Artillery optics

[Snoopy]

Hello

This is my artillery optical sights "Rundblikk fernrohr". From left, it's a Rbl.f 32, then comes two Rbl.f 16. It looks like the last two has slightly different methods of attachment. On the reverse of the Rbl.f 32, there is a marking, that states that it is for the 21 cm. Mrs 18. If anyone has any additional information, I would be grateful. I would especially like to know, on what type of weapons they were used.

Snoopy

[nesredep]

Hello!

Snoopy

Thanks for sharing, I hope you can take some close ups of the markings.

All the best

Nesredep

[speedytop]

Hi Snoopy,

Rundblickfernrohr 16:

http://www.lexikon-der-wehrmacht.de/Vorschriften/lFH16.pdf

http://www.lonesentry.com/manuals/german-i...y-howitzer.html

Rundblickfernrohr 32:

http://www.stug.ch/stug/stug3/stug3a/

http://maquetland.com/v2/index.php?page=vision&id=437

http://www.colleurs-de-plastique.com/forum...6917&page=2

Regards

Uwe

[martin3]

An additional picture, just for fun...

I always wondered what the gunner was peeking at.

I never liked the evil grin...

Sch?ne Deerne?

[Snoopy]

Hello

Thank you for the information, and interesting links. The picture is great, and you are right, he has kind of a evil grin on his face.

Alle the best

Snoopy

[mlespaul]

Actually,

In most cases what the gunner was looking at (in this picture and in actual execution) was not the enemy position, but was looking at either a set of wooden or metal artillery stakes, marked or painted with numerals and letters that corresponded to increasing elevation settings, or at another similiar RblF mounted on a distant gun. The RbLFs were often painted with a bright red or orange color along the neck.

So he is either:

a) looking at the artillery stakes several dozen or so yards/meters behind him and lining up the point of the "V" inside the telescope to match up against what he's been told is the correct elevation setting. (Notice the telescope head is pointing rearward or behind where the gun seems to be pointing?) He works the trunnion elevation wheel of the cannon until the fixed position of the RblF rises up and the "V" is aligned against the correct number on the stake. Look at his right hand which is on the worm screw of the Zieleinrichtung 34, which is the whole aiming carriage on which the RblF is mounted. He's adjusting the carriage to match the vertical angle for the ZE 34 to be aligned perfectly and held against the picture he sees in the telescope, while his left hand there is working the trunnion wheel for elevation. Because the RbLf is pointed at an angle away from the center of alignment of the cannon, the gunner mentally computes the 360 degrees from the point the RbLF is aimed at and ensure the scale settings around the neck of the telescope are correctly set.

(Also note the scaled markings of the drum. It has a pointer on it and the numbers and pointer indicate the elevation required to place a round at that distance marked on the drum, e.g. 400, 600, 800, 1200 meters, etc. Moving the mechanism to select a higher distance causes the gunner to have to elevate the gun to have all the pointing indicators match up.)

He is now "zeroed in" to the correct elevation and angle, and can now start firing successive rounds to place shells on a target he can't physically see himself.

or

b) aiming the RblF at another gun emplacment's RblF a fair distance away and is viewing the angle of elevation of THAT gun's RBlF (by finding it by seeing the bright color and bringing the elevation of the gun until the "|" lines above and below the "V" are in line at the same angle as THAT other gun's RblF. This was a rough way of matching his guns elevation against the others in his artilleriegruppe. This tended to work better with 88 Flak guns that had the RblF mounted at the very top of the recoil pressure tube as it was more readily viewable. Which is why you normally see RblF fur Flak with the red neck color, and in the earlier WW1 models.

or

c) If it's a RblF 36, then there is an additional line of data running horizontally left to right that intersects the "V" and "|" lines in the reticle view. This equates to letters and numbers indicating azimuth numerical and letter combinations. These RblFs were aimed squarely at yet another type of optic called a collimator (K12 in some instances or Richtkries 40 or later.) These collimators projected a beam that the RblF would be pointed into and raised or lowered until the beam of the collimator, which itself had a lens that held a wall of numbers and letters, matched up perfectly with the RblF so that the gunner would see a perfect line of data evenly matched up in his view, without blurring or incorrect numbers interposed. This would tell him that he was lined up exactly with all orientation points and was ready to fire.

In all cases, the gunner had to look again into his RblF to make sure he was still aligned, as for every shot of the gun, it would shake the ground and the carriage to the degree that the settings would be knocked out of alignment and had to be reset and re-adjusted. Unchecked, after only 5 rounds and the heavy shake of the recoil, the gun could be effectively aiming 8 to 10 degrees or more off target and would continue to worsen.

Sorry for all the info. I am hoping I didn't dump too much here. I'm afraid I did.

Edited February 23, 2009 by mlespaul

[Snoopy]

Thank you very much, for all the information. It answers all my questions.

All the best

Snoopy