- Rudolf Gundlach
Rudolf Gundlach (1894-1957) was a Polish engineer, inventor and
tank designer. He headed the design division of the Armored Weapons Development Office ("Biuro Badań Technicznych Broni Pancernych").He was the chief designer of the "Ursus wz. 29" armored car and supervised design work for the "
7TP " light tank and the "10TP " fast tank prototype.What made him famous was
invention of "Gundlach Peryskop obrotowy",patent ed in 1936, which made possible 360° vision. The periscope enabled an observer (e.g., the tank commander) to look forward (upper panel of the picture) or backward (lower panel) without moving his seat. Since it greatly increased comfort of observer and widen field of sight, was used in virtually every tank build after 1940.It was first implemented in
TKS and 7TP Polish tanks. As a part of Polish-British pre-war military cooperation, patent was sold toVickers-Armstrong . It was produced asVickers Tank Periscope MK.IV (pictured), and build into all British tanks (Crusader ,Churchill ,Valentine ,Cromwell ). After fall of Poland,Germany ,USSR andRomania captured some equipment, allowing them to copy the invention. In USSR Gundlach periscope was known as MK-4 and implemented in all tanks (including the T-34 and T-70). All Axis tanks and APC (including tanks of Italy, Romania, Hungary, Finnland and Japan) were equipped or retro-fitted with this periscope till 1941.Later technology was transferred to USA and as a periscope M6 implemented in all US tanks (M3/M5 Stuart, M4 Sherman and others).In the end of WWII technology was adopted thorough whole world.After fall of Poland in 1939, he was one of hundreds of thousand Polish soldiers, technicians, scientists and engineers going through Romania to France. In France he worked in Bureau of War Industry ("Biuro Wojennego Przemysłu przy Ministerstwie Przemysłu"), institution of Ministry of Industry Polish Government in Exile. After fall of France due to health problems he did not succeed to evacuate to Great Britain. He stayed in Vichy France during whole war.
After the Second World War and long court battle, in 1947 he received high payment for his periscope patent from some of producers.It allowed him to buy a farm near Paris, where he stay till the end of life.
Even today original Gundlach periscope is used in some tanks and APCs.
Bibliography
* Grzegorz Łukomski and Rafał E. Stolarski, "Nie tylko Enigma... Mjr Rudolf Gundlach (1892-1957) i jego wynalazek" (Not Only Enigma... Major Rudolf Gundlach (1892-1957) and His Invention),
Warsaw -London , 1999.ee also
*
Polish contribution to WWII
*List of Poles
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