"German Heer Night Hunters " Topic

"The German military were advanced in their development of infra-red technology, fielding several different units including Panther tanks with infra-red targeting systems led by Sd.Kfz 251 Hanomags with colossal infrared searchlights…"

From here
link

Hope you enjoy!.

Amicalement
Armand

I do wonder just how many of these units they managed to field or if it was a one off test unit that didn't perform as well as expected?

A fun what if unit for the last stand in Berlin.

If they are "good" in the game you can assure yourself that almost every BA German force will have as many as they can field. It's often a min-max game that way.

"the book says 9 of these were fielded in the entire war and I only have 8 of them in my army" :)

They were never exactly widely used but way more than 9.
Still far fewer than I would think worth representing with specific miniatures.

Over 300 were fielded from Feb 1945.
There were some trials in late 1944 of the odd scope here or there used in night sniping and on machine guns.

I think they were reasonably effective. Just they had already lost and had bigger problems than a few hundred bulky night scopes were ever going to solve.

It's like the bent barrel gizmo.
You can see it would have been kind of handy for shooting round corners out of cover in street fighting but it's just not worth worrying about in a game.

The IR Panthers had a big advantage at night, I'm not so sure about the grunts. The whole kit is obscenely heavy for one infantryman. That big square box on their back is the battery to power the searchlight and scope.

An IR-equipped Panther should have 2 grunts on the rear deck to protect against marauding bazooka/PIAT teams, a squad or so of infantry to support/guard the IR Searchlight halftrack, and then a platoon of Infantry to support the entire Panther company. So, 3 IR-equipped Panthers (with a total of 6 troopers on the back decks), one searchlight-equipped halftrack (with a squad guarding it), and maybe another squad of infantry with their own IR-equipped transport.

I may end up building a 10-tank Panther company with IR gear, with 3 Searchlight halftracks and a company of Nachtjager infantry including halftracks. It will go well with my Eureka scifi German Stormtroopers! (All 15mm, none of this 28mm stuff on my table!)

As well as the 30Lb battery in the box the pbi had another battery in his gas mask case as well.
It's a looooong way from the convenience, effectiveness and reliability of modern equipment.
Reliability was poor.
Which I would guess is why they were used on machine guns and by "snipers" who could just sit somewhere and avoid rattling the stuff.

The panthers were supposed to have 2 or 3 guys with mp44 in an armoured tray thing over the rear deck in theory. At least some panthers intended for IR use got some sort of armour added. I think that varied though.

As I understand it, tales of the IR effectiveness on tanks are rather over stated.
The equipment was very unreliable and a lot of the units which in theory were supposed to have it, actually arrived at the front with just the mounts.

Anyone interested in their actual real usage and effect has to wade through reams of panzer porn wild claims to get to it.
You could do worse than starting here:
link