The Zielgerät 1229 (ZG 1229), also known in its code name Vampir, was an active infrared device developed for the Wehrmacht for the Sturmgewehr 44 assault rifle, intended primarily for night use.
The ZG 1229 Vampir weighed in at 2.25 kilograms (about 5 lbs.) and was fitted with lugs on the StG 44 at C.G. Haenel at Suhl, the weapons production facility. The grenadier carrying this was known as a Nachtjäger (night-hunter). As well as the sight and infrared spotlight, there was a 13.5 kilogram (about 30 lbs.) wooden cased battery for the light, and a second battery fitted inside a gas mask container to power the image converter. This was all strapped to a Tragegestell 39 (pack frame 1939). The searchlight consisted of a conventional tungsten light source shining through a filter permitting only infrared light. It operated in the upper infrared (light) spectrum rather than in the lower infrared (heat) spectrum and was, therefore, not sensitive to body heat.

Vampir gear was first used in combat in February 1945. However, small arms infrared device introduction took place in early 1944. 310 units were delivered to the Wehrmacht at the final stages of the war. Eastern Front veteran reports consist of snipers shooting at night with the aid of ‘peculiar non-shining torches coupled with enormous optical sights’ mounted on their rifles. Similar infrared gear was fitted both to MG34 and MG42 machine guns


The Zielgerät 1229

Ulrich Graf (6 July 1878 – 3 March 1950)
Hitler early personal bodyguard and inner circle member who at the 1923 Beer Hall Putsch gunfight saved Hitler life  
Graf shielded Hitler with his body, received several bullet wounds, and possibly saved Hitler's life
In 1937, he was promoted to the rank of SS-Oberführer
On Graf's birthday, 3 July 1943, he received a book from Himmler, Vogt Bartold: The Long Train to the East, signed by Himmler, thanking Graf for saving Hitler's life 20 years earlier.
In 1948, Graf was sentenced to five years hard labor and died in March 1950.

Ulrich Graf Hitler Bodyguard 

The Ruhrstahl Ru 344 X-4 was a wire guided air-to-air missile designed by Germany during World War II. The X-4 did not see operational service and thus was not proven in combat. The X-4 was the basis for the development of experimental, ground-launchedanti-tank missiles that became the basis for considerable post-war work around the world, including the Malkara missile.

The first flight test occurred on August 11, 1944 using a Focke-Wulf Fw 190 for the launch platform. Subsequent tests used the Junkers Ju 88 and Messerschmitt Me 262, although they were not launched from the latter. The X-4 had originally been intended for use by single-seat fighters (including the Me 262 and possibly the Dornier Do 335),but the problems in guiding both the missile and the aircraft at the same time proved unworkable. Instead, the X-4 was re-directed to multi-seat aircraft like the Ju 88, while the unguided R4M rocket was to be used in single-seaters.

The X-4 was designed to be easily assembled by unskilled labour, and airframe production began in early 1945, incorporating low-cost (non-strategic) materials, such as wood for fins. Production was hampered by Allied bombing of the BMW rocket engine factory at Stargard, though as many as 1,000 X-4s may have been completed. It is possible some X-4s were used in the closing weeks of World War II, although the missile was never officially delivered to the Luftwaffe. The fighter-interceptor designed to use this missile as its primary weapon was the Focke-Wulf Ta 183 Huckebein, which never got out of the project stage.

After the war, French engineers tried to develop a domestic version of the X-7, the Nord SS.10. 200 units were manufactured between 1947 and 1950. However, the program was disbanded due to the dangerous pre-flight refuelling involved (the nitric acid and Tonka combination was highly explosive).
