Very few similar photographs of German submachine gunners from the Second World War have survived. Primarily due to the fact that the already few soldiers with strange wooden backpacks over their shoulders were made mainly towards the end of the war. However, the key question remained unanswered: what were the weird rectangular bags that the fighters were carrying and what was in them?
The Germans prepared for the war thoroughly. In the upcoming hostilities, the German military leadership placed a high stake on equipment and, above all, tanks, which, according to the plan of the leaders of German military affairs, were to act in any weather conditions and at any time days. However, this was not possible without special equipment. Therefore, back in 1930, the German company CG Haenel began developing a night vision device for tanks and anti-aircraft guns.
The first NVG of this class was ready by 1939. It was an active night vision device operating in the infrared spectrum. However, the first sample did not satisfy the leadership of the Wehrmacht. There were many complaints about the device in terms of reliability and endurance, and therefore it was sent for revision. The next stage of work was completed in 1942, when affairs on the eastern front began to gradually change not in favor of Germany. As a result, tank and anti-aircraft NVGs were awarded only a limited series.
However, engineers from CG Haenel did not stop there and by 1944 had already developed the first German infantry infrared night vision device. It was named Zielgerät ZG 1229 "Vampir" and was intended to be mounted on sniper rifles, machine guns and STG-44 assault rifles. The sight itself weighed 2.25 kg, but in order for the installation to work, the soldier had to carry a wooden backpack over his shoulders.
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Actually, this backpack had two compartments. The first was intended to store the removed sight during the transportation of the unit. The second compartment of the wooden box was reserved for batteries and a manual power generator with a cable. The total weight of the entire NVG installation was thus 35 kg, excluding the mass of the weapon on which the sight was placed. Despite the general imperfection of the technology at that time, the German Vampire sight provided the shooter with very good visibility in the dark at a distance of up to 100 meters.
Of course, no scopes could save the Wehrmacht and Nazi Germany. The first batch of 100-120 sights entered the troops in February 1945. In total, about 3 hundred infantry sights were made in Germany. A significant part of them ended up on the eastern front.
If you want to know even more interesting things, then you should read about what did the rifles meanstuck with a bayonet into the ground on the battlefields of World War II.
Source: https://novate.ru/blogs/151220/57109/
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