Id. US equipment

[Sturm78]

Hi all,

According to my information, GE and Sperry manufactured 60in searchlights for US Army during WW2.
How is posible to differenciate between both models?

Here two images from the net
Sturm78

[ROLAND1369]

RE Id. US equipment by Sturm78 on 05 Sep 2013, 12:19

The first pic is a Sperry m1941 60 inch and the second is a GE m1941 60 inch. The best way is to look at the remote control boxes containg the azimuth, deflection, and elevation dial on the right side. On the sperry the dials ar in a small seperate box, while on the GE it is attached to a large box. there are oter differences but these are the most obvious. Source FM 4-175 OPERATION OF MATERIEL AND EMPLOYMENT OF PERSONEL, SEARCHLIGHT UNITS, DEC 9, 1942.

[Sturm78]

Thank you very much for your help, ROLAND1369.

Regards Sturm78

[Sturm78]

Hi all,

Another image of a US battery commanders telescope M1915A1 (I think):

Image from EBay
Sturm78

[Sturm78]

Hi all,

Does anyone know the official US designation of this rangefinder?

Image from Wikipedia
Sturm78

[ROLAND1369]

1 METER BASE RANGEFINDER M 1916.

[Sturm78]

Thank you very much for your answer, ROLAND1369.

An WWI-era equipment, therefore, no?

Regards Sturm78

[ROLAND1369]

While no doubt of WW I origon it was still a standard sytem in WW II.

[ROLAND1369]

Slight oversight, It was "Limited standard" which in US parlance means issued in place of the newest model but capable of doing the job.

[Sturm78]

Hi all,

Another image of a US battery commanders telescope M1915A1

Image from EBay
Sturm78

[Sturm78]

Hi all,

Can anyone identify this equipment ? Searchlights ??
Model ??

Images from EBay
Sturm78

[ROLAND1369]

Pic no 1 is a 60 inch Sperry open type(as opposed to the more popular and efficient drum type) aa searchlight. I have also seen this referred to as a Mark IV. Pic no 2 is a 60 INCH MOBILE SEARCHLIGHT POWER UNIT M1925 SPERRY-CADILLIAC. The latter is what would be called in todays term a Weapon system as it provided both transport and a built in 15 Kw generator powered by the truck to operate the searchlight.

[Sturm78]

Thank you very much for your help, ROLAND1369

I had never seen a reflector of this type !! I just knew the classic drum type searchlight.

Here, another image of one of them:

Image from EBay
Sturm78

[ROLAND1369]

I finely found my documentation on this Searchlight and I reversed the nomenclature. The proper Nomenclature for this searchlight is "Sperry Duplex Unit M-VI. It's advantage was that it was lightweight. It had among other problems an unstable mirror which was exposed to the elements.

[Sturm78]

Thank you, ROLAND1369

Here, an image of a more conventional US searchlight. I think a GE model

Image from EBay
Sturm78