A fundamental turning point in World War II
The 1943 Summer Company was a turning point in the entire Second World War. The collapse of the Nazis' plans on the Kursk Bulge, the surrender of the colonial corps in Africa, the stormy onslaught of the allied forces on Italian territory dramatically changed the military-strategic situation and greatly undermined the military power of Nazi Germany. The occupying troops of the Fuhrer felt in their own skin what enemy domination in the air space was like.
Capturing air supremacy
The first to understand this were the regular German and SS units on Italian soil. the best units of the German air force fought in the east. But here, too, the Luftwaffe aces did not cope very well with their combat missions - the Soviet troops managed, at the cost of incredible efforts and labor of the people in the rear, to provide the advanced units and airfield service units with all the necessary equipment and military equipment. By the beginning of the summer of 1944, the Yak-9D fighter was put into service with the Red Army, which was distinguished by strong weapons and high speed, which sharply reduced the capabilities of the German air fleet.
According to military historians, the unprecedented rapid completion of Operation Bagration on the territory of Belarus was largely due to the dominance of Soviet pilots in the air. A number of large German defenses were practically wiped off the face of the earth under the attacks of bombers and attack aircraft of the Red Army. The matter had not yet come to the complete defeat of the Nazi troops, the leadership of the military-industrial complex and the militaristic, aggressive-minded circles of large industrialists intervened. In a situation where the enemy took possession of the sky, the fact of the arrival of self-propelled anti-aircraft guns (ZSU) in the Wehrmacht troops - anti-aircraft artillery combat vehicles, which were quickly transferred to a combat position from a marching position - acquired special significance. Just in 1944, the Wehrmacht taught several types of new combat vehicles at once.
New weapons of the German Wehrmacht
For the sake of fairness, it must be said that practically from the beginning of the Second World War, the Hitlerite military command has been developing methods of defensive actions of its troops from enemy air raids. But the clear air superiority, especially at the beginning of operations on the Eastern Front, played a cruel joke on the Germans. Until the end of 1943, it was still somehow possible to cope with the help of unarmored ZSU and towed anti-aircraft guns, and in 1944 the military-strategic situation required immediate decisions. The task of ensuring the necessary density of anti-aircraft artillery fire had to be solved both on the march and in the areas of firing positions. The ZSU in service poorly met the requirements put forward due to the unreliability of the protection of fire crews and combat systems (on the battlefield they remained defenseless). For military operations, an anti-aircraft gun was required with protection from shrapnel and large-caliber bullets, while the anti-aircraft gun should be installed on a rotating turret of a combat vehicle. Such products had already been developed by German designers and were called Flakpanzer - anti-aircraft tank, according to the terminology that existed at that time.
The base for the 20-mm anti-aircraft gun was the Pz Kpfw I tank, which was withdrawn from service by 1944 - its usefulness was questionable. The Pz 38 (t) and Pz Kpfw IV tanks also served as the base for the ZSU, however, despite the use of the tank base, weak armor protection here was only in the marching position, and in the combat state the anti-aircraft gun was still defenseless.
Works of the company "Ostbau"
Farthest in solving this problem was the Ostbau company, which used the Pz Kpfw IV chassis restored after battles to create its own SPAAG.
A turret for an anti-aircraft gun was installed on the base of this product. Depending on the caliber of the gun, the anti-aircraft tank is called the Wirbelwind (with 20 mm cannons), and with the 37 mm single gun, the Ostwind.
The first-born Wirbelwind left the assembly line in May, and the Ostwind in July 1944.
Creation of ZSU Ostwind
Due to the large dimensions of the anti-aircraft turret, the attached Pz Kpfw IV base was not equipped with armor protection. The tactics of the ZSU's actions at that time did not imply finding these systems in the first line of action of military units, therefore, the requirements for armor protection were much lower.
An open turret of a complex configuration was mounted on a standard chassis, its armor was 25 mm around the perimeter. The turret contained a 37-mm Flak43 L / 89 automatic anti-aircraft gun, sights, crew and part of the ammunition. The rest of the ammunition was in the turret box. The calculation of the ZSU consisted of 6 people, together with the gun commander. They took places inside the self-propelled gun, similar to the placement of the tank crew. The Wirbelwind was equipped with a turret that was different from the Ostwind modification. In total, Ostbau upgraded 33 Pz IV combat vehicles under the FlakPz Ostwind and produced 7 more new vehicles.
Combat use of ZSU Ostwind
Currently, there is practically nothing left in the Wehrmacht archives about the tactics and conditions of use of these self-propelled anti-aircraft guns. On various Internet portals, the assessment of the effectiveness of the use of the Ostwind ZSU varies greatly, the assessments are sometimes diametrically opposed. Researchers approach the presentation of this problem using various sources, some even simply refer to the need for them in the battle formations of the German army.
The 37-mm anti-aircraft gun had some advantages over the 20 mm artillery systems very popular in the German troops. The power of the 37-mm shot made it possible to counter the Soviet Il-2 and Il-10 aircraft, which withstood the impact of 20-mm caliber shells. The higher percentage of destruction of high-altitude targets of the Ostwind ZSU made it possible to use these complexes against targets at medium altitudes. 37-mm anti-aircraft gun could be used in the fight against light and medium tanks. At the same time, the 37-mm anti-aircraft gun was inferior to quadruple 20-mm anti-aircraft systems in terms of rate of fire, and, accordingly, could not counteract infantry units as effectively as the 20-mm Flakfirlings.
Applying Ostwind Prototypes
These systems took part in the Nazi Ardennes Operation as part of the elite SS "Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler" regiment. Despite the need for mass deliveries, the release of the ZSU was limited. There are two reasons for this. The first is the evacuation of the equipment of the Ostbau supplying enterprises in the face of the threat of the seizure of the factories by the advancing Soviet troops. The second is collisions in the leadership of the German Ministry of Armaments. Some officials considered the previously developed ZSU as temporary anti-aircraft systems before the adoption of a new anti-aircraft tank, the Kugelblitz, on the same Pz IV chassis. However, the offensive of the Red Army did not leave the Germans time, Kugelblitz never left the stage of prototypes.
Conclusion
Flak Pz Ostwind can be called a unique system among all anti-aircraft systems created during the Second World War. There are only a few of these developments among similar products with the same design and layout solutions. The bulk of the ZSU, which were in service in the allied forces, were half-track armored personnel carriers. Until the end of the war, our ZSU was generally installing an anti-aircraft gun on a truck. A sample of the ZSU T-90 (T-70 with two 12.7-mm DShK machine guns), although it passed the test tests, did not go into the "series". Only by the beginning of 1945 was the ZSU-37 on the basis of the SU-76M light self-propelled gun adopted by the anti-aircraft artillery.
