The Panzermuseum at Munster indicates the gunsight used in the A7V was produced by Zeiss. Period photos of the vehicle's interior, however, seem to show a Goerz panoramic sight- in both cases the Sockellafette mount seems to have been used (as the Bocklafette relied on open sights). As Zeiss seemed to favor prismatic varieties, does anyone know what gunsight was used on the A7V's 57 mm cannon?
Thanks,
Dave
-- Edited by higgins on Monday 24th of October 2011 04:06:18 PM
On page 42 of the German Book "Der Deutsche Panzerbau Im Ersten Weltkreig" by Heinrich Kaufhold-Roll (Biblio Verlag 1995) there is a list of the firms involved with the development and production of the A7V. Under "2. Fertigung 1917/1918" it lists at the very end: "Optische Werke C.P. Goerz - Zieloptik" and then "Carl Zeiss, Jena - Signalgeräte". My German is pretty poor, but this might seem to indicate that Goerz manufactured the gun sights and Zeiss produced the signalling equipment. What do you think?
Thanks for the info. What you wrote seems possible. The graphic at the museum had a list of German firms, with lines to a side view of an A7V indicating what they contributed. Zeiss pointed to the gunsight, although some written info mentioned Goerz. As the only signalling component I can think of was the tri-colored light set-up (commander to gunner), that might be an answer.
In doing more research both Zeiss and Goerz produced similar looking Rundblick-Fernrohr (panoramic sight) 16 or 16/18 sights. I'm leaning toward Zeiss, but I'll keep poking around.
Thanks again,
Dave
-- Edited by higgins on Wednesday 26th of October 2011 01:35:13 AM
