strange towers of the third reich..

actually they were not operated by the HJ age neitehr in Berlin Wien or Hamburg but by experienced LW Flak crews what was shown in pics was for prop purposes but the HJ Flak kids were used to bring ammo up from underneath in the twoer and operated the control mechanisms to bring the flak rounds up. Single 12.8cm were first introduced with sisngle 2cm flak pieces in Berlin later removed and hosited if you can beleive it the twin or Zwilling heavy pieces and in the case of Berlin the single 2cm Fla weapons were rmeoved replaed by 2cm Flakvierling and then finally the heavier zwilling 3.7cm Fla and these were also manned be experienced crewmen. Civilian populae were given off-limits to any of the higher rooms as this was on purpose for only the Flak members, equipment and of course the hoisting unit(s) for the aammunition(s).

check out lostplaces.de as another site as well as flakturme.de if it still exists on the net.

E ~

 

Im looking for an interesting interview about this Erich ..its a bout a german boy who was a helper and became a full operater off one of berlins flaktowers .
He said in there that after 44 the crews were sent to the front and the FLAKs were fully manned by kids

here a piece of piece of a wiki article ..the one im looking for goes deeper into it .
Jutta Rüdiger - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

From 1943 onwards the BDM also supplied thousands of girls for work in flak (anti-aircraft) batteries guarding German cities. This was the nearest the Nazi regime would allow young women to come to combat service. Girls as young as 13 manned flak batteries and shot down Allied planes. Many were killed when their batteries were hit by bombs or machine-gun fire from Allied fighters. In the last days of the war some BDM girls fought alongside Hitler Youth boys against the invading Allied armies, but this was never officially sanctioned by the regime, and Rüdiger denied after the war that she had approved it.[2]

Looking for the interview as we speak ..it was on a site wich is about the berlin turme , and in english if i remember well ..
He tells he was 15 at the time , a young berliner .. and so busy shooting he didnt notice the alarms to stop and go inside , describes how one of the airplane bombs falls on top of the tower and duds ,and rolls off without exploding ..he describes theres also young BDM girls next to him manning two other guns on the roof at the time .
sofar just found this story from a Flakhilfer in Hamburg (interesting also but not the one im looking for ) : http://www.gustave-roosen.de/hamburg-e.htm

 

Flakhelfern were members of the Hitler Youth who volunteered for war work assisting on anti-aircraft gun sites. They served as messengers, signallers, weather observers and ammunition carriers. In some cases they were even employed as gunners, locaters and searchlight operators with both antiaircraft batteries and with gun crews of flak towers. quote from this site..

Hitler Youth Uniforms

 

Well me either but that or outside during a raid and I'd be in one like a shot.

I imagine you'd have to take additional precautions though, I've read of people dying in deep shelters simply by resting their heads against the wall. Bomb goes off above, concussion wave travelled through the ground and fractured their skull. There's plenty of stories about folks close to blast whose bodies look untouched externally, but internally quite incredible fatal damage.

 

that's right! in or out? it's the chance you take..