i was looking at some model kits at a store recently and came across one labeled ‘flak ferry’. it had 3 3.7 flak canons on it. i looked it up and the only think i could find was the picture of the model. does anyone have any information on this? or is it just something dreamt up by a model company?
haha, looks pretty cool but i’ve never seen anything like it, but then again i could be wrong. It seems unlikely to me because bombers wouldn’t be flying low enough over the ocean fro the “ferry” to hit anything
The design did indeed exist. They were used as supply barges on European rivers and possibly coastal areas. US PT Boats were often used to attack them with less than mixed results as the Flak Ferries were bristling with guns…
From Wiki
Perhaps the most effective use of PTs was as “barge busters”. Since both the Japanese in the New Guinea area and the Germans in the Mediterranean had lost numerous resupply vessels to Allied airpower during daylight hours, each attempted to resupply their troop concentrations by using shallow draft barges at night in very shallow waters. The shallow depth meant Allied destroyers were unable to follow them due to the risk of running aground and the barges could be protected by an umbrella of shore batteries. PTs had sufficiently shallow draft to follow them inshore and sink them. Using torpedoes was ineffective against these sometimes heavily armed barges, since the minimum depth setting of the torpedo was about ten feet[citation needed] (3 m) and the barges only drew five (1.5 m). To accomplish the task, PTs in the Med and Pacific (and RN and RCN MTBs in the Med) installed more and heavier guns which were able to sink the barges.