8,8 cm Flak 37 Sfl.

8,8 cm Flak 37 Sfl.

Sturer Emil

Nashorn

8,8 cm Flak 37 Sfl.

Sturer Emil

Nashorn

Germany

III Rank

Battle rating:

AB	RB	SB
4.7	4.0	3.7

Class:

Tank destroyer

Research:13 000

Purchase:76 000

Description

The 8.8cm Flak 37 Selbstfahrlafette auf 18 ton Zugkraftwagen is a rank III German tank destroyer with a battle rating of 4.7 (AB), 4.0 (RB), and 3.7 (SB). It was introduced in Update 1.63 "Desert Hunters". It features the famous 8.8 cm FlaK 37 cannon on a half-track mount, presenting heavy firepower at the cost of armour and even mobility due to its heavy weight.

The vehicle is affectionately nicknamed as the:

• 'Flak-Bus'
• 'Flak-Track'

General info

Survivability and armour

Armour	Front	Sides	Rear	Roof
Half-track	10 mm Grille 8 mm (85-86°) Front hood 14.5 mm (50°) Driver View	14.5 mm	14.5 mm	14.5 mm
Gun shield	14.5 mm (17-41°)	10 mm (14°)	N/A	N/A

Notes:

• Tracks are 10 mm thick while suspension wheels are 15 mm thick.

If encountered in combat, attacking players can attempt to dispatch it at longer ranges. At slightly higher Battle-Ratings it is extremely unlikely that a player will use this vehicle to lead in the front line, but if he/she does, it can usually be easily dispatched from a concealed position. When the enemy is sniping, it is a difficult vehicle to destroy in a map with uneven and hilly terrain like Kuban where plentiful cover allows it to hide easily, but can be destroyed more easily on congested and more urban maps like Advance to the Rhine as there is increased difficulty for long ranged combat due to abundances of buildings and walls to use as cover for both sides.

Due to limited gun vertical traverse, smaller vehicles with lower chassis such as ASU-57 or similar can easily defeat it in extremely closer quarters engagement by simply driving up and make physical contact with the vehicle. The limited vertical traverse of the 88mm gun will mean the attacking vehicle cannot be damaged or destroyed in this situation.

There are multiple ways to destroy this vehicle. Users must take note that the design of the targeted vehicle has separated compartments for driving, gunnery and ammunition storage. Each one must be targeted best in accordance to different situations presented. Attacking forces unfamiliar with the vehicle may be confused as to which compartment to target first; the exposed ammunition storage, disable the gunnery or disable its movements; valuable time expended on this decision usually results in destruction of the unwitting user's vehicle. This does not become a problem if attacking vehicles are equipped with High-Explosive shells, as even a glancing hit will completely disable or destroy it without the need to selectively target individual compartments. If not equipped with High=Explosive Shells and the user is unfamiliar with the target vehicle, they may opt do disable the gunnery controls first and buying more valuable time to target the remaining compartments. Alternatively, due to the vehicle being constructed of light armour, can be easily perforated with 50. or higher caliber shells to ensure quick destruction if the first shell misses or fails to deal critical damage. Artillery Strike can also easily and quickly disable or destroy the vehicle. Due to the exposed crew and light armour, a brief strafe from Fighter or Bomber aircraft can also quickly disable or destroy it in a single pass. Most AP rounds, however, especially 75 and 88mm rounds, if they hit the ammo rack from the front or rear, will not finish the ‘Flakbus’ off. The best chance to destroy a Flakbus with an Ammunition Load Detonation is to shoot the Box that is mounted on the rear of the hull, from the side.

Mobility

Game Mode	Max Speed (km/h)		Weight (tons)	Engine power (horsepower)		Power-to-weight ratio (hp/ton)
	Forward	Reverse		Stock	Upgraded	Stock	Upgraded
Arcade	44	11	24.3	327	439	13.46	18.07
Realistic	40	10		203	230	8.35	9.47

Armaments

Main armament

88 mm FlaK 37
Capacity			Vertical guidance	Horizontal guidance	Stabilizer
40			-3°/+85°	±180°	N/A
Turret rotation speed (°/s)
Mode	Stock	Upgraded	Prior + Full crew	Prior + Expert qualif.	Prior + Ace qualif.
Arcade	9.69	13.41	16.28	18.00	19.15
Realistic	6.55	7.70	9.35	10.34	11.0
Reloading rate (seconds)
Stock	Prior + Full crew	Prior + Expert qualif.	Prior + Ace qualif.
6.50	5.75	5.30	5.00

Ammunition

Penetration statistics
Ammunition	Type of warhead	Penetration in mm @ 0° Angle of Attack
		10m	100m	500m	1000m	1500m	2000m
Pzgr.	APCBC	153	151	140	128	116	106
Sprgr. L/4,5	HE	13	13	12	12	12	12

Shell details
Ammunition	Type of warhead	Velocity in m/s	Projectile Mass in kg	Fuse delay in m:	Fuse sensitivity in mm:	Explosive Mass in g (TNT equivalent):	Normalization At 30° from horizontal:	Ricochet:
								0%	50%	100%
Pzgr.	APCBC	810	9.5	0.8	28	160	+4°	48°	63°	71°
Sprgr. L/4,5	HE	820	11	0.1	0.5	935	+0°	79°	80°	81°

Ammo racks

Ammo racks of the 8.8 cm Flak.37

The ammo rack at the back of the halftrack can be reduced from two possible racks to one by reducing your total ammo count from 40 shells to 21, with the 21st shell will be loaded in the gun breech. This can reduce the possibility of an ammo rack explosion.

Full ammo	1st rack empty	2nd rack empty	Visual discrepancy
40	21 (+19)	1 (+39)	No

Usage in battles

Despite the presence of a whopping 88 mm gun on the back of this half-track, the complete lack of any armour, as well as the hull-break mechanics, gives this vehicle a short lifespan on the front lines. Thus, the best course is to keep the half-track as far away from the battle as possible.

The gun has a slow gun traverse and a terrible depression when angled towards the front, so firing against targets at close range on level ground will leave the vulnerable and unable to return fire against targets of low-profile chassis. The gun however can be depressed further at a lower degree when pointed to the sides and rear of the vehicle as it provides more physical clearance. As such when engaging targets on level ground at close to medium ranges, it is recommended to turn the entire vehicle clockwise or counterclockwise for 45 degrees and the gun turret 45 degrees in opposition to the angle of the chassis for clearance. This should be accomplished only in areas with enough maneuvering room to ingress and egress to guarantee clearance, or else the half-rack will find itself stuck (in some cases literally) between a rock and a hard place. Find cover behind rocks or other obstacles, inch out of cover only enough to show the gun, then race back into cover after firing to avoid being shot and losing valuable crew members.

In the ways of modification purchases, try to obtain the spare parts and FPE first. From there, research Horizontal Drive, Adjustment of Fire, and Elevation Mechanism to increase your total combat effectiveness. The stock halftrack's turn rate is rather poor and needs improvement if you want to be able to quickly react to a changing battlefield. One thing that cannot be stressed enough is the fact that this vehicle is the definition of a Glass Cannon. Most of the time, your TD will be destroyed by either an ammo rack explosion or most commonly a tank burn-down. Since the Flak.37 does not have armour, HEAT and HE shells can destroy you with one well placed shot.

Pros and cons

Pros:

• 88 mm cannon in Rank II
• Has a high potency of destroying tanks it encounters in just one shot
• Extremely fast reloads (avg. 6 seconds)
• Six crew member
• Gun elevation maxed at 85°, some may use it to fight larger aircraft
• Paper thin armour makes AP shell more likely to pass through
• More than adequate ammo for prolonged combat

Cons:

• Very little armour, a heavy machine gun or strafing aircraft, and ramming planes will make mincemeat out of this vehicle
• Armour can hull-break
• Crew exposed, artillery barrages could be lethal
• Boxes near the rear are ammo racks, smart players will just take out your gunner and shoot there
• Heavy half-track and gun gives low and sluggish speed
• With a gun depression of -3 degrees and the gun being high off the ground, you will have a near impossible chance of hitting short tanks that are really close to you on level ground
• You are a priority target for airstrikes or even escorting fighters, smart players will take the chance to destroy the vehicle (AB), and Gunner is nearly always knocked out first.

History

The half-track

The Sd.Kfz. 9 (nicknamed the Famo) was Germany's heaviest half-track seeing service in World War II. The first model was made in 1936 and entered service with the Wehrmacht in 1938. Its primary purposes was as an artillery tractor and a tank recovery vehicle. The vehicle was able to tow about 28 tonnes, which was more than capable of towing the 24 cm Kanone 3 siege gun and the Panzer IV, but required two to four to tow the heavier Panther, Tiger I, and Tiger II. It was produced between 1938 to 1944 with 2,500 units produced.

The gun

The 8.8 cm FlaK is a German anti-aircraft artillery and one of their mainstay anti-air and anti-tank weapons in World War II. The 8.8 cm caliber was developed in 1917 during the times of World War I from available naval caliber to effectively combat Allied aircraft. The first of the FlaK series, the FlaK 18, was mounted on a easily deployable and traversable gun platform, has a semi-automatic loading system, and had a wide variety of ammunition available from high-explosives and armour-piercing. The guns first saw service in the Spanish Civil War and it proved as one of the most effective anti-aircraft guns of the period. Improvements to the Flak led to the FlaK 36 and FlaK 37 with new features such as a two-piece barrel and ability to fire without deploying the gun platform. Though the set-up time for the platform was quick at two and a half minutes, the weight of the gun required a half-track such as the Sd.Kfz 7 to quickly move it to a new position. The gun proved effective on ground targets as well, much of an impact that it was adapted as a tank armament on the Tiger I heavy tank. The FlaK series ended up being produced in the thousands from 1933 to 1945, with up to 21,000 units produced in that time period.

8.8 cm Flak.37 sfl

In 1940, fifteen examples of Sd.Kfz.9 were adapted to be mounted with the 8.8 cm FlaK 18 guns. These were officially known as 8.8 cm Flak 18 (Sfl.) auf Zugkraftwagen 18t. Its primary purpose was to serve in an anti-tank role, with the half-track needed to provide much-needed mobility to the gun. Aside from these 15 units produced, not much is known of its combat performance on the battlefield, but its existence inspired some American tank destroyer designs in 1943 to mount an anti-aircraft gun on a mobile vehicle, but these proved unsuccessful.

Media

Skins

• Skin and Camouflages for the 8,8 cm Flak 37 Sfl. in live.warthunder.com.

Videos

The Shooting Range #14 - Wooden Beasts section at 03:21 discusses the 8,8 cm Flak 37 Sfl.

See also

Links to the articles on the War Thunder Wiki that you think will be useful for the reader, for example:

• reference to the series of the vehicles;
• links to approximate analogues of other nations and research trees.

External links

• [Devblog] 8.8cm Flak 37 (Sf.) auf s. Zgkw. 18t - A Heavyweight Flak
• [Wikipedia] Sd.Kfz._9 - Variants