WW2 German Tank Binoculars

[eniksleestack]

Hello All,

I'd like to share some pictures of a unique piece of WW2 memorabilia. I'm on Spring vacation at my uncle's and I remembered he has this great big, 20 lb. pair of binoculars that were once mounted of some kind of German tank. So I hauled them outside this afternoon and took some pics.

Mu unlce's dad, who was a cook during WW2 and is still sharp as a tack (and drives a brand-new Prius!), somehow managed to bring this back as a war prize.

It has a dial on top to switch lens colors to green, gray, orange, and clear -- kind of a primitive version of infrared. Supposedly, switching to the grau/green lens makes non-green things pop out, and so on. It's a bit creepy to see cars in the cross hairs like that.

This is its original paint job -- looks khaki tan -- was this used outside of North Africa? My uncle's dad was in the ETO.

Anyone know about "Busch Rathenow" opitcs?

I don't know if these binoculars are worth anything -- outside of general awesomeness. My cousins and I used to play with this as a toy all the time -- though it took 3 of us just to lift it back then!

Anyway, I thought there might be some WW2 buffs out there who'd get a kick out of it.

 

[drjones]

binoculars

I would check with a few museums that are into that kind of stuff. Baring anything else check with like...the Smithsonian. They can at least give you an idea of the maker and its worth as a piece of history.

VERY awesome. Thanks for sharing.

DRJONES

 

[Trotsky]

Those are either Naval binoculars or were set on an Observation Post or bunker. Actually I would go with Naval because the Soviets copied them after the war using the same equipment those were built on. Cool find whatever the point. Your Uncle must have had some determination to get them home. That's impressive itself!

 

[Lucky Strike]

10X80 Flakfernrohr variation. Busch in Rathenow manufactured these, - they were also made by Zeiss, among others. I haven't seen the filter feature before, but a standard one in good shape could easily fetch $1000 or so, and potentially more, if it turns out to be a rarity. There are no specifically military markings (like a three-letter Waffenamt code - a military Busch would have cxn stamped on it, typically next to the serial number). I seem to remember that the crosses can have some military significance (decommissioning?), but I'll have to ask a collector I know.

From http://binofan.home.att.net/flakglas.htm :

The 10x80 Flakfernrohr or flak glass is probably one of the most recognized German binoculars from World War II. It was produced in large numbers by several manufacturers. Emil Busch, Rathenow originated the design around 1935, beating other models in a design competition for the German military. The other makers of the flak glass included Schneider, Leitz, Goerz, eug (see below), and R. Fuess. While one of the primary uses for the flak glass was to direct antiaircraft fire, it was also likely used for general observation and various other purposes.

The optical design of the flak glass uses 45 degree Schmidt prisms and five element Erfle eyepieces with a 2-1-2 configuration. The focal ratio is rather short at f/3.5, keeping the instrument relatively compact. See Abb. 145 in Seeger's gray book for diagrams of the optical layout. The flak glass is basically two telescopes side by side with a knob on the top of the right side to move the left half. The flak glass is equipped with filters. The ones I have seen have a knob to select "klar" (clear), "hell" (light), "mittel" (medium), "dunkel" (dark). Very few had antireflection coatings.

 

[Vladimir Berkov]

In terms of the color, it was used outside of North Afrika, in Russia, Western Europe, etc, both in solid and camoflage patterns. Based on the color I would say that whatever these were used for it was during the latter part of the war.

 

[Lucky Strike]

Ah, here we are, from http://www.cloudynights.com/item.php?item_id=196 :

The D.F. engraved before 10x80 stands for Doppelfernrohr (double telescope). Only the early Busch models will have the manufacturer's name, others will have the three letter code beh (E. Leitz, Wetzlar), dkl (Schneider, Bad Kreuznach), cro (R. Fuess, Berlin Steglitz), bpd (C.P. Goerz, Vienna), eug (Optische Pr?§zisions-Werke, Warsaw) or cxn (E. Busch, Rathenow). According to Seeger, people with knowledge of the various models find them to be of identical optical quality, although the Schneider models appear to have been especially robustly constructed, while the Leitz 10x80s were not as well built as the others. In addition to the serial number, you may encounter some other symbols. KF is short for K?§ltefest, (cold weatherproof) meaning that the cold weather grease Invarol has been used and the device should function to -20-deg C. My 10x80 also has a dark F and a red X, about whose meaning I can only speculate. A light blue circle indicates grease no. 1416 or similar, functional to -40-deg C. Both cold weather greases apparently proved inadequate in Russia, and from winter 1942 all optical instruments of the German military were lubricated with grease no. 1442, again supposedly functional to -40-deg C, and indicated with a light blue cross. A triangle engraving later in the war indicated a further improved lubrication. These markings could of course be added during repair or regreasing, so they cannot be used to date the binocular.

 

[Story]

once mounted of some kind of German tank.
Mu uncle's dad, who was a cook during WW2 and is still sharp as a tack (and drives a brand-new Prius!), somehow managed to bring this back as a war prize.
.

Probably a Flakpanzer of some sort - there were at least half a dozen varients that could have been fitted with those binos.
Show your uncle's pop these and see if it jogs his memory.
http://www.wargamer.com/Hosted/Panzer/flak-panzer.htm

Nice find, btw - check this out
http://www.deutscheoptik.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=11&products_id=842

 

[Lucky Strike]

Here's another example, which has been lying my family's cabin for at least the last thirty years. My grandfather must have "liberated" it at the end of the German occupation. (The ground floor of his house was commandeered for a colonel's quarters and offices, so it was probably just left behind.)

It's the regular army/infantry field model. The "ddx" Waffenamt code stands for the maker Voigtlander & Söhne A-G in Braunschweig (Brunswick). I just dug it out a couple of days ago, so it's going straight to an optical restorer I know.

 

[Nox]

Has anyone heard more?

I was just searching the internet to learn more about these binoculars. My great grampa was in World War II and he got a hold of a pair that were actually used on a tank. How... I dunno. they look exactly like the first pair posted only a green color and they actually have the cxn thing that was mentioned about being military numbers.

Does anyone have more info of where I could look more up on them? I have not found anyhting really good about them yet.

 

[B-24J]

German Military Binoculars Book

For a complete study of German Military Binoculars see Dr. Hans Seeger's book. ISBN 3-00-000457-2. It is a $200.00 (USD) book, so you may want to see if a library can get one on loan.

The book is in German. However, the captions are in both German and English with a couple chapters in English.

John

 

[RHY]

The "ddx" code refers to the manufacturer, in this case Voightlander. Codes for German WWII binoculars can be found at: http://www.actionoptics.co.uk/German WWII Codes.htm

 

[RHY]

I was just searching the internet to learn more about these binoculars. My great grampa was in World War II and he got a hold of a pair that were actually used on a tank. How... I dunno. they look exactly like the first pair posted only a green color and they actually have the cxn thing that was mentioned about being military numbers.

Does anyone have more info of where I could look more up on them? I have not found anyhting really good about them yet.

cxn = Emil Busch A-G, Optische Industrie, Rathenow

 

[fl&wvmike]

I have a set of those German tank binoculars.
FL&WVMIKE