The 10.5 cm FlaK 38 was a German anti-aircraft gun used during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

by the

Luftwaffe The ''Luftwaffe'' () was the aerial-warfare branch of the German '' Wehrmacht'' before and during World War II. Germany's military air arms during World War I, the '' Luftstreitkräfte'' of the Imperial Army and the '' Marine-Fliegerabt ...

. An improved version was introduced as the 10.5 cm FlaK 39.Bishop, Chris. The encyclopedia of weapons of world War II. Sterling Publishing Company, Inc., 2002, p.153

Development

Land version

The Flak 38 was introduced as a competitor to the

8.8 cm FlaK 18 The 8.8 cm Flak 18/36/37/41 is a German 88mm anti-aircraft and anti-tank artillery gun, developed in the 1930s. It was widely used by Germany throughout World War II and is one of the most recognized German weapons of the conflict. Devel ...

. In this role it proved to be too heavy for field use while having roughly similar performance as the 88 mm, therefore it was used primarily in static mounts. The Flak 39 was an improved version, which replaced the electrical gun laying system with a mechanical one.

Naval version

The 10.5 cm SK C/33SK - ''Schnelladekanone'' (quick loading cannon); ''C - Construktionsjahr'' (year of design) was used by the

Kriegsmarine The (, ) was the navy of Germany from 1935 to 1945. It superseded the Imperial German Navy of the German Empire (1871–1918) and the inter-war (1919–1935) of the Weimar Republic. The was one of three official branches, along with th ...

, the German Navy. Related to the Flak 38, it was installed on the and classes of battleships as well as the - and cruisers. After the war, it was used for a few years by the French ''Marine Nationale'' on the reconstructed ex-Italian light cruisers, Le Châteaurenault sur le site alabordache.fr
/ref> and .Le Guichen sur le site alabordache.fr
/ref> In the late 1940s, the French also planned to equip the battleship ''Richelieu'' with twelve of these mountings, but the project was cancelled due to credit shortage. They were mounted in pairs on an electrically powered tri-axial mounting, intended to compensate for the motion of the ship and maintain a lock onto the intended target. The mounting was not properly waterproofed and as the mountings were open to the weather and sea swell, this resulted in a high maintenance burden.

References

10.5 cm Flak 38, 39: Multi-Purpose Gun

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External links

{{WWIIGermanGuns Anti-aircraft guns of Germany World War II anti-aircraft guns World War II artillery of Germany 105 mm artillery Rheinmetall Military equipment introduced in the 1930s