Supposed to be one of many AA guns

>supposed to be one of many AA guns
>becomes iconic ground artillery example
How?

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>flat trajectory
>high velocity
>heavy projectile
>88mm diameter, modest amount of explosive filling if needed against infantry and light vehicles

It was just a really well designed gun. It might have been intended for AA use but it happened to be a very handy size for all sorts of other things too.

Quite a few anti tank guns were developed from AAA, the 90mm m3 and the Soviet 85mm guns for example. Tank development just took off faster than anyone in ordinance expected.

Tank guns are just more iconic to the general public than AA guns, see also the other examples of AA turned tank guns.

>ordinance
You have to go back

They couldn’t pen matildas with standard at guns and tanks
Then some fucking crout was like why not
Suddenly it was used

Even before the war the Germans had the idea of maybe using the 88 for bunker busting so the crews were supplied with some AP. Also the German 37mm AT gun was shit even compared to other 37mm guns, so when the Germans started running into Matildas and Char B's they pressed the 88's into service against them and they actually worked.

Because some knucklehead decided to point it at something on the ground and everyone realized it was good at blowing up that stuff too.

Plus it looks cool

Because it was the only time the Nazi's actually made a sound decision that too stress OFF their logistics train

Necessity, Being an AA it had the velocity to fuck shit up when leveled off at ground targets

But they made plenty of decisions like that, like sharing chassis across a wide range of vehicles to keep old tooling relevant, standardizing Bf 109 models on the 109K series, using plenty of captured and obsolete equipment in static roles, converting Russian guns to German calibers, etc etc. It was just never enough, because a country with the size and population of two Texases (Texai?) cannot fight the entire world.

But one Texas could fight the entire world.

You don't seem to be fighting the invading beaners very hard.

>couldn't even fight Mexico without help from Americans

How's that new ammo ban in Cali going, Phil? You fuckers sure fought that didn't ya.

Read Blood Red Snow
There is a part in that book where the germans hold off waves of attacking Russian infantry and t-34s with just two 88 cannons, a quad cannon halftrack, and a 150 guys or so. The 88s were the ONLY thing they had against tanks. And the tanks repeatedly get annihilated at range.
But, eventually the 88 guns get knocked out by the sheer number of enemy tanks and T-34s overrun their position and proceede to churn up the trenches and foxholes with their tracks to bury germans alive.
I remember reading that one of the 88 guns got hit with an HE shell. The author said the entire 12m area around the gun was covered in body parts and solid red snow.
Hell of a book. It's been a while, I need to reread it.

>Standardizing Bf 109 models on the K series

Shame it took them until September 1944 to field it.

>Everyone remembers it for WW1 when it's actually from WW1

WW2*, fuck

Read this book 3 times. One of the best about the Eastern front.

Well its forerunner was made in 1917.

The 8.8 is the only thing anti-wehraboos cant shit on and they HATE it for that. Probably the only common weapon in ww2 that could kill 95% of stuff it was pointed at

76mm M1A1
Considering both that it could kill Tigers and Panthers frontally from 900 yards, and that 95% of the Panzerwaffe were StuGs, I'd say it fits the bill :^)

Can it hit planes though ? DID it hit planes ? Can sink ships ? DID it sink ships ? All that plus it wasnt exactly common ;)

>c r o u t

Pretty sure the 88 on the subs was considerably different from the landbased version despite the same bore

It was used pretty much unmodified on surface ships though

They started bolting the flak versions to normal ships iirc

from the start of the war it was intended to be used in bunker buster role with pic related
that's why it transitioned so easily into anti tank role

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There are many flavors of 88mm, with different shell and case sizes; 88mm from a Tiger, versus 88mm from an Elefant.

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me on the right

it always amazed me that the round on the left was able to push such numbers

It's not shit because it was designed by Bofors. Germany copied much of the Bofors 75/80mm design and made it a larger caliber.

Yfw you realized it was designed as a multipurpose gun from the very beginning. The myth of the Germans using them as anti tank guns our of sheer desperation against heavily armored allied tanks at the time is just that, a myth.

Only if they use HVAP ammo.

>crout
Holy fuck haha
First time I've seen it spelled that way

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Kill yourself tripfag. Trips should only be used when needed. Nobody likes you.

>the misspelled word kraut
>a derogatory term for a german

so you never asked yourself why they had AP round ?