In the dark of a cloudy night, on a rural European country road, where there's not a single light around for miles, I bet you'd be surprised how bright that blackout driving light it. Kinda like how in total silence, a whisper seems loud.
thats why its shielded and focused down. you really dont notice it unless you are close enough to clearly notice it in the first place, that was good enough back in ww2.
The problem is, is that people often times just do not know how dark "dark" can be, and how silent "silent" can be. Its absolutely unnerving, not being able to see anything beyond a meter away and the only lights you see is a single bead of light from a village several kilometers away. Even worse when all the bugs and animals suddenly shut up and you can hear your heartbeat very clearly. Those old 40s bulbs may not be bright today, but in those dark silent nights it can be a pillar of light visible from kilometers away
@@DrSabot-A While I've experienced some deep quiets, I've never been able to hear my own heartbeat. That'd be cool though. I have been in some total darkness before, and it's weird. The classic line about not being able to see your hand right in front of your face was absolutely true. I couldn't tell a difference with my eyes closed or open. One of my coworkers was an aircraft carrier sailor, and he said you wouldn't believe how dark it would get in the middle of the ocean, especially with no moon. He said they did an experiment where they went completely lights out on the ship, then had a guy go out on the flight deck and light a cigarette. Another ship a few miles away was like "we can see you." Eerie and incredible stuff.
@@MultiPurposeReviewer It was absolutely freaky for sure. I was visiting a relative and it were in a pretty remote valley with rice paddies all around. The only access road into the village was a 5 hour drive with a car and an additional 10km using a motorbike. Past 1am the village was completely lights out and everyone was asleep, and went out to go take a shit by walking through some paddies. Absolutely right that you cant even see your hands. While making my way everything fell silent, literally all the cicadas, frogs, crickets stopped at once. Im a very spiritual guy then and had never been in the wild before so it was horribly ominous. The best way i can describe the heartbeat is that its inside your ears, on the lower half of the canal and at one point it was louder than the rustling of the grass under my foot. I honestly cant imagine being in that situation with a gun and with enemies around.
@@DrSabot-A And _knowing_ that the enemies are there. That they're somewhere out there with you, looking and waiting for you. That would be utterly terrifying.
The enemy will see your convoy at night long before they can hear you. If you are able to surprise them they wont have time to take up sniper and artillery positions. Convoys are extremely vulnerable and was the leading cause of deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Is there a source for that? Not trying to start anything, I've just never heard that myself and I'm having a hard time finding anything about it. I assume it'd just be a happy accident that they're hard to track and the military didn't care to improve on what worked.
@@TwistedD85 Usually they are symmetrical so they can be easily rotated or the tires swapped without having to remount them (And more cheaply mass produced). The tracking thing is a result of the symmetrical tread styles.
@@TwistedD85 he's referring to the tread pattern it's symmetrical so it gives no way to tell what direction it's going. But the enemy still knows your close. It's not like a soldier is going to track down a tire mark just to walk up to a full convoy of freedom.
In modern military vehicles, black out lights still exist, but theyre EVEN DIMMER than before. Thats because we have night vision goggles! The goggles show a rough outline of the vehicle and the suroundings, and the black out lights give the other drivers in the convoy better clarity to where the other trucks are.
My eyes still hurt from driving for hours on end through NVGs. And it's been over 15 years since I did it. I'm getting a headache just thinking about it.
Alot of the blackout driving lights i encountered were green. It gives off a less obvious glow. Additionally, the marker lights are designed as a distance measurement. As you are driving, the halves get closer together or farther away. For the taillights, if you are behind the vehicle and you can see all 4 red lights, you are too close. Of you see 1 red light, you are too far. If you see a total of 2 red lights on each side, you are the correct following distance.
That's interesting, does this apply to all tactical vehicles? I don't remember this being applied to the iveco 3 tonner when I was serving. I recall on seeing 1 or 2. This was 3-4 yrs ago so my memory of this is a blur.
@deadpool1901 Every vehicle i encounted had them. I'm sure there are some that don't. But I was also an 88M (truck driver), so it was basically a requirement for me.
@@deadpool1901, these exact lights were used on the M60A1 and M1A1 tanks back in the 80s. Those tail lights include a brake light too. Literally every vehicle in our motor pool had these lights and a similar light switch.
I’m old enough to have driven a Jeep in the army and remember these blackout lights. We trained with them in night convoy operations. We called them “cat eyes”
Fun fact: "slit" style headlight covers, which the Germans used extensively, tend to create a "flat" beam of light, which in turn tends to create "polarized light," that was far less visible at strafing angle of attack, than it was at the driving angle of viewing, on the same principle that sunlight glares off your car hood, or the surface of water, that becomes invisible when you move your point of view perpendicular to the reflecting plane. Allies were driving with "scattered" light, Germans with focused light.
My great grandfather drove a truck (or a lorry for you Brit’s) delivering munitions and war materiel in England during the blitz. From what I heard, he would tape up his headlights with duct tape this way, leaving just a small square or rectangle open to give him a bit of light if it was really needed. But most of the time, they would drive with the headlights off.
I think it was more polarized by the shallow angle of reflection, than the slit headlights. I could be wrong, but I haven't found any info to suggest thay such a large slit would have an effect on polarisation of visible light
@@NGabunchanumbers Well good thing they didn't have you designing headlights based on what "you think." Because you obviously can't think deeply enough to realize that a slit blocks all light from the edges of the headlight, that are alternatively bouncing the light straight down to reflect upwards, or bouncing the light straight to the sky. Slits allow only light from the rear of the reflecting cone that is most likely to project light parallel, or "polarized" to the road.
@@aardqueI'm pretty certain that the direction of wave travel has nothing to do with direction of electromagnetic wave polarization. If that's the case how do you explain circular polarized light? I think what you are describing is scattering of light rather than polarization.
On the rear, each assembly shines 4 distinct triangles. When you are following too close, you will see all 4, when you are at proper distance, the 4 blend into two, When you are too far away, the blend into one. That's all we had until the NVGs were handed out to drivers.
Even with plenty of NVG’s they are tiresome to drive with. Rather poor depth vision and a narrow field of view. I prefer driving with blackout over NVG if I get the option.
Driving around, at night, in the desert during Desert Storm, if there was any moonlight, we could drive around fine. On the few nights with new moons, so it is close to pitch black as it gets, these Black Out lights work amazingly well....
In Afghanistan, we never planned mission when there was high lunar illumination. Way too bright and on wide open ground, the Haji's could see you from a long way off
My father drove truck for a while in WWII. He said that the challenge of driving in convoy in blackout was not having the barrel of the 155mm howitzer hooked to the truck in front come through the windshield.
I was in a convoy driving a deuce and a half, towing a 105mm Howitzer. We were all lined up and ready to go when the guy behind me put his truck in reverse instead of forward. He hit the accelerator and punched the barrel of his Howitzer through the radiator of the truck behind him. The truck had to be towed and the cannon had to be sent back to Howitzer, wherever they are. This was in the 80’s.
I was a canadian soldier in the 90's. I hated driving with blackout markers. I did my training it the winter and while in convoy got to drive with blackout markers in a snow storm on mountain roads. It was terrifying.
Ur right today jeeps are crap. I have a 76 cj7 with 304 .had it 20 years love it more then any new ones made . I wouldn't buy a new jeep built like junk this one in video is super cool I agree old jeeps are very cool
Our old Deuce and a Half’s (2 1/2 ton Army trucks) had these too. So dim it was hard to check that they were working ha. But your eyes adjust to the dark for night-vision. These blackout lights also wouldn’t mess up your night vision.
Cool thing about those convoy lights, the tail lights are 4 lines per tail light and depending on how many you can make out is a way to gauge your distance. If you can only see two red blurs on the back of the truck in front of you you’re fine but if you can make out all 8 then you’re too close. This method is still used on US military trucks
@@Xackory Correct except during an FTX (Field Training Exercise) when driving at night. It worked well enough for me. Also, it is possible to be in your own friendly territory but the enemy can still easily see your headlights from THEIR territory even a few miles away.
@@XackoryYou’d be surprised by how poor positional awareness often was before GPS. German and Allied units would often close to within a hundred meters before noticing each other. A frontline could on paper be, say, on a riverbank between two villages, but a few German stragglers would be on the, on paper, Allied controlled side. I heard this story (an anecdote from somewhere - don’t quote me on the specifics) of a German Tiger I crew that parked their tank in a ditch overlooking an open field. An entire Soviet infantry company decided to set camp in that field. The five Germans in the Tiger I fired high explosive shells and machine guns into the encampment, causing horrific casualties, from a distance of 300 or so meters, where a 57 ton monster laid hidden in a ditch. So, even if you’re technically in enemy territory, it’s still good practice to keep camouflaged. Headlights could attract a nighttime counterattack if spotted by scouts, or an air attack, or even friendly fire. War kinda sucks.
@@volvo09 partially standardization, partially bureaucracy. Various military leaders and civilian military leaders over the years have tried to save money by unifying everything across all branches. Prime example: virtually all military vehicles use JP-8 (the Navy still uses JP-5 for some reason, but JP-8 vehicles can use 5). All of the ground vehicles can also use kerosene and/or regular diesel which would be significantly cheaper than aircraft-grade jet fuel. However, any helicopter or jet could also be refueled anywhere the military is operating (because everything uses JP-8) as long as they have the right connections and filters. This is logistics vs cost savings. On the bureaucracy side every switch, screw, button, bullet and gun has some sort of label. We're all familiar with the M16, but that switch has a similar designation. It's far easier to order 1 billion S22 switches (I made that up) vs a S22 1942 for a WW 2 jeep, a S22 for a Korean jeep, and a S28 1990 for a Gulf War Humvee. On a much more rare occasion it is to make sure everyone uses the same thing to save money. But some general or civilian usually ends up overruling the branch wide standardization, and the entire project costs more money instead of less... Sigh $758 billion every year could feed a lot (all) of children.
@@john2g1those keypads got quite a few people compromised or blownup when they first put them out. they switched them mid deployment and had no idea which buttons were which for a while and people accidentally hit the wrong ones. we could donthe switches without looking no problem.
They also tell you the distance you are away from the vehicle, if you notice there are multiple separate lights in them. When you are farther away, they blur into one light
A guy I used to off-road with had an old ex-military Defender (or Series, I can't remember which) Land Rover with "Convoy Lights". The rear differential cover was painted white, and a small lamp shown down on it at night. When you were in a blacked out convoy at night, all you had to do was look for the white differential cover.
I was about to comment on that. I worked in a factory where Australian Army Series 3 Land Rovers were built, I did see the white diff centres at the time. My involvement was a bit of work on the canvas roofs.
A large number of these K.M and Jeep M151 were captured by the Iranian army during the Iran-Iraq war and are still used for off-roading, and most of them are in the north of Iran.
Blackout was also used in truck convoys. Which as you can imagine, could be quite dangerous. So, each side had two little lights. If you were driving, and you got too far away, you would see only one light. If you were too close, you would see both lights really bright. The idea was to just be able to tell that there were two lights, to keep your proper distance. Yes, it was potentially really dangerous driving an entire battery of howitzers in the dark. With the trucks full of ammo, and troops in the back.
It's crazy how the terminologies have carried over to the modern HMMWV. And a similar method in order to manipulate the lights, you have to hold a nob down in order to turn the other ones as an unlock mechanism. Much of the U.S. Military actually uses red lights (in today's vehicles It's IR) since it doesn't travel far to give off your position.
Im not in the army. But i would just turn off all lights and use passive night vision. AI drones can now easily spot any light and target it and your death.
@HermanWillems Yeah, but to be honest. Using the ambient light mode on NVGs in a humvee is not so easy with the glare it causes, but also because you're using the reflection of sunlight off the moon to see without having to use any IR at all.
Red is the light spectrum chosen because it has far less detrimental effect on our ability to see in the dark after being exposed to it than other colors. In the pilot house of every ship in the world, you will see mostly dim red lights. I have spent hundreds of hours running ships at night.
1977-79 In the 101st on training exercises we’d move an entire battalion at night using nothing but blackout lights on vehicles, we’d break down the camp, tents, equipment, all of it and pack up n setup again in a different spot US Army 1974-85’ the best of times
Wow, amazing stuff. Interesting fact I've heard about Patton's personal convoy: He reportedly insisted on the radio vehicle being at least 100 yards from his jeep at all times. His reason for this was that he apparently thought the Germans had the ability to point their artillery guns using radio signals, thus enabling them to potentially blast him off the road and into eternity if the situation was just right. I have no idea if his belief was correct, but considering how advanced World War II Germany was in a lot of their technology, it wouldn't be incredibly surprising.
@sikhswim several countries. Being a passenger is scarier especially when you have a driver fresh out of recruit school. One didn't even have a civilian driver's permit! I've also run training courses to teach blackout driving. There's a balance of letting the students learn the limits of driving with blackout lights and having to explain to your boss why one of your vehicles is in the back of a flatbed lol
Modern cyan blackout lights are really cool because they’re designed to be used hand in hand with NVG’s. From the inside of the cab, it looks like there’s no lights on at all, but when you flip your nods down, it looks a lot like you’ve got your headlights on. Pretty cool stuff
@robkoepnick5507 You can see the current ones today without night vision, they're just super dim and the main point is to provide a little bit of extra light since even night vision devices can't help in complete darkness.
when you don't have oncoming headlights, you can see quite a bit in the dark. I actually prefer it, I can see deer in the woods, and other surroundings that I normally cannot at night with the high contrast of having headlights on. I've done some driving entirely by moonlight, and it is pleasant. Cops are jerks though, they'll pull you over for it.
Cops aren't jerks for pulling you over for that. You can drive but anyone else won't see you coming and thus this is a safety risk but still it can be fun so aslong as noone is around go for it
I always most enjoyed cycling when it was a full moon, no need for a headtorch at all unless something else came along the road, if anything the headtorch noticeably lessened your vision.
The human counter parts definitely don't. Worst mistake we've ever made was bringing them over with no return to sender plan. Now look at how things turned out.
That heel has been restored beautifully! It’s nearly flawless! Maybe even so, as I cannot see the entire thing. Still such an exciting thing to drive on old country roads with.
Out in the country on nights with a full moon you can drive around with no lights on and see no problem. One of my favorite things is crushing around with no lights on.
It’s good to know that in rural areas at that time it was easier to see from the moon/stars light because there was no light pollution. So there was no need for extra bright lights to give away location.
In warfare there will be some lookout miles away who will call in artillery fire. In Iraq and Afghanistan they'd bury explosives near the road and would be a mile or so away. Without headlights they wouldn't know you were there until you drove past.
I saw an old Jeep at a car show with those and I thought they were aftermarket turn signals or similar for regular driving on USA roads. I asked the guy who owned it and he told me the same thing. Interesting the know that!
Fascinating! Love to see the way this older tech works! I recently went to a veteran's museum here where I live and they have the first-ever #1 produced WW2 Jeep! Very cool! As you can imagine, the old dudes at the museum are VERY proud of it! 😅😆😎👍🏻 good stuff!
Driving along the back roads in occupied France, you’ll know your way around by the chill down your neck, the way the wind shifts, the heavy thud of driving over someone in the pitch darkness. What a time to be alive.
All military vehicles still have blackout lights, wasn't just a ww2 thing. We still use them today. They are meant to be see with night vision goggles, they are UV lights.
I drove a 2-1/2 ton "deuce" with a water buffalo at Ft Irwin in BO, around cliffs and wadis and shell craters. It was so dark I couldn't see my TC walking in front of the vehicle and I didn't have a NVD. It's the most awake and alert I've ever been in the middle of the night. I'll be happy if I never have to do that again.
These to avoid enemy intel from gathering info by binocular or cam faraway the can relay to artillery or mortar squad..if u in sound range u definitely in rifle range already
Maybe in a convoy through an enemy urban area, but he's specifically talking about a convoy at night where you're attempting to stay hidden, you wouldn't drive that close to the enemy. So No. Those black out lights are to hide them from distant visual range. Why would you have a convoy that's supposed to be hidden from the enemy within hearing / listening range? That's makes no sense, it's a secret convoys, the whole point being secret, they usually happen outside of hearing / listening range from the enemies, at a distance. You don't have a convoy right next to your enemies, you shouldn't be close enough for them to hear your vehicles.. The whole point of the black out lights is to be not seen (at night), even in the day you shouldn't want your convoy to be seen, so you have your convoy as far from any enemies as you can. If your blackout convoy can be heard by the enemy, you're too close. The black out lights are so they don't see you from afar when doing secret night time convoys.
That is really cool. I never knew that they had a feature like that. I will definitely watch more of your video's bc I love car's, and truck's and I really enjoy finding out stuff like this. Thank you and keep up the good work.
I really loved night maneuvers when we drove with these lights! You really had to be on top of your game when driving! You knew if you were too far away you only saw one light the closer you got you saw two lights and when you were too close, you could see four lights on the rear of the vehicle in front of you!
Nice, same color I have on my Humvee! I painted it with a 1942 Jeep Willy OD green. Crazy how much bigger the humvee is then these little guys. I have blackout lights as well on my rig.
The blackout shields were required on all vehicles lights in the UK during WW2. Not surprisingly, the number of road fatalities increased hugely. Some were drivers unable to see where they were driving and ended up in ditches, trees, off the sides of hills; and many pedestrians hit by cars who couldn't see them.
I've seen different Versions of those BODRs and I can tell you: If you are in the Dark and need those, to see the Ground before you - you will definitely drive slow enough that these are by far enough. They're just the help to get slowly ahead and to not crash against something or drive into a hole. It does it's work for the purpose it was created for actually quite fine. And you would be surprised how much this light can show you in front.
Although I was a "Stateside Soldier", in the late seventies, being in an artillery unit, we had many night convoys using "Blackout Drive". It was really basically driving by moonlight, and trying to spot the markers of the vehicle in front of you, which we called "cat eyes". Moonless nights were pretty daunting on the west range at Fort Sill. 😉
In my younger years my family owned a 1940s ex-WWII Army ambulance that had been bought after the war as military surplus. That truck--a twin of the one in the opening scene of the old MASH program--had those sets of lights, although I never got to see them work as they had been disconnected on our vehicle. Appreciate the demo.
Back in 87, before we transitioned to the HMMVs, I remember being in Graf on a moonless night, riding along fine with the Black out drives, come around a corner to a full English artillery division driving with full lights on. I was completely and I mean completely blinded, told the passenger hold on, trying to pull over. Thankfully the side of the road was not a ditch.
As someone who has driven in an invasion under blackout lights, they help a little, but on a dark night you'll still play bumper cars without nightvision.
I'd like to add that the two "marker" lights in each assembly of the four total will seem to be one light IF you're following it and the distance gets too great while driving in a convoy. Same for looking behind you in a mirror at the following vehicle. I'm a retired Army Motor Sergeant. 😁
Those lights are still used today. I was truck driving in the army, and all the vehicles I drove had those. And they STILL don't work well. However, with night vision goggles, they help a little.
When you’re in NODs or night optic device, aka night vision, it’s so lit up you can see very well. We used to duct tape our headlights so there was a small square the light could shine through. Nothing like being on a slow, quiet infantry patrol behind enemy lines and bammm headlights.
We drove with blackout lights in heavily wooded areas. My 5 ton truck, loaded with 600 gallons of fuel, was easy to drive. I wore an eyepatch on my right eye during the day and after dark I removed it. Not a single vehicle in our convoy hit anything as we weaved between the trees. Nerve wracking, yes, but completely doable.
Drove these in West Germany for nearly 10 years as an Army MP through the late 70s until "The Wall" came down. While those lighting systems worked well - those Willy's sucked when chasing down Reds who were driving around in Mercedes sedans.
Every British military vehicle has had this since the 1960s to my certain knowledge. Switching to convoy lights also disconnects the horn, and shines a light onto the white-painted rear diff- which only a following vehicle can see.
i had an old 1977 dodge that was a retired radio truck...had the switch cluster...the front ones works but the rears didn't...was my first truck...really miss it
I’m convinced that in the age of phone flashlights, everyone has forgotten how good human night vision actually is if you just take the time to let your dang eyes adjust lol.
Current member of the army here, humvees still have the same features. Locking selector switch, the blackouts (which look almost exactly the same), and the driving lights which still use the same general design. Didn’t know these things originated so far back!
My car has one of those red lights in the interior. Its amazing how much you can see with a soft red light. Its like the amount you see when your eyes adjust to the dark. This has to be where that idea originated
They used to have two triangles amber red triangles in each rear light in black out mode so when you are in a convoy you know your distance if you see one you are at a safe distance if you see two you are too close to the vehicle in front because in a blackout convoy you don’t have break lights. I was in back in the 90s so they may do it differently now but it’s a pretty cool system we used to love driving blackout convoys on some crazy off road trails in the Midwest on training exercises.
In the dark of a cloudy night, on a rural European country road, where there's not a single light around for miles, I bet you'd be surprised how bright that blackout driving light it. Kinda like how in total silence, a whisper seems loud.
thats why its shielded and focused down. you really dont notice it unless you are close enough to clearly notice it in the first place, that was good enough back in ww2.
The problem is, is that people often times just do not know how dark "dark" can be, and how silent "silent" can be. Its absolutely unnerving, not being able to see anything beyond a meter away and the only lights you see is a single bead of light from a village several kilometers away. Even worse when all the bugs and animals suddenly shut up and you can hear your heartbeat very clearly.
Those old 40s bulbs may not be bright today, but in those dark silent nights it can be a pillar of light visible from kilometers away
@@DrSabot-A While I've experienced some deep quiets, I've never been able to hear my own heartbeat. That'd be cool though. I have been in some total darkness before, and it's weird. The classic line about not being able to see your hand right in front of your face was absolutely true. I couldn't tell a difference with my eyes closed or open.
One of my coworkers was an aircraft carrier sailor, and he said you wouldn't believe how dark it would get in the middle of the ocean, especially with no moon. He said they did an experiment where they went completely lights out on the ship, then had a guy go out on the flight deck and light a cigarette. Another ship a few miles away was like "we can see you." Eerie and incredible stuff.
@@MultiPurposeReviewer It was absolutely freaky for sure. I was visiting a relative and it were in a pretty remote valley with rice paddies all around. The only access road into the village was a 5 hour drive with a car and an additional 10km using a motorbike. Past 1am the village was completely lights out and everyone was asleep, and went out to go take a shit by walking through some paddies.
Absolutely right that you cant even see your hands. While making my way everything fell silent, literally all the cicadas, frogs, crickets stopped at once. Im a very spiritual guy then and had never been in the wild before so it was horribly ominous. The best way i can describe the heartbeat is that its inside your ears, on the lower half of the canal and at one point it was louder than the rustling of the grass under my foot.
I honestly cant imagine being in that situation with a gun and with enemies around.
@@DrSabot-A And _knowing_ that the enemies are there. That they're somewhere out there with you, looking and waiting for you. That would be utterly terrifying.
Not for use behind enemy lines but to prevent giving air strikes a solid position of a road. Neat to see.
The enemy will see your convoy at night long before they can hear you. If you are able to surprise them they wont have time to take up sniper and artillery positions. Convoys are extremely vulnerable and was the leading cause of deaths in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Right !!!! Impressive
@tripplefives1402 Most deaths in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan were of civilians.
@@hukit0 Yes and most of them were killed by insurgents.
@@gussampson5029Ghanta, Terrorist US killed them not the insurgents.
The tread pattern on military vehicles is designed in such a way that the enemy cant tell which direction the vehicle was traveling
Is there a source for that? Not trying to start anything, I've just never heard that myself and I'm having a hard time finding anything about it. I assume it'd just be a happy accident that they're hard to track and the military didn't care to improve on what worked.
@@TwistedD85 search up Non-Directional Tires
@@TwistedD85 Usually they are symmetrical so they can be easily rotated or the tires swapped without having to remount them (And more cheaply mass produced). The tracking thing is a result of the symmetrical tread styles.
@@TwistedD85 he's referring to the tread pattern it's symmetrical so it gives no way to tell what direction it's going. But the enemy still knows your close.
It's not like a soldier is going to track down a tire mark just to walk up to a full convoy of freedom.
They can and they will. Saboteurs will don enemy clothing from downed soldiers and cause mayhem. @ExcavationNation
In modern military vehicles, black out lights still exist, but theyre EVEN DIMMER than before. Thats because we have night vision goggles! The goggles show a rough outline of the vehicle and the suroundings, and the black out lights give the other drivers in the convoy better clarity to where the other trucks are.
My eyes still hurt from driving for hours on end through NVGs. And it's been over 15 years since I did it. I'm getting a headache just thinking about it.
How many times did you bump into the Humvee in front of you from lack of depth perception? Hopefully not as much me.
@@notavailable1216 more than once lol.
So do the drones now! In Ukraine a lot of the drones have night vision now.
Wouldn't enemy forces have infrared cameras and the other stuff you have? :-/
In addtion to the blackout lights, we cut up empty sandbags and put them over the headlights, held in place by the bezel. This was on M151s
That is also to cut glare on head lights during the day.
just like in Kelly's heroes
@@williambethea8095 Yes it is
Same, and cut up discarded camo netting to cover the windshields
@@arshad4695he’s not your dad
Alot of the blackout driving lights i encountered were green. It gives off a less obvious glow. Additionally, the marker lights are designed as a distance measurement. As you are driving, the halves get closer together or farther away. For the taillights, if you are behind the vehicle and you can see all 4 red lights, you are too close. Of you see 1 red light, you are too far. If you see a total of 2 red lights on each side, you are the correct following distance.
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That's interesting, does this apply to all tactical vehicles? I don't remember this being applied to the iveco 3 tonner when I was serving. I recall on seeing 1 or 2. This was 3-4 yrs ago so my memory of this is a blur.
@deadpool1901 Every vehicle i encounted had them. I'm sure there are some that don't. But I was also an 88M (truck driver), so it was basically a requirement for me.
Came here to mention this very thing.
@@deadpool1901, these exact lights were used on the M60A1 and M1A1 tanks back in the 80s. Those tail lights include a brake light too. Literally every vehicle in our motor pool had these lights and a similar light switch.
I’m old enough to have driven a Jeep in the army and remember these blackout lights. We trained with them in night convoy operations. We called them “cat eyes”
That's what we called the band around our Kevlar, it had two glow in the dark tabs in the back, hence, cat eyes.
Thank you American brother for serving our nation 🇺🇸🦅🫡
Still do the same training with modern vehicles. It's even required to train with NVGs while driving at night with only BO on.
Fun fact: "slit" style headlight covers, which the Germans used extensively, tend to create a "flat" beam of light, which in turn tends to create "polarized light," that was far less visible at strafing angle of attack, than it was at the driving angle of viewing, on the same principle that sunlight glares off your car hood, or the surface of water, that becomes invisible when you move your point of view perpendicular to the reflecting plane. Allies were driving with "scattered" light, Germans with focused light.
you cant beat the germans in a straight line
My great grandfather drove a truck (or a lorry for you Brit’s) delivering munitions and war materiel in England during the blitz. From what I heard, he would tape up his headlights with duct tape this way, leaving just a small square or rectangle open to give him a bit of light if it was really needed. But most of the time, they would drive with the headlights off.
I think it was more polarized by the shallow angle of reflection, than the slit headlights. I could be wrong, but I haven't found any info to suggest thay such a large slit would have an effect on polarisation of visible light
@@NGabunchanumbers Well good thing they didn't have you designing headlights based on what "you think." Because you obviously can't think deeply enough to realize that a slit blocks all light from the edges of the headlight, that are alternatively bouncing the light straight down to reflect upwards, or bouncing the light straight to the sky. Slits allow only light from the rear of the reflecting cone that is most likely to project light parallel, or "polarized" to the road.
@@aardqueI'm pretty certain that the direction of wave travel has nothing to do with direction of electromagnetic wave polarization. If that's the case how do you explain circular polarized light? I think what you are describing is scattering of light rather than polarization.
On the rear, each assembly shines 4 distinct triangles. When you are following too close, you will see all 4, when you are at proper distance, the 4 blend into two, When you are too far away, the blend into one. That's all we had until the NVGs were handed out to drivers.
Was in 1st Armored from 07-13. Even with NVGs this is still practiced today. Those triangles are still present on modern equipment
Never enough NVGs
Only lead and select got them
Can here to say that as well - 1982-2015
Even with plenty of NVG’s they are tiresome to drive with. Rather poor depth vision and a narrow field of view. I prefer driving with blackout over NVG if I get the option.
@@MrSpektra Agreed. Not that any of it worked well when the dust was flying.
Driving around, at night, in the desert during Desert Storm, if there was any moonlight, we could drive around fine. On the few nights with new moons, so it is close to pitch black as it gets, these Black Out lights work amazingly well....
Keeps your eyes used to the dark too i'm sure
Obsolete tech, no military uses visible light technology it's all infrared & Thermal.
Ussr had thermal tech back in Vietnam
@@volvo09 Until someone from the present generation turns their phone on to watch tik tok
@@JinSakai_KuroudoWe had Private Whitelights. That's always fun.
In Afghanistan, we never planned mission when there was high lunar illumination. Way too bright and on wide open ground, the Haji's could see you from a long way off
My father drove truck for a while in WWII. He said that the challenge of driving in convoy in blackout was not having the barrel of the 155mm howitzer hooked to the truck in front come through the windshield.
I was in a convoy driving a deuce and a half, towing a 105mm Howitzer. We were all lined up and ready to go when the guy behind me put his truck in reverse instead of forward. He hit the accelerator and punched the barrel of his Howitzer through the radiator of the truck behind him. The truck had to be towed and the cannon had to be sent back to Howitzer, wherever they are. This was in the 80’s.
Man that sucks ass. Someone got their ass chewed for that one....@lowandslow3939
I was a canadian soldier in the 90's. I hated driving with blackout markers. I did my training it the winter and while in convoy got to drive with blackout markers in a snow storm on mountain roads. It was terrifying.
The original Jeep was way cooler than today's.
Looks cooler, but i'd rather drive long distances in a new one! Bet you leave the seat a few times driving those!
Ur right today jeeps are crap. I have a 76 cj7 with 304 .had it 20 years love it more then any new ones made . I wouldn't buy a new jeep built like junk this one in video is super cool I agree old jeeps are very cool
be quiet lmao, you'd still daily the new one over this.
@@DodgerFloof driving around in one of those old jeeps for novelty is great...using one daily....would suck
@@bryancoyne9692
did u try jeep renegade its cute 😂
I was curious about the blackout lights when i heard about them in the previous video. Nice 👍🏻
Our old Deuce and a Half’s (2 1/2 ton Army trucks) had these too. So dim it was hard to check that they were working ha. But your eyes adjust to the dark for night-vision. These blackout lights also wouldn’t mess up your night vision.
Cool thing about those convoy lights, the tail lights are 4 lines per tail light and depending on how many you can make out is a way to gauge your distance. If you can only see two red blurs on the back of the truck in front of you you’re fine but if you can make out all 8 then you’re too close. This method is still used on US military trucks
Blackout lights were not just for behind enemy lines, they were also used in friendly territory also.
as practice....
This makes literally no sense, if you’re in friendly territory there’s no need to use it
@@Xackory Correct except during an FTX (Field Training Exercise) when driving at night. It worked well enough for me. Also, it is possible to be in your own friendly territory but the enemy can still easily see your headlights from THEIR territory even a few miles away.
@@lesaber251 well I mean yeah I think it’s assumed you train with your equipment..
@@XackoryYou’d be surprised by how poor positional awareness often was before GPS. German and Allied units would often close to within a hundred meters before noticing each other. A frontline could on paper be, say, on a riverbank between two villages, but a few German stragglers would be on the, on paper, Allied controlled side.
I heard this story (an anecdote from somewhere - don’t quote me on the specifics) of a German Tiger I crew that parked their tank in a ditch overlooking an open field. An entire Soviet infantry company decided to set camp in that field. The five Germans in the Tiger I fired high explosive shells and machine guns into the encampment, causing horrific casualties, from a distance of 300 or so meters, where a 57 ton monster laid hidden in a ditch.
So, even if you’re technically in enemy territory, it’s still good practice to keep camouflaged. Headlights could attract a nighttime counterattack if spotted by scouts, or an air attack, or even friendly fire.
War kinda sucks.
Majority of our military vehicles still used that same manual version of switch up until the current models where it’s a keypad now
Think it was for Standardization? Everyone knows how to operate it because it's all the same?
Came here to say the same thing. Keypads are a nice upgrade, I can switch without looking.
@@volvo09 partially standardization, partially bureaucracy.
Various military leaders and civilian military leaders over the years have tried to save money by unifying everything across all branches.
Prime example: virtually all military vehicles use JP-8 (the Navy still uses JP-5 for some reason, but JP-8 vehicles can use 5). All of the ground vehicles can also use kerosene and/or regular diesel which would be significantly cheaper than aircraft-grade jet fuel. However, any helicopter or jet could also be refueled anywhere the military is operating (because everything uses JP-8) as long as they have the right connections and filters. This is logistics vs cost savings.
On the bureaucracy side every switch, screw, button, bullet and gun has some sort of label. We're all familiar with the M16, but that switch has a similar designation. It's far easier to order 1 billion S22 switches (I made that up) vs a S22 1942 for a WW 2 jeep, a S22 for a Korean jeep, and a S28 1990 for a Gulf War Humvee.
On a much more rare occasion it is to make sure everyone uses the same thing to save money. But some general or civilian usually ends up overruling the branch wide standardization, and the entire project costs more money instead of less... Sigh $758 billion every year could feed a lot (all) of children.
Looks like a Cole Hersee switch@@john2g1
@@john2g1those keypads got quite a few people compromised or blownup when they first put them out. they switched them mid deployment and had no idea which buttons were which for a while and people accidentally hit the wrong ones. we could donthe switches without looking no problem.
Them blackout lights are probably perfect in a place with no street lights
Glad you showed us this nighttime feature in the daytime in a bright garage!
😂
Can't deny it though, just proves still how bright those lights are.
They also tell you the distance you are away from the vehicle, if you notice there are multiple separate lights in them. When you are farther away, they blur into one light
Yep. If you see 4, you are too close, see one then you are too far. You see 2, then you are just right.
A guy I used to off-road with had an old ex-military Defender (or Series, I can't remember which) Land Rover with "Convoy Lights". The rear differential cover was painted white, and a small lamp shown down on it at night. When you were in a blacked out convoy at night, all you had to do was look for the white differential cover.
I was about to comment on that. I worked in a factory where Australian Army Series 3 Land Rovers were built, I did see the white diff centres at the time. My involvement was a bit of work on the canvas roofs.
They still have these, although if you find yourself in a defender and running dark (and it isn't an excercise) I don't envy you lol
Did plenty of blackout driving in 110's in the Aussie Army in the early 90's not fun!
A large number of these K.M and Jeep M151 were captured by the Iranian army during the Iran-Iraq war and are still used for off-roading, and most of them are in the north of Iran.
Blackout was also used in truck convoys. Which as you can imagine, could be quite dangerous. So, each side had two little lights. If you were driving, and you got too far away, you would see only one light. If you were too close, you would see both lights really bright. The idea was to just be able to tell that there were two lights, to keep your proper distance. Yes, it was potentially really dangerous driving an entire battery of howitzers in the dark. With the trucks full of ammo, and troops in the back.
It's crazy how the terminologies have carried over to the modern HMMWV. And a similar method in order to manipulate the lights, you have to hold a nob down in order to turn the other ones as an unlock mechanism.
Much of the U.S. Military actually uses red lights (in today's vehicles It's IR) since it doesn't travel far to give off your position.
Im not in the army. But i would just turn off all lights and use passive night vision.
AI drones can now easily spot any light and target it and your death.
Older military tech is so cool...is it just me?
@HermanWillems Yeah, but to be honest. Using the ambient light mode on NVGs in a humvee is not so easy with the glare it causes, but also because you're using the reflection of sunlight off the moon to see without having to use any IR at all.
Red is the light spectrum chosen because it has far less detrimental effect on our ability to see in the dark after being exposed to it than other colors. In the pilot house of every ship in the world, you will see mostly dim red lights. I have spent hundreds of hours running ships at night.
As an army Jeep owner, I can confirm this is one of the coolest features on the Jeep.
British Army Land Rover had a similar thing. Part of driver training was knowing every 5 position of a rotary switch in the dark.
1977-79 In the 101st on training exercises we’d move an entire battalion at night using nothing but blackout lights on vehicles, we’d break down the camp, tents, equipment, all of it and pack up n setup again in a different spot
US Army 1974-85’ the best of times
My father in law drove supplies to Patton, in WWII. He said they drove deuce and a halfs
using only those lights for the whole night.
All big rig drivers either salute or shudder then salute hearing that.
Wow, amazing stuff. Interesting fact I've heard about Patton's personal convoy: He reportedly insisted on the radio vehicle being at least 100 yards from his jeep at all times. His reason for this was that he apparently thought the Germans had the ability to point their artillery guns using radio signals, thus enabling them to potentially blast him off the road and into eternity if the situation was just right. I have no idea if his belief was correct, but considering how advanced World War II Germany was in a lot of their technology, it wouldn't be incredibly surprising.
I've done blackout convoy driving with g wagons. Some of the scariest drives I've been on!
Where?
@sikhswim several countries. Being a passenger is scarier especially when you have a driver fresh out of recruit school. One didn't even have a civilian driver's permit!
I've also run training courses to teach blackout driving. There's a balance of letting the students learn the limits of driving with blackout lights and having to explain to your boss why one of your vehicles is in the back of a flatbed lol
@@sikhswim
smells like Russian activities
Modern cyan blackout lights are really cool because they’re designed to be used hand in hand with NVG’s. From the inside of the cab, it looks like there’s no lights on at all, but when you flip your nods down, it looks a lot like you’ve got your headlights on. Pretty cool stuff
Now show it at night
Blackout Lights at Night
I seen one of these in person, 100% restored. These things are so good
That is an ingenious way to black out the lights.
Eh not really. The ones we use today are better. You can only see the light with night vision.
@@robkoepnick5507 You realize that this was crazy good engineering back then, ofc its not gonna be good as today its decades older
@robkoepnick5507 You can see the current ones today without night vision, they're just super dim and the main point is to provide a little bit of extra light since even night vision devices can't help in complete darkness.
I know that current U.S. army trucks use very similar tech/lights to these, but had NO IDEA black out lights were around in WWII! So cool, ty for this
when you don't have oncoming headlights, you can see quite a bit in the dark. I actually prefer it, I can see deer in the woods, and other surroundings that I normally cannot at night with the high contrast of having headlights on. I've done some driving entirely by moonlight, and it is pleasant. Cops are jerks though, they'll pull you over for it.
Same here! 😊
Cops aren't jerks for pulling you over for that.
You can drive but anyone else won't see you coming and thus this is a safety risk but still it can be fun so aslong as noone is around go for it
I always most enjoyed cycling when it was a full moon, no need for a headtorch at all unless something else came along the road, if anything the headtorch noticeably lessened your vision.
Blackout lights matter 😂
😂
Nice
The human counter parts definitely don't. Worst mistake we've ever made was bringing them over with no return to sender plan. Now look at how things turned out.
This was so lame and unfunny
@4-Methylaminorex are you alright in the head
That heel has been restored beautifully! It’s nearly flawless! Maybe even so, as I cannot see the entire thing. Still such an exciting thing to drive on old country roads with.
Out in the country on nights with a full moon you can drive around with no lights on and see no problem. One of my favorite things is crushing around with no lights on.
It’s good to know that in rural areas at that time it was easier to see from the moon/stars light because there was no light pollution. So there was no need for extra bright lights to give away location.
In warfare there will be some lookout miles away who will call in artillery fire. In Iraq and Afghanistan they'd bury explosives near the road and would be a mile or so away. Without headlights they wouldn't know you were there until you drove past.
That's not how light pollution works. It doesn't stop light from the moon from reaching the ground...
@@slyfox3333 Trees do though lol
👍🤩💝I love learning this kind of stuff. Thank you.
That drive light is like a headlight when you’re wearing night vision gear.
I saw an old Jeep at a car show with those and I thought they were aftermarket turn signals or similar for regular driving on USA roads. I asked the guy who owned it and he told me the same thing. Interesting the know that!
If you drive at night under a full moon, you don't need headlights. You could see the road ahead plainly.
Fascinating! Love to see the way this older tech works! I recently went to a veteran's museum here where I live and they have the first-ever #1 produced WW2 Jeep! Very cool! As you can imagine, the old dudes at the museum are VERY proud of it! 😅😆😎👍🏻 good stuff!
Driving along the back roads in occupied France, you’ll know your way around by the chill down your neck, the way the wind shifts, the heavy thud of driving over someone in the pitch darkness. What a time to be alive.
All military vehicles still have blackout lights, wasn't just a ww2 thing. We still use them today. They are meant to be see with night vision goggles, they are UV lights.
I just drove with the lights on while yelling for the enemy to bring it!!!
The translator aspect would probably be the greatest aspect, assuming it was accurate and timely.
I drove a 2-1/2 ton "deuce" with a water buffalo at Ft Irwin in BO, around cliffs and wadis and shell craters. It was so dark I couldn't see my TC walking in front of the vehicle and I didn't have a NVD. It's the most awake and alert I've ever been in the middle of the night. I'll be happy if I never have to do that again.
Those things are so loud while driving you don't need light to see/ hear them come...
These to avoid enemy intel from gathering info by binocular or cam faraway the can relay to artillery or mortar squad..if u in sound range u definitely in rifle range already
Maybe in a convoy through an enemy urban area, but he's specifically talking about a convoy at night where you're attempting to stay hidden, you wouldn't drive that close to the enemy.
So No.
Those black out lights are to hide them from distant visual range.
Why would you have a convoy that's supposed to be hidden from the enemy within hearing / listening range? That's makes no sense, it's a secret convoys, the whole point being secret, they usually happen outside of hearing / listening range from the enemies, at a distance. You don't have a convoy right next to your enemies, you shouldn't be close enough for them to hear your vehicles..
The whole point of the black out lights is to be not seen (at night), even in the day you shouldn't want your convoy to be seen, so you have your convoy as far from any enemies as you can. If your blackout convoy can be heard by the enemy, you're too close.
The black out lights are so they don't see you from afar when doing secret night time convoys.
WWII jeeps are pretty quiet?! tiny motor and long small diameter exhaust.
@@MiloPerrotti the tires make the loudest sound back then..sound of wind breaker..not the engines
@@Vongreimbf109 I disagree when they are at 60psi they are very quiet. That's what the rub down the middle is for
on of the coolest
lol
As a modern soldier I couldn't imagine doing anything at night without night vision assistance.
That is really cool. I never knew that they had a feature like that. I will definitely watch more of your video's bc I love car's, and truck's and I really enjoy finding out stuff like this. Thank you and keep up the good work.
I really loved night maneuvers when we drove with these lights!
You really had to be on top of your game when driving!
You knew if you were too far away you only saw one light the closer you got you saw two lights and when you were too close, you could see four lights on the rear of the vehicle in front of you!
Outstanding video, great job. 👍
Nice, same color I have on my Humvee! I painted it with a 1942 Jeep Willy OD green. Crazy how much bigger the humvee is then these little guys. I have blackout lights as well on my rig.
There's a local guy here rolling in one of these with a .50 cal mounted turret. Always a pleasure to see
I'm surprised that the brightness of the light was the biggest concern, and not the noise of the loud engines! 😅
I like how you should this in the dark so we can appreciate how much visibility they provide. 🙃
Every modern soldier that has done a driver course has done this, you know you are close to a ditch when you start hitting branches
This tech is still in use today.
Good pair of NVGs and you can see forever with those little bitty lights.
The blackout shields were required on all vehicles lights in the UK during WW2. Not surprisingly, the number of road fatalities increased hugely. Some were drivers unable to see where they were driving and ended up in ditches, trees, off the sides of hills; and many pedestrians hit by cars who couldn't see them.
In modern military trucks blackout works very similarly, except we drove with night vision on. The lights provided PLENTY of illumination this way.
I've seen different Versions of those BODRs and I can tell you: If you are in the Dark and need those, to see the Ground before you - you will definitely drive slow enough that these are by far enough. They're just the help to get slowly ahead and to not crash against something or drive into a hole. It does it's work for the purpose it was created for actually quite fine. And you would be surprised how much this light can show you in front.
Although I was a "Stateside Soldier", in the late seventies, being in an artillery unit, we had many night convoys using "Blackout Drive". It was really basically driving by moonlight, and trying to spot the markers of the vehicle in front of you, which we called "cat eyes". Moonless nights were pretty daunting on the west range at Fort Sill. 😉
I miss rebuilding these old jeeps. My family used to make make panels and also rebuild the tubs. Jeep Panels Plus!
These jeeps also had headlight covers with a slit cut in them that was about 1/2" wide and 3 " wide that were slid over the regular headlight bulbs.
literally driving around a military JEEP behind enemy lines... "they cant see our lights though hurr hurr"
Learned to drive with those on a motorcycle wearing a gasmask in a pitch black night with rain! You couldn’t go faster than walking speed.
In my younger years my family owned a 1940s ex-WWII Army ambulance that had been bought after the war as military surplus. That truck--a twin of the one in the opening scene of the old MASH program--had those sets of lights, although I never got to see them work as they had been disconnected on our vehicle. Appreciate the demo.
Back in 87, before we transitioned to the HMMVs, I remember being in Graf on a moonless night, riding along fine with the Black out drives, come around a corner to a full English artillery division driving with full lights on. I was completely and I mean completely blinded, told the passenger hold on, trying to pull over. Thankfully the side of the road was not a ditch.
I drove trucks during my conscription, and those blackout driving lights were surprisingly helpful when it was completely pitch black
As someone who has driven in an invasion under blackout lights, they help a little, but on a dark night you'll still play bumper cars without nightvision.
When building models I always thought those were some type of horn! Thanks!
"Do you hear a vehicle?"
"I dont see any headlights. it must be a bird"
Sitting a guy with a long stick on the hood may actually work better than those lights.
it better be dimmer than my phone flashlight.
When I turn my flashlight on, its like i got the power of the sun in my hand
I'd like to add that the two "marker" lights in each assembly of the four total will seem to be one light IF you're following it and the distance gets too great while driving in a convoy. Same for looking behind you in a mirror at the following vehicle. I'm a retired Army Motor Sergeant. 😁
AH brings back the memories of the deuce and a 1/2 convoys of my youth!
Those lights are still used today. I was truck driving in the army, and all the vehicles I drove had those. And they STILL don't work well. However, with night vision goggles, they help a little.
Pretty Neat Tech For That Jeep! Jeep! Jeep! 🚙
When you’re in NODs or night optic device, aka night vision, it’s so lit up you can see very well.
We used to duct tape our headlights so there was a small square the light could shine through. Nothing like being on a slow, quiet infantry patrol behind enemy lines and bammm headlights.
We drove with blackout lights in heavily wooded areas. My 5 ton truck, loaded with 600 gallons of fuel, was easy to drive. I wore an eyepatch on my right eye during the day and after dark I removed it. Not a single vehicle in our convoy hit anything as we weaved between the trees. Nerve wracking, yes, but completely doable.
Incidentally, the full headlights can be used as flood lights to illuminate an outdoor operating room during a power outage.
Drove these in West Germany for nearly 10 years as an Army MP through the late 70s until "The Wall" came down. While those lighting systems worked well - those Willy's sucked when chasing down Reds who were driving around in Mercedes sedans.
Every British military vehicle has had this since the 1960s to my certain knowledge. Switching to convoy lights also disconnects the horn, and shines a light onto the white-painted rear diff- which only a following vehicle can see.
Always knew about the jeeps but I really did not know about those features. This was so interestingly cool to learn!
That's super cool. I have slotted light covers on my jeep and always thought thats what black out lights were. Thank you for the education.
i had an old 1977 dodge that was a retired radio truck...had the switch cluster...the front ones works but the rears didn't...was my first truck...really miss it
During the blackouts that went on during the blitz, even civilian cars and bicycles were meant to have these fitted
I’m convinced that in the age of phone flashlights, everyone has forgotten how good human night vision actually is if you just take the time to let your dang eyes adjust lol.
Current member of the army here, humvees still have the same features. Locking selector switch, the blackouts (which look almost exactly the same), and the driving lights which still use the same general design. Didn’t know these things originated so far back!
With my eyes accustomed to the dark, I can hike through woods at midnight with just a tiny LED in a penlight.
Nice overview about blackout lights but we not only used those but also blackout marker in convoys
That blackout drive light is BRIGHT. Modern ones you've gotta hold your hand under to make sure they're working.
My car has one of those red lights in the interior. Its amazing how much you can see with a soft red light. Its like the amount you see when your eyes adjust to the dark.
This has to be where that idea originated
Always love seeing the classic non directional tires.
On modern vehicles, they use these extremely dim red lights, but when wearing nvgs, it's a massive help
They used to have two triangles amber red triangles in each rear light in black out mode so when you are in a convoy you know your distance if you see one you are at a safe distance if you see two you are too close to the vehicle in front because in a blackout convoy you don’t have break lights. I was in back in the 90s so they may do it differently now but it’s a pretty cool system we used to love driving blackout convoys on some crazy off road trails in the Midwest on training exercises.