WWII German self propelled artillery sight

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goldidig

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While going through boxes of my old stuff I found a piece of gear I had long since forgotten about. It was purchased about 30-35 years ago and is a WWII German RbLF36 periscope type artillery sight. I cannot remember what I was told it was off of and after a look on the WWW it looks like they were used on several different pieces of artillery and possibly some tanks. Can anyone help me out on history on this piece. Not sure if I will hang onto it as a conversation piece or sell it. I have no idea what to ask for it if I do decide to sell it. It still functions perfectly and is clear as a bell. It IS missing a removeable rubber eye piece. Hopefully it turns up in one of my boxes.
Al
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the code "beh" indicates it was produced by Ernst Leitz Wetzlar (same Leitz/Leica we know today)
The screw heads in your pictures suggest they haven't been "buggered" by the usual bonehead attempt to dis assemble it - this is good.
 
It is pretty neat to sight through it and get a birds eye view. I didn't know if the camera would take a decent shot through the sight but it didn't come out too bad after a few tries. It's not as clear as actually looking through it but it's pretty close. Thanks for the manufacturer info AP. I'll make a note of that. Yes, it has never been monkeyed with Thank God.
Al
 
Artillery and mortar sites like this are normally used by sighting on a fixed aiming stake that is driven into the ground. I really doubt that this would be of any use for a tank but being ex-infantry my experience is limited to mortar sights. Perhaps there was another method of using this type of sight that I am not familiar with.

Nice piece by the way.
 
Well, I finally found out what this sight was for and it WAS for WWII German armored vehicles. Several different types to be exact.
Here was what I was told by someone "in the know" from a WW2 memorabilia site my brother is a member of:
"The Rblf is different from the Rkr in that the Rblf is actually a fire control system optic for artillery for laying of indirect fire. It was used on such self-propelled artillery pieces like the Ferdinand, Elefant, some variants of the Stug III and Stug IV, and other Sdkfz-mounted weapons."
Here is a link to a site to show it listed as standard equipment on the German "Elefant": You'll need to copy and paste the link and remove the spaces in the appropriate places. Select Germany as the country and then select armoured vehicles and look for Elefant. Most WW2 German armoured mobile artillery used this sight. Once you have the vehicle selected you can scroll down to see it's specs and the gunsights are listed for all of them.


h ttp://w ww.tarrif.net/
 
Infanteer90 said:
Artillery and mortar sites like this are normally used by sighting on a fixed aiming stake that is driven into the ground.
Click to expand...

Ooooh... That's what those red and white striped things are on the back of German WW2 artillery are for. So the stake goes in at a measured distance and the sight is calibrated against that? I was wondering about that.
 
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