infrared night vision in WW 2 ?

I've read that late Panther G had night vision scope & the British & German night fighters were using them late in WW2 but does any one know if it was used much in battle ?

 

I think some late King Tigers with such equipment fought in Germany in 1945 against the Russians.

 

The Panther you refer to used to work with an armoured car known as Owl 'uhu'. I don't know much about the deloyment, but as with all German wonderweapons in the close of the war, I guess it was very limited deployment.

 

From March to April of 1945, approximately 50 Panthers Ausf G (and other variants) mounted with FG 1250, saw combat service on the Eastern Front and Western Front.

Achtung Panzer! - German Infrared Night-Vision Devices!

Notice also the version for assault rifles....

 

Great find Kai-Petri

I wonder how affective the assault rifle version was it looks like a lot of added weight to carry around

 

that's pretty cool!
for that time!

 

Cool thread id never heard of this

 

I wonder what the imagery was like. Having used some of the older image intensifying systems we have today (the II sight on our CVR(T)'s dates to the 1960's for example) they aren't great, I wonder how well this kit worked. I imagine being II, slightly better than the stuff we get.

Looking at the size etc, doesn't look far off the size of the kit used in the 70's by the Russians, again interesting, probably quite efficient really.

 

Not exactly lightweight or easy to maneuver in is it?

 

Another thought is, when carrying all that, where would the rest of the soldiers kit be? The article suggests that the weapons were for use by soldiers attached to the IR equipped vehicles so one might suppose they were to be used for close range combat near the vehicles and so either wouldn't need to carry the power unit (leave it on the floor of the half track) or wouldn't be expected to travel far.

Fascinating stuff.

 

The germans had a few different vehicles that were intended to be equiped with night fighting equipment. the Sd. Kfz. 251, the so called "Uhu" the panther tank, tiger II, how much they were actually used i dont know. they also made towed infared searchlights and mounted some scopes on rifles the 'vampir'. the germans also introduced camoflage that was designed to help reduce the IR siganture. this was called the 'leibermuster pattern' made from ir resistant dyes

 

I might be totally off, but I always thought the M3 Carbine had night-vision, with a huge battery pack, and prosessed by moonlight.

 

They were just ahead of their time



Plus, during the 60's, the night vision scope was pretty big, unlike today's. It was quite similar to what is pictured in the German photo (minus the external power pack).