The Flak36 88mm User's Guide

Introduction

The Flak36 is Germany's premier large caliber cannon.  It's capability as a heavy anti-aircraft gun and as a superb tank destroyer made it a legend on the battlefields of World War II.  You better get used to operating this beast, because it'll be around for the duration.  In this guide I will teach you how to move, deploy, determine range, and fire the 88mm to great effect.

Movement

When you spawn a Flak88 it's automatically set in "deploy" mode.  That means that the commander (position 1) can ready the gun for firing by hitting the d key.  Since you'll most likely want to move the gun before deployment, hit the h key to switch between deploy mode and tow mode.  A message will appear in your text box that indicates what mode your weapon is in.  Once you're in tow mode, a Sd.Kfz.7 heavy puller (Halftrack, of also known as "HT") must hitch onto you by backing the rear of his vehicle to the front of your gun carriage.

Once you're on the halftrack your positioning is up to him.  Hopefully you know the driver and so you can decide on a deployment area that best suits your ability.  At the very worst you'll wind up with a driver that doesn't know what he's doing and will drive you into an ambush.  Because of this, most dedicated 88 gunners will learn which HT drivers are veterans and which are newbs.  We'll assume that you get into a desirable position and are ready to fight.

Deployment

To deploy your gun make sure you're in "deploy mode" by hitting the h key while in position 1, then the d key to deploy your 88mm for firing.  You can tell if you're gun is deployed or not by looking at the two bracer struts on the sides of your gun carriage.

Deployed	Un-deployed

Combat

Once deployed, and if there is no immediate threat to deal with, stay in your commander position (position 1) and scan the area for targets.  The Flak36 commander has the most powerful optical device in the game.  Originally designed to determine altitude of enemy aircraft, it can zoom farther than any other sight, and more importantly, it can determine range!  Use your del key on your number pad to zoom in for medium magnification and hit it one more time for maximum magnification.  These controls should be familiar to your if you've used other vehicles in World War II Online.  To determine range, set the crosshairs on a target and hit the r key.  The rangefinder will calculate the distance to the target and display it in the text box.  During this time you should get in the gunner's position and get ready to fire.

Once you've determined the range of a target, you can feed that data into the gunners instrumentation by using the page-up and page-down keys while in the gunner's view (position 2).  The sight crosshairs will move up and down accordingly, and the range setting is displayed in the top left-hand corner of your screen.  If the data doesn't appear, hit the ` (tilde) to toggle it on.

Now that you know a targets range and you're gun is calibrated right, it's time to set your sights on the target and fire.  To hit your target, make sure the ^ part of the site is pointing right where you want your shell to land.  Since the target is 500 meters away and the gun is calibrated for 500 meters, this should be good shot.

Firing...

After checking the target with the commander's optics, you can see that at 500m, with one shot, I was less than a foot away from a perfect hit.  No other weapon in the game has that type of accuracy.  Combined with the stopping power of the 88mm shell, it makes the Flak36 the best anti-tank weapon in the game.

Ammunition and Tactics

Now that you know the fundamentals, a 88 operator must learn a little more before going into the field.  First you'll need to learn placement.  The Flak36 has an exposed crew and is a very poor weapon for close combat.  Therefore, when deploying your weapon, try to put as much distance between you and the enemy as possible.  You want to use your superior range to kill him before he can shoot (or see) you.  Open fields are you friends, while close combat in towns will get you killed.  But that's something best learned through trial and error.

A Flak36 comes with 40 Armor Piercing (AP) and 15 High Explosive (HE) rounds.  To effectively deal with an enemy you must learn what ammunition is good for each target.  Use your AP rounds against "hard" targets like tanks and other armored vehicles.  Save your HE rounds for "soft" targets like trucks, infantry, and artillery.  One well placed 88mm shell should kill any unit in the game.  Be wary though, WWII Online's current HE system doesn't guarantee you'll kill infantry just because you put enough explosive at his feet to blow him into the atmosphere.  You may wind up using round after round of HE just to kill one infantry, while using 1 AP round to kill a heavily armored tank.  Hopefully this will be fixed "soon".

These are some notable actions and the time it takes to perform them...

As you can see, it will take a Flak36 about 9 or 10 seconds to un-hitch, deploy, and fire the first round considering all the actions he must perform and positions he must switch.  Most likely, it'll take 15 seconds to make a good shot, and those 15 seconds can be an eternity on a battlefield.  It's probable that an ambushed HT/88 will not survive to long enough to get a shot off.  Be cautious.

Conclusions

Congratulations, you now know all there is to operating the Flak36 88mm cannon.  Remember that Flak36's are a limited item, so don't waste them in useless endeavors.  Always check your terrain, and work with infantry and tanks to keep your perimeter safe and secure.  You're ready for combat...good luck.

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