FLAK

[Keith]

My son found this for me today. I had never seen a piece of "flak" before.

[militarykid1234]

cool item

[MWalsh]

It is a cool item to actually come across.

 

I have some I picked up from the 1st Gulf War, not "flak" per se, but shell frags. Looked about the same in 1991 as the circa 1944 or so stuff did!

 

MW

[hawkdriver]

How do you know it's flak and not a artillery fragment?

[Keith]

How do you know it's flak and not a artillery fragment?

I guess Ed brought it back with him and told the family it was flack (flak). His sister wrote the label and she said it was flack. What is flak? Is it something other than artillery fragments?

[siege1863]

I think the better description would be shrapnel. Here are two WWI letter openers made from the wicked stuff. (I realize these are not US militaria but they are a good examples.) FLAK is generally considered anti-aircraft shell fire and it would be difficult for someone to identify pieces of it after having fallen thousands of feet to the ground.

 

 

[Plant#4]

Dont forget, a lot of that stuff was brought home inside our bombers....

[Lee Ragan]

Dont forget, a lot of that stuff was brought home inside our bombers....

Many years ago, a former 91st Bomb Group gunner showed me a piece of flak he dug out of his sherling flight jacket after getting back to England. It was about the size of a quarter and a nasty looking little thing at that. He told me he didn't know he had even been hit because the thing was imbedded in the thick jacket and didn't even scratch his skin.

Yea.... lots of the nasty stuff came home in planes that had been peppered with it.

As far is telling the difference between flak shrapnel and artillery shrapnel, well flak is anti-aircraft artillery isn't it?

[mrhell]

Neat! I bet that would hurt no matter what the "Official" designation is.

 

BTW, I wonder what determining factors depict a "Wound" from an "Injury"?

[CamoDeafie]

Neat! I bet that would hurt no matter what the "Official" designation is.

 

BTW, I wonder what determining factors depict a "Wound" from an "Injury"?

Well to me, I could be way off base but IMO, a wound is something that bleeds and breaks skin (IE, cuts, bulletholes, shrapnel holes, etc) whereas an injury would be something stuctural, like muscle tearing, bone breakage, bruises or twisted tendons, maybe both depending on the situation? I don't know honestly lol...

But yeah, triple-A is still artillery, so both Flak and Shrapnel can apply to this piece of metal... the only difference I can think of is if its a piece from a SAM (Vietnam+)

[vzemke]

Its pretty amazing how little this type of thing has changed over the years. Here's a piece I kept that landed too close for comfort in southern Baghdad back in June 2007. Pretty sinister looking stuff.

Vance

[willysmb44]

Many years ago, a former 91st Bomb Group gunner showed me a piece of flak he dug out of his sherling flight jacket after getting back to England. It was about the size of a quarter and a nasty looking little thing at that. He told me he didn't know he had even been hit because the thing was imbedded in the thick jacket and didn't even scratch his skin.

Yea.... lots of the nasty stuff came home in planes that had been peppered with it.

A 91st pilot gave me two pieces of flak he recovered out of his plane after a mission. One punched into the bottom of his seat, thankfully, the stolen British manhole cover he'd bolted to the bottom of the seat save his crown jewels! One piece still has melted aluminum to one side, the only remaining piece of his B-17 which he later ditched into the North Sea. I will be getting photos of all his stuff together soon to post here.