British development of infra-red weapon sights, 1938–1953

Abstract

Literature and popular media in the past decade have served to introduce the broader public to the infra-red night vision developments of the Second World War, yet focus has primarily fallen upon those devices made and used by Germany and the USA. Through archival research this paper explores the British perspective, detailing the history and design of an infra-red weapon sight produced experimentally before the war’s end, as well as the organisations and companies involved in the process. This is followed by an assessment of Britain’s immediate post-war efforts in the field, showing why it was instead American equipment which was used in Britain’s first martial deployments of infra-red weapon sights in the early 1950s.