WW2 German Range Finder

[BreakingBad]

I've seen ww2 film of Germans looking through these odd looking mounted binoculars.  They have two scopes sticking up like the antenna of a bug.

I always wonder if those were some form of range finding instrument.  Perhaps each scope would swivel and be adjusted until it focused on target.  Then, using trigonometry (law of cosines) they might have had a basic computer or slide rule tabulation that would give distance. 

I'm not sure if this is viable though, as the distance between the scopes is short, and the angle would minute.

Anyone know about those scopes or have a picture?  Be a pretty good thing for a collector to get their hands on.

[Gh0stFT]

Hi, this is a huge rangefinder, 2 Player version ;-)
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f0/Bundesarchiv_Bild_101I-113-0006-34%2C_Nordeuropa%2C_K%C3%BCstenbatterie%2C_Entfernungsmesser.jpg



Google for "Flak Entfernungsmesser" to find more pics.

The Brits used Trench Binoculars called Donkey Ears, google for "ww2 British Donkey Ears".

R
Gh0stFT

[BreakingBad]

Ok thanks, that got me in the right direction.

The things I was thinking about were called 'rabbit ears' and they were for artillery spotting.  I think the height of them was just to keep the observer safe to peer over a trench, not for use in triangulating distance.

[Ack-Ack]

This is a German 88mm range finder

The things I was thinking about were called 'rabbit ears' and they were for artillery spotting.  I think the height of them was just to keep the observer safe to peer over a trench, not for use in triangulating distance.

They were used to plot the range as well.  The ones that look like 'rabbit ears' are scissor type binocular range finders that fold up like in the picture below


or extend outward like the picture below.



ack-ack

[zack1234]

We should have them on our CV's, you goto range finder position and give information to the gunners

[Weirdguy]

I think they're more useful as periscopes than as range finders.  It wouldn't surprise me to find out the Germans thought they were going to have another trench war on their hands, so they made those optics to be useful as periscopes to see out of your trench.  That kind of war never developed, but gear is gear, and you use what you have.

[CptA]

In the U.S. Army this technology was known as the Coincidence Rangefinder.

They were used by all the Combat Arms branches...Artillery, Infantry, and Armor, and were standard equipment on all U.S. Tanks starting with the M47 and continuing until replaced by the Laser Rangefinder in the M60A3 and M1 series of tanks.

Look for the the twin armored bulges that protect the optics. They are located on either side of the turret mid-point near the top of the turret casting on all of these tanks.

In use the Tank Commander would peer thru an eyepiece located at his station and turn a range knob until the twin images of the target appeared to "coincide" or superimpose on top of each other. When the images matched, the range could be read from the range scale and given to the gunner for use with his secondary telescopic sight, but was normally automatically fed via a mechanical linkage to the gunner's fire control computer which corrected the sight reticle in the gunners primary sight and simultaneously applied a superelevation correction to the gun mount.

Btw they worked quite well...

Steel on Target!

CptA

[Weirdguy]

In the U.S. Army this technology was known as the Coincidence Rangefinder.

They were used by all the Combat Arms branches...Artillery, Infantry, and Armor, and were standard equipment on all U.S. Tanks starting with the M47 and continuing until replaced by the Laser Rangefinder in the M60A3 and M1 series of tanks.

Look for the the twin armored bulges that protect the optics. They are located on either side of the turret mid-point near the top of the turret casting on all of these tanks.

In use the Tank Commander would peer thru an eyepiece located at his station and turn a range knob until the twin images of the target appeared to "coincide" or superimpose on top of each other. When the images matched, the range could be read from the range scale and given to the gunner for use with his secondary telescopic sight, but was normally automatically fed via a mechanical linkage to the gunner's fire control computer which corrected the sight reticle in the gunners primary sight and simultaneously applied a superelevation correction to the gun mount.

Btw they worked quite well...

Steel on Target!

CptA

I did not know that.  Thanks for the info.