PAK.

This is coolbert:

One of the most significant weapons of the Second World War [WW2] had to be the German 88 mm gun. Originally designed [and was used as] an anti-aircraft gun, this weapon was used in a manner more significantly in an anti-tank role during the war, a role for which it was never intended. A high velocity gun, with rapid fire, ability to track moving targets, and mobile, this gun became used as the premier anti-tank weapon of WW2.

Prior to the outbreak of WW2, all the militaries of the world possessed anti-tank guns. The most common caliber seems to have been 37 mm. And a number of militaries also possessed anti-tank rifles. A fifty [.50] caliber rifle, crew served, that fired an armor piercing round and was able to defeat under some circumstances the armor of the day.

After the outbreak of the war, it was found that many of the current anti-tank weapons were woefully inadequate for the task. The various combatants began to field armor and tanks that all possessed thicker and thicker armor. And did so in such a fashion to render the existing anti-tank weaponry obsolete. The Germans had particularly bad experiences in this regard, when they encountered the latest Soviet tanks, namely, the KV and the T-34. These latter tanks were able to operate with impunity, the Germans having no reliable and adequate counter. Such was the state that development of armor had far outpaced the anti-armor capability.

It was in the various campaigns in the North African theatre that the 88 mm gun as an anti-tank weapon came into fruition. Rommel and his British counterparts found that armor could operate very well in the desert, mobile warfare using tanks becoming the norm. Rommel, to counter British tanks, decided to use the 88 mm gun as his anti-tank weapon of choice, using the gun as a direct fire weapon, and relegating it's use to an anti-aircraft weapon to second rate status. And in this regard the 88 mm gun was found to be extremely effective. The characteristics which made the gun an excellent anti- aircraft weapon made it also an extremely effective anti-tank gun. High velocity [ allowed for a flat trajectory that made for rapid engagement and little corrective aiming], high rate of fire, ability to track moving targets, and being mounted on a wheeled gun carriage were all positive characteristics.

"88 MILLIMETER GUN

The most deadly weapon the German's had was the 88 millimeter gun. It was the best gun of the war. It was lethal and extremely versatile gun. It could appear on a tank, as an anti-tank gun, assault or as an anti-aircraft gun. It could knock out Allied tanks at ranges up to 2,000 yards and proved lethal as an anti-infantry weapon when it fired fused shells to create air bursts. It was easily hidden in the bocage or a fortified village. This formidable weapon was ideal for use in Normandy."

"An American military observer who had many opportunities to witness this gun in Germany in 1940, speaks of this weapon as follows:

"The 88 MM is basically a gun for firing on moving targets. The crew is also specially trained for firing on highly rapid moving targets, primarily on airplanes. The whole control apparatus is designed for fast moving targets with a very rapid rate of fire: 25 rounds per minute. The gun is capable of great volume fire and extreme accuracy against moving targets of any type. It is equally efficient on targets on the ground as well as in the air. For attacks on armored vehicles, it is provided with a special armor- piercing shell."

"German 88-mm. antiaircraft gun in action against British tanks in Africa. Apparently this weapon, obsolescent for the original purpose for which designed (AAA), has been modified so that it can be fired horizontally from the trailer. Note the big, thick shield. A most potent antitank weapon! [3]"

Not only did the Germans have a superior anti-tank gun in the 88 mm, but they employed it in a superior manner too. The Germans were able to organize their anti-tank guns into what they called a PAK front [Panzer [tank] Anti Kanonen]. Anti-tank guns would be sited in such a manner so that if necessary, all the guns in a sector could be commanded by a designated commander who could mass at his discretion all the anti-tank guns within firing range to fire against specific targets that posed the greatest danger to the German positions. The ability to override normal command was a feature that allowed for flexibility that the Germans exercised so well in all aspects of the war, in this case, anti-tank warfare.

And these PAK fronts, when used as intended, could inflict the most grievous injury upon attacking tanks. Operation Goodwood, launched by General Montgomery in Normandy in 1944, is just such an example of the damage the 88 mm gun, when properly employed, can do. Montgomery had devised Goodwood as a means of creating a breakthrough in Normandy that would result in decisive German defeat. After a massive allied aerial bombardment, massed British/Canadian tanks moved forward thinking that all opposition would have been eliminated. Determined German troops, employing 88 mm guns with great effectiveness, stopped Goodwood cold and destroyed just prodigious numbers of the attacking tanks. Read more about Goodwood by clicking here and here. [in a book about military strategy, a Soviet General disparaged Goodwood in the strongest and derisive terms possible, such was the contempt the Soviet had for allied tactics in WW2].

coolbert.