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BY CAPT JOSEPH O. GUESS
"Flak at 12 o'clock close"—that old interphone cry—has caused many American airmen to curse the accuracy of enemy AA and wonder just how well our own antiaircraft gunners can handle it back.
Twenty-five thousand feet over an invasion beach, one B-17 crew got a plain, short answer to that question. This Fortress flew ahead of the others to drop pamphlets telling civilians to scram. Not recognizing the lone plane, the American ground crew about to land took a warning shot. The single shell exploded close enough to crack the plane's windshield.
Antiaircraft and the Army Air Forces, in their mutual fight against the airborne enemy, have reached a coordination that spells works. Antiaircraft's development in equipment and personnel has kept pace with that of the AAF and combat records tell an impressive story.
In France-of-work gunners in one 3-day period destroyed or damaged 58 percent of all enemy aircraft that dared fly over the First U. S. Army's zone of action. Nine percent of the total were definitely destroyed and five percent probably destroyed. During a 20-day period AA sharpshooters dead-pigoned 105 enemy aircraft, and probably got another 45. Then, on one September day, things really got cracking. Our ack-ack blew up 21 of 25 German planes sent into the First Army's area; a simple battery claimed four FWs-190s in four minutes. Near Paris one night the enemy stopped flares and then got trapped in his own light. A battalion of 40 mm guns downed 21 Huns in 15 heated minutes.
A few years ago AA personnel numbered but a few thousand men; today they are several hundred thousand. AA is entirely separate in organization from all other branches of artillery and, under Army Ground Forces, has a command of its own headed by Maj. Gen. Joseph A. Green. There are four large AA training camps in the United States.
To promote AAA—AA cooperation from the top commands to the gunners on the ground and the planes at the front, General Arnold has set up an antiaircraft office in Headquarters, AAF, and named Maj. Gen. Homer C. Old-field, veteran artilleryman, to head it as Special Assistant for Antiaircraft. More than 75,000 AAF enlisted men and officers have been obtained from the Antiaircraft Command and specially trained under AAF direction for AA assignments directly with the AAF. These men are available for assignment to overseas air commands and from the letter go to air divisions, to wings and finally to group bases.
General Oldfield's office also helps formulate overall policies for joint efforts of AAF and AA on the battlefields. In some operations in France and in the Pacific, our aircraft have taken over the fight against the aerial enemy by day and antiaircraft has had the whole job—along with Signal Corps warning systems—at night.
American AA gunners aiding the British in England shot down in August and September more than 50 percent of the enemy robots within range. Nor has the skill of AA men been overcome by the phenomenal speed of jet propelled aircraft. They are scoring with increasing frequency against German jet fighters.
Such shooting calls for quick fingers, sure eyes, and a steady head. Delicate and exceedingly fast computation is necessary when a gunner must aim, as he often has to, four
American soldiers man multiple 20 mm flak gun captured from the enemy at Paestum, Italy. This weapon is capable of being swung, in a wide arc and used as antiaircraft gun as well as antitank craft.
Our ack-ack gunners share with us the responsibility for destroying enemy airpower
miles ahead of his quarry if he expects the speeding plane and his shell burst to reach the same point at the same time.
Antiaircraft claims fall into two classes: Destroyed planes are classified as Category I, and must have been seen to crash, and their wreckage found afterward. Probables, or Category II claims, are made for severely damaged planes verified by several witnesses. Antiaircraft's record, like its shooting, is accurate.
But a price in blood has been paid for this record. One battalion, landing on a French beach with the first infantry assault waves, came under direct enemy artillery fire and lost 300 men and 15 officers. Yet it set up antiaircraft defenses for other incoming troops.
Our AA crews have been hurt on the job longer in Italy, and often with excellent hunting. At the Anzio beachhead, a world record was established for AA concentrations. Passing in accuracy and quantity the German flak Casino or any German target. Fifty Army ack-ack men destroyed 462 planes, nearly a tenth of the number involved in 635 air attacks. Another six percent were probably destroyed. One night ack-ack almost, with no well-rounded use of searchlights and guns, destroyed five out of 12 German planes—and that's only 178 shells.
This record of 178 shells is even more striking when it is recalled that to destroy one enemy plane during London's early blitzes an average of 3,000 shells was needed. Other instances are as exceptional.
A United States ack-ack crew in Italy found itself in combat recently before it had finished digging into position at a new field. It knocked down one big bomber and one fighter. Having taken a five-minute break for this purpose, the crew settled back to digging.
When another field in the CBI theater was under attack, an AA crew forced the enemy's fighters and fighter-bombers to turn aside from their runs toward the hangars and parked aircraft. The Japs became so annoyed that they abandoned their original purpose and concentrated on strafing the single gun crew. That didn't pay either. The gunners blew up two Jap planes and made the rest decided to run home.
In North Africa, the Army Air Force shot down the enemy's airpower that frequently few target planes reached our lines where antiaircraft was set up. When antiaircraft men became bored with the inactivity, they were put alongside heavy artillery and told to blast away at targets on the ground. This had good effect also in Italy, later.
Whether firing at the Hun in the air, or blasting him
Somewhere in North Africa men of an antiaircraft regiment rush to their gun positions as alert warns of approach of hostile aircraft.
Natives on Guadalcanal get set for the big bang. Pits in right foreground shelter gun-crews from low-flying Japanese planes.
on the ground, the AA crews gave him no quarter. The combat soldier usually can distinguish sounds fairly well, but in oncoming artillery shells and has a split second to flatten out or take cover; but the high velocity and flat trajectory of ack-ack guns up the enemy no warning.
Antiaircraft alongside heavier artillery has eliminated scores of thick concrete pill boxes and other obstacles in France. At Cherbourg several AA men were concealed around a German fort. When some of the Germans tried to escape, gunners cut them down. One remaining personnel of the fort, 120 men and five officers, surrendered to two antiaircraft GIs.
An unprecedented use of antiaircraft set off an Allied advance in Italy. Our AA weapons were brought close to the front lines and directed in concentrated battery fire against powerful concentrations of the enemy AA guns. This was lightning flak with flak. Our fire was so well-aimed and effective that afterward a large number of AAF aircraft, including the heavy bombers, strafed the enemy from the deck without loss of a plane.
Research and scientific testing on the battle front, as well as in the interior, has resulted in superior predicting and detecting mechanisms and guns. The 50 cal. machine gun, specially souped up, has stopped many low-flying airplanes as had the 40 mm automatic weapon with a maximum effective range of 2,500 yards, and a rate of fire of a round a second. Outstanding is the record of the 90 mm gun which reaches to 50,000 feet and fires twenty 32-pound shells a minute, each shell having an effective bursting radius of 60 to 100 feet.
A minimum in size and potency is the 120 mm gun, the United States' largest antiaircraft weapon. It fires 16 to 15 rounds of 102-pound shells a minute. The gun weighs 51 tons and is semimobile.
Most impressive development is the unplanned, spontaneous cooperation between AAF and AA; the method devised on the spur of a precarious moment by one P-40 pilot.
He had tangled near his base with three Zeros and had shot down one, but his plane had been badly damaged. The remaining two Zeros were hot on his tail, and he couldn't shake them. Playing a hunch, he buzzed a nearby anti-aircraft crew which obligingly blew the Zeros to pieces.
The P-40 pilot landed safely.
He had learned that antiaircraft has become the AAF's trusted teammate.
Q1: Who wrote "Antiaircraft, Partners of the AAF"?
A1: The article was written by Capt. Joseph O. Guess, published as a wartime Air Force magazine feature on antiaircraft and Army Air Forces cooperation.
Q2: How were antiaircraft units organized within the Army?
A2: Antiaircraft was organized entirely separately from other branches of artillery under Army Ground Forces, commanded by Maj. Gen. Joseph A. Green, with four large training camps in the United States.
Q3: How did the AAF and antiaircraft units coordinate operations?
A3: General Arnold established an antiaircraft office at AAF Headquarters under Maj. Gen. Homer C. Oldfield, and more than 75,000 AAF personnel received specialized antiaircraft training for direct assignment with air units.
Q4: What was the record of AA gunners at the Anzio beachhead?
A4: At Anzio, U.S. antiaircraft crews destroyed 462 enemy planes across 635 air attacks, roughly a tenth of all aircraft involved, setting what the article calls a world record for AA concentration accuracy.
Q5: How did antiaircraft classify its kills?
A5: Destroyed planes were classified as Category I claims, requiring the aircraft to be seen crashing with wreckage later found, while Category II "probable" claims required verification from multiple witnesses.
This page reproduces a wartime magazine feature, "Antiaircraft, Partners of the AAF," written by Capt. Joseph O. Guess, almost certainly for Air Force magazine given its narrative style, statistical density, and captioned photograph references. It profiles the wartime relationship between the Army Air Forces and the Antiaircraft (AA) branch of Army Ground Forces, a partnership that receives far less popular attention than fighter or bomber operations but was a substantial contributor to Allied air superiority.
What the article documents
The piece traces AA's institutional growth from a few thousand men before the war to several hundred thousand by the time of writing, organized as a distinct branch under Army Ground Forces command, separate from other artillery. It details a specific coordination mechanism: an antiaircraft office established at AAF Headquarters under Maj. Gen. Homer C. Oldfield, and a program that trained more than 75,000 AAF personnel in antiaircraft duties for direct assignment to air units, from air divisions down to group bases. This institutional detail is significant; it shows the AAF didn't simply rely on Army Ground Forces for AA protection but actively built its own trained AA capability integrated into its command structure.
The evidentiary weight of the statistics
The article leans heavily on combat statistics to make its case, and the specificity is notable for a period publication: 58 percent of enemy aircraft destroyed or damaged over the First Army's zone in a 3-day period; 462 planes destroyed at Anzio across 635 air attacks; a comparison showing only 178 shells needed to destroy several German planes in one night engagement versus roughly 3,000 shells per kill during London's early Blitz. Whether these figures reflect precise verified totals or wartime morale-building rounding is something a historian should treat with appropriate skepticism, given that period combat claims across all services were frequently revised downward after the war using enemy loss records. The article's own explanation of "Category I" (confirmed, wreckage found) versus "Category II" (probable, witness-verified) claims is itself evidence that even contemporaries recognized the need for a rigorous claims framework, precisely because overclaiming was a known risk in combat reporting.
Technical and tactical detail
The piece includes genuinely useful technical specifications: the 90mm gun's 50,000-foot ceiling and 20-round-per-minute rate of fire, and the 120mm gun as the era's largest U.S. antiaircraft weapon at 51 tons. These details, combined with tactical anecdotes like the P-40 pilot who deliberately drew pursuing Zeros over a friendly AA position, illustrate a real and evolving battlefield partnership rather than a purely administrative one.
Value and limitations as a historical source
As a primary-source artifact, this piece is valuable for what it reveals about wartime information management as much as for the operational history itself: it was written to boost morale and public confidence in Allied air defense capability, which means its tone and statistical framing should be read with that persuasive purpose in mind, even as its underlying claims about AA-AAF institutional integration, training pipelines, and command structure remain useful, verifiable historical facts.
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