I am scratch detailing the inside of Das Werk’s panzer iii j turret. i like to know how things i am scratch building actually works, it’s an irritating foible of mine. Panzer III gunsight gunsight looks out through a small hole in the mantlet. it occurs to me the objective glass behind it had to be aligned with hole, otherwise the sight line would be blocked by the mantlet if the gun elevates. but if the gun needs to fire at a few degrees of elevation to compensate for ballistic drop, how would the sight remain horizontal if it must remain aligned with a tiny hole to peep out of?
Is it assumed the gun will never need to be elevated so far that the intended target will drop out if the field of view of the gun sight if the optical sight remains aligned with the mantlet and gun tube?
Another question, A detailed photo of Panzer III gunsight seem to show the optical tube has a hing in it set about a foot behind the objective glass. It looks like the optical path is reflected sideways 4 times so ends up back along the original sighting axis. the only reason i can think of for this is the optical tube is designed to bend at this location. The reflectors are designed to keep the objective glass pointed at the target while the eyepiece is free to swing up and down. What is the point of this?
But at 1:16 scale, if the big double door on either side of the turret are open, you can easily see everything inside the turret and a good deal of the driver and radio operator position as well.
You could look into the manuals posted in the Bushnakow library. I quickly grabbed these two scans from there, they show the gunsight of the Ausf. L, maybe that’s the one you want? Or maybe he has another manual that shows the Ausf.J specifically.
The open-sight bar and all the other mantlet mechanisms are drawn too, so it’s confusing; and there is no scale, but I can help you with that if you need it.
As for your question: the prism mechanism exists because the telescope is hinged there. The forward end of it is fixed to, and elevates with, the mantlet. The rear end is loose, does not elevate, and hangs from the roof on an adjustable hanger.
The reason for this, which has not been stated, is simple: so the gunner can see out of it. If the sight was straight and moved with the gun/mantlet, then the eyepiece would be going up and down with the gun. At one moment, the eyepiece would be near the turret roof, the next moment it would be down between the gunner’s legs. The prism/hinge setup allows the eyepiece to remain positioned in front of the gunner’s face, regardless of where the gun is pointing.
Ken
1: gunner’s eyepiece, 2. tube fixed to the tower ceiling, 3. joint connecting both tubes, 4. box with movable glass plates, 5. movable tube with external lens, 6. selector for setting the target distance, 7. armor plate protecting the shooter in the event of a direct impact of the outer lens (this was translated from Czech). Pozorovací optika a zaměřovače
