armament range. Although originally designed as an anti-aircraft gun it proved to be a superb anti-tank gun as well. The standard anti-aircraft platform allowed gunners to depress the muzzle below the horizontal, unlike most of its contemporaries. The simple-to-operate “semi-automatic” loading system ejected fired shells, allowing it to be reloaded by simply inserting a new shell into a tray. The gun would then fire and recoil; during the return stroke, the empty case would be thrown backward by levers, after which a cam would engage and recock the gun. This resulted in firing rates of 15 to 20 rounds a minute.

1/30 scale

Matte Finish

2 Piece Set