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The ZF41 was an
Fulton Armory FAQ: On the M1D and M84
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The ZF41 Sharp Shooter A brief history & collectors guide – part 1
The ZF41 Sharp Shooter A brief history & collectors guide – part 2
{{weapon-stub Firearm sights Research and development in Nazi Germany
The ZF41 was an optical sight
A sight is an aiming device used to assist in visually aligning ranged weapons, surveying instruments or optical illumination equipments with the intended target. Sights can be a simple set or system of physical markers that have to be aligne ...
produced in Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
during the Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
.
History
Starting from 1941, the short 1.5× Zielfernrohr 41 (ZF41)telescopic sight
A telescopic sight, commonly called a scope informally, is an optical sighting device based on a refracting telescope. It is equipped with some form of a referencing pattern – known as a ''reticle'' – mounted in a focally appropriate po ...
was fitted to some Karabiner 98k
The Karabiner 98 kurz (; "carbine 98 short"), often abbreviated Karabiner 98k, Kar98k or K98k and also sometimes incorrectly referred to as a K98 (a K98 is a Polish carbine and copy of the Kar98a), is a bolt-action rifle chambered for the 7.92×5 ...
rifles for designated marksman
A designated marksman (DM), squad advanced marksman (AD) or squad designated marksman (SDM) is a military marksman role in an infantry squad. The term ''sniper'' was used in Soviet doctrine although the soldiers using the Dragunov SVD were the f ...
use. The ZF41 was the first attempt to provide the ordinary infantryman with a rifle capable of being used, if not for pure sniping
A sniper is a military/paramilitary marksman who engages targets from positions of concealment or at distances exceeding the target's detection capabilities. Snipers generally have specialized training and are equipped with high-precision r ...
, then at least for sharpshooting. It was initially planned to equip most combat units with the ZF41 scopes, but only 6% of German weapons production could fit the sight.
Though useful for sharpshooting with normal infantry units, the design was generally rejected by sniper schools and disliked by sniper
A sniper is a military/paramilitary marksman who engages targets from positions of concealment or at distances exceeding the target's detection capabilities. Snipers generally have specialized training and are equipped with high-precision r ...
s, because the 1.5x magnifying scope was deemed insufficient for shooting effectively at point targets over long distances. Problems were the scope's extreme eye relief, poor functioning in bad light and low magnifying power. Nonetheless, lack of better telescopic sights meant the ZF41 was used by snipers at the early stages of the war in the Eastern Front, but many snipers preferred captured Soviet rifles and custom-equipped German rifles with civilian scopes such as the vintage Gewehr 98
The Gewehr 98 (abbreviated G98, Gew 98, or M98) is a German bolt-action rifle made by Mauser, firing cartridges from a five-round internal clip-loaded magazine. It was the German service rifle from 1898 to 1935, when it was replaced by the Ka ...
.
By the end of the war in 1945, more than 100,000 ZF41 scopes had been produced, the largest production of German optical sights during the war. Approximately 3,000 were marked ZF40, 29,000 were marked ZF41 (ZF40 and ZF41 later had this etched out and ZF41/1 added when they came back for service or repair) and the rest designated ZF41/1.
Use on other rifles
The G-41(m) and G-41(w) semi-automatic rifles had ZF40 scopes added in small quantities for test and evaluation in the field. MP-43, MP-44,FG-42
The FG 42 (German: ''Fallschirmjägergewehr'' 42, "paratrooper rifle 42") is a selective-fire 7.92×57mm Mauser automatic rifle produced in Nazi Germany during World War II. The weapon was developed specifically for the use of the ''Fallschirmj ...
automatic select fire weapons had the ZF41/1 fitted for test only, these were not produced past prototype stage, the ZF4 scope was then used on these weapons instead.
The Germans also produced a small amount of prototype and pre-production test batch of the G33/40 equipped with the ZF41. These were photographed for inclusion in the ZF41 manual in 1942. However the Brno
Brno ( , ; german: Brünn ) is a city in the South Moravian Region of the Czech Republic. Located at the confluence of the Svitava and Svratka rivers, Brno has about 380,000 inhabitants, making it the second-largest city in the Czech Republic ...
factory switched over to the Karabiner 98k in 1943. Approximately 350 to 400 scoped G33/40 rifles were made in total. As of 2013 only one has been examined and found to be a real test batch scoped rifle: it is a late dot 1942 production rifle with serial number 3962C.
Other scope sights from the same era
* ZF39, German 4×36 telescopic sight * ZF4, German telescopic sight with 4 times magnification * PU, Soviet 3.5×21 telescopic sight * M81, M82 and M84, American sights used on Garand (M1D, M1C) and 1903A4/ref>
References
General references
* Pegler, Martin. ''Out of Nowhere: A History of the Military Sniper'' (Osprey 2004) p. 188-189The ZF41 Sharp Shooter A brief history & collectors guide – part 1
The ZF41 Sharp Shooter A brief history & collectors guide – part 2
{{weapon-stub Firearm sights Research and development in Nazi Germany