In my time wondering the militaria fairs i have come across many a tank gun sight and wondered what they were used on. I have been trying to find out more about them and what gun sights were used on British tanks especially the early cruiser A13. Thought there may have been a web page showing what sights were used on what. Anyone have a link to a web page or site for identification.
This is the only one I can think of: http://www.wwiiequipment.com/index....ting-telescopes&catid=49:other-data&Itemid=61
There are quite a few of these gun sites similarly all the same in look but with lots of differences and models catering for the different tanks and rounds, were there any manuals or phamplets to work and look after these optics, you think there would but i havent seen any about, unless they are in the gun manual of the tank. I have seen that most come with two dial knobs on the back i assume they operate just like a normal telescopic sight moving the sight picture up and down. How would you focus the scope at the back or front as i have seen these scope with a smaller lense tube protrude from the front, anyone know how they operated.
My experience has been that it's notoriously difficult to place allied produced tank sights with much certainty. Several instances of 'You like WW2, what's this scope thingy I bought off?", Followed by a grim descent into a world of multiple variants. Things used across assorted machines with incessant updates and variations. Always feels like a very specialist interest to track properly.
The sighting telescope for the early A13 Cruisers (i.e. Cruiser Mk.III and Mk.IV), was the No.3 Mk.I, which when not in use was stowed in the Case No.24 in the rear offside corner of the fighting compartment. The more common No.30 and No.33 telescopes were introduced with the later Cruiser tanks (i.e. Covenanter and Crusader).
A No 3 must be a rare beast, its not on the list of scopes a few posts back. I am quite curious that there is no instructions for any of these telescopes, i might ask Bovington if such paper work exists.
the sights are all interchangeable (external dimensions are the same). the graticules will let you know which tank used them, they will be marked for the main gun and m.g. so a mk7 churchill will use the same sight as a cromwell or late valentine.
Hi Rick i spoke to the tank museum and they said that the information about adjustment etc how to fit and look after a sight is in the tank manual under the gunnery section of the gun of the vehicle. I looked at a Cromwell book the tank museum are doing which has a section from the manual. They said there wasn't really a pamphlet or booklet of the sight as this was all taught together under gunnery.
