German Field and Foot Artillery Transparent Plotting Device

Above:  This is an example of a German Artillery plotting tool made of transparent velum paper.  The scale in black from 1400-0 is one fourth of the 0-5760 scale used by German Foot Artillery.  This scale is in sixteenths of a degree (16 x 360 = 5760).  The scale in red 0-1600 is one fourth of the German Field Artillery 0-6400 mil scale.  In 1916 the Foot Artillery adopted the Field Artillery 0-6400 mil scale but very likely some Foot Artillery units continued to use the old scale.  This tool allows both scales to be used as well as allowing for conversion from one to another. The two scales are set together on a 1:1000 map grid.  This particular one is dated 1918 and used by the 6th Bavarian Field Artillery Regiment. 

I had been puzzled about why I was not finding a German Field or Foot Artillery plotter from the 1890s-1918.  I expected it to be made of metal and should have been produced in large enough numbers for a few to still be around.  I have been looking for thirty years and nothing like this came up.  Now, by chance I have found this very thin fragile velum paper scale and it makes sense.  These pieces likely did not survive in large numbers.  I have also seen similar scales made of velum paper used with indirect fire plotting for US/French heavy machineguns in WW1. For exampes see the Major Cooper D. Winn group