8.8 Cm Flak 18/36/37/41 - Flak 41

Flak 41

Due to the problems of defending against attack by high-flying aircraft the Luftwaffe asked for newer weapons with even better performance as early as 1939. Rheinmetall responded with a new 88 mm L/71 design with a longer cartridge, the 8.8 cm Flak 41, with a prototype ready in 1941. It fired a 9.4-kilogram (20 lb) shell at a muzzle velocity of 1000 m/s (3,280 ft/s), giving it an effective ceiling of 11,300 meters (37,100 ft) and a maximum of 15,000 meters (49,000 ft), which General Otto Wilhelm von Renz said to be "almost equal to the 128-mm." It featured a lower silhouette on its turntable mounting than did the 8.8-cm Flak 18/36/37 on its pedestal mounting. Two types of gun barrel were used, with three or four sections. Improvements in reloading raised the firing rate, with 20 to 25 rounds a minute being quoted.

Because of problems in service, the guns were almost exclusively used in Germany where they could be properly maintained and serviced. The Flak 41 had the disadvantage of complexity, and was prone to problems with ammunition, cases often jamming on extraction. Because of the high cost and complexity of this Flak gun, the Germans manufactured relatively few of them, 556 in all. As of August 1944, only 157 were fielded; and 318 in January 1945. A final adaptation, known as the Flak 37/41, mounted the Flak 41 gun on the Flak 37 carriage, but only 13 were produced.