"E50 with IR system - Where would the BIWA tubes be?" Topic

OK, so I'm working on a Weird War addition to my German forces. The group mostly plays Flames, so I was going to use E50s in place of Panthers with the IR system.

I bought Heer46's Panther IR system, which has an IR-equipped MG42 for the commander's hatch, a lamp-and-tube set that mounts on the mantlet, and a lamp-and-tube set that mounts in front of the driver's hatch.

It's easy enough to add the commander's MG and driver's IR system, but the gunner's IR system is giving me issues.

The E50 uses stereoscopic rangefinding, so where would the IR tubes be? Inside the tank, or in front of the stereo imagers?

Not sure what you mean by IR tubes? Are you talking about the sensor apparatus? IIRC IRL the Vampir system was used on Panther Ds that had the stereoscopic gunner's site, because one aperture could be a standard site, and the other could have the IR site.

Damon.

The tubes that convert the IR into visible light for the humans to see.

IIRC IRL the Vampir system was used on Panther Ds that had the stereoscopic gunner's site, because one aperture could be a standard site, and the other could have the IR site.

Dunno how you'd do stereoscopic rangefinding with only one side of the image visible…

Dunno how you'd do stereoscopic rangefinding with only one side of the image visible…

The Panther D did not have a stereoscopic rangefinger. It had a stereoscopic gunsight. This was advantageous because it allowed the Vampir system to use one aperture for the image intestification, and the other for a standard gunsgight. If you look at the mantlet of the Panther D, it has two holes for the gunsight, rather than one.

On an E-50, I suspect either it would be specially adapted for the IR system with two gunner apertures, or the gunner would be forced to replace scopes when switching over.

Also the limitations of IR at the time probably would render the stereoscopic rangefinder irrelevant, because the IR light would not extend far enough for it to make much of a difference, the shell drop would probably be flat at that range, not requiring any super-elevation to get the shell on target. Range according to link was around 600m.

Damon.

The BIWA platoons had an UHU halftrack with a 60cm IR searchlight, to give illumination out to ~1500m or so. But yeah, probably would have to do something weird to install an IR scope.

Guess I will just hang two small IR lamps next to the rangefinder bumps and mount the driver's and commander's IR systems.