AA and Rangefinders.

chuckfourth · #1 April 21st, 2007, 03:14 AM

Hello
One thing I noticed in my recent travels, All the german AA guns from a single 20mm cannon upwards come with a 1 m base rangefinder. Now in-game the 88s also have a (1m?) base rangefinder and get a rangefinder value of 8. The lighter German AA units get rangefinder values of around 2 or sometimes 1 shouldnt they also have a rangefinder values of 8?
Best Regards Chuck.

MarkSheppard · #2 April 21st, 2007, 12:56 PM

Well, not every unit tootled around with the 1 meter range finders. Sure, they might be on the TO&E, but it's likely they got left behind on the halftrack, because with a 20mm, I think using a rangefinder is just too much work for too little gain. Just walk the tracers onto target.

chuckfourth · #3 April 21st, 2007, 07:20 PM

Hi Mark
Tracer is only good to 800m the gun can fire out to 2200m. Given a day without strong winds, the main difficulty in hitting a target is determining the elevation of the gun. ie the range. range estimation by eye is an art, dead ground between you and the target for instance making target look closer than it really is etc. Having a range finder gives you exactly the range making the gun accurate on the first shot. This is important if you are engageing say armour as it can shoot back. and also infantry as they will go to ground as soon as they know you are shooting at them becoming largely impossible to hit. I think in these situations it likely they got the rangefinder out. Actually I think the rangefinder was probably already out there are plenty of pictures of it in use and I would guess they are part of the operating procedure for the weapon. "I see the british aircraft have blown the bridge here oberwhatsis, yes sir of course i didnt bother with the ragefinder sire, oh ok no worries well built up the bridgehead later."
Also they are a very expensive peice of kit to leave in the truck.
Best Regards Chuck.