Panoramic Optic - Red Paint

[Grappener]

Hi All,

Am doing a research project on German Optical Equipment, and can't seem to find an answer to what must be a patently simple question!

Here goes: On certain optics such as.......

RichtKries 31
RK12
Rudblickfernrohr
and various other "tripodded" (or "on carriage") opticals what does the red paint denote? does it means it is magnetic or something?

Take a look at the message that has been posted recently to see what I mean.

http://dev.wehrmacht-awards.com/foru...ighlight=optic

I am currently reseaching only certain types of optics and so far I have consulted both Dr. Seegers "Grey" and "Blue" books as well as Dr. Rohans "Red" book. If anyone knows of any other good resources for optical equipment I'd be grateful to hear.

Although I am not concentrating on hand held binoculars or sniper scopes.

Everyting else if fair game though (Entfernungsmessers, 10 x 80's, 12 x 60's, RK's, Rudblinkfernrohrs, Fu30's, Panzer Beobachtungs scopes, MG Scopes, sextants and theodolights)

be grateful for any assistance.

best regards

grappener

[behblc]

Steve Rohan.

Steve Rohan has another book "The Eyes of the Wehrmacht" it deals with 10x80 flakglas and larger models of blc used by Amry and Kriegsmarine.
(Sorry , this is his "Red" one.).

Apart from these three books its difficult to get any specific books on WW2 optics.
Books dealing with flak are your next best bet , some have a limited section on optics / radar.

[Grappener]

Great cheers for that, any idea about the red paint?

It's definitely not red oxide as it is shiny, I know some optics have undercoats that are red oxide, but this red is on loads of different optics and I'm sure it means something.

The speculation is that it may be magnetic (as sometimes compasses are used to check bearings) if they were placed to close to a magnetic field it might skew the reading??

any thoughts??

cheers

Grappener

[Rami Soininen]

red color on optics

Hello Grappener,

Finnish army has painted red paint to their panoramic telescopes too. There is reason for this paint, it makes sighting easier from aiming circle to sight mounted telescope. I think that Finnish army did take that red paint style from germans. Finland bought lot of artillery eguipment from the Germans during WW2. After the war finnish army painted red paint also to soviet telescopes.

I hope this helps.

[Grappener]

Hi Rami,

Many thanks for your post,

Again this makes good sense, maybe this is why the Fu30 has the blue and white "aiming square" painted on it.

Funny there there isn't much written about these smaller items of kit, but there always seems to be interesting uses behind them!

all the best

Grappener

[mlespaul]

Hi Rami,

Many thanks for your post,

Again this makes good sense, maybe this is why the Fu30 has the blue and white "aiming square" painted on it.

Funny there there isn't much written about these smaller items of kit, but there always seems to be interesting uses behind them!

all the best

Grappener

Hi again Grappener, my fellow optics researcher. And thanks for your help in the other forums

I have always read that the "red" color was as reference point for other survey equipment such as other richtkries's or rudblickfernrohrs being used in the field at the same time.
For example, you notice that many rudblickfernrohrs have a red-colored "throat" that is part of the neck of the unit. The separate guns within the battery would all align the reticle marks of their rudblickfernohr with each other or against one selected "lead" gun. As the guns could be a couple hundred yards away from each other or more, the bright red color was easy to see from a great distance through the Rblf sight, aim in and orient towards from its own gun. The rudblicks were panoramic, so it would be easy to turn the scope head around to focus on whichever scope that was selected and therefore to maintain alignment, after each firing. This was probably done after the guns had been zeroed and fixed for elevation and angle of sight against a known range of distance.

So I'm thinking the same for this richtkries. It was probably used in the arty batteries after the azimuths were computed and figured, and so multiple Rkrs could also orient themselves with each other in the same way.

m