Binoculars

Doppel Fernrohr, c1939
Dimensions: 150cm
Material: Metal

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Binoculars Audio MP3 File

These mustard yellow painted metal binoculars standing on a tripod are German Artillery Binoculars.

The total height of the binoculars and tripod is about 5 feet. The three metal tripod legs have points at the bottom to ensure that they are sturdy once positioned, and their height can be adjusted so that the user can look through the binoculars comfortably.

On top of the tripod legs is a flat circular base and the binoculars are mounted within a frame on this. The frame allows the binoculars to be tilted up or down. The binoculars themselves are quite large; fingertip to elbow in length and half that in width. They are completely encased in the mustard, yellow metal. They are open on one end to show the round glass lenses and on the other the padded eyepiece. This has padded side shields to block out light.

The binoculars were seized during the D-Day landings in 1944 and were flown to Britain and brought to RAF Bentley Priory, from where the landings had been monitored by Winston Churchill and King George VI. This was on instruction of General Eisenhower who asked for proof that the landings had actually happened! Eisenhower was Supreme Allied Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force from 1943 and commanded Operation Overlord; the invasion of Normandy, commonly known as ‘D-Day’. He visited RAF Bentley Priory a number of times during the Second World War.