IR equipment in WWII ?

I guess most of us by now know about the IR equipped Panthers and that their usage was limited. But I have also heard that the Allies ( the Americans and/or the British I guess, allthough I believe the Soviets had developed IR equipment as well before the end of the war ) had large stocks of IR equipment ready available for use by late 1944 / early 1945.

What sort of IR equipment are we talking about here, presuming what I´ve heard is true ?

 

THe Allied snipers did have IR equipment as well. According the books I have read. I think Roel might be able shed some light on this from the books I sent him.

 

The Stg 44 also known as the MP44 could have a infared scope on it they where used toward the end of the war :lol:

 

I've seen photos of a 1st generation IR scope on a Garand, but i don't know if it was WWII or Korea.


SAM

 

I would really like to know about this...

Ive never heard of any allied or Soviet IR equipment being made or used during WW2...

Hmm.. very interesting...

KBO

 

Hello.
Some informations about US Army IR equipment during WWII on this link.
http://www.rt66.com/~korteng/SmallArms/m1irsnip.htm

 

What is IR? Injury reserved?

 

Infrared i believe?

 

This talkes about the Korean war wich was from 1950-53 and not 43, so that must be a typo or something, because the Allies didnt pocess any infrared equipment during WW2 (Ive never heard that !)....

KBO

 

Hello KBO.
From this link:
http://www.rt66.com/~korteng/SmallArms/m1irsnip.htm

This made many Typo ,1943 ,Japanese and Okinawa.
I am pretty sure that the Allied have made some experiments with IR weapons during WWII.

 

Hmm, i didnt read that last part, but the site is however mainly about the Korean war...

KBO

 

when you are talkin about infa red are you on about red dot sights/scopes?

 

I'VE SEEN PICS OF A SNIPOSCOPE USED BY SENTRY'S AND SNIPERS

 

No, that's way beyond the possibilities of WW2. Basically infrared weapons of WW2 were attached to an already existing gun and gave the gunner a sight, more or less like night goggles. It didn't help with aiming AFAIK but gave you the huge advantage of being able to see in the dark, or at least being able to see more in the dark.

 

Both the British, the Americans and the Soviets had IR-equipment before the end of WWII. How much use they made of it is perhaps another matter, but 2100 M3 Carbines ( the night fighting version of the M1, this was equipped with an IR night sight ) were issued to American troops before the end of WWII.

 

Ok give me some time to chew that one, because i find it quite strange !

Were they actually issued to U.S. troops in WW2 ?!(I doubt it)
Because then how come U.S. troops had no clue what they were looking at when they picked up a Stg44 with a Infrared device ?! (Vampire)

KBO

 

You doubt it !?

And would any German soldier know what an infrared night sight was if he picked it up ? It is one of WWII´s greatest myths that only the Germans possessed IR equipment. Fact is that the Americans not only had it as well, but made much more effective use of it. The M3 was credited with 30% of Japanese casualties caused by small arms fire during the first week of the Okinawa campaign, despite the use of only 500 units.

2100 M3s. How many Vampirs did you say ?

 

I seriusly have never heard of this before !

Im not sure exactly how many Vampir device's were made, but it wasnt many. A special unit (Can't recall its name) used them along side IR Panther's on the western front. There is a story somewhere (I'll try and find it) that tell the eye-witness accounts of U.S. troops that were being litterally slaughtered by such a unit during a night engagement. (There were no IR panther's at that particular place though)

Anyway im pretty sure that the IR equipment given to the German army was in very small quantities.

This is what a unit looked like:

 

Seriously KBO, if you want to be taken seriously try to cough up some real backing to your argument, not just some half baked statement like "I doubt it."

 

Danyel, now whats the problem ? I said "i doubt it" because i had never heard this before, but Skua obviously proved it to me. And i find this very interesting, so if anybody's got more info on these U.S. IR guns please share it !

KBO