88 as anti-tank and the problem of using heavy AA as AT

[Klausewitz]

The German 88 is quite famous for its use as an anti-tank gun and there is often the question why the allies did not use their quite comparable designs as AT as well.
To tackle this problem i would put forward a two-pronged approach.
1) The 88 had a few design features (the cruciform platform that could depress to +85° and -3°, the lower mass, the semi-automatic breach, the zielfernrohr 20 and special AT-ammunition) that made it better suited to AT work.
This could be tackled by a tech 'Adopt AA for AT use' with a minimal rise in production cost.
2) Doctrinal reasons: Allied AA, especially on the Western Front, was back, far back and the crew were simply not trained at AT work. German crews were trained in AA, AT and artillery work (the 88 could reach out to 14860 m) while officers were aware that they could and were allowed to use them as AT.
This i would tackle as a part of the Land Doctrine tree.

 

[Denkt]

AA guns in HOI4 have very decent hard attack and piercing.

88 is probably to large to be an effective AA gun against anything but strategic bombers so either it would be an anti tank gun or a state anti air in game terms.

 

[Klausewitz]

The 88 is quite capable of engaging tactical bombers.

 

[Mokael]

I think even Kreigsmarine used 88s as AA on their ships. And their crews werent shooting at strategic bomber formations.

 

[Denkt]

I don't think 88 was used on ships but they used a similar but larger 10.5 cm gun.

 

[Mokael]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/8.8_cm_SK_L/45_naval_gun

 

[Denkt]

Compared to dual purpose guns that was common in many other navies, germany was quite far behind. They also seems to have lacked a decent medium AA gun as they went with massed light aa guns like the japanese did instead of massed medium aa guns like the americans and british did and we do know which did better against air attacks.

 

[LordOfWar16]

Its not only the german 88 that was a great Anti-Aircraft and anti-tank gun (not only against bombers), but the russians also figured out that their 85mm 1939 52-K anti-aircraft guns made great anti-tank guns aswell. They developed it on the base of the anti-aircraft gun tho and didnt use it as a multi-purpose gun as far as i know.

 

[Denkt]

The British and American heavy anti aircraft guns also had uses as anti tank guns.

 

[Mokael]

Its not only the german 88 that was a great Anti-Aircraft gun (not only against bombers), but also the russians also figured out that their 85mm 1939 52-K anti-aircraft guns made great anti-tank guns aswell.

The only difference, I believe, Soviets werent firing their 85 AAs at tanks they way germans did. But yeah, D-5 85mm was based on AA.

 

[Denkt]

Even the old bofors 75mm which is related to the 88mm had anti tank ability and that was designed in the 20s, actually all heavy anti aircraft guns used seems to have had some sort of anti tank role.

88 is the most famous heavy AA guns but its abilities was standard for heavy AA guns although there could be doctrinal differences in how heavy AA guns was deployed.

In game terms all AA guns have some hard attack ability although obviously not as good as anti tank guns but better then most other stuff.