WWll Night Vision!

[kcaj8]

I recently heard that the Germans used an early form of night vision called Vampir scope. Can anyone prove/disprove this?just wondering...

[Ripper]

Very true. The Vampire was used on some late war rifles for infantry combat in urban areas. Mostly on STG-44's.
The Germans also employed IR sights on some Panther tanks in the last few months of the war.
Some tanks recieved an IR headlight as well as IR sensitive periscopes for night action. However, the majority depended on a large IR spotlight that was mounted on a halftrack to light up the battlefield and recieved only the periscopes.

STG SCOPE:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zielger%C3%A4t_1229

Panther sights:
www.geocities.com/Area51/Capsule/2930/nightfightingpanthers/nightfightingpanthers.htm

[Go4Broke]

The US had their own night vision systems too, called sniper or snooperscopes. They were used very late in the war though, just making it into the Okinawa Campaign. Interesting note - a friend of mine's sergeant was using one on Oki when a Japanese infiltrated into his foxhole. Needless to say the scopes still needed a little work lol.

More info:
ugca.org/07jan/night.htm

[wade]

That night varient of the carbine was called the M3, correct? It was basicly an M2 Carbine with an IR scope and a flash hider. It was seen in late Pacific campains. The M1 went through a number of modefications during WWII. In 1942 the M1 was redesinged for paratroopers into the M1A1, then in 1944, the new selective fire M2 carbine was introduced, along with it's sniper variant the M3. Before that in 1943 the rear sight was modefied for windage with a sliding aperture. Also in 1943, a grenade launcher for the M1 was introduced. In 1944, the bayonet lug was added. By 1945 a flash hider was issued for night fighting.
WOW! I guess I got a little strae away from the topic... Sorry, just thought it was interesting..

[lollipops hunter33]

LOL, they have some nightvision scope called the Snooper in RTCW. I thought it was a joke, guess not.

[neoptolemus]

There is so much information on Panthers of Division Munchenburg (sp? too lazy to look) equipped with IR it's not even funny. It appears that the operational IR Kampfegruppe would consist of IR Panthers (Ausf. G I believe) supported by Sd.Kfz. 251/20 Uhu's and Sd.Kfz. 251/? Falkes. The Falkes were infantry support vehicles carrying grenadiers as well as night driving optics and an IR equipped MG. The Uhu had a 60cm searchlight by the benches in the year that would spot targets for the Panthers and Falkes since their own searchlights were of such pathetic range. Sometimes, plates would be welded on the Panther engine decks to allow for IR MP44 equipped grenadiers to protect the tank.

These IR solutions were used ONLY on the Eastern Front in combat since the Western Allies had a large supply of cheap IR detectors. These systems of IR were all active (as opposed to the Starlight style passive light intensification models we use today) and so under the correct wavelength surveillance, the IR searchlights would afford no advantage.

What's more, their use was extremely limited since Germany was incapable of producing quality imaging tubes late in the war. As a result of low production volume and high cost, only Solution A was used on Panthers, which allowed for the fitting of one IR searchlight and one imaging tube on the commander's cupola. When a target was sighted, he would use a special bar to lock the imager in place, which would then allow for certain information to be transferred to the gunner.