Flak Towers: Effective or not? 

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Finland also had two flak towers. In true Finnish manner they were placed to defend an alcohol distillery at Rajamäki. (they made Molotov cocktails)

I just realized that flak towers are basically the most modern type of castle

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.

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.

The original Tower Defense game.

Ah, my secret hideout...I mean, what an interesting architectural design

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.

What you didn't mention was that these towers could also move - but only orthogonally, never diagonally.

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!

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.

Your timing couldn't be better! I'm in Vienna right now and just went to see the flak towers in Arenberg park!

It was pretty interesting how they were used in the battle of Berlin and even the heaviest soviet artillery couldn't destroy the towers

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.

For a video on German Anti-Aircraft Missiles in WW2 see this video: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-B7Q92V5hK-c.html

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!

Jet fuel can't melt flak towers

When u speak German I get an eargasm

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

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!

MOH Airborne anyone?

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.

the superb subtitles are hugely appreciated. Thumbs up!

The BEST on the net!!! Thanks for posting. I wish you could gain access for an internal view.

Very good documentary. Filled with tech details and no music!

The fact Germany was able to keep their war effort going despite the allied bombing and embargoes amazes me

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.

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 ...

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.

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!

Fascinating and informative as ever. Excellent episode. Thank you.

i love your videos. they answer specific questions that have specific answers. thank you.

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!

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.

+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.

Another great video. I was always intrigued by stories of the indestructible Zoo tower. Thanks for the upload!

Original Tower Defense! B-)

I love your videos! They are suck high quality and I enjoy watching them and learning very interesting topics!

i had never heard of flak towers till this video. well done, well presented. make more!

Keep up the great videos. All of us enjoy them!!!

Nice Star Wars reference with the double "Stay on Target".

I chose not to hit skip ad on this video. I feel I have done my good deed for the day.

What a great video! Military history personalized.

Really neat video! Will have to watch more!

Casualties for allied bomber forces did get horrendous at times, but the amount of resources dedicated to fighting the bombers can not be undervalued.

The type 3 looks so cool, I remember running through it in Medal of Honor Airborne back on the xbox360

wow great explanation. i really like your presentations.

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!

My class often goes to "Augarten" to take PE-classes. See those Flaktowers every time! Impressive builds!

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.

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!

Excellent description, learned a lot, thank you

So many bullets per kill, wow. I knew accuracy was bad, but didn't realize how bad.

War Thunder airfield-flak: one shot, one kill

Grüße aus Baden-Württemberg, deine Videos sind super! Ich liebe es wie detailliert du informierst :D weiter so!

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.

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.

What are the spikes and comb looking things for?

Fascinating! Enjoyed the video very much.

I think Case Yellow and Case Red certainly deserves your in depth,class explanation

You uploaded the video just as my brother and I were planing to see Flaktowers in Vienna :)

what were the spiky shelf things sticking out of the sides?

I greatly appreciate your content, especially the quality on more controversial matters (like the latest Rommel video). Since you always try to give us the broadest perspective, it'd be erstaunlich if you did a video on Dresden bombing. Take care.

Terrific video! Thanks for sharing.

Excellent video, thx ;)

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

Wonderful history and exploring these places in person, just great. Im sorry youtube is demonetizing anything where you can learn something.

Thank you for this very informative video!

Amazing that the 8.8cm Flak 41 was able to cut the amount needed in half

What were the steel-beams(?) sticking out beneath the tower used ?

this is why I subscribed. awesome

Another Exceptional detailed WW2 video, Thanks

1:20 nice Star Wars reference there :D

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 !

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.

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

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.

Love it, thanks for posting !!

Keep up the good work awesome videos

imagine how effective these would be if the germans figured out how to make proximity shells, the Allies in ww2 had proximity shells

Show us inside.

Very interesting, thank you for the history lesson

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.

looks like something id build in minecraft

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

Amazing and interesting video. Thank you. :)

If you're ever in Berlin make sure to visit the Flakturm Humboldhain. It's partially destroyed but you can get on top of it and enjoy the fantastic view - this time even without bombers!

Dear god, those B-17 pilots must have had some massive balls to fly through the hail storm created by these guns.

Great 👍

Excellent video. I can't believe I have missed it all this time.

Thanks for that completely new info, for me. Groovy.

"Stay on target, stay on target". Nice reference, heh.

"If Germans would have tower rushed in 1939 they would have won by 1941"

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.

Excellent video Thanks

“We fought the wrong enemy.” -General Patton

1:14 Star Wars reference. Nice.

My grandfather had at some point of the war been stationed at a Flak position in Munich that was on the roof of a flat-top tall building (about 6-7 stories tall).

Great upload 👌