German Artillery

Room with a view ...

Author unknown.

Antiaircraft platform mounting a 20mm Flak 38 antiaircraft gun, atop the Kneifelspitze, a 1,200 metre mountain overlooking the town of Berchtesgaden, Oberbayern, Winter 1944-'45. This emplacement is part of quite a substantial antiaircraft battery on the mountain; nor were they alone, as similar batteries were embedded on a number of mountains in the area. This system of antiaircraft defence is quite frequently identified with the largely notional idea of a Bavarian "Alpenfestung" (Alpine redoubt), to which, notionally, Hitler and the National Socialist leadership would retire to make a last stand. The more one looks at this National Redoubt idea, the more it appears to be a ball of smoke. Some of the Nazi leadership were interested in it, but Hitler never fully endorsed it, and the implementation of the "plan" was patchy at best. In fact, (if one takes former US Army intelligence officer, Jack D. Hunter and his novel, "The Tin Cravat" as anything to go by), the whole notion seems to have had more reality in the minds of Allied Intelligence than in those of the Germans - and, even then, the Allies were only moderately impressed. The explanation for these emplacements is, of course, much simpler - they were there to defend the area around Hitler's Berghof from Allied air attack. As far as I am aware, the gunners were never much bothered; nor were the Allies, although one US unit entering the area is reported as suffering casualties in an engagement with two "88s" that were probably part of the antiaircraft system. The British did conduct a high-level bombing raid on the Berghof in the dying days of the war but , as far as I know, the hit the chalet but suffered no casualties. The authorship of this image is unclear - it appears that the photo was taken as part of a private photo session by a soldier stationed in the snows. Best regards, JR.