Armortek

hi everybody

I have made the JagdPanther periscope ready for my JagdPanther and have a question.

Was there in German tanks a interior red battle light when being dark and if yes, would the red light then be visible through the drivers periscope on the front glacis?

cheers
Steen

Hi. Here's my educated guess on this. Yes, they certainly did have interior lights, all tanks did, but probably not red. The interior is dark, even in broad daylight, so it was necessary to have lighting. But, tanks of WW2 were never designed or intended to fight in night-time conditions, which is what the red light would be needed for. The red light is to help prevent the human eyes from adjusting to "daylight accuity", while in a night-time enviornment. Red lighting helps retain nightvision. (Recall the length of time it took for your eyes to adjust to walking into a totally dark room. Not good in a combat circumstance.) The technology of the time, made night driving hazardous, especially in combat/off-road situations. Optics for the guns were pretty useless in the dark, as well. So,they were never meant to operate at night. hence they were never constructed to do so. Now we all know, that in reality, expediency demanded otherwise during the war. Driving in the dark did happen(on roads, in convoy, with special blackout lights). Combat did happen, but more by accident than intention, and usually at very close ranges. And yes, there's the late-war, infared scope mounted on the Panther. But that was too little, too late, with no evidence that it was ever actually used in combat, certainly to no strategic effect. Regardless, it was still an add-on, and not incorporated in the Panther's design. Also, the Ausf-F, was never used. Now, when in use in daylight, very little interior light will be seen through the periscopes, red or otherwise. That's because of intensity differences between sunlight and low-artificial light. In daylight,tactically speaking, it's a mute point anyway. So, there's my best guess here. If anyone can add or subtract from this, please feel free to do so. Hope this helps.