Unknown German mortar Sight R.A.18D ?

[cowboy102nd]

I recently picked up this interesting richtaufsatz 18 sight. I know that it was made by Carl Zeiss for turkey (or later issued). It has wartime manufacturing mark with 1442 instrument grease used 1942 and later. It also has lightly etched persian markings. The size is the same as a RA35 and it also has the same numeric markings. Does anyone have any idea what it was used on? Also the dovetail is the same as used on GR.W.34.[/URL][/IMG][IMG][IMG][URL=http://s1079.photobucket.com/user/cowboy102nd/media/RA18DOptic/DSC00760_zps48872ccb.jpg.html][IMG][/IMG]

[cowboy102nd]

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[Draoich]

This will only mount onto German mortars

Hi Cowboy102nd.,
I have never seen this model of Sight before. It seems to be in excellent condition. To the best of my information, the dove-tail attachment will only fit German mortars. I have never come across any other National mortar systems which used the German dove-tail mortice mount. Most WW2 Period Armies used the Brandt Dove-tail attachment system. The Soviets initially used a variation of the Brandt Sight mounting system and then developed their own unique attachment system based on an indexed bar-shaped mount.
It makes sense that this is a mid-war manufactured Sight because it shows design influence from Soviet mortar Sights, particularly in the body shape and arrangement of elevation worm drive. The Azimuth mounting is also similar to that of the Soviet MPM mortar Sights.
Regards,
Draoich

[cowboy102nd]

Thanks for the helpful info Draoich. The sight does seem very similar to a R.A. 35 in both size and mil markings. Here are some more photos below for comparison.
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[cowboy102nd]

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[xavier]

crest id'ed

the sight was exported, of all countries, to the kingdom of IRAN
the crest was very difficult to id due to not being a complete crest, but just the crown of the royal house of Iran, removed were the lions with swords and the underlaying heraldry., I guess lack of space for a full crest.

now the quest moves to try to id the weapons order from Iran, how many, how actually got there ( due to blockade ) b etc etc.
I think we must wait for a full war with Iran to see more of those
greetings

[Alan Smith]

I suspect that the mortar sight was brought to the United States by U.S. military personnel in the 1950's to 1970's, during the pre-Revolution era when the US military had strong ties to the Iranian military.

Here in the US, we see numbers of the Persian contract Mauser-produced P.08 and LP.08, as well as Walther PP pistols, most of which came into the US during this time frame by as souvenir items from US servicemen who had been stationed in Iran. The vast majority of these pistols are in excellent condition, having apparently seen very little use in Iranian service. Some of these pistols were official gifts from Iranian military officials to US military officials and bear presentation plaques. The majority of these pistols, however, seem to have simply been "sourced" out of Iranian military stores by resourceful US personnel who purchased or traded for them with Iranian military personnel.

I strongly suspect that your mortar sight followed the same path to end up here in the US.

Nice item!