Heeres mapping system

[RichTO90]

Bump. Anyone know the answer?

Sorry, missed this somehow. Frankly, it is Irving's usual methods of deduction. He finds documents that indicate that Rommel directed his division by delineating Stosslinie, so that must mean that Rommel devised the system of Stosslinie. Its use was doctrinal throughout the Heer, which would not imply that it was an invention in spring 1940 by a single division commander that suddenly was used by everyone.

Rich

[Urmel]

Thanks! That's what I thought. I have found what looks like references to Stosslinien on WW1 German maps, but without knowing if it was this system they used then, one can not be sure.

The reason why I would like to have positive proof that it was not his invention is of course an off chance that Rommel invented the system during his time at the academy in Wiener Neustadt.

[Cliff Mugnier]

The mapping system used by the German Army was the Deutches Herresgitter (DHG). The mathematical model used was the Gauss-Krüger Transverse Mercator and the geodetic Datum origin was at Pottsdam, referenced to the Bessel 1841 ellipsoid of revolution. The DHG had the same parameters as the Soviet Army ("Russia Belts") and the same as the U.S. Army in post-WWII to present "Universal Transverse Mercator" (UTM) except that the DHG and the Russian system used a scale factor at orign of 1.0 while the UTM uses 0.9996. The belts (or Zones) were six degrees wide (± 3º) from the Central Meridian, starting at 0º, or Greenwich. The DHG was used throughout Europe and North Africa during WWII. My guess is that Professor Gigas was the author, as he directed the Geodetic Section of the German Military as well as (I think) Chief Scientist at Zeiss.

Cliff Mugnier
LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY

See: www.ASPRS.org/resources/Grids

[Urmel]

Many thanks for the reply. I think Irving's point is regarding the thrust line (or thrust point system), not the grid system, however. This system does not need a grid to function.

[Urmel]

Here is an example from Africa:

http://rommelsriposte.com/2014/12/29/an ... tosslinie/

[MLW]

Here is a short article about the German grid system -

http://854534263155010103.weebly.com/up ... c_1944.pdf

Regards,
Marc
http://www.digitalhistoryarchive.com