US Army Manual for Leica IIIC dated 1944/45/46?

[tom_eitnier]

Has anyone ever seen or have a US Army tech manual for Leica IIIC

dated 1944/45 or 46? With the early IIIC body pictured in it?

(with the raised "stepper" rewind lever area)

 

Copies or an original example would be greatly appreciated for

my research of the use of the Leica`s in the US Army during

and right after WW2

 

Thank You

 

Tom

 

PS: Seems that my original post about Leitz and Wetzlar in 1945 was deleted

anyone who has any important information, stories and history of the Leica

cameras being used by the US Army and American`s abroad in from 1941 to 1951

eras, please contact off the board, this is an ongoing personal project and

research about the use of Leica cameras in and by the US Military

[chromatic-aberration]

I haven't yet seen one, but would certainly be interested in seeing a scan of one should it surface.

[christopher_a._junker1]

Your research might find some assistance from the equipment department at the George Eastman Photographic Museum in Rochester, NY. At the start of WWII the Army came to Kodak Park offering to buy any and all 35 MM high grade cameras, especially Leicas and Contaxes. My Dad was directly approached to sell his Leica Standard but refused to do so as he was already using the camera for film testing of B & W high speed emulsions and he continued to use it for the duration of the war on both B & W and Kodachrome films. As later related to me, it was not unusual to have an AAF photo reconnaissance plane at the Rochester airport for actual testing. On the roof of one of the Rochester buildings was a large resolution test pattern. Many EK employees however, did sell cameras and lenses to the Army.

[tom_eitnier]

Thank you Christopher,

 

I`ll look into that, I guess the US Army did the same thing that the

British Government did in 1939, they bought up a fair sized amount of cameras Leica, Contax etc. for duty with the Royal Air Force and Royal Navy.

 

Here Leitz NY received cameras well into the late fall of 1941, I imagine a select handful of IIIC`s made it here before the war, but it was the most expensive and least known Leica in use here at that time, the III`s, IIIa`s and b`s getting the bulk of the use by the US Combat Cameramen in WW2.

 

Tom