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Remembered Today:

Meuse Batterieplan / artillery map German dec. 1917- jan. 1918


thomasontheplain

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Dear reader,

On my holiday in France i came across this map pasted on a wooden panel. It depicts German positions and front line change around Verdun area, Avocourt, Chattancourt etc. All along the Meuse river.

Does anyone have a clue of the historical value of this particular map?

 

Kind regards,

 

thomas

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Edited by thomasontheplain
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What a truly original and quite possibly unique Great War item you have posted.

I am certainly no expert in maps but I have never seen anything like it before. That compass scale type overlay is also most impressive. The whole thing looks like it should be in a museum.

 

I have been reading about the region as many of my Polish ancestors were fighting in the forest of Argonne.

 

the American army also took part in operations in the Meuse Argonne from 1917 too.

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One of the keys to the German successes in resisting attack formations was its use of prepared firing lines for MG's and artillery. This seems to be somehow related to that idea.

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The notes on the back say that the tool was issued by the 15th Bavarian Survey Unit (Vermessungs Abt. 15 [Bayer.]). It was used for creating artillery plans (Artillerieplananfertigung).

 

Robert

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Thank you all for your most interesting input! i have made out that on the back above the piece of paper 'Batteriplan' are initials in green pencil almost faded out; U.N. / V.N. ...maybe the person who put together this plotting board?

 

init01.jpg

Edited by thomasontheplain
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Thomas,

 

I don't know if you can still see the board or have any other photo's of the board to answer my question.

Do you know where the "point of the Cheese" is, or the location point  where the map fans out and away from ?

 

Looking at the bends in the river bed i would hazard a guess at Brieulles-Sur Meuse being a possible gun site.

 

( From reading the below post I can now see that this is properly referred to as the pivot point)

 

I can see the French fort of Douamont, on the lowest of your 4 images in your original post, but I can't work out how it fits into the big top image.

 

I am guessing that Verdun is towards the bottom right of your top image.

 

Martin

Edited by Martin Feledziak
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I may have confused things by linking this post to the older thread - so I have copied over this interesting post from

CHASEMUSEUM :-

 

This is a typical German WW1 plotting board. There used to be examples on display at FirePower when it was open. The IWM used to have examples on display - unsure if the currently have one on display. I think that Australian War Memorial also have examples in their reserve collection but none on display.

 

It is the same technology as used with British/Australian plotting boards of both World Wars, and plotting boards used throughout the world  for use in the calculation of artillery (and mortar) indirect fire co-ordinates to be site on the weapons prismatic sight.

 

The unique WW1 German, western front feature is to glue down sections of standard topographic maps to the board and mark these up with key features. This was an expensive process used in static warfare only. If the guns were relocated either the boards had to be cleaned off and new maps applied or entirely new plotting boards made.

These German boards just allowed the calculations to be prepared more quickly than the more typical process of marking up a standard plotting table.

 

For coastal artillery, permanent map boards are normal, but the tables were typically about 3m x 3m. The museum at the old coastal battery at Darwin (NT Aust') has an example of this.

 

In the calculation, the origin (pivot point) of the board is the map location of where the gun is located. The target point and the forward fire observers locations are marked up on the map board.  The observer will give his compass bearing to the target and will correct fall of shot, left or right, increase distance or shorten distance relative to his position. The plotting board allows these adjustments to be corrected to adjustments relative to the gun. To try to simplify the concept, consider that the observer has a bearing to the target 90degrees counter-clockwise different to the bearing from the gun. The observer wants fall of shot corrected 100m closer to himself. To the observer this is drop 100.  Corrected to the actual gun this would be a correction of fall of shot 100m to the right relative to the gun.

 

This was part of the package of new artillery technologies - smokeless powder propellant charges, efficient breach loading, recoil carriage and prismatic sights, which made artillery so much deadlier than during previous wars. Dominating the battlefield and eliminating mobility.

 

These German plotting boards are seldom displayed with sufficient information to illustrate the meaning - they are a mechanical calculator that allows a complex calculation to be made in seconds. From the telephone request, the first shells can be on their way to the target in 30 seconds and exploding on target in less than a minute from the request. With amazing precision from 10km away. Quite literally a few metres off. These boards are a big part of why the Western Front was the Western Front.

 

Cheers

RT

Edited by Martin Feledziak
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That is Great Thomas.

That is how I imagined it with Mort Homme and Hill 304 along with the forts at Vaux and Douamont in play.

 

The board must have have been prepared for the "Big" guns - it would be interesting to know which Gun/Guns.

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  • 1 year later...

Dear Martin,

 

Those big guns must have been stationed at B. on the map, along the Meuse river. South east of Brieulles sur Meuse. Interesting to go there soon and see if there is a plateau left etc.

On the artillery map itself there is an elaborate system of railway lines. Modern day maps also clear to see the old embankments of older railways. Most of the embankment do not have the rails anymore on them and some are even being dug away for the usage of sand purposes. Its a bit of a pity because old railroad embankments are in my perspective a form of historical landscape heritage that have a historical value and even can be a benefit for biological diversity. 

 

o/

Thomas

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  • spof changed the title to Meuse Batterieplan / artillery map German dec. 1917- jan. 1918

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