Testing US military Z-Binoculars, early infrared systems. Approximately 1944-1945.
4d 22h ago by lemmy.world/u/setsneedtofeed in historyphotos@piefed.social
Infrared scope / analog rangefiner?
The Z-binoculars were active infrared goggles designed originally for pilots or drivers but tested with infantry applications. Only about 100 were made during WW2 and I have never seen evidence they were used in combat.
The submachinegun is equipped with the IR illuminator portion of the M2 Sniperscope system. There's no optic on it, so the soldier would point the illuminator at the target and use that to aim.
My point was that the optics are so insanely widely spaced, far beyond the placement of human eyes. It sort of resembles a naval rangefinder meant for gunnery targeting.
I'm not an expert on the system and information on it is scarce, but I know the lens positions adjust. I've seen excerpts from reports with pilots using these saying that the pilots were able to land in the dark using them successfully. From that usage, I'd expect they have some success as pure visual aid devices and not just for range finding
My completely personal theory is that the technology of the time required the image intensification tubes to be so long. The design then allows the tubes to be pushed into an up position mimicking the human eye spacing though with a view coming from the top of the head. Probably took some getting used to.
The thing on his helmet? I am by no means whatsoever an expert, but I think those are just the infrared sights. The thing on The gun is a infrarwd torch. Those first things back then needed an active component.