TAMMY:TAMMY wrote:The Flak 36. First of all the elevaton and transverse wheels where on the same side (the right) with the elevation behind the transverse. In direct fire the control where like those of any ATG. It was used a direct telescopic sight (Zielfernrohr 20 or 20E) mounted above the transverse wheel. This sight had a drum for distance setting that was connected with a pointer for elevation. The pointer set the drum with the left hand (and the elevation operator matched the pointer). Withe with the right hand he turned the transverse wheel to follow the target. Quite straightforward actually.
I have been searching for my sources since reading your reply. Unhappily I moved this past summer, and most searches wind up with the same conclusion ... "it's in a box in the garage". (There are dozens of boxes in the garage, stacked floor-to-ceiling!
)Could I ask your source? I don't think I recall having anything with that level of detail.
I do recall the story that Rommel had some of his 88s modified so that the gunner could operate both traverse and elevation. It was said this ruined the guns for AA work. It may be that I have incorrectly concluded that this meant the two controlls were on opposite sides, rather than being two men's positions on the same side. Or it may be a matter of the difference between the FLAK 18 vs. the FLAK 36. I do recall that there was a modernization of the FLAK 18 which provided both controls to one gunner ... I think it was the Model 1938. Whether this same appeared on the FLAK 36 I do not know.
On reviewing my pictures, the one 88 I have inspected does appear to have the elevation wheel on the right, where the traverse gunner sat. The elevation wheel is rather far forward, as seen here:
You can just see the wheel in front of the pedestal, on the opposite side from the camera. I wish I had bothered to take more detailed walk-around pictures, or had this question in mind, on any of the several times I've seen this gun over the past 10 years.
That said, I would still not dismiss the dis-advantage of having a seperate crewman operating elevation in an AT engagement. It may be true that there was a repeater for the principal gunner to communicate range to the crewman working the elevation. But even in the flattest of arenas (like the western Dessert) there are still likely to be rises and folds in the ground over the 2+ thousand meters of range of the 88, and a gunner needs to adjust his elevation not only for the range but for the movement of his target over that ground. So after setting his range, our gunner must still call out to another crewman when he wants the gun elevated or depressed as he tracks his target.
All in all a less the fully efficient approach.