2 cm Flak 30/38/Flakvierling

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2 cm Flak 30
A 2 cm Flak 30 and its crew in Seine-et-Oise, France, August 1944
TypeAnti-aircraft cannon
Place of originNazi Germany
Service history
In serviceApril 1934–1945
Used byNazi Germany
WarsWorld War II
Production history
No. builtmore than 144,000[1]
(Flakvierling count per barrel)
Variants2 cm Flak 38, Gebirgsflak 38, Flakvierling 38
Mass450 kg (992 lbs)
Length4.08 m (13 ft 5 in)
Barrel length1.3 m (4 ft 3 in) L/65
Width1.81 m (5 ft 11 in)
Height1.6 m (5 ft 3 in)

Caliber20 mm (.79 in)
Elevation-12°to ±90°
Rate of fire280–450 rpm (cyclic)
120–180 rpm (practical)
Muzzle velocity900 m/s (2,953 ft/s)
Effective firing range2,200 m (2,406 yds) (anti-aircraft)
Maximum firing range5,783 m (5,230 yds) (ground range)
Feed system20 round box magazine



A Flak 38 mounted on a vehicle, Russia June 1943. Among the crew is Josef Niemietz









4.1 g incendiary (zinc)
900 m/s Nose fuze, tracer (5 second burn), with self-destruct
Panzerbrandgranatpatrone (Phosphor) L'spur ohne Zerleger API-T 148 3.0 g incendiary (WP) 800 m/s Tracer round, with no fuze or self-destruct function.

2 cm Flakvierling 38[edit]

2 cm Flakvierling 38
Bundesarchiv Bild 183-J08339, Ausbildung an der Vierlings-Flak.jpg
Members of the Panzer-Grenadier-Division Großdeutschland train with a 2 cm Flakvierling 38 (1943)
TypeAnti-Aircraft Gun
Place of originNazi Germany
Service history
In serviceMarch 1940–1945
Used byNazi Germany
WarsWorld War II
Production history
Mass1,509 kg (3,327 lbs)
Length4.08 m (13 ft 5 in)
Barrel length1.3 m (4 ft 3 in) L/65
Width1.81 m (5 ft 11 in)
Height1.6 m (5 ft 3 in)

Caliber20 mm (.78 in)
Elevation- 10° - +100°
Rate of fire1,800 rpm (Cyclic)
800 rpm (Practical)
Muzzle velocity900 m/s (2,953 ft/s)
Maximum firing range5,783 m (5,230 yds) (ground range)
Feed system4x 20 round box magazines

Even as the Flak 30 was entering service, the Luftwaffe and Heer (army) branches of the Wehrmacht had doubts about its effectiveness, given the ever-increasing speeds of low-altitude fighter-bombers and attack aircraft. The Army in particular felt the proper solution was the introduction of the 37 mm caliber weapons they had been developing since the 1920s, which had a rate of fire about the same as the Flak 38, but fired a round with almost eight times the weight. This not only made the rounds deadlier on impact, but their higher energy and ballistic coefficient allowed them to travel much longer distances, allowing the gun to engage targets at longer ranges. This meant it could keep enemy aircraft under fire over longer time spans.

The 20 mm weapons had always had weak development perspectives, often being reconfigured or redesigned just enough to allow the weapons to find use. Indeed, it came as a surprise when Rheinmetall introduced the 2 cm Flakvierling 38, which improved the weapon just enough to make it competitive once again. The term Vierling literally translates to "quadruplet" and refers to the four 20 mm autocannon constituting the design.

The Flakvierling weapon consisted of quad-mounted 2 cm Flak 38 AA guns with collapsing seats, folding handles, and ammunition racks. The mount had a triangular base with a jack at each leg for levelling the gun. The tracker traversed and elevated the mount manually using two handwheels. When raised, the weapon measured 307 cm (10 feet 1 inch) high.

Each of the four mounted guns had a separate magazine that held only 20 rounds. This meant that a maximum combined rate of fire of 1,400 rounds per minute was reduced practically to 800 rounds per minute for combat use – which would still require that an emptied magazine be replaced every six seconds, on each of the four guns. This is the attainable rate of fire; the sustained rate of fire is significantly lower due to rapid heat buildup and barrel erosion. Automatic weapons are typically limited to roughly 100 rounds per minute per barrel to give time for the heat to dissipate, although this can be exceeded for short periods if the firing window is brief.

The gun was fired by a set of two pedals — each of which fired two diametrically opposite barrels — in either semi-automatic or fully automatic mode. The effective vertical range was 2,200 metres. It was also used just as effectively against ground targets as it was against low-flying aircraft.[4]

Mounting versatility[edit]

The rear-location wheelhouse of this Siebel ferry features a Flakvierling quadmount AA battery to defend it in 1942 Yugoslavia.

The Flakvierling four-autocannon anti-aircraft ordnance system, when not mounted into any self-propelled mount, was normally transported on a Sd. Ah. 52 trailer, and could be towed behind a variety of half-tracks or trucks, such as the Opel Blitz and the armored Sd.Kfz. 251 and normally unarmored Sd.Kfz. 7/1 and Sd.Kfz. 11 artillery-towing half-track vehicles. Its versatility concerning the vehicles it could be mounted to included its use even on tank hulls to produce fully armored mobile anti-aircraft vehicles, such as the Panzer IV-based low-production Wirbelwind and original Möbelwagen prototype-design, anti-aircraft tanks. In Kriegsmarine use, it was fitted to U-boats, Siebel ferries and ships to provide short-range anti-aircraft defence, and was also employed in fixed installations around ports, harbours and other strategic naval targets. The Flakvierling was also a common fixture on trains, even on Hitler's own command train, where pairs of them were mounted on either end of a "camelback" flatbed car and then covered to make it look like a boxcar, sometimes with a pair of such twin-Flakvierling mount cars for defense, one near each end of Hitler's Führersonderzug train.


  •  Germany
  •  Greece 108 total in service
  •  Romania 300 ordered in September 1940, the delivery beginning in May 1941, known as Gustloff guns (after one of their manufacturers)[5]
  •  Denmark 69 in service from 1945 to 1955 in The Royal Danish Navy, where it was known as 20 mm Mk M/39 LvSa, mounted on minesweepers of the SØLØVE class and motor torpedo boats of the GLENTEN class.

See also[edit]


  • M45 Quadmount, the closest Allied equivalent to the Flakvierling system




  1. ^ a b "German Weapon and Ammunition Production". Archived from the original on 14 June 2011. Retrieved 30 July 2011.
  2. ^ An introduction to collecting 20 mm cannon cartridges
  4. ^ The Encyclopedia of Weapons of World War 2
  5. ^ Mark Axworthy, London: Arms and Armour, 1995, Third Axis, Fourth Ally: Romanian Armed Forces in the European War, 1941–1945, p. 30



External links[edit]