Does anybody know why manufacture of this gun was broken off after about 200 built? It was really a remarkable weapon, much better than the 37mm ever was and far better for shooting down low-flying tactical bombers and fighters than the 88mm. Another indication of its survivability is that of the batch made in early 1942 (most of which stayed with front-line units, IIRC) 60% still existed in 1945.

So why didn't they mass-produce it? Just because it would have been 'one more' weapon and calibre?

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„Solange man nicht mit dem Kopf unterm Arm rumläuft geht es doch noch!" Erwin Rommel

Morgen Andreas ! ......Yawn,

I think the weapon was prine to jamming, but I will search my files. 5cm Flak 41 richtig ?
Unstabel when fired, and because of its high center of gravity it was also unstable when towed. Could not track targets fast enough plus the sight was complicated and the calculator was ineffective. Less than 200 made as test beds.
I think they should of brought the 4cm weapon mounted on some of the Cruisers into play earlier in the war.

E

Thanks, that explains it. 'Cause if you look at the 'paper' technical stats, it just looks marvellous...

high Vo, very high rate of fire for the calibre, excellent range. Normally you'd say 'what else do you want?'.

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„Solange man nicht mit dem Kopf unterm Arm rumläuft geht es doch noch!" Erwin Rommel

Andreas:

What I don't understand from the fotos is that the gun itself looks very stable off the trailer mount and I don't fuly understand why they didn't continue to perfect this weapon through 43-45 as a supplement to the already existing 3.7 cm weapons.

E

Do you have those photos on your PC, and if so would you mind mailing them to me? I've never actually seen a picture of the gun.

Perhaps they decided it wasn't worthwhile or something. Does the 37mm Flak 43 take the same ammo as the 37mm Flak 36? It's also a good weapon and may have been prime choice because of abundance of ammunition...

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„Solange man nicht mit dem Kopf unterm Arm rumläuft geht es doch noch!" Erwin Rommel

Andreas :

I will be sending some scans of some my a/c photos to England this upcoming week, I will see what I can do for you. Should be at least two that will come your way.

viele Grüße

E

Besten Dank!

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„Solange man nicht mit dem Kopf unterm Arm rumläuft geht es doch noch!" Erwin Rommel

A lot of effort in several countries was put into developing an intermediate AA gun, between the 37-40mm automatics and the 75+mm manually-loaded guns. The 5cm FlaK 41 was the only one to make it into service but, as noted above, it had technical problems. At the end of the war the Germans were working on a more powerful 55mm gun, but had no time to perfect it.

After the war the first successful weapons emerged, the Bofors 57mm and the Soviet 57mm S60.

Tony Williams
Military gun and ammunition website: http://www.quarry.nildram.co.uk
Military gun and ammunition discussion forum: http://forums.delphiforums.com/autogun/messages/

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Tony Williams: Military gun and ammunition website