As an owner of Leica cameras, I belong to Leica Historical Society of America, and in their last couple of issues of the Viewfinder, they discussed the program by Leica to produce night infra red sights for German armored vehicles. Lots of good photos, too. Pretty high tech stuff for the time.  I believe you can go to their web site and search for the 3rd and 4th quarter, 2002 issues to read this, if you are interested.
John

Was this the Vampire system?  there was also a system mounted to Panther tanks at the very end of the war as well.  I know nothing about it, is this something they made as well.

Leica is really good stuff.  Wish I could aford it.

You CAN afford it if you do a little shopping.
For instance, the Leicaflex SL, an slr produced in the early '70s.

I will have to go back and review the articles. The gear looked pretty advanced for the time.

I'll take a look at that.  I have heard the M3 is a great camera as well.

As for the German stuff, it was very advanced for its time.  I'ts a damn good thing they lost when they did.

You can find nice Leicaflex SL's in clean 'user' condition - no problems, and very minor cosmetic blemishes - in the $375 to $450 range, maybe even less. For a lens, a 2 cam 50mm Summicron in very clean shape for $200. That's with no glass problems or malfuntions.
These are very excellent cameras. A decent user M3 body will got for $700 to $850. A clean 50mm Summicron M lens will start at $400.
If you are interested, take a look at Keh Cameras on the web. His ratings are very conservative.
AGAIN I digress!!! I promise - no more