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The most interesting conversion based on modified PzKpfw I Ausf A was Flakpanzer I, armed with 20mm Flak 38 L/112.5 gun.
During combat operations in France in 1940, Wechrmacht used for antiaircraft defence 2 cm Automatic Guns, mounted on 1-tonn halftracks ( SdKfz. 10/4 ), but lack of armouring became the main problem.
An order to convert obsolete at the moment chassis of PzKpfw. I A into FlakPanzer was given to Alkett and Daimler-Benz, the final assembling was made by Stoewer.
Actually, for conversion were used light ammunition carriers ( Munitionsschlepper I A, SdKfz. 111, ( LEADWARRIOR kit LW35007c ) ),
provided by 1-st company of Munitiontransportabteilung 610. Engines were used up leading to poor performance, and the chassis was overloaded , so Sd. Ah. 51 trailers were used to carry ammunition. As with the self- propelled anti-aircraft vehicles of many combatants, the Flakpanzer I was to be used in an anti-infantry role as well as the anti-aircraft role.
24 vehicles had been produced in early 1941. All of them were issued to Fla.- Battalion 614, which shortly was send to south Russia. It took part in Dnieper and Don campaigns (1941), in battle for Kharkov (1942), and was lost in January 1943 at Stalingrad.
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