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Don’t Flak If You’re Crap
By Cosmic_Pie_Crust
How to brave and conquer the flak world. Anti-Aircraft Vehicles are an actual important asset to the team.
   
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Cosmic_Pie_Crust
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Category: Gameplay Basics, Maps or Levels, Walkthroughs, Weapons
Languages: English
Posted
Updated
19 May, 2015 @ 5:02am
31 Dec, 2016 @ 11:52am
13,673 Unique Visitors
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Guide Index
Overview
Introduction to Anti-Aircraft Vehicles 
Flak Basics 
Where to fire 
How Long To Fire 
Best Ammunition choices 
What to do if you come under heavy attack from an aircraft 
What to do if you come under heavy attack from a tank 
Angle of Your Tank 
Positioning Your Flak: The Open Field 
Positioning Your Flak: Tree cover 
Positioning Your Flak: House Cover 
Positioning Your Flak: Friendly Units 
Positioning Your Flak: Rocks and Mountains 
Crew Points 
USA Anti-Aircraft Vehicles 
M13 Multiple Gun Motor Carriage 
M16 Multiple Gun Motor Carriage 
M15 Combination Gun Motor Carriage 
M19 Gun Motor Carriage 
M42 Duster 40 mm Self-Propelled Anti-Aircraft Gun 
German Anti-Aircraft Vehicles 
Flak panzer I 
Pz.Kpfw.38 fur 2 cm Flak 38 Gepard 
3.7-cm Flak 36 auf Selbstfahrlafette Sd.Kfz. 6/2 
Flakpanzer IV Wirbelwind 
Flakpanzer IV Ostwind 
Flakpanzer IV Kugelblitz 
Flakpanzer V Coelian 
Soviet Union Anti-Aircraft Vehicle 
4M GAZ-AA 
72-K GAZ–MM 
ZSU-37 
ZSU-57-2 
Conclusion 
Thanks To These People 
Comments
Introduction to Anti-Aircraft Vehicles
So why use flak (AA Vehicles) you may ask? They are primarily used to stop ground attack aircraft or bombers from destroying ground forces and can be used to great effect to take out lightly armoured vehicles. Aircraft and vehicles such as the P-47 Thunderbolt, Junkers Ju 87, M41 Walker Bulldog etc. can cause serious damage to your team’s ground forces.
Flak Basics
Firing your flak can be surprisingly difficult because of the strategic complexities. What ammunition should you use? Where should you fire and how long do you fire for? Should you park on a slope etc.
Where to fire
This is something only experience can teach you. You can watch videos and try to apply it to your firing methods but experience is the only thing that can teach you.
How Long To Fire
This is a very important aspect to all flaks. Firing for long periods of time will cause your ammo to deplete rapidly. Running out of ammo in war thunder in any ground force vehicle will mean you won’t be able to act offensively and defensively, putting you in an uneasy situation. Secondly, every time you fire your guns, you will show your position to enemy aircraft and ground forces. It is best to fire for in short bursts because the longer you fire the more time the pilot has to identify your location. You should only fire your guns when you are confident you are able to hit the aircraft.
Best Ammunition choices
The best ammunition to use would be HEIFT shells (High Explosive Fragmentation Tracer Shells). This kind of ammunition is very useful for enemy aircraft as it is unlikely you will hit vital compnents.The most likely place you will hit an aircraft is the fuselage or the wing. This ammunition is deadly to aircraft being able to severely damage or instantly destroy enemy aircraft. The second ammunition you should take is AP shells (Amour Piercing Shells) and you should only take a small amount of this kind of ammunition. This ammunition is used against light tanks whose lack of armour makes them easy to penetrate. Rapid fire will quickly put the enemy tank out of operation.
What to do if you come under heavy attack from an aircraft
Shoot them down or alternatively relocate to a nearby area of trees and try to lose them. This tactic works well if you have a friend. A friend can fire from another part of the map tricking the pilot into thinking you have moved to that position. However be careful you do not fire too long as you don’t want to be spotted.
What to do if you come under heavy attack from a tank
Light tanks can be easily put out of action by overwhelming them with fire, shredding their internal components. However if a medium or heavy tank engages you, your only hope is to relocate or use friendly units to destroy his tank. When moving from any position under attack you should fire at the enemy tank whilst on the move. This makes it difficult for the enemy tank to see and therefore hit you. You should then move into the safety of dense trees, a town, the other side of a hill or a friendly unit to lose him. Also if you aim for the tracks you can immobilise him increasing your chances of survival and let you escape faster. Artillery may also be used to help with your get away when there tracks are destroyed.The artillery can also start an engine fire which result in the enemy tank having to stop everything to extinguish it giving you precious time.
Angle of Your Tank
To reduce possible crew deaths, you should angle your driver compartment away from the direction of enemy fire, if possible. Also, you should not park on a slope as turning a tank on a slope is a slow business and going up a slope can be a real problem if the enemy spots you. It can also reduce your firing arc.
Positioning Your Flak: The Open Field
Positioning your flak in open fields can provide an unparalleled view of the sky and your surrounding areas. It also means there are no restrictions on your firing arcs. However the downsides can quickly emerge. Being in a field can make you an easy target for enemy aircraft as there is nowhere to hide. This can result in a swift death. One of the other deadly problems is that when you are spotted by tank or aircraft you may have to go some distance in order to reach cover or get out of their line of sight.
Positioning Your Flak: Tree cover
Trees can provide cover from ground forces and aircraft. It will make you a much harder target to spot from the air, which will increase your survival rate. However there are draw backs to this set up. Tree cover can obstruct your view making it much harder to spot enemy aircraft and reducing the length of time they are visible. Trees can also create problems when you are attempting to move to another location, as the trees can slow you down or knock out your crew.
Positioning Your Flak: House Cover
Houses provide a lot of cover from ground forces, and some houses with back yards or farms may have trees providing additional cover. Houses usually have other houses and trees nearby which can be useful for sheltering when relocating under intense enemy fire. There are drawbacks; buildings can severely limit your firing arcs and give you a false sense of security. Tanks can also flak you without you noticing, resulting in a quick death.
Positioning Your Flak: Friendly Units
Positioning your flak with friendly units gives a better defensive cover from enemy aircraft and light tanks. It can also protect you from many enemy tanks. The downside however, might make you think twice about this tactic. If you are defending a large group of tanks you become a bigger target for bombers. The enemy tanks might also shoot at you first as you are the least armoured vehicle in the group. Your team might also not care about you leaving you behind to die. (I advise not using this tactic).
Positioning Your Flak: Rocks and Mountains
Rocks give a wider firing arc than a house, and they can also be used to climb on to give a good view of the battlefield. The downside however, is that hiding behind a rock may not give as much protection as a house as the top of a high profile flak may stick out. You can also tip your tank when going down steep inclines trying to escape from the enemy vehicles. Hills can also make you very vulnerable to enemy fire and you won’t be able to shoot tanks or aircraft that fly too low.
Crew Points
Your crew skill points can be used to upgrade a variety of areas. The first most important skill would be vitality. Vitality increases the health of your crew members. It has multiple benefits with the first one being that your crew can survive for longer when there’s a fire. The second benefit is that they will survive more shots from aircraft, however don’t expect them to take a 90mm shell to the face. The next skill you should upgrade would be the loaders reloading. This is good when you have flak such as the Wirbelwind as it expands all of its ammo quickly and it has a long reload time. Finally you should upgrade the gunner’s range finding and targeting. Range finding increases the accuracy of long range shots, which means you can accurately hit enemy aircraft. Targeting decreases the time it takes for the gunner to aim precisely in that area after or during turret movement.
USA Anti-Aircraft Vehicles
The USA anti-aircraft are the most heavily armoured when starting the research line for AA vehicles but become the lightest armoured by tier V. However they tend to be faster and more manoeuverable and have a varying amount of fire power.
M13 Multiple Gun Motor Carriage
The M13 has less firepower and manoueverability than the German and Russian flaks. It has the same number of machine guns as the reserve American tank M2A4. However it is of a higher caliber being a 12.7mm instead of a 7.62 mm machine gun. It is also the fastest starter flak at 72Kph (44.7Mph). It is also the one with the most amount of protection for the crew. The best tactic for this tank is as trainer to prepare you for the next tank in line up the M16.
M16 Multiple Gun Motor Carriage
The M16 is similar to the M13 except it has an extra two 12.7mm machine guns. This vehicle won’t do as much damage as a larger gun however your fire rate will make up for that.
M15 Combination Gun Motor Carriage
This is the same as the M13 and M16 with the exception of extra armour to provide additional protection from aircraft. It loses two 12.7mm machine guns and gets a 37mm cannon instead with an armour plating. The 37mm will take down much larger aircraft with fewer shots.
M19 Gun Motor Carriage
The USA’s M19 is a significate upgrade from their M15 boasting two 40mm cannon and lots more armour. The cannons are more difficult to master (sparkles can cause serious rages, you have been warned) but they will disintegrate aircraft every time a shot lands. The M19 has a max speed of 56Kph (34.8Mph) allowing it to outrun most tanks. The armour provides reasonable protection for the crew but the Driver and Radio Operator have outstanding protection. Its low profile will also be very beneficial for setting up behind ridges
M42 Duster 40 mm Self-Propelled Anti-Aircraft Gun
The M42 is worse than the M19 in many aspects. It has a higher profile, slower turret turn time but it does have a higher top speed of 72Kph (44.7Mph) and more RP and Silver Lion gain.
German Anti-Aircraft Vehicles
Germany’s flaks vary quite a lot. They have the largest number of flaks as well as the most heavily armoured. The weaponry range from 20mm cannons to a nice 37mm cannon. They also tend to have a speed of 40-50Kph.
Flak panzer I
The Flak panzer has the largest cannon when it comes to starting flak at 20mm. It’s reasonably armoured protecting it from light to medium amounts of enemy fire. It is the slowest of all starting flaks at 30Kph (18.6Mph).
Pz.Kpfw.38 fur 2 cm Flak 38 Gepard
The Gepard is more armoured and larger and faster at 41Kph (26Mph) than the flak Panzer 1. Apart from that there is hardly any difference between them.
3.7-cm Flak 36 auf Selbstfahrlafette Sd.Kfz. 6/2
This tank has the hardest name to pronounce but it is faster at 50Kph (31Mph) than the Gepard. It has less armour but it has a larger cannon at 37mms.
Flakpanzer IV Wirbelwind
The Wirbelwind can dish out large amounts of cannon fire at enemy aircraft. It has a max speed of 39Kph (24Mph). The vehicle is well surrounded by armour, however, the top is open so keep that in mind because 3 of your 5 crewmembers are in that position. These vehicles can shred planes quickly and effectively however you may have more trouble with high flying bombers.
Flakpanzer IV Ostwind
The Ostwind is a simple upgrade from the Wirebelwind with a single 37mm cannon. It has the same max speed as the Wirbelwind at 39Kph (24Mph). It’s pretty much the same thing just with bigger cannon.
Flakpanzer IV Kugelblitz
The Kugelblitz is a heavily armoured flak completely immune to all cannon fire up to 20mm. It is still susceptible to rockets and bombs though. It has max speed of 39Kph (24Mph). It has two 30mm cannons which is a formidable amount of fire power.
Flakpanzer V Coelian
It is the most heavily armoured flak in War Thunder. The vehicle can take hits from light machine guns and even rockets making it an incredible threat to aircraft. It has a max speed of 46Kph (28.5Mph) which is incredible for such a large vehicle.
Soviet Union Anti-Aircraft Vehicle
The Soviet Union flaks vary and have the largest cannon for an AA Vehicle. They have a very good starting flak but after that they are average. The final flak is a testimony to aircraft strength.
4M GAZ-AA
This vehicle is the least armoured flak starting vehicle but has the most amount of fire power out of any of the starting flaks. It has four 7.62mm machine guns. If you want to fill the sky with lead then this is the flak. This vehicle has a max speed of 45Kph (28Mph). It’s very good starter flak.
72-K GAZ–MM
The GAZ is lightly armored vehicle that can take very little fire power and has a max speed of 45Kph (28Mph). It has 25mm cannon which makes it slightly underpowered but should still hold up.
ZSU-37
The ZSU is a reasonable flak. It is a well armoured flak protecting most of its crew from enemy fire. It has a 37mm cannon which can dish out a nice amount of damage. It has a top speed of 42Kph (26Mph). It is a much better upgrade then the previous flak and considerable upgrade showing of the Soviets will power.
ZSU-57-2
The ZSU-57 has the biggest cannon for an Anti-aircraft Vehicle. The 57mm can easily obliterate any aircraft it hits. The ZSU-57 45Kph (28Mph). This vehicle can take out lots of light to medium armoured tanks. It can pierce 142mm of armour. An impressive amount for a vehicle designed to take out aircraft.
Conclusion
Anti-Aircraft Vehicles are an important asset to any team. Air superiority can quickly take out a team. No tank is able to survive the onslaught of a B-29 dropping eight 907kg (2000 pounds). If you can take out the bomber before it opens its bomb bay you can save your team mates a lot of pain.
Thanks To These People
TheSilverSword For the tip on destroying tracks on enemy tanks to immobilised them and using artillery on them when there tracks are destroyed.
bootlegger For noting that engines fire will make the tank stop every thing to put out the fire.
ʎllɐ┴ for noting that i was missing the ZUT-37, it will be added soon.
All those people who Liked My Guide XD
73 Comments
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Smokey 31 Oct, 2023 @ 2:10pm 
WARNING! c4tboy h8tr is posting a COPYPASTA everything said in it is FAKE you will not die they we wrote to scare people into spreading them.
Local Spanker 20 Jun, 2022 @ 6:54am 
WARNING! Carry on reading! Or you will die, even if you only looked at the word warning! Once there was a little girl called Clarissa, she was ten-years-old and she lived in a mental hospital, because she killed her mom and her dad. She got so bad she went to kill all the staff in the hospital so the More- government decided that best idea was to get rid of her so they set up a special room to kill her, as humane as possible but it went wrong the machine they were using went wrong. And she sat there in agony for hours until she died. Now every week on the day of her death she returns to the person that reads this letter, on a monday night at 12:00a.m. She creeps into your room and kills you slowly, by cutting you and watching you bleed to death. Now send this to ten other profiles on this one site, and she will haunt someone else who doesn't. This isn't fake. apparently, if u copy and paste this to ten comments in the next ten minutes u will have the best of your life. TIC TOC
Quarren King of Q 29 Mar, 2022 @ 1:51pm 
i often fire on purpose as bait and wait for them to try to aim for me . that is a good way to get started practicing
semmly 30 Jun, 2021 @ 2:24am 
i awm noew pwo
Zarathustra1889 3 May, 2021 @ 4:58am 
RIP Coelian. Hopefully it makes a return in an event much like the Maus did. Having another chance to research the Panther II and the Tiger II (105mm) would be fantastic as well.
MadDogMac1775 5 Mar, 2021 @ 11:39pm 
88 mm flak is an understandable ignore
Cosmic_Pie_Crust  [author] 25 Feb, 2021 @ 9:32pm 
oh its all good. It does need an update i just need the motivation to do so XD
Crotch Gun 24 Feb, 2021 @ 9:03am 
just to be clear, i said that as a joke i dont mean to be rude. I think the work on this guide is great and I cant wait for an update.
Cosmic_Pie_Crust  [author] 24 Feb, 2021 @ 3:06am 
Yes its in the works. I have taken all new screenshots and rewritten all the original text for the new tech added to the game. I'm nearly finished researching a missile AA (so much RP)so i can use a missile before i talk about it.
Crotch Gun 23 Feb, 2021 @ 12:26pm 
and its been another year