Before the 88 was a tank-killer it was a sky-hunter. It was designed to reach high-altitude aircraft, hurling a time-fuzed shell nearly eight miles up to burst among bombers as black puffs of flak — the German word itself, short for Flugabwehrkanone, means "aircraft-defense gun." As Allied bombing grew, the 88 became the backbone of the Reich's air defense: thousands ringed the cities and factories, fed by predictors that computed a bomber's future position and set each fuze automatically. A trained crew could unlimber the gun in under three minutes and put twenty rounds a minute into the stream overhead.

The gun wears late-war three-color camouflage — the finish that replaced early overall grey — with a seated gunner at the traverse and ammunition crates stacked ready. Set it against the grey 88mm Flak 36/37 to show the war's two ends, crew it from Preparing for Action, and aim it at the men it hunted — the American Ball Turret Gunner riding the bomber stream above. A flak position gives a diorama a rare vertical story: the fight was happening miles overhead.

W. Britain model 25100. 1/30 scale, matte-painted metal. Multi-piece set — the 88mm Flak 36 gun in late-war three-color camouflage with one seated gunner figure and ammunition crates. Boxed.