Post by ww2pictures on Jul 8, 2007 11:07:52 GMT 1
FlaK is a German contraction of either Fl(ieger)a(bwehr)-K(anone) or Fl(ug)a(bwehr)-K(anone) (hence the capital K, nowadays one word) meaning anti-aircraft gun, the original purpose of the eighty-eight. In informal German use, the guns were universally known as the Acht-acht, a contraction of Acht-komma-acht Zentimeter (8.8 cm = 88 mm). Note that the Allied slang for anti-aircraft fire, ack-ack, does not come from the German, but is "AA" in the World War I Signallers' Alphabet[1]. By World War II the German word "Flak" was the preferred Allied term for German AA fire.
