A recent addition to my collection and thanks to Tony at Kaiser's Bunker, I can provide some background as to who he was and what he did.
Kanonier Benedikt Jost from Bavarian Artillerie messtrupp 28, December 1915, Fussartillerie-Batterie Nr. 123, 123. Infanterie-Division.
Tony provided me with this excellent précis of what a messtrupp was all about:
Die Artillerie-Messformationen (AM) were Fussartillerie Foot Artillery "measuring formations" for "flash and bang" counter-battery fire.
They later branches out into seperate skillsets:
LM - Lichtmesstruppe (Light measuring) for flash counterbattery fire SM - Schallmessung (Sound measuring) for "bang" counterbattery fire PK - Park-Kompanien- ( Fussartillerie depot company) storage and retrofit for cannons MF - Mastfernrohrtrupps- (Fussartillerie mast telescope troops) A tall mast that an observer climbed up on for artillerie spotting.
Very nice photos. The artillery sound ranging units in German service are an area I am trying to get more information on. I have at least one good photograph of a sound ranging instrument on my web site:
Wow, that is weird. What is even more weird is I think that these are not a joke but a real acquisition system. Notice both sets are just alike. However, I'm not sure what purpose the goggles could sure.
The goggles may just have been "blinders" to eliminate visual clues in testing the system - there would be exceptions, but soldiers don't customarily go about arm-in-arm (though the one on the left looks pretty pleased about it all - while keeping his fist resolutely clenched).
OMG do I love that photo Brett. "Take me to your leader". Next to Ralph's cannons, could there be cooler Fußartillerie collectible? Regarding the touching thing, very common for German soldiers to even hold hands in photos. Not a big deal at that time.
For the record, 33 years in the Cdn Army, noooo photos of me in the field holding hands with my tank crew.
Steve, very interesting German device on you site. I am, amongst others things, studying the sound detecting devices of the Belgian army. But that came later than WW1. It was a czech device from Harlas.
Steve, very interesting German device on you site. ...
The 1940 one in a searchlight housing? Yes, it seems like a good idea in the days before radar - I think they could be integrated into fire control for AA quite easily and use the optical reflector for gathering the sound - an easy adaptation in several ways. The Czech equipment looks to have been very advanced. But the atmosphere is chaotic for sound transmission over long ranges - not good for precision, I think.
thank you for the tip over this site re bunker. very interesting but...too much. In so far, I did not find the pictures that you kindly inserted in this very forum. can you give me a tip to find them ?
The Galileo was an Italian projector ! Not Czech.
The sound detecting device was indeed Czech, but at a time was manufactured in Belgium
Interesting, as their story starts during WW1 and ends in WW2.