Talk:Battlefield illumination

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History[edit]

Canal Defense Lights[edit]

The CDL versions of the Matilda and Churchill tanks were not meant for battlefield illumination, but their primary (planned) roles were to "dazzle enemy defenders for attack by other tanks", as the Tank Museum Bovington points out on its webpage (which is linked under the article). The installed search light (high power carbon arc lamp, usually used on coastal light houses, coastal fortifications, etc.) had recieved a special mount that bundled the light, and this focused beam of light was then sent through a tall vertical port. The port was adjustable so that it could create a narrow beam of light just several meters wide, or a wide corridor with a max width of 315 meters. At the max width, the light was less bright, of course. This bundled (or focused) beam of light had a max range of around 1 kilometer. This thing, I would like to call it "light gun", could create a single flash, a permanent light beam, or could be employed as stroboscope light. The carbon arc light provided a light beam of up to 13 million Candela. Testing proved that troops that were used to darkness (with widened pupils) and who looked in the general direction of the tank (before the flash was triggered) then reacted shocked and disorientated when the tank crew either triggered a single flash, or the stroboscope function. While the monthly journal "The War illustrated“ in 1945 http://www.ibiblio.org/pha/TWI/ insisted that these tanks never engaged German units in a mobile offensive role (this statement invites to speculate about a stationary deployment - and actual use), a German TV news station ( https://www.welt.de/geschichte/zweiter-weltkrieg/article145811010/Gleissendes-Licht-verschaffte-Briten-wichtigen-Vorsprung.html ) quoted a British soldier of the 35th Tank Brigade (which - according to him - was equipped with CDL tanks), who stated that he could very well remember getting CDL support during British night attacks. According to the soldier, the results were not really satisfying (means that the desired blinding effect was insufficient), so that the CDLs in his unit were replaced by regular Shermans which then proceeded to engage the regular way. It seems like the CDLs were not used too often in an illumination role, either. That said, experimental CDLs should not be mentioned in an article that aims to list standard means of battlefield illumination. The standard means used in World War I were illumination rounds fired by artillery guns and early mortars, and illumination rounds fired by flare guns, artillery guns and mortars, but also dropped by planes (British Air Force, US Air Force), in World War II. Such rounds are even used in modern armies today, despite FLIR and general night vision devices being the most widely used means to conduct night combat, nowadays.GeeGee (talk) 02:19, 10 December 2017 (UTC)[reply]

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