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Hello Kevin,

Your appear to be German (or a least know some/at lot of the German language), however, for the benefit of all others I will continue in English.

History (as far as known or supposed) and properties of the (my) SOLD sextant:

• I bought this instrument about seven years ago from an renowned Hamburgian militaria dealer. It had some small defects, some from abuse others from age. However, the general appearance (e.g. paint status) was almost "unused".
• It does not contain a manufacturer's name on its data plate (could only be C. Plath, Hamburg or DeTeWe, Berlin), instead the name is milled out on it (a standard procedure in the later time of war). A theory: This instrument was probably made by C. Plath in Hamburg and was still at the manufacturer's premises by the end of war. Someone (employee?) may have "rescued" it before the alleys seized it. At a (much later) point of time it was then sold to above militaria dealer. I could trace a manufactures mark on inside of the left handle (Bakelite cast) and assign it to a company in Hamburg. But, we'll never know its provenience for sure.
• As mentioned above, I think this copy is of a very late manufacturing date and was never issued to the Luftwaffe. Why? I does neither have the usual acceptance stamp nor an index error on the altitude hand wheel. However, it was earmarked for the Luftwaffe because it is in special box designated for aircraft use (special attachment points etc).
• In the last phase of WW2 the German war industry (or industry in general) was short of several materials, mainly metals. Also this instrument does not have an index lighting, which obviously many late sextants did not have any more. Interestingly the drill holes for that lighting attachment are present. The more pointing feature is the kind of material of the bulb housing (light for the bubble illumination). It is made of Bakelite plastic instead, as "normal", being a light metal alloy cast piece. By the way, one of its hinges was broken (abuse, I suppose). I remodeled it with ground down "vintage/contemporary" Bakelite and epoxy.
• Much more relevant for the dating is the wooden sextant case. (1) The instructions on the inner cover were traditionally printed on a metal (zinc?) plate. This one is on cardboard (in order to save metal). (2) Parts of the sextant clamping mechanism (levers, stoppers etc.) were normally made of some kind of exotic (to be imported) hardwood. To reduce even that the hardwood appears only partially. The box contained  all of its original parts (spare bulbs, eyepiece, brush, aircraft power cable etc., minus the cleaning cloth.

After some repairs/modifications the sextant works well and is quite accurate. The bubble works ok. Its size can be manipulated easily. The clockwork and the averager/integrator work (not necessary for use on a tripod). The battery was some kind of challenge since this battery type is nowadays a bit hard to come by (2R10 Duplex 3 V zinc-carbon), and if too expensive. I made an adapter using copper and plastic pipe plus a soldered in rivet for a lithium 3 Volts battery (type CR123A) in the same size of the original battery.

Werner

Re: Aircraft Sextant (German SOLD) on a Tripod
From: Kevin Stalder
Date: 2026 Nov 6, 20:48 -0800

Hallo Werner,

The SOLD sextant interessiert mich sehr. Perhaps you could provide a brief history about the sextant.  I wonder if it was used by, and/or developed for the Luftwaffe? I know that the Afrika Korp used Astrocompasses in N Africa. Perhaps this model of sextant also?  Glaube nicht.

Thank you for sharing your experiences with this sextant.  I'd love to know more this great sextant.

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