Item: German WW2 U-Boat Binoculars Carl Zeiss 7×50 UDF
Sold For: $6,055.46
Bids: 4
Date: Jun 17, 2012
Auction: Ebay
Description and Image By: apathy_rules
Here we have an exceptionally rare, arguably unique pair of Carl Zeiss 7×50 UDF kriegsmarine binoculars.
These are very early WW2 issue. They have the commercial Carl Zeiss Jena logo which was only around between 1938-1941 I believe.
These pre date and are rarer than the later blc marked UDF’s and the markings on the binoculars are different from the later ones.
To emphasise how rare these are I have canvassed opinion on these from an expert and also on a specialist online forum and none of these people have seen a pair like this before. They have the serial number 177066 – In Dr Hans Seegers 2nd grey book on binoculars he records 3 known Carl Zeiss Jena marked UDFs in the serial range 170900-171050, he has no known pairs recorded in the serial range 171850 – 179800 meaning this MAY well be the only Carl Zeiss Jena marked UDF in existance in this range and one of only 4 in total.
The story i have for these suggests that although these are the same as those used on U Boats and intended for survival of up to 300metres under water these were deployed on a battleship and taken from there by the british forces. This is supported by the case shown, which is contemporary to WW2 and from the patent number had originally contained British special forces (SAS or SOE) night vision optics, this case was obviously taken to use to hold these UDFs and they have been with this case since the war. A nice touch of provenance. They also have different eye cups to the usual UDF’s which have folding ones, these are screw on bakolite ones which i guess would have been more practical for use on a ship. I have included photos of these to show they appear original.