lighting inside a tank turret

[gunnut]

A thought just hit me: how do tankers see and work inside the tank (especially the loader)?

I imagine there being very little light when the tank is buttoned up during combat. How does the loader see what kind of round he retrieves from storage and where the breech is?

On a related note, how did people see and work inside warship turrets? How did fuse setters work the rounds after them come out of the elevator?

Don't people get car sick or sea sick being inside a turret when the tank/ship is moving?

[kato]

They invented those things called lightbulbs about 150 years ago.

[Doktor]

Yay?



Just don't pop your head out at night.

[Triple C]

OK, but loaders work in an enclosed compartment. What do tank commander and gunner do when the hatch is open but light discipline in effect? Illuminated monitor panels and memory?

[citanon]

red lights:

[Albany Rifles]

The US Army uses blue lighting

When TC and gunner are on their sights or heads up out of the turret the loader will have a very small light near his station...all else blacked out or backlit by electronics. However battledrill does include operating under full blackout conditions in tanks and loading can be done by rote.

[tankie]

UK uses red light , or did in my day zillions of moons ago

[Doktor]

UK uses red light , or did in my day zillions of moons ago

Explains your calmness after the ex.

[tankie]

droll very droll

[tankie]

PS , we used white light as well but red when tactical .

[kato]

Russian T-62. Note blue bulb.

[zraver]

Even a small light can provide enough illumination to work by once the eyes are adjusted.

[Triple C]

I am assuming that blue and red lights are either harder to pick up from a distance, or are less disruptive of Mk 1 eyeball's calibrations.

[SteveDaPirate]

When I saw the title of this thread, my brain read it as "Lightning inside a tank turret". I was excited, thinking there had been a new development along the lines of the Laser-Induced Plasma Channel (Picatinny engineers set phasers to 'fry' | Article | The United States Army) that had been put into a tank. So when I started reading the comments my dreams of an M1A3 armed with a Lightning Cannon were crushed.

[zraver]

I am assuming that blue and red lights are either harder to pick up from a distance, or are less disruptive of Mk 1 eyeball's calibrations.

You are correct, the Mk1 eye ball is very senstive to white light- it ruins night vision and the light from a single candle can be seen 30 miles away under ideal conditions.