The 2cm Flakvierling 38 was a quad mount for four 2cm Flak 38 anti-aircraft guns produced during the second world war by Germany. Originally produced for the Kriegsmarine in 1938 it was accepted by the Luftwaffe and ground forces in 1940, and remained in production until 1945. American troops man an anti-aircraft gun near the Algerian coastline in 1943 Anti-aircraft, or air defense, is any method of combating military aircraft from the ground. ... Mushroom cloud from the nuclear explosion over Nagasaki rising 18 km into the air. ... The Kriegsmarine or War Navy was the name of the German Navy between 1935 and 1945, during the Nazi reign. ... The Luftwaffe (literally, air weapon, pronounced looft-vaaf-feh) is the air force of Germany. ...

It had a cyclic fire rate of up to 1,400 rounds per minute, but this was reduced to 800 rounds per minute for combat use. Maximum effective ceiling was 2200 meters, but it was equally effective against lightly armoured or unarmoured ground targets as it was against low-flying aircraft.

Each of the four guns fired from a 20 round magazine, and the guns could be fired either in pairs (diagonally opposite) or all four together, in either a semi-automatic or fully automatic mode.

The gun was normally transported on a Sd. Ah. 52 trailer, and could be towed behind a variety of half-tracks or trucks, such as the Opel Blitz, SdKfz 251 and SdKfz 11. It was also mounted onto half-tracks and tank bodies to produce mobile anti-aircraft vehicles, such as the SdKfz 7/1 (based on the SdKfz 7 half-track) and the Mobelwagen and Wirbelwind (both based on the Panzer IV tank). M3 half-track A half-track is a civilian or military vehicle with regular wheels on the front for steering, and caterpillar tracks on the back to propel the vehicle and carry most of the load. ... SdKfz 251 Ausf. ... The Flakpanzer IV (Sd. ... The Flakpanzer IV Wirbelwind (Whirlwind in German) was an anti-aircraft vehicle based on the Panzer IV. It was developed in 1944 as a successor to the earlier AA tank Möbelwagen. ... The Panzerkampfwagen IV (PzKpfw IV), more commonly referred to as the Panzer IV, was a tank developed by Nazi Germany and used extensively in World War II. It was designed initially as an infantry-support medium tank, to work in conjunction with the anti-tank Pzkpfw III. Later in the...

In Kriegsmarine use it was fitted to boats and ships to provide short-range anti-aircraft defence, and was also employed in fixed installations around ports, harbours and other stratgeic naval targets.