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US Tanks since the M4 Sherman have had a "panoramic" periscope through the roof of the turret for the gunner.
The M1 Abrams is the first tank since then made without it.
The M60A3 TTS replaced it with the electronic fire control and thermal sight (there's still a direct vision mirror in there, though).
Before that...
I'm finding an M24 IR, binocular sight that replaces the panoramic.
This is replaced by the M32 which has separate day and night oculars. Depending on the sub model the night side is either IR or an image intensifier.
What I am missing is dates! The internet is lacking a lot of information about these things.
I also learned that gunnery with the IR spotlight is crude as fuck.
The IR spotlight is boresighted to the gun, when the center of the spot hits what you want to hit, you guess at elevation and lead then fire.
It works, after a fashion, out to about a kilometer, in War Thunder. That struck text is based on what the game does, but they made it seem so official.
Thanks for posting this stuff... I never really knew how it worked before I got in myself (90), and while we had M-60 hulls (CEV/AVLB) they weren't "really" 60's... 'course "night vision" was fairly crude for us as Engineers with the Starlight scope for the M-2's or the NVG's that were... Well, terrible.
ReplyDeleteIt was a short trip to make the GURPS stats for the M728 CEV. I'm still translating T2K and real world information into GURPS for the vehicles.
DeleteCEV was a hilarious vehicle... Main gun having a "danger" zone for shrapnel larger than its max range... Or at least the practical range we could shoot it. I was in the line Platoons, not in the A/O Platoon so rode with, but not on those... But clearing say bunkers and or houses? Yes, that worked REALLY well...
DeleteI still resent I pulled CQ instead of being able to go watch the engineers shoot them that one day at Graf.
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