SPAAS Thread

[rickshaw]

A little bit.  They did use AA guns towards the end of the war as general artillery guns in many a "stonk" when basically everything was fired in the general direction of the enemy in preparation for an advance.  However, their shells were less than optimum for the job, being designed for high fragmentation and little HE filling.   However, 20mm tended to be reserved exclusively for light AA work.  As there wasn't much "business", they often found themselves being taken off their guns and employed on other tasks.  That isn't to say that the Luftwaffe had completely given up.  Just that as the Allies had almost complete air superiority, air attacks were few and far between after about August 1944 in Europe.

[Jschmus]

I did some digging around in boxes last night.  I found a rediscovered a copy of this:

http://www.pjaudinetsr.com/473rd/473hist00.html

that was my grandfather's.  He was originally assigned to one of four antiaircraft units which were assigned to the 5th Army during combat in North Africa and Italy in 1943-44.  Entering Italy, they fought at Salerno, Cassino and Anzio, and sometimes they employed their 40mm guns as direct fire weapons.  By 1945, the Allies had gained air supremacy, and the four AA units were folded into an infantry regiment and redeployed.

[ysi_maniac]

Ural/Shilka

[ysi_maniac]

^^^^^
... proper colours

[ysi_maniac]

Shilka turret on Gecko hull.