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M19 Binocular questions

82trooper
Is any familiar with the M19 U.S. military binoculars? I have a surplus set I picked up a few years ago. They are marked "BNCLR M19" and have a thin, textured rubber coating to them. The left eyepiece has a set of crosshairs visible. The crosshairs are not centered in the eyepiece, but are set low. They are numbered 1-7 going upwards, and 1-5 each, going left to right. The graduations only go down 3 marks, but are not numbered. Does anyone know what the crosshairs are for, and how to use them? The binos are slightly bulky, but are very clear and gather a lot of light. Any info anyone can offer would be appreciated!
Cheers!

Mike
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Comments

5 comments

Date Votes
  • sandwarrior
    The crosshairs are for calling in artillery. That is so you can bracket the rounds and call X x100 number of yards short, long, left, or right.

    Heres a short write-up on them...doesn't cover the crosshairs though:

    http://fantao.home.att.net/m19.htm

    The Brits did it similar to the mil-dot where they calculated distance to target by known heights of vehichles/armor:

    http://www.sliderules.info/collection/specialised/9931-artillery.htm

    Edit:

    yet another site that shows both the stadia for a M17 as well as the M19:

    http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/policy/army/fm/23-34/Ch6.htm
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  • Herschel
    sandwarrior, Your military knowledge is probably more current than mine, 1958, but as I recall the markings on the military binoculars field of view were called a mil scale. They measured the mils short, long, left or right. The fire direction control center then converted this into an adjustment to give the artillery battery to bring it in on the target. I believe trying to use the mil scale to measure yards would not work as being 5 mils off target would be a certain number of yards at 1,000 yards range and twice that number of yards at a range of 2,000 yards.
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  • sandwarrior
    Herschel,

    They used more than one type. The last link there shows mil scale. My experience was early 80's. Now they do it completely by GPS I understand. When we called in fire we gave a grid coordinate, then azimuth and range from our position. From there we adjusted accordingly.

    Interesting side note to this. When I was looking for a reference to this I came across a report from April 1993 that stated; Forward observers with just a map and a compass were only 33%-50% effective at best. Range estimation was the worst skill recorded in this report. As typical to what I found when I was in (and quite possibly yourself) was a lot of opinion interposed on fact. Meaning, in the field it worked. But the individual writing the report didn't like that it worked and therefore gave three opinions in his report as to why it was lucky that it did work, but shouldn't have. Followed by the classic, "There is no military need to pursue this anymore." statement.

    Edit:

    Givette you make me smile[:D][:D].

    82trooper,

    One of the plans you give in an op-order is the fire support/mission. A lot of times the fire is already zeroed on a point(s) along your route. As your unit moves through that area and you receive fire, you adjust off of one of those pre-zeroed points. And, like givette says you mark that target any way you can sometimes. And that radio has a lot more power than all the rifles in your unit combined. ...As long as someone on the other end is listening and then doing their job.
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  • 82trooper
    Thank you both, the reference sites were very helpful!

    Mike
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  • givette
    I've called in arty/airstrikes. Memorized my base co-ordinates. "VS952711". Shoot an azimuth, WP, adjust. Ref: prior post: It's the WP "adjust" that took the 30pct-50pct inaccuracies, and reduced it to zero. And I was the corpsman!! Saved a mag full of tracers for marking targets, also. Always got a "good tracer burnout" report from gunships, and one time, "Spooky". (I won't say Spectre, because the A/C was recip. Night. Could not identify type). Best, Joe

    I'll say it again, the push-to-talk button on my mike was the most powerful weapon I had ever used. Best, Joe

    EDIT-Emphasis on the word "Adjust", above, in blue
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