WW2 Armor's 8.8cm Flugabwehrkanone (Flak) 37 joined the fleet in May 2023 ready to roll after an extensive two year restoration from top to bottom. The 8.8 cm Flak was a beast of a gun, known to the Allies as the 88mm or 88. The 88mm platform was designed by Krupp in Germany in 1928. It began life as an anti-aircraft gun, the Flak 18, with subsequent models 36, 37, and 41. It was produced from 1933 through 1945, with a total of circa 21,310 produced in that span. It formed the basis of the tank guns such as the 8.8cm KwK 36 and KwK 43, as well as the towed anti-tank gun PaK 43.

It fired the 88x571mmR shell, and had an effective anti-aircraft ceiling of 8,000m (26,000 ft), with a maximum ceiling of 9,900m (32,500 ft). When fired at targets on the ground, it had a maximum range of 14,860m (16,250 yd). The Flak 36/37 had a firing rate of 15 rounds per minute, and a muzzle velocity of 820 mps (2,690 fps). When firing the Panzergranate (anti-tank, PzGr.) 39, it could penetrate 110m of armor at 30 degrees at 500m, 99mm of armor at 30 degrees at 1,000m. Used as both anti-tank and anti-aircraft, the 88mm gun was a fearsome weapon, one of the only German AT guns capable of taking out French Char B1 bis tanks in 1940. It remained an effective anti-tank weapon for the duration of the war.

Our 8.8 cm FlaK 37 is a late war gun that began its life as an 8.8 cm FlaK 36 built in 1943 by Aktiengesellschaft vormals Skodawerke located in Pilsen, Czechoslovakia. In November 1943, the gun was one of 88 x 8.8 cm FlaK 36s provided to Spain by Germany as part of the Germany/Spain trade agreement referred to as the Bär (Bear) Program. Spain at that time also received the licensing from Germany to produce their own models of the 8.8 cm FlaK gun known as the FT-44 to which they built approximately 200 until 1950 in Trubia, Spain. Following the war with Germany's defeat, several countries such as Spain, Portugal, Albania, and Yugoslavia received most of the remaining fully operational German FlaK guns, ordnance, and factory components for them from occupied Germany. The gun was eventually modified to a FlaK 37 in late 1945 with the installation of the modified anti-aircraft fire control system similar to several of the FlaK 36s provided to Spain and FlaK 36s in German service during the war.

We look forward to preserving and showcasing this piece of history as it is one of the few fully operational firing German 8.8 cm FlaK guns in the nation and world!