280073 – 2cm Flakvierling 38 with SdAh 51/52 Trailer & Crew

The FlaK 38 (Flugabwehrkanone 38) was a 2cm anti-aircraft gun used by various German forces throughout WW2. It was not only the primary German light anti-aircraft gun, but by far the most numerously produced German artillery piece throughout the war. It was produced in a variety of models, notably the Flakvierling 38 which combined four FlaK 38 autocannons onto a single carriage.

The term Vierling literally translates to “quadruplet” and refers to the four 2cm autocannon constituting the design.  The Flakvierling 38 consisted of quad-mounted 2cm FlaK 38 AA guns with collapsing seats, folding handles, and ammunition racks. The mount had a triangular base with a jack at each leg for leveling the gun. The tracker traversed and elevated the mount manually using two hand-wheels.

The gun was fired by a set of two pedals, each of which fired two diametrically opposite barrels in either semi-automatic or fully automatic mode. The effective vertical range was 2,200 meters. It was also used just as effectively against ground targets as it was against low-flying aircraft.

The Flakvierling four-autocannon anti-aircraft ordnance system, when not mounted into any self-propelled mount was normally transported on a SdAh 51 trailer and could be towed behind a variety of half-tracks or trucks such as the Opel Blitz, the armored SdKfz 251, the normally unarmored SdKfz 7/1 and SdKfz 11 artillery-towing half-track vehicles. It could also be mounted on tank hulls to produce fully armored mobile anti-aircraft vehicles, such as the Panzer IV-based Wirbelwind and original Möbelwagen prototype-design anti-aircraft tanks.

In Kriegsmarine use, it was fitted to U-boats, Siebel ferries and ships to provide short-range anti-aircraft defence, and was also employed in fixed installations around ports, harbours and other strategic naval targets. The Flakvierling was also a common fixture on trains, including Hitler’s own command train where pairs of them were mounted on either end of a “camelback” flatbed and covered to make them look like a boxcar. Sometimes a pair of such twin-Flakvierling cars would be used for defense, one near each end of Hitler’s Führersonderzug train.