Hello everyone,

I have a question about this item. How and where is the cable they used to transmit data from flak to flak attached to the flak itself when in use?? The cables are in a roll on the back boogie.
I want to know this because I want to use this item in a diorama.

If it is not clear enough I will show some pictures of it.

I hope someone can help me.

Kind regards,

Hilbert Zuijdendorp

Hello Hilbert,
According to "The 88mm Flak" by Werner Muller (a Schiffer book), the cable drum fastened to the rear fender of the gun trailer was a 108-wire communication cable. Unlike our high tech capabilities these days the Flack guns of WWII did not fire automatically via these cables. When used they merely connected a command post directly to each guns commander (K1) and sometimes to the K2 who was in charge of setting fuses. This means that depending on how permanent the Flak installation was determend how "neat" you'll want to run your wires to each head set.
On the other hand many individual guns in the field did'nt use these cables at all.

Pete

Pete: are you implying that the communication cable lead to headsets worn by the flak crew? If so, that DEFINITELY was not the case. The cables led to a junction box on the 8.8.cm Flak which connected to the light boxes on the right side of the flak gun (on the later Flak 37, these indicators reverted to a "clockface" dial). These dials indicated range, airspeed and other ballistics information to the crew to set the ammo shells fuzes and to traverse and elevate the gun tube. There was also a light box or clockface streaming information to the fuze setter.The crews just fed a continual stream of ammo rounds into the breech while the gunner was continually trying to lay the gun on target.

It's very possible that one of the cables also included voice/headset communication but it was first fed into the gun's main junction box.

Thanks for the replies guys!

Now, can you explain me with a picture of a real flak 18 where they attached the cable onto??

I can't imagene where it should attached to it.

Thanks

I consulted the Easy1CD about the German Flak 18. It shows the data transmission attachment junction to be the round drum housing at the rearmost of the carriage, just outside the rearmost leveling jack.

The CD isn't a complete copy of the US Tech Manual -- if it were, then the written description would be included