Flak Towers: Effective or not?
In World War 2 Germany constructed several “Flak Türme” or in English Flak Towers. There were located in 3 cities, namely, Berlin, Hamburg and Vienna. Many of them actually survived up to this day, because they were usually too difficult to destroy. For instance, in Vienna all 6 are still standing and they were also the most modern ones.
Military History Visualized provides a series of short narrative and visual presentations like documentaries based on academic literature or sometimes primary sources. Videos are intended as introduction to military history, but also contain a lot of details for history buffs. Since the aim is to keep the episodes short and comprehensive some details are often cut.
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Sakkers Widmann, Hans Elmar: Flaktürme - Wien - Hamburg - Berlin
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Das Deutsche Reich und der Zweite Weltkrieg - Band 7: Das Deutsche Reich in der Defensive. Strategischer Luftkrieg in Europa, Krieg im Westen und in Ostasien 1943-1944/1945
Wille, Valentin E.: Die Flaktürme in Wien, Berlin und Hamburg: Geschichte, Bedeutung und Neunutzung
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is there any indication that these were ever designed or intended for use as ground artillery in city defence? because that's certainly what happened to the soviets!
@The last Prussian German cruel idiocy.
I once saw a flaktower in Dresden when we did a cruise on the Elbe
Noice~!!
i always see a gefechtsturm in berlin when i drive to my grandparents with the S-bahn
I just realized that flak towers are basically the most modern type of castle
Except that things like gunpowder weapons could easily destroy castles but these flak towers were indestructible to anything short of a nuclear weapon detonated inside the building.
@@masterhacker7065 exactly, hence why they said “modern”. They still functioned similar to a castle
Really? Just now?
Its actually looks like tower defence game...lol
I didn’t even know flak towers existed until today
Finland also had two flak towers. In true Finnish manner they were placed to defend an alcohol distillery at Rajamäki. (they made Molotov cocktails)
Finland must've had an awkward time with their prohibitionist alcohol policy during the war, huh?
Nico Laub the Finnish were high caliber men but the Russians were a never before seen level of incompetent. Stalinn was the leader of the incompetents, so it figures.
TheRetu81 onko muka?
First things first!
lol
An important point overlooked both in your and Bis's video is the very, very, very important role of flak guns as weapons of area denial. You show effectiveness by shots per kill while a successful ground to air engagement mostly is measured by targets not bombed rather than airplanes shot down. The main purpose was to deny access to the bombing targets, and thus kills is a poor estimate of success as a raid getting called off or postponed due to heavy flak is a larger victory than shooting down a lot of planes while still getting your city bombed, so I'd just like to put that out there. Otherwise, great video as always.
Great point and well presented. Thanks!
That is a good point. It makes the enemy's bombing less accurate and forces them send more bombers to drop more bombs on a wider area. Of course in Nazi thinking this is a success - "Hooray, the RAF only hit low-value civilian targets rather than our sprocket factory".
@@chayophan3078 yup just looked if anybody was confused why it would take such an high amount of ammo
Good Point.
Awesome point
The original Tower Defense game.
the original game
Friendly Robot
It stops being a "game" when bombers fly in and kill little babies before they can even be born, or if they kill your wife, or your husband, or your child, or even if they kill your pet. I would suggest that it is important to show respect for the maimed and the dead and all the sad people in real life, rather than to use terms such as "game" about this.
Julian G go to r/wooosh
@@juliang7807 r/whooosh
Fun fact: The Flakturm in Hamburg on the Fledstraße actually houses a nightclub, I've been there and it was kinda weird being there to party inside of a place of fear from air raid attacks. It's kind of a double feeling. I drank a bit too much and I stopped worrying about it after some time in there.
I dont know if it is the same one but one flak tower in Hamburg near St.Pauli has a music school in it.
Yes that's the one! I guess something different for every floor then! Nice to see it's actually being used for a good purpose instead of standing there like a concrete empty shell as a reminder of past times.
In Berlin they blew one of them up and turned it into a massive hill.
One of the flaktowers in Vienna in Esterházypark was turned into a zoo. An aquarium and terrarium to be more precise. It's for sure the coolest and unique zoo I've ever heard of, came across and visited in my entire life. The specific name for the aquarium is *Haus des Meeres*.
FireOps So there is a zoo, aquarium, and a terrarium on different floors that sounds pretty cool.
Ah, my secret hideout...I mean, what an interesting architectural design
Bismarck Bismarck!!!!!!!! Big fan dude
Bismarck why do I keep running into you in the comments?
Bismarck - Military Aviation History does it run doom ?
How would it ba a hide out in the middle of a major city.
@@kurtstergar1042 Go to Vienna and stand next to one. It was a beautiful sunny day when I did it, and still I felt like running away in terror.
I thought Medal of Honor: Airborne made these things up. My favourite level in the game though so cool to discover that there's actual history behind it.
Only a shame they messed up the interior of the tower... But then again the level wouldnt be extremely intresting i guess ;)
also would be messed up if you at soem point bursted into a room or hall full orf german civilians , and feel bad because you are basicly killed the guys who tried to defend them ...
Well honestly that would make a game a lot more realistic and therefore a lot more interesting :P Unfortunatly they never put such things in games...
I love that game, the occasional weird glitches made it fun too
5seba56, Spec Ops: the line. That's where it's at. All of dem feelz for indiscriminately killing civillians with white phosphorous
You have to give those Germans credit for the quality of the concrete they used. The fact they are still standing with seemingly minimal structural cracks is a feat to the engineering that went into making these towers.
Facts just look at the fortifications still standing in Normandy at the Atlantic wall
In Lorient, the Germans built concrete sub pens, to protect the U-boats from allied bombing raids. They are still there because they are too big to be destroyed. @@mcfrisko834
I’ve visited Vienna some time ago and saw the towers (one tower to be exact, the one in the park) myself. They certainly are in a good state and the pictures don’t do justice for their size, they are gigantic in person.
@@halo-7797 Just imagine how devastating the psychological impact was on allied soldiers. Having a huge amount of gear on while running through a maze of flying bullets and dead soldiers in an attempt to storm this massive and impenetrable looking fortification. Good Lord...
It’s kinda hard to crack through 2.5 meters of reinforced concrete
I love the anachronistic nature of flak towers. These nearly medieval castles of concrete and steel are products of the same society who redefined modern warfare with experimental weaponry. One of my favorite videos so far. Would love to see more of these!
@rimacutem of Alsvartrsmiðr ah yes I love intellectual discourse. It turns my knowledge peen into a smart boner
@rimacutem of Alsvartrsmiðr Trench Warfare will never come back, regardless what happens.
@@RealRotkohl yeah, our missiles/bombs/artillery/drones are literally too smart for large scale trench warfare to be effective, would just be a big target.
@@ragoonsgg589 “redefined modern warfare” lmao what a twat
@@RealRotkohl Iran-Iraq war..? ring a bell?????
Its somewhat easy to criticize the leadership for their emphasis on FlaK guns over fighters, and I would agree with this criticism to some extent. But, one must remember that guns had some advantages over fighters, namely: 1) Guns could - with proper target acquisition and fire direction equipment - fire accurately day or night and in bad weather. They were available 24/7. Fighters were limited by the technology of the day to daylight, fair weather only until fairly late in the war. Night fighters operated in small numbers and even if they made a successful interception and kill, it would never have been enough to stop massed bomber raids. Night-capable, all-weather fighters were expensive to manufacture. 2) Heavy and sophisticated AA guns were/are expensive to manufacture. BUT, they don't require many strategic materials to make and training crews is easy. Furthermore, crews can be men or women who would be unsuited for front line service. None of these are true of fighters, except that they are expensive to make also. 3) Fighters can be opposed by, not only heavily armed bombers, but also escorting fighters. This means that even if you emphasize fighters as the main weapon of air defense, that is no guarantee that the enemy will not engage you with as many escorts. Additionally, I recall a statistic that B-17s achieved a 1 - 1 kill ratio in aerial combat. I cannot find the source, but it is clear that bombers accounted for many fighter losses. More fighters would not necessarily reduce the ability of bombers to shoot them down. The B-29 never flew against the Luftwaffe, but its sophisticated defense system proved deadly to Japanese fighters. 4) AA guns are relatively safe from air attack themselves for obvious reasons. Moreover, it would have taken a major air campaign to deliberately target AA defense zones in order to neutralize them. So AA guns are a resilient defense that's hard to directly counter with force. 5) I believe AA guns were more effective than the German statistics reveal, because I assume they were counting as a "kill" only those bombers that were shot down over German-controlled territory which they could confirm. How many bombers and fighters were written-off as complete losses that managed to fly home or were lost over Allied territory due to battle damage. The Germans could not have known this number, nor the number of crew killed by FlaK. So, the performance of AA is probably better than the numbers suggest. I'm not suggesting that German leaders should not have focused on fighters. On the contrary, but I am saying that AA guns should have been a part of any integrated air defense, and given Germany's limited circumstances, a dependence on AA guns is not completely unreasonable.
Thanks Jimmy, I appreciate the kind words.
The Germans had fuel shortages. They couldn't even fly their planes as much as they wanted. As the war progressed the shortages became more severe. Fuel shortages curtailed flying resulting in less pilot training and eventually less sorties due to fuel rationing.
Justin, I don't know if you are trying to add to my argument or contradict it, but either way, what you've stated is not entirely correct. Firstly, the Germans didn't start to experience crippling fuel shortages until 1944. Which means that Germany was OK for fuel for the first 4 1/2 years of war before it was a critical problem. They got their fuel from two primary sources: Romanian oil and synthetic fuel plants that converted coal into gasoline, diesel, some lubricants and even rubber. For example, by 1937, two years BEFORE the war started, just the 4 largest synthetic fuel plants in Germany produced 4.8 MILLION gallons of gasoline. In 1938, a plant in Huls, Germany, produced fuel and buna, which is a material used to make synthetic rubber. So the true part of what you stated didn't become reality until late 1944. Also, the reduced time spent training pilots was not entirely due to fuel shortages. it was more the result of high loses of pilots that the Germans needed to replace quickly. Another point is that Germany committed to heavy AA defenses long before the shortage of fuel effected the ability of the Luftwaffe to make operational sorties. Look up the Kammhuber Line on the internet and you'll see that the German leadership started committing much resources to AA defense in the summer of 1940. That was 1 1/2 years before the US entered the war and 3 1/2 years before the USAAF began a bombing campaign against Germany. Also, look up the Fischer-Tropsch process and the Bergius Process if you'd like to learn about the history of synthetic fuel and how the Germans converted coal into fuel.
There is also the psychological effect. Air crews tend to be hesitant to fly over heavy AAA areas, so the threat would help deter bombing runs until their side felt they could, or needed, to afford the risk.
There is no evidence that heavy FlaK ever deterred bombing missions or that the USAAF waited until it was necessary to go.
What you didn't mention was that these towers could also move - but only orthogonally, never diagonally.
😂
187 likes 😂😂😂 Will I get more likes if I say they also dispense free ice cream? People are idiots 😂😂
@@barryquinn5840shut up retard
@@barryquinn5840 or people just appreciate the chess joke.
Took me way too long to get this
It was pretty interesting how they were used in the battle of Berlin and even the heaviest soviet artillery couldn't destroy the towers
With three-meter concrete walls, I'd hope not :P
Given they were designed for air defence, not ground, I doubt the Germans attempted to hold them against the advancing Red Army. So they wouldn't have been primary targets.
Sundog A but they did hold out against soviet forces
I heard from somewhere that the towers were meant to be used as rallying points for retreating Heer units, and filled with supplies and ammunition to service them. I've also heard the SS had a habit of colonising the towers, shutting the doors to any and all Wehrmacht and attempting to survive the Soviet onslaught alone while enjoying a large stockpile of food etc. Then again, I have no available source for this, so disregard at your leisure.
ineffective my ass, these things accounted for 80% of bomber commands casualties right until the end of the war. EDIT: i have NO IDEA where i pulled that figure from plz ignore.
Your timing couldn't be better! I'm in Vienna right now and just went to see the flak towers in Arenberg park!
I would recommend the Augarten Towers, the stop is "Friedensbrücke", cross the bridge and few hundred meters. Also at the bridge there is butcher that has horse meat, so you can get the "full Wehrmacht experience" ;)
Military History Visualized I assume the beams that stick out below the perimeter gun barbettes are to prevent Soviets from trying to hit them from below with hand held anti-tank weapons ??? ps I love the videos
Military History Visualized Thank you for the tips. I saw the entrance to one of the towers, where it said Nur Wehrmacht. That made me smile. Unfortunately I was there just for the day. But I'll czech out the other ones next time. Might try the horse meat instead of Wiener Schnitzel as well :)
"The beams under the platforms were to be used for maintenance."
Are you a Viennese ? Wenn ja Servus aus Wien nach Wien :D
My dad‘s B-17 was hit by flack over Berlin in March 1944. I’ll bet it’s one of these darn towers that got them! He later crashed in Amsterdam and was taken POW. But he and his whole crew survived the war, inStalagluft one. Good video man!
In circles arround the cities were a lot of "Flak" operated by Teenies 😥
First armored trains, and now flak towers! You keep producing videos on subjects I'm really interested in, but haven't been able to find materials on. Bravo, good sir!
For a video on German Anti-Aircraft Missiles in WW2 see this video: kzhead.info/sun/dZuKaZaObJqBYJs/bejne.html
My grandma was in the Flackturm in Augarten during an air assault on Vienna. She said after the war the government wanted to destroy them but they are so massive that the whole 20th district would blow up too
Jet fuel can't melt flak towers
Wo sind die Motoren?
@@MrSonofsonof Ehre, ein fahrender Flak Turm wäre schon geil haha
No but it would turn them into a crock pot , cooking all inside.
I didn't know george bush was involved in ww2?
@@personeater747He was a pilot in the Pacific. He was shot down, ditched and got plucked out of the ocean by the US Navy. A few of his less fortunate fellow pilots landed on a Japanese held island, were executed, and eaten
We saw 2 of the flak tower in Vienna a few years ago. One was turned into an aquarium and the other was being used as a communication center by the Austrian army.
Yes, it's called "House of the sea (Haus des Meeres)" and is really worth to check out. 😊
When u speak German I get an eargasm
the gay who makes german sexy!
the problem is, that he doesn't - he speaks austrian. :P
montanus777 which is a german dialegt.....
Zacha Wasser exactly
And the qoutes were read in glasclear Oxford- German...no wait.....^^
I chose not to hit skip ad on this video. I feel I have done my good deed for the day.
Nice Star Wars reference with the double "Stay on Target".
The part where you started going over the costs of Flak for the Germans is an interesting one to accompany with "WWII US Bombers" channel. There was a video where he talked about the USAAF's bomber losses to German fighters and flak. Earlier when the Luftwaffe's fighter force was stronger they accounted for the bulk of American bomber losses. But the Luftwaffe faces a lot of attrition in 1943 and early 1944. The period where the Western Allies decide the Luftwaffe needed to be dealt with before a cross channel invasion. The Allies succeed in this. He showed charts where losses to fighters drove down sharply in early 1944 while flak picked up the slack in inflicting losses. German spending on flak was substantial as you pointed out. But it was the only thing in the long run that were inflicted extensive losses to Allied bombers. I don't have documentation to back it up, but I do believe it's easier, cheaper, quicker to build 88mm, 105mm, 128mm flak guns, their ammunition, and train up gun crews compared to having a decently trained pilot. It takes a long time to train a pilot. The costs to build a modern fighter and then the fuel to train with. Fuel that Germany wasn't exactly having in good number. Eventually we get to the point in WWII where Germany could still build planes but didn't have the trained pilots for them anymore. But the flak still hurt right up until the very end. Another thing to consider for the Allied war effort is all those guns, those 88s and such, being tied up deep inside the Reich for air defense and not being out in the front lines in 1943, 1944. The Kriegsmarine kept on sending U-Boats out on patrols despite it being virtually a suicide mission. But the continued U-Boat sorties tied up a lot of resources of the Allies. There were a lot of multi-engine planes that were stuck out doing maritime and ASW patrols. The B-24 for example did a lot of maritime patrols. Planes doing that role instead of bombing Germany.
What hurt the Luftwaffe the most, aside from the P-51 and P-47 fighters was the bombing attacks on the synthetic fuel refineries that drastically cut aviation gasoline. The fuel was not available for both pilot training and combat operations.
@@scootergeorge7089 The P51 was a lucky mistake for the allies. Originally designed as a recon plane, it proved to be the best (imo) allied fighter plane, with the rugged P47 getting a comfy second place.
@@tomtom34b - Actually, North American Aviation had already begun preliminary design work on what would become the P-51 when they were approached by the RAF who requested they build the Curtiss P-40 under license for them. NAA responded that they had a better design and promised a first flight in 100 days. In any case, even with Allison V-1710 power, the Mustang was superior to the Kittyhawk/Tomahawk/Warhawk... But it was the supercharger that made the Mustang great. The Merlin powered Lancaster bomber lacked this feature and was limited to an operational altitude of about 20,000 feet.
Casualties for allied bomber forces did get horrendous at times, but the amount of resources dedicated to fighting the bombers can not be undervalued.
Yet the resources used for mounting the bombing attacks were not insignificant either. There are historians who believe that strategic bombing in WWII was not cost-effective and cost the attacker about as much as the defender, mostly just accomplishing only in killing civilians.
I'd say it was well worth it, given that bombers came home more often than not. But it might as well have been the only option, as allies didn't have a beach head to deploy troops on the ground of mainland europe. Still, by 1944 bomber raids were carried out every day by the allies. And as the luftwaffe was in no condition to fight properly at that time, the early focus on AAA gave them an edge. Imagine if they had developed and deployed the proximity fuse. Reports point out it made for a sevenfold increase in hit probability for the US guns.
Bombing late in the war managed to completely cripple the German oil supply which was incredibly important and it seriously restricted the use of German armor and trucks.
Bombing of infrastructure, industry, research sites, airfields and especially oil supply was very effective and well worth it . Terror bombing of civilians was entirely inefficient (it was supposed to diminish morale and will to fight, it often did the opposite) and a complete waste of resources. It was a huge mistake even before considering the morality of it and that it was a war crime.
I think extra credits mentioned that all air bombing campaigns cost the attacking nation more resources to construct the planes and bombs then the defender losing resources as a result of the bombing. Strategic bombing only works when you have more resources to begin with that you can afford the bigger drain.
MOH Airborne anyone?
Ffff Ffff "TRAVERS TAKE OUT THAT A.A. GUN" *MG42 Super Nazi Appears*
Human History lol i was dissapointed that you didn't made a reference in the video
Human History I still can't beat that game because of the super Nazis in the basement
They are rough. There is an explosive crate you can get right before you go down there and gammon grenades work pretty well.
great game!
the superb subtitles are hugely appreciated. Thumbs up!
outstanding vid and explanation. Having research these towers in depth for my first novel before youtube was available I was fascinated once again with the towers and the correct historical information.
Very good documentary. Filled with tech details and no music!
The type 3 looks so cool, I remember running through it in Medal of Honor Airborne back on the xbox360
The BEST on the net!!! Thanks for posting. I wish you could gain access for an internal view.
I was in Vienna a few weeks ago and stumbled into that type 3 tower. It is one of the most imposing military structures I have ever seen!
My class often goes to "Augarten" to take PE-classes. See those Flaktowers every time! Impressive builds!
I have seen one in Vienna many years ago, it was somewhere near the center, in a builtup area. At first did not even notice it. Surely an impressive structure-
Show us inside.
A very informative upload , I have seen documentarys on Discovery Channel for these Flak Towers but you covered stats and information that was not covered by them thankyou for a great upload ...
Another great video. I was always intrigued by stories of the indestructible Zoo tower. Thanks for the upload!
Always so impressed by this guy's videos!
There is a 1944 German binocular ranging aparatus for anti aircraft flak battery with the electromechanical range calculator for the associated guns on display at the Military Museum in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Canary Islands. An amazingly big beast.
Fascinating and informative as ever. Excellent episode. Thank you.
i love your videos. they answer specific questions that have specific answers. thank you.
I love your videos! They are suck high quality and I enjoy watching them and learning very interesting topics!
suck
When she give you the succ and you can't even spell afterwards.
Rumac Aznable Are you three times faster?
There is still one standing in the St.Pauli - Heiligengeistfeld area in Hamburg. There used to be two of them but one was demolished, with great problems, decades ago. The remaining one is quite impressive and awe inspiring, and it was of course also a most effective air raid bunker for thousands of people, not just a flak tower, so it saved many lives as well as aiding in the anti aircraft defence of the city during the war.
What a great video! Military history personalized.
i had never heard of flak towers till this video. well done, well presented. make more!
Original Tower Defense! B-)
So many bullets per kill, wow. I knew accuracy was bad, but didn't realize how bad.
giveussomevodka That tends to happen when you don't have Proximity Fuses like the US/UK
basically at that point, you're not even aiming for a direct hit. The goal is to flood the sky with shrapnel so that planes tear themselves apart while flying through them. proximity fuses make this easier because you can actually aim and score a hit with a near miss instead of mass of fire or trying to score a direct hit on a long distance fast moving target. Still while it was more dangerous, the surest way to down bombers was to send fighters after them that can actually score the direct hits needed to disable and down aircraft. Nowadays, we use a combination of fighters, long distance radars, and anti-aircraft missiles, although still using some form of autocannon for close range backup (20mm rotary cannons and such etc) While missiles are expensive, they don't take up as much space as large cannon batteries and have a much better kill ratio per missile fired than any high caliber AAA. Right now i think the only reason that any ships have backup cannons larger than fast firing rotaries and quad autocannon arrangements is for small surface vessels that are too cheap to be worth targeting with a missile, IE, civilian vessels with RPGs and the like. Take this all with a dose of salt because this is pure conjecture and i am no military specialist.
When you consider the Germans had to manually plot direction, speed, and altitude to aim their guns (which they were quite good at, in reality, despite the numbers) the high shots/kill makes sense. Also military combat vessels like destroyers and frigates and the like have "main battery" guns (as opposed to AA, Point Defence, etc) to fight small boats and other small warships. You may find this interesting, but anti-missile defence systems technology and weaponry are outpacing missile development. Don't be surprised if you see a resurgence in gunnery focus, albeit probably with something like railguns, but hey.
Calculations like that tend to also calculate rounds fired in training though. Not just those fired during actual combat. But since training ammunition costs money too this doesn't make the number less impressive.
I heard it takes about 250,000 rounds of small arms fire per enemy soldier killed, as of the US-Iraqi conflict. That really puts how costly war is in perspective. Also, Why the US army didn't want to adopt the Winchester rifles and why many rifles up to and beyond WWI had a magazine cut off.
Keep up the great videos. All of us enjoy them!!!
Great video! Sucks that you weren't allowed into the towers for some of the shots. If that was even possible. Keep up the great work!
What are the spikes and comb looking things for?
imagine how effective these would be if the germans figured out how to make proximity shells, the Allies in ww2 had proximity shells
It took almost 100 US companies to produce proxy shells in usable quantities. The british who invented it couldn't even produce it domestically.
+Military History Visualized Thanks for this. I've always been interested in the Flak towers, particularly in Berlin and Vienna. I used to go to Vienna quite often but never got around to actually seeing the towers there.
I think Case Yellow and Case Red certainly deserves your in depth,class explanation
War Thunder airfield-flak: one shot, one kill
what were the spiky shelf things sticking out of the sides?
wow great explanation. i really like your presentations.
Vielen Dank fürs informative Video! Ich wünschte, es gäbe mehr Bilder und Videos von den Flaktürmen aus der Kriegszeit. Diese sind sehr schwer zu finden.
Amazing that the 8.8cm Flak 41 was able to cut the amount needed in half
yeah, I have to look into that.
Well, the FlaK 41 was a good deal better than the FlaK 18/36/37. Not just the longer barrel and higher muzzle velocity (roughly 1000 m/s vs 800 m/s for the older version; giving bombers much less time to dodge, also a longer range/higher ceiling), it also fired faster and the ammunition was better. Due to high cost and low production, I would also assume that the operators were on average a lot better than those operating the older acht-acht (especially since many home front AA units were only partially staffed by "real" soldiers, relying on civilian volunteers and Hitlerjugend to operate guns).
You uploaded the video just as my brother and I were planing to see Flaktowers in Vienna :)
the one shown most is at Haltestelle "Friedensbrücke", also there is a butcher who has horse meat at the end of the bridge, so you get the "full Wehrmacht experience" ;)
hahah, thanks for the tip :D
:O
Excellent description, learned a lot, thank you
Really neat video! Will have to watch more!
Excellent video, thx ;)
The strong German accent of the narrator sends shivers down my spine. It make the horrors of the past more authentic. Good job🏆
Thanks 😊
@@MilitaryHistoryVisualized Gerne🤓
Thank you for this very informative video!
this is why I subscribed. awesome
also in Stuttgart and Frankfurt (Ost), albeit a little smaller. Demolishing the one in Frankfurt Ost took over two years as explosives could not be used due to the vicinity of citylife... en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flak_tower
The Soviets could not destroy them...could not even _damage_ them...during the Battle of Berlin, and they sheltered countless numbers of the city's civilian population, so just on that level they were worth every gram of steel and concrete put into 'em.
Terrific video! Thanks for sharing.
Thanks for creating this. I've always wanted to know more about these towers since seeing the big round one in the skyline of Vienna. Little did I know at the time that I was seeing that one whilst unknowingly standing upon another one which is the Vienna aquarium!
The low kill ratio is, in my opinion, a poor way to measure the effectiveness of these sorts of defenses. Flak was primarily a way to deny area, keeping enemy bombers and fighters AWAY from you. In this role they seem to have been very effective. Excellent video over all though! Well done m8
As I've mentioned elsewhere in this discussion, it should be remembered that the Luftwaffe was a 'tactical' air force. Any redeployment of aircraft and personnel away from that role directly impacted on the overall effectiveness of the field army.
Love it, thanks for posting !!
Another Exceptional detailed WW2 video, Thanks
Dear god, those B-17 pilots must have had some massive balls to fly through the hail storm created by these guns.
rushthezeppelin they were more scared of German fighters I think, but flak is bad too
No doubt, alot of stuff to soil your drawers over if you are an Allied pilot flying sorties over Axis controlled Europe. At least you could actually down fighters though with all your gun placements on the B-17. Unless you bombed it, you would be at the mercy of the AA towers like these though.
rushthezeppelin r u kidding ? Those things shot 12000 times before they hit u lol. Your odds of winning lotto is prob better than getting hit by one of them : )
Well when you are told you have to do something or face a court marital (prison, possibly death) you tend to endure what you must.
supa3ek it didn't say they shot 12k shots before a kill you dumbass, it said they COUNTED 12k shots for it to count a kill, since they wouldn't know they destroyed a bomber on the spot
What were the steel-beams(?) sticking out beneath the tower used ?
Thanks for that completely new info, for me. Groovy.
Fascinating! Enjoyed the video very much.
1:20 nice Star Wars reference there :D
what o_O edit: ohhhhh xD
Right, the death star run.
“We fought the wrong enemy.” -General Patton
Terrifying quote, that.
Operation Unthinkable: "Churchill's plan, was based on an attack on the Soviet Union for July 1, 1945. The use of British and US troops was planned, also with the rearm of the German Wehrmacht "
This dickhead comment always surfaces in videos like these
Loving Nazis much eh ? 🤢
Patton was a troglodyte
Excellent video. I can't believe I have missed it all this time.
Glad you enjoyed it!
@@MilitaryHistoryVisualized And I was NOT SUBSCRIBED! Sorry. Done now, sub. Success, Mein Freund.
Very interesting, thank you for the history lesson
"If Germans would have tower rushed in 1939 they would have won by 1941"
_facepalm_ xD
@@mysss29 I think it's a joke. (I hope so, anyway) on the people that say "if Germany had X tech earlier, they would have won."
@@eddyharris2372 It's an age of empires reference silly.
Correct xd!!
is this a starcraft analogy? :D
Can you talk a bit about "Flakhügel"...never heard of emplacements like these. Also maybe a talk about effectiveness, tactics and general use of flak anti air fire.
Benedikt Geierhofer Remnants of Flakhügel can be found next to airfields, they were useful for placing light AA guns to provide for a better field of fire, depending on local topography
A Flakhügel is literally what it sounds like: Simply a mount of dirt (natural or artificial) with one or more AA's placed on top of them.
Just making sure that there is no guidebook or manual around. For the proper setup or something like that. How goes the saying "A german doesn't take a piss without a plan" Didn't we have an episode about antitank gun setup on this channel before...makes me think that something similar for air defense emplacements also exists.
For better understanding, my hometown, Paderborn has a hill (not a big one but still one of the highest ones in this area) ''Monte Scherbelino'' (weird name btw) which was used during the second world war as the biggest AA emplacement in all of the city. So a Flak-Hill is really just that, a good spot to shoot at incoming allied planes. Unfortunately, the hill was either not manned or it could not act, Paderborn got destroyed by the 27 of May from RAF bomber divisions. After the war the population of Paderborn even thought about ''moving'' the city to another place, the actual Paderborn was destroyed by that time up to 96%. But that did not happen, we live still on the same spot. EDIT: I have to say, after i've asked, there was an Airport for the Luftwaffe in Paderborn South-West, what is now known as Monte Scherbelino. Scherbelino comes from the word ,,Scherbe'' what means shard, all of the debris after the war, and what not, was moved there. That is why the Monte is now way higher then 70 years ago.
Benedikt Geierhofer isn't that a russian quote? it appears in a Movie, I think Red Scorpion
Fantastic video, thank you! +1 as always.
Keep up the good work awesome videos
"Stay on target, stay on target". Nice reference, heh.
Hey MHV maybe you could talk about specific German infiltration tactics in the Battle of the Bulge. Thanks!
I had a trip in Vienna and spent some time to go and see the Flakturm in the Augarten. Very impressive ! Working in the nuclear industry, it felt familiar as some reactor buildings have the same monolithic and circular aspect while being quite tall !
Amazing and interesting video. Thank you. :)
can you do a video on pervitin?
ChaosDelivery Pervitin taste test?
nah rather how the wehrmacht distributed it amongst their soldiers, heard some stories... saddly no time to get some research done thus I hope MHV may could help
Methamphetamine. US troops used it too.
When i was a soldier i worked in the Flaktower in the Stiftkaserne :) freaky to be inside and to be cut off totaly of the rest of the world
I live in the neighbourhood next to the round one in Vienna (Augarten) In summer I usually sit at a bench right next to it and play guitar and sing. It gives a nice wall echo.
I used to live next to the Flakturm in Wilhemsburg, Hamburg. Really cool place and how they renovated it to a "Energy Bunker" couple years back. Good videos by the way!
The original Tower Defence. :-)
Do a video on the Landkreuzer
Ja
That'd be a 20 second video stating it was a stupid idea and it was never built.
And also that the originator of the idea ended his life in a secure ward in a mental hospital.
Cplblue nah d00d big tanks r cool as hell am I rite
Antto Lookkanon how it’s nonexistent?
I've visited Vienna several times in the past few years with a friend who took a personal interest in the six towers there. The interesting thing about them is how well they fit into the skyline if you're looking out from a hotel, and that they don't really stand out that much. Also, my friend met a man who'd lived near one all his life (it was located in his neighborhood), and he said he really didn't notice it: After a time, it's just part of the scenery. I believe four of the towers are out of use now, one has a public aquarium and the last provides a barracks for troops stationed in town.
Hi, kudos for the great content, I really like how good your videos are researched and produced. Unfortunately I am not able to watch any of them in one sitting, because your english makes me cringe so hard after a while, that I have to take a break. Other than that, keep up the good work :)
Great 👍
What's the purpose of the girders sticking out of the walls?
Calum Spencer Probably balancing out the weight of the girders on the inside?
Either supports or to catch someone if they fall. My best guesses.
I was wondering that myself and was hoping that what they were for would be mentioned in this video, along with what they're being used for now a days.
I would assume they once held up something. Maybe the radars.
Prevent people or animals from climbing up there would be my guess
Very interesting! When considering about the towers (or AA-guns over all) effectiness, you should not forget how it make enemy bombers to avoid them, because that's also a kind of protection effect.
Thank you so much for all your most informative videos on subjects not always covered by other Military Historians. I have been interested in Flak Towers for a long time but could find such little real information on the subject, so this video is pure heaven to me so thank you a million. We visited the Vienna Autgarten (spelling sorry) ones a couple of years ago, and even my Partner found them so fascinating. The lady in our Mercure Hotel not far away didn't even know what they were or that they even existed! If you ever have time please please please expand on this flak tower topic - there is so much more for you to say you would agree. One fact a lot of people won't be aware of is that they fortunately still only physically exist because they were so damned hard and too difficult to blow up without causing considerable secondary damage to nearby areas. Oh and can we see more photos of them in use and in action which seem so rare.