In 1940, after a fairly successful raid by the British Air Force on Berlin, Adolf Hitler ordered the construction of massive anti-aircraft towers - Flakturms (Flakturm).
Even in the pre-war period, German specialists drew attention to a very significant factor that seriously interfered with the actions of anti-aircraft artillery. This factor turned out to be the cities of Germany themselves. They, like in most European countries, were built up with multi-storey buildings. The solution was found in the construction of large ground bunker towers, armed with air defense artillery.
By the middle of the summer of 1940, the basic requirements for these structures were developed. The anti-aircraft towers were supposed to solve four main tasks and one auxiliary:
- Detection and determination of the coordinates of air targets, and the issuance of data for the firing of anti-aircraft guns, both its own and ground batteries in this sector.
- Command of all air defense assets of the sector and coordination of actions of all air defense assets. At the same time, one of the towers led the air defense of the entire city and coordinated the actions of anti-aircraft batteries with fighter aircraft.
- Defeat air targets caught within the reach of the turret guns with anti-aircraft fire.
- Shelter of the civilian population from aircraft weapons.
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The construction of the first three Berlin towers was completed in just 6 months, and soon similar structures began to appear in other cities.
Under the guidance of Albert Speer, the professor of architecture Friedrich Tamms designed these structures, while trying to fit them into the architecture of cities.
Outwardly, these were cone-shaped multi-storey reinforced concrete structures, similar to rockets. The capacity of the towers ranged from 300 to 750 people. Occupying a minimal area, the towers could be erected close enough to crowded places - near schools, factory workshops, in residential areas.
Towers were built in pairs, and one of them was predominantly combat. It housed anti-aircraft artillery of the main caliber. At first, these were single-barreled 105-mm, later paired 128-mm anti-aircraft guns. In addition, each combat tower had eight 20-mm and twelve 20-mm single-barreled anti-aircraft guns.
The second tower housed fire controls, a command post, locators with searchlights and twelve small small-caliber anti-aircraft guns.
G-tower (Gefechtsturm) or battle tower, also known as a weapon tower or large anti-aircraft tower.
L-tower (Leitturm) or main tower, also known as fire control tower, command tower or small anti-aircraft tower.
Some of the floors of anti-aircraft towers were used as bomb shelters for the civilian population. Also, each tower had a first-aid post (sometimes with a hospital for several hundred beds), a powerful filtering unit that supplied all floors with purified air, a diesel generator for emergency power supply, an autonomous water supply system from artesian wells, and communication facilities. The thickness of the concrete walls was up to three and a half meters, the ceilings and floors - up to five meters.
Reinforced concrete anti-aircraft towers, which stood guard over the skies of the Third Reich, at one time were considered almost invulnerable. Some of them were able to survive the war and have survived to this day. In Vienna and Hamburg, five G-towers and three L-towers have survived.