Large calibre AA shells

[Slim Sedi]

Hi there!

Can anyone explain to me how to shoot down a plane with the 88?
Do you need to set the time/distance of the detonation or is it triggered by proximity?

I have tried to shoot down a sunderland once but the shells never triggered. Maybe I just can´t aim.

[wolf310ii]

You have to hit the airplane

[Slim Sedi]

Really?

In that case the AA shells are useless as a direct hit with any shell will probably destroy a plane

[WolfvonSohl]

Hello, You shoud use FLAK instead of the 88. Hitting planes with the 88 is nearly impossible. There were already some threads about this in the Forums. Best regards

[Slim Sedi]

Thanks for the response.

I was just wondering how the mechanics work with the large AA shell. But apparently they don´t at all^^.

[Jabrwock]

I don't think they work yet? I've had no luck so far.

[Menace]

I've never actually tried doing that with the 88. You would think it would just one shot it though. I just use flak, if I'm not crash diving to get away.

[Rochan47]

I always wondered for AA 88mm shells. So in my first game play after release, I was keeping 10 AA shells in Deck gun to try it.

I can proudly say that I just got my first kill with AA shell. Shot down A sunderland by hitting him on the nose after it failed to drop depth charges on me in run and was taking its first turn to roam around me. It took me 9 shells to accurately understand how much ahead and on what height i should shoot. It was epic to see it got hit and burned in air before crashing.

After just a few minutes I got another smaller plane attack me which I tried to shoot with my only remaining AA shell but I could not.

By the way I also tried shooting AA shells at Ships. It's a sight to behold when it hits the ship and creates a large explosion cloud on ships but I don't think it's much effective on freighters.

On a side note, I once used AA shell on a small corvette once. I surfaced behind the corvette and shot the AA shell right in the back of the ship and i guess it triggered all its depth charges to explode. Sunk it in a single hit.

But I agree there should be proximity fuse or something to use this shells effectively against planes otherwise it's very hard and needs a lot of luck to hit the fast plane with it. May be a HQ upgrade for Proximity fuse would be awesome. Without proximity fuse, i believe it's not worth storing many AA shells in limited space of the Uboat.

Not sure if Germany has proximity fuse shells being used on subs or its naval ships historically. I think USA invented it quite in later years and it was very effective for them to use against Japanese planes.

[Mr.Frozz]

Originally posted by Slim Sedi:

Hi there!

Can anyone explain to me how to shoot down a plane with the 88?
Do you need to set the time/distance of the detonation or is it triggered by proximity?

I have tried to shoot down a sunderland once but the shells never triggered. Maybe I just can´t aim.

its working well but not easy to hit even nearby. Instead to listen the nonsense from comments, just get the gunner skill for one better for both of caps (88+flak) and use him on the 8.8 gun with HE or AA shells, caps will hit the plan down for you. Better to use 8.8 with flak gun team. Use the tactic to hit the plan only before a moment when plan is going to attack and flies directly to your uboat, that is the best start for attack it by your caps, not before. When its flying around to hit the plan chance 40-50%, by in time before direct attack 80-90%. Always use AA for 88 and Flak.