Luftwaffe Flak organisation

[Crazy Feldgendarme]

Flak Organisation

The flak branch of the Luftwaffe was organised army style into:

Corps
Divisions
Brigades
Regiments
Abteilungen
Batteries

A flak Regiment comprised two Abteilungen each of three heavy and two light batteries plus a headquarters staff. Attached to each regiment was a searchlight Abteilung of three or four batteries of lights.
A Regiment might also have its own Ersatzabteilungen (repairs and replacement units) but if so this was static. However after 1942 with the need for spare parts and repairs becoming a matter of urgency, motorised repair units (flak-Instansetzungs-Abteilungen mot.) were formed in Luftgau subject to heavy air attack.


The Flak defences were enlarged year on year.

1939 115 batteries
1940 791 batteries
1941 967 batteries
1942 1,148 batteries
1943 2,132 batteries
1944 2,655 batteries

In October 1943 there was a large scale re-organisation, there were now nine flak divisions and seven separate flak Brigades assigned to the defence of the Reich as follows.

1st Flak Division Berlin
3rd Flak Division Hamburg
4th Flak Division Duisburg
7th Flak Division Cologne
8th Flak Division Bremen
14th Flak Division Leipzig
16th Flak Division Northwest France
21st Flak Division Darmstadt
22nd Flak Division Dortmund


4th Flak Brigade Munich
8th Flak Brigade Wismar
15th Flak Brigade Hanover
16th Flak Brigade Vienna
19th Flak Brigade Amsterdam
20th Flak Brigade Stuttgart
21st Flak Brigade Nuremburg

A year later a further three Flak Divisions (19th, 20th and 25th) had been formed. Berlin was defended by some 340 heavy guns: the largest such concentration anywhere in Germany.

[Tychsen]

When look at what the Kammhuber line was and the flak concentrations set up to defend the Ruhr and major cities they went in for the long haul.
When you consider the railway guns , mobile units and the suppoorting radar and rangefinding equipment a considerble investment in manpower.