Re: Blood and Iron

Chapter 145: Inventing Anti-Aircraft Weaponry



The Ottoman Empire was an interesting instance of fate taking hold of the destiny it had set forth for the world. Built upon the skeleton of the Byzantine Empire, which it had conquered, the Ottomans had forged a realm that had lasted the better part of 5 centuries.

But its feeble foundations would ultimately be its demise. For centuries, the oppression which the Turks had forced on its subjects had bred a level of hatred and resentment for their people seldom found in history.

Wounds such as these took a very long time to heal, and no doubt they continued to bleed to some extent even in the 21st century, or at least insofar as Bruno had known the world prior to his death. Perhaps because of this, he himself held no love for the Ottoman Empire, nor did he necessarily desire to save it, unlike other monarchies in the world.

It was, after all, an empire that was destined to die, and very soon at that. On top of this, they provided very little in terms of military contributions to the Central Powers during his past life. Not only that, but now that Russia had joined the Germans and Austro-Hungarians once more, the odds of roping the Ottomans to their side were neither practical nor desirable. Instead, Bruno would not interfere in this conflict, other than how he had already done. He intended to sit back and watch as the Young Turks toppled the Sultan's autocracy, and restored the Ottoman Constitution. Not that such a thing would save the rotting and decrepit empire from its ultimate fate.

Hence why his days at the office were relatively peaceful. Instead, Bruno spent this time designing anti-aircraft weapons. Aircraft would not immediately play a major role in the war. And to some extent, the designs were already being worked upon for the sake of his Destroyers.

But Bruno decided that for the sake of the border fortifications, establishing total denial of the enemy into German Airspace was a necessity that was better off tackled before the war began. And thus, now that he was simply waiting for orders from either the Kaiser, or the current Chief of Staff, Bruno had the free time necessary to tackle these endeavors.

As a result, he began working on Flak Guns of various sizes and design for the purpose of utterly preventing Allied air power from entering the German Reich. These designs he was making were based on those used during the Second World War of his past life, and would continue to be useful for the decades to come. Assuming they were properly maintained. While completely capable of obliterating any air power of the current era, the 2 cm Flak 38 was more than capable of not just defeating aircraft, but also light armored vehicles, unarmored vehicles, and infantry as well.

It fired a 2cm or 20mm high explosive shell, at a rate of fire of 450 rounds per minute. Albeit the practical rate of fire was significantly lower at 180 rounds per minute due to the fact that it was fed via a 20-round box magazine.

The 2cm Flak 38's effective firing range was 2,200 meters. And it could be a quad mounted on a firing device known as the Flakvierling that could result in devastating anti-air capabilities. This quad mount could, of course, be deployed either via stationery or mobile means. Usually either in the bed of a large truck, or as a mechanized turret on a flak panzer. Which Bruno would not be making for a very, very long time.

But Bruno was a man who was nothing if not thorough, and even though the Flak 38 was more than capable of defending German Airspace from the myriads of aircraft flown during the Great War. Bruno, of course, desired even greater protection.

Because of this, he also began to create a rough draft of an even larger flak gun. Like it's 2cm little brother, this weapon was fully automatic, however unlike the 2cm Flak 38, it did not feed from a 20-round magazine, but rather an 8-round clip.

I'm talking of course about the 3.7 cm Flak 43, which when twin-mounted on its own firing platform known as the 3.7 cm Flak 43 Zwilling could provide devastating support to its 2cm little brother. Unlike the 2cm Flak 38, which fired the 20×138mmB cartridge, the 3.7cm Flak 43 fired then/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

37 × 263mmB cartridge.

Giving it not only an increase in lethality but also nearly double the effective range at 4,800 m. Oddly enough, despite the smaller ammo capacity, it maintained the practical rate of fire of 180 rounds per minute.

Regardless of how this was achieved, the two Flak Guns, when used in tandem, would deny any allied planes from entering the Borders of the German Reich. Especially if they were implemented not only on Naval Vessels and Border fortifications, but also on Armored Trains. Which in a time of war would constantly be traveling throughout Germany, Austro-Hungary, and Russia.

Finally, after spending 3/4s of the workday designing the rough drafts for these two automatic flak guns, Bruno decided to introduce one final anti-aircraft weapon for good measure. If the other two flak guns were designed to take out planes at low altitudes. Then this next gun was able to deliberately death at significant heights. Only aircraft made at the end of the Second World War could really escape.

The 8.8cm Flak 37, was perhaps the final boss of German Anti-Aircraft Guns during the Second World War, with only one gun made of even more considerable size. Albeit towards the end of the war and in limited numbers. Frankly speaking, this 88mm semi-automatic horizontal breach loading anti-aircraft gun was not only used to blow anything that moved in the sky back to hell where they belonged.

But it was also used to devastating effect against armor and infantry as well. Because of this, it was referred to as a "multi-purpose" gun even if it was originally intended to deal exclusively with aircraft. At one point, this bad boy was even strapped onto the backs of both motorized and mechanized armor to be wielded against anything unfortunate enough to come into its firing range.

To put it simply, adding this weapon to German fortifications in the era of the Great Wars was almost like a cheat code. If significant enough numbers of this 88mm flak gun were built, it could be used to not only pepper the skies and obliterate the allies' attempts at air raids, but could even be wielded effectively against the enemy infantry who charged at the German Borders.

To be fair, the other weapons could also be used in this regard, but less efficiently, as this was not an autocannon, but a full-fledged artillery piece. Firing a fixed QF 88×571mmR high explosive shell at a rate of 20 rounds per minute, with an effective firing range of 8,000 meters in the air, and 14,860 meters when directed towards ground units.

This weapon was the definition of versatility. Hell, Bruno could quite literally replace all of his field guns with this multi-purpose weapon, and could still probably win the war. Albeit it was less than ideal in this regard.

With these three anti-aircraft weapons, Bruno doubted the canvas covered wood framed aircraft of the air would survive a single shot from any of them, let alone an entire sky filled with such explosions.

As a result, Bruno was quite confident that when combined with his interwar era biplanes that the Germans would be deploying when the Great War finally broke out, that the skies would belong to the Reich, and nobody else.

And it was only after finishing these rough drafts that Bruno realized the time to return home had arrived. Where he swiftly sealed the documents and mailed them to the necessary corporations he had established to manufacture weapons for the coming age.

After which Bruno returned to his loving family at their new and luxurious estate just outside Berlin. Which would serve as their primary residence for many years to come. However, as Bruno gained more wealth, and a larger family, there may come a time where he would need to invest in a proper palace like home.

And should that day ever arrive, then Bruno would truly have made himself a man worthy of such an extravagant abode. But for now, his current estate would have to suffice in this regard. Even if he was still growing accustomed to living within it.