BACKGROUND: The Germans were the first nation to develop anti-aircraft guns as early as the Franco-Prussian war when they utilized a 25mm caliber gun mounted on a horse drawn carriage to fire at balloons attempting to escape from the besieged city of Paris in 1870. The Germans continued to develop anti-aircraft guns and at the outbreak of WWI in 1914 they had twelve 77mm caliber anti-aircraft guns which they supplemented with captured Russian and French weapon which they retooled to 77mm. Further advancement in aviation technology resulted in the development of more effective anti-aircraft guns and the German armaments firms of Krupp and Erhardt were at the forefront of that development. By the outbreak of WWII the Germans fielded a wide variety of anti-aircraft guns ranging from the 20mm caliber light guns up to the infamous 88mm caliber guns. During the coarse of WWII the Germans continued with anti-aircraft gun development and by the end of the war they had no fewer then twelve assorted size caliber anti-aircraft guns. 

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: Roughly, 98cm tall, 12.5cm diameter, tooled magnetic sheet metal construction canister with a brazed, vertical side seam for the 8.8cm Flak 18. The canister features repeating, embossed, vertical reinforcement ribbing and a fold back top lid with a heavy wire swivel hinge to the reverse and a swivel, pressure closure clip to the obverse. The fold back top lid has a swivel, heavy wire, carrying handle brazed in place. The canister retains about 70% of an ordnance tan paint, has several dents and shows surface rust where the paint has worn away. The interior of the canister till retains all of its reddish/brown protective primer paint and has a brazed in, opened, circular ring and spring, near the bottom to secure the tip of the howitzer round in place. Couple of small dents to the canisters side. Shows the expected period use and wear but overall intact and in usable condition.

GRADE **3/4                             PRICE $298.00