Snipers often aim at reflections. During the Normandy invasion 50 years ago, British officers carried their maps in protective transparent covers. The covers glinted in the sunlight and many officers died because German snipers aimed at the flashing light. Now a Massachusetts company has developed a way of preventing an essential piece of military equipment from glinting - the glass lenses in a pair of binoculars.
The former Israeli minister Moshe Dayan was the best-known victim of binoculars. In the 1948 war between Israel and its Arab neighbours a sniper spotted the glint from Dayan's binoculars. Dayan lost an eye and forever after wore the eyepatch that was his trademark.
Tenebraex, a small firm, based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, is providing anti-glint shields for the US Army that cover binocular lenses, turning them into mat black surfaces that reflect no light at all yet allow the user to see through the ...
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