For a brief description of the pieces in your inquiry, go to the home page and click on "artillery" found on the right margin. Then page down to "German", and click on: M1917 8,8cm.
You will see a pic or two of the Ehrhardt version there. ( last series of pics; two 88s are shown around a fountain..these are Rheinmetall versions. The adjoining pic shows an abandoned Krupp version with the tube not returned to battery; recuperator drained of oil to render the piece useless. ) I've provided some information in the article to support the photos.
I am sorry, but that's the Flak. There appears to have been a regular field gun of the same calibre, proposed in 1918. This gun may have been sold to China in the late 1920s under the trading name of Solothurn. It's possible the field gun was based on the Falk or the naval gun, but I havent seen it yet. The weapon may have been mentioned in the Alfred Muther book on WW1 era weapons. Eduardo, my mail is afnuyt at gmail.com Thanks! Nuyt
My appologies, Nuyt. I must confess I've never heard of an Ehrhardt 8,8cm Field Gun. If it underwent the usual acceptance trials, it should certainly have been on record. I'd very much like to hear more of this gun. Eduardo, please post a photo...!
According to Herbert Jäger, the Rheinmetall was produced as a Flak only.
As with other guns and branches, 1916 was the year when the seeds of 1914 and 15 finally ripened, and the weapons systems demanded finally reached the troops. For the Flak these came in December and consisted of two guns each of Kraftwagen, motorized Flak, of the calibre:
He makes no other mention of an 8.8 except the SK L/35, which was a coastal gun from Krupp. The only picture is of a Rheinmetall 8.8 on the Kreuzlafette.
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There's a Chinese copy of this gun in Chinese Millitray Museum in Beijing!! Unfortunately I didn't take photos of it during my last visit. That gun was built in Shanxi. Shanxi army had many self-built weapons in ROC period, because Shanxi isn't close to the sea and difficult to import weapons...
Thanks, that good to know. Could you describe how it looked like? The recoil mechanism perhaps or the carriage...
And for the others: no, we are not talking about AA guns but a real field gun. This piece was an experimental one in 1918, so it is not mentioned in Jaeger.
The gun in Chinese Millitary Museum IS a copy of Rheinmetall (not Krupp) 8.8cm field gun, and it's not a AA gun. It's called exactly:"Type 18 8.8cm field gun". I'm sorry that I couldn't remember the details of the recoil mechanism perhaps and the carriage. In the museum, the guns are placed in a row and there isn't much space between them, and I only took a quick look at each gun... I have just found a photo of the gun in a book, but the photo is not clear at all.
