1946 - secrecy around infrared?

[4V50 Gary]

I know infrared was considered super secret in 1945. GIs or Marines who had it were instructed to destroy it should capture be imminent.

About the only nation that didn't have infrared in 1945 was the Japanese. The British had a monocular infrared, Tabby, that was not a weapon sight but used to aid in night recovery of commandoes and Patton used one when he landed in Africa. Germans had Vampir which required a heavy battery knapsack like our own Snooperscope. The Soviets had a two man system where one guy carried the batteries and the armed soldier had the viewer on his smg (it wasn't until the 1950s that they put one on a rifle and went with a one man system).

Military Intelligence must have known everyone else had it b/c by 1946 instructions were released privately on how to build your own! But was it still considered secret by the US Army in 1946-7?

 

[shafter]

Steven Hunter's Master Sniper is a pretty cool novel about the German Vampir in the closing days of WW2. Funny you made this post just as I finished reading it.

 

[4V50 Gary]

Librarian at school loaned that book to me. Mistake is that the German Vampir man portable one was only about 75 meters or so and it was the vehicle borne ones that reached out to 400 meters.

 

[44 AMP]

Is that the book where an escaping prisoner avoids the sniper because he lined his coat with insulation which hid his heat signature? If so, I read it, a long time ago....

A couple of points about "infra-red" and military secrecy....

First off, there are two basic and different systems under the term "infra-red". One senses heat (today generally called "thermal") and the other (and more common, used in small amounts in WWII) uses infrared light to illuminate an area for an infrared viewer, which may be a weapon sight, or a driver's night vision device.

Late in the war, Germany fielded teams of halftracks with infrared searchlights and Panther tanks fitted with infrared sights and driver vision devices. Range was pretty short, compared to daylight, but it did allow them to operate in almost total darkness.

Our early "night scopes" were infrared lights and sights mounted on rifles (M1 Carbine, for one), the battery pack was needed to power the light, which needed a lot more juice than the sight did.

Military secrecy is a combination of things, including simple inertia. But it also focuses not just on what something is, but also on HOW we do it. And, its the "how we do it" in particular that we want to keep out of the other guy's hands.

Think of something like radio codes and coded messages. Everyone knows what codes are, what they do, and how to do them, but what they don't know, and what keeps secrets safe is HOW we do our codes.

So, ok, the Brits have IR tech, the Nazis have IR tech, the Soviets have IR tech, and so do we. Maybe Popular Mechanics prints an article how you could make your own IR tech.

But none of those other guys do it exactly the same way we do it, and we want to keep our advantages for US, so things stay secret in detail, for just that reason.

Basic high school science/physics teaches everyone today how an atomic bomb works. The principles are not secret and haven't been for a long time. BUT the details on how to make a bomb (that works) ARE still secrets, for good reason.

 

[4V50 Gary]

Yes, 44 AMP. Stephen Hunter in his book Master Sniper got thermal confused with infrared (if it was thermal the head/hands would be seen). Second mistake is the range. The backpack one could only reach about 75 meters and the vehicle borne one (with more power) could reach 400. It's one reason why I rarely read fiction (non-fiction is hard enough).

The booklet I stumbled upon was released in 1946. It had a reprinted RCA article describing the science behind I/R and in the second part, how to build your own along with a parts price list and order form. For me that's mind blowing. The booklet was falling apart because of the cheap paper (paper made from tree pulp) it was printed on.

 

[DaleA]

USA and military secrets. I remember an old joke about how, during the cold war, the U.S. had spy planes/spy satellites and the CIA to ferret out the Russian military secrets and the Russians had a subscription to 'Aviation Week and Space Technology'.

 

[4V50 Gary]

OK, now we know when it was declassified. When it moved from Top Secret to Confidential is unknown.