Rudolf Gundlach

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Rudolf Gundlach (born March 28, 1892 in Łódź , † December 4, 1957 near Paris) was a Polish engineer, inventor and tank designer.

Life

Gundlach obtained his university entrance qualification in 1910 in Łódź. He then studied mechanical engineering at the Riga Technical University . Like his older brother Sigmund, he was a member of the Korporacja Akademicka Welecja . After the evacuation due to the war, he continued his studies in Moscow until 1916. When the revolution broke out, he joined the first Polish corps of General Józef Dowbor-Muśnicki . After its dissolution, he returned to Poland and took part in the Polish-Soviet War . After the war he continued his intermittent studies at the Technical University of Warsaw and finally graduated in 1925.

In 1929 he was the chief designer of the wz.-29 armored car Ursus and oversaw the construction of the 7TP light tank and the 10TP medium tank . On February 18, 1930 he was promoted to captain. In 1932 he served in the Military Institute for Construction and Research in Warsaw ( Polish Wojskowy Instytut Badań Inżynieryjnych ). With the rank of major in the pioneer troop, he headed the technical office for tank research (in Polish: Biuro Badań Technicznych Broni Pancernych ) before the Second World War . From 1938 to 1939 he was co-editor of the military monthly "Panzerrevue" ( Polish Przegląd Wojsk Pancernych ).

Corner mirror MK.IV

Gundlach gained notoriety through the revolutionary MK.IV corner mirror that he invented, which was patented in 1936 and used in practically every tank of the Second World War.

exile

After the fall of Poland in 1939, Gundlach fled, like many Polish soldiers, technicians, scientists and engineers, to France via Romania. In France he worked in the military office of the Ministry of Industry ( Polish: Biuro Wojennego Przemysłu przy Ministerstwie Przemysłu ) of the Polish government in exile . After the defeat of France, he could not be evacuated to Great Britain due to health problems, so he had to stay in Vichy France for the remainder of the war.

After the Second World War, he led a long legal battle over license fees from the various corner mirror manufacturers. In 1947 he was finally awarded 84 million francs , which allowed him to retire on a farm near Paris. He lived there until his death in 1957.

  • Corner mirror MK.IV

  • Ursus

  • 7TP

Honors

Gundlach received the Cross of Merit of the Republic of Poland in gold for his invention .

literature

  • Grzegorz Łukomski, Rafał E. Stolarski: Nie tylko Enigma… Mjr Rudolf Gundlach (1892–1957) i jego wynalazek . Ed .: Komisja historyczna b. Sztabu Głównego Polskich Sił Zbrojnych (=  Żołnierze II Rzeczypospolitej ). II edition. Oficyna Wydawnicza “Adiutor”, Warsaw / London 2006 (Polish: Nie tylko Enigma… Mjr Rudolf Gundlach (1892–1957) i jego wynalazek .).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Rudolf Gundlach. Korporacja Akademicka Welecja . In: welecja.pl. Retrieved May 11, 2015 (Polish).
  2. ↑ a b c d Stanisław Abramczyk: Nie tylko deszyfraż Enigmy. (No longer available online.) In: passa.waw.pl. February 6, 2014, archived from the original on May 18, 2015 ; Retrieved on May 11, 2015 (Polish, of the 84 million Fr the procedural and legal fees as well as taxes went.). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.passa.waw.pl
  3. ↑ Stefan Kotsch: Brief outline of the history of the commanders dome. Part 1. In: Main battle tanks in detail. kotsch88.de, April 5, 2015, accessed on May 11, 2015 .
  4. ↑ 99-year-old Polish WWII veteran honored in Edinburgh. News from Poland. In: thenews.pl. Radio Poland, October 24, 2015, accessed May 11, 2015 .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Gundlach, Rudolf
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Polish engineer, inventor and tank designer
DATE OF BIRTH March 28, 1892
PLACE OF BIRTH Łódź
DATE OF DEATH 4th December 1957
Place of death near Paris