January-February - Air Defense Artillery

More documents

Recommendations

Info

46 THE COAST ARTILLERY jOllRi\'AL )ml/lary-Fe raids on Munich and that he had watched these projectiles memo with operating personnel. was deployed in climb from about 10,000 feet to the height of the formation around the city. flying at approximately 28.000 feet. This apparent discrepancy may be explained by the fact that the Gemlans at one time had a large rocket research station at Garmisch . Partenkirschen and it is possible that some experimental rockets were fired by men from this station even though they were not an integral part of the ~Iunich defense. A SHORT HISTORY OF THE r.lm.acH A1\ DEFENSES During the early stages of the war the Germans believed their air force strong enough to repel all attempts of Allied <strong>Air</strong> Forces to raid deep in German territory. Consequently. the AA defenses of ~ 1unich were not as strong as might be expected. As equipment and more trained personnel became available eark in 1941, the 1\ IlInich defenses were strengthened consid~rably. At this time the following anna- Type of Battery Light ~ ledillm I-Ieav)' 1\'0. of Batteries 6 2 II Armamellt for Bat 12-15 2cm flak and +6 6cm s liohts o 9-12 3.7cm flak and 4 60cm se; lights +6 8.&m flak and 2.2cm flak" There were no searchlights larger than 60cm used u this time. \Vhenever Hitler came to town to meet o~ his underlings the AA defenses were reinforced by heavy and four lioht railwav flak batteries . . " . GERMAN AA DEFENSES OF MUNICH 1942 -1943 --- + 12. 12 12 + + MUNICH AREA LEGEND 6 GUN HEAVY POSITION 6 GUN II II (POSSIBLE) LIGHT GUN LIGHT SEARCHLIGHT Sc.a.\e I: 100,000 Map of MUNIC.H (MUNCHEN) Shee+-X-6 OVERLAY PRePARED 8y /33 AAA GLiN 81'1 " +~ 00
\bout the middle of 1942 when it became e\'ident that .\!Iies were not going to be a pushover, the ~ Iunich enses were strengthened by tweh'e heavy gun batteries, light gun batteries and ten batteries of searchlights. e ~archlight batteries contained twelve 150cm and r 200cm lights. The lights were deployed over a circu- Jrea about forty kilometers in diameter. The first large air raid on ~ Iunich was made by the RAF ring the night of 19 September 1942 and these conued periodically throughout the winter into the spring 1943. Early 1943 saw the formation of gross batteries an cffort to make these night raids so costly that they uld have to be discontinued. These batteries were lcd by increasing the number of units available to the unich commander. During this time the increased speed altitude of the attacking planes forced the ring of ~\"v ouns to be moved further from the center • => Bcginning with the spring of 1944, the Allied of the city . • <strong>Air</strong> Forces IIv beoan to pour on the heat and • 0 ted in the changes of the Munich the pressure was redefenses. The status the 1\ Iunich area command was raised to a Aak division d thc number of heavy gun batteries was increased to a tal of fifty. The amount of damage caused by raids was dicated by the change in the disposition of the light Aak lits. According to one of the German officers, the loss of ht Aak personnel was so high that the remaining units re removed from the manufacturing areas and railways d moved to the airports and factories which had not been ovcd from the city proper. Searchlights were redeployed the south and southeast in an effort to increase the chance interceptlon over the German lakes in this section, for sibility was much better there. 1\5 the American armies rolled eastward across the border, e Rhine and finally into \Vestern Germany, the l\llunich feme changed constantly. Troops were sent to the front d were replaced by troops who were badly in need of rest d refitting. At the end the fate of these AA troops was THE A:\TIAIBCRAFr DEFE:\SES OF ,'\!lI~ICH 47 obscured in the confusion of bitter defeat. Some remained behind to aid in the defense of the cities while others withdrew into Austria to continue the fight; the remainder were less fortunate. ~ ItSCELLAi"Y During the last stages of the war a new type 8.8cm ammunition was used in the 1\ Iunich area and the figures for the "Cat l"' obtained with the old and new are little short of amazing. According to the Plans and Operations Officer of the 1\ Iunich defense, the standard ammunition was equipped with a time fuze only, and an expenditure of approximately 4,000 rounds was required to bring down one plane. The new ammunition was equipped with a contact fuze and only 2,000 rounds were required to bring down one plane. This 100% increase in effectiveness of AA fire was not attributed to better weather. more experienced crews, or better range equipment. but solely to the addition of the contact fuze to the otherwise standard 8.8cm projectile. The officer was explicit in his denial that the new fuze was of the sonic, magnetic, or proximity type, but that it was definitely of the contact variety. The explanation given for the increased efficiency was that they had been getting hits all along. but the standard 8.8 projectile was so stable that it was not detonated when it passed through the thin skin of a plane. Furthermore the use of the contact fuze, in effect, placed all aircraft of a formation in the same horizontal plane and therefore increased the possibility of a hit. \Vhen it was pointed out that even this failed to account for the increase in "Cat I's", the interrogated officer stated that nevertheless it was true. The former A1\ commander estimated that not less than eighty gross batteries would have been required to provide an adequate defense for the city of Munich. Some idea of what induced this estimate can be deduced from the COmmander's estimation that 2.500 to 3,000 persons were killed per heavy raid on this city.
Page 1 and 2: ANIIARY-FFRRr IARY rQ4.li
Page 3 and 4: OAST ARTILLERY JOURNAL NDED IN 1892
Page 5 and 6: ing the Army Air Forces have come t
Page 7 and 8: Receil'er-Receives the weak echoes
Page 9 and 10: RADAR - \ SURVEY used on the SCR-58
Page 11 and 12: l STAFF o.tes here are a oreat manv
Page 13 and 14: THE GER~IAN GENERAL ST \FF ABDICATE
Page 15 and 16: THE GER~lt\N GEi'\ERAL STAFF ABDICA
Page 17 and 18: .. rther. attaching AA groups and b
Page 19 and 20: L'aisoJ' \\ as established \\"ith o
Page 21 and 22: FRO.\l THE FlGHTL'\G FRO.'\TS \I .1
Page 23 and 24: and with it the use of searchlights
Page 25 and 26: FRO~l THE FIGHTI~G FRO:\'TS appro.l
Page 27 and 28: FR01\l THE FIGHTI:\G FRO~TS "ng out
Page 29 and 30: FHO;\1 THE FIGHTI,'\G FRO,'\TS eith
Page 31 and 32: 11\' had been killed. two wounded a
Page 33 and 34: 1 jamming the gun as it accumulates
Page 35 and 36: FRO~I THE FIGHTE\G FRO:'\TS { one t
Page 37 and 38: ghly recommended by this headquarte
Page 39 and 40: A SI~GLE DEPART:-'lENT OF NATIONAL
Page 41 and 42: :\ SI:\GLE DEPART:-'IEi'\T OF ~ATI0
Page 43 and 44: Decoys Artillerymen have long been
Page 45 and 46: eark \'ears of the war. the gun rin
Page 47: THE ANTIAIRCRAFT DEFE0:SES OF ~lllN
Page 51 and 52: 1946 :\IRBOR~E AAA I~ NEW GlII~EA P
Page 53 and 54: I a fight had started. and began to
Page 55 and 56: AIRBORNE AAA IN ;\,E\\' GLIl0.'Et\
Page 57 and 58: little Dauid This new mortar, descr
Page 59 and 60: th II Corps in the Camino-i\lignano
Page 61 and 62: led for fire. which \\'as deli\-ere
Page 63 and 64: 2300 rounds. It was one of these wh
Page 65 and 66: ~rale of troops include: correct cl
Page 67 and 68: .\:\' I:\'CIDE:\'T OF FIGHTER-SEARC
Page 69 and 70: But the 6x6 suffers the same disad,
Page 71 and 72: Jand-Control at Fort Story k of the
Page 73 and 74: CO~ST ~RTILLERY Citations and Comme
Page 75 and 76: LT. COL. JAl\lES T. BARBER LT. COL.
Page 77 and 78: Crystal-Ball Department 0:E\\'S A:'
Page 79 and 80: "\'lindow" off the Secret List Narr
Page 81 and 82: te preparations to le;;rn ",len W l
Page 83 and 84: 0JE\\'S A~D CO~IME~T med to regard
Page 85 and 86: High Altitude Radio ~h altitude com
Page 87 and 88: ntiaircraft Replac~ment Training Ce
Page 89 and 90: 273 AAA Command tGAOlER GENERAL LEO
Page 91 and 92: Seabee Saga r,t O~IAHA TO OKINA \VA
Page 93 and 94: BOOK REnEWS him the Presidency. E\'
Page 95 and 96: L OAST ARTILLERY RINGS LADIES' MINI

January-February - Air Defense Artillery

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?