WWII Cartoon Teaches Pilots How To Avoid FLAK

This Is Some Scary Stuff!

This short World War II video is probably the most informative piece you’ll ever see about flak. Although most of you probably know this, flak is a German contraction of the word Flugzeugabwehrkanone, or “aircraft-defense cannon.”

Bomber crews in all theaters of the war were faced with this threat. Most of these guns used 88mm shells which flew through air and exploded at a preset altitude. The shrapnel from these explosions would cut through and shred bomber formations and were one of the biggest threats for these crews next to fighter interceptors of course.

The two types of flak strategies this film mentions are continuous pointed fire and predicted concentration.

This video was shown to crews in order to teach them what the “Flak Intelligence” found out about these German guns. Digging deep, they knew how efficient the Germans were at using these guns and relayed that information to the pilots for their benefit.

It goes into really technical (you guys will love this) details about how Germans track and estimate the movement of formations, even to a point of how many seconds it takes for a computer to relay height information to the Flak squadrons. Then, they’re taught how to make evasive maneuvers to increase their statistical chances of completing a mission. Enjoy!