Hunting grade network notification procedure

The hunting level network reporting procedure of the German Air Force and the Navy was a coordinate system for locating enemy formations and for coordinating their defense or attack.

air force

history

The graticule reporting procedure was developed before the war and remained in use until the end of April 1943. With the increasing number of enemy bombers arriving, it became necessary to expand the method of commanding fighter and anti-aircraft guns . This expansion was carried out by Wolfgang Martini by introducing a hunter reporting network on May 1, 1943 .

method

The Luftwaffe's graticule reports were based on the grid of geographic longitudes and latitudes. The degrees of longitude from the meridian, the 0 degrees, vary by 10 degrees from west to east, about 10, 20, 30, 40 degrees etc. The degrees of latitude also migrate by 10 degrees from north to south about 59, 49, 39 degrees etc. the realm area in grid squares of ten degrees of longitude and ten degrees of latitude is called the additional number area . Their designation is determined by the first tens of the longitude and the first tens of the latitude, for basic numbers below ten it is determined with zero. Since the additional number areas are repeated in the four earth quadrants, the distinction between: East and West, or Southeast and Southwest, has to be introduced. The fact that the German Empire is located in the northern hemisphere was simply named East from the northeast. The resulting spaces were subdivided into 100 large trapezoids according to longitude and latitude . - Of course it wasn't a question of squares, because the longitudes at the North Pole converge at one point, the northern side is shorter than the southern. These large trapezoids were numbered from 00 to 99. A large trapezoid was about 70 × 111 km in size. The first digit was the units of longitude, the second was the units of latitude. The further subdivision was called the central trapezoid . The great trapezoid was divided into a southern and a northern one, at 30 degrees latitude and at 15, 30, 45 degrees longitude. This resulted in eight central trapezoids measuring approx. 35 × 28 km. Like the writing, the designation ran from right to left and from top to bottom, i.e. from northwest corner to southeast corner with the letters from A to U without the I; AA, AB, AC up to AU to start again in the west, only this time a row lower with BA, BB, BC up to BU etc. This central trapezoid was again in nine small trapezoids , measuring 9 × 11 km. This time the designation was digits and they ran, like the cursive script, from 1 to 9. This small trapezoid in turn was divided into four reporting trapezoids of approx. 3 × 4 km. The names were lowercase letters from a to i. Which in turn was divided into four working trapezoids of approx. 1 × 1.2 km. The designations were top left (Lo) top right (ro), bottom left (lu) and bottom right (ru).

Navy

method

In the Kriegsmarine, the entire globe was divided into four large square sectors, each with a two-letter designation z. B. AE, AF, BA, BB, were provided. Each such sector was further subdivided into a 3 × 3 matrix so that there were nine squares. Each of these nine squares was divided again into nine smaller squares. This resulted in a grid with 81 squares. Each grid was given a two-digit number combination, so that a coordinate system was created with two letters and two digits. Each of these squares was again subdivided in the same way, so that 81 squares were created within the square, which were again labeled in the same way. The result was a coordinate system in which every small square could only be identified by specifying two letters and four digits. This was a useful tool when reporting your position through the Enigma.

Web links

literature

HJ Zetzmann: "The transmitters and transmission systems of the Reichsflugsicherung - Part I and II", Berlin 1938/39
Wolfgang Martini: The air communication system in the context of the Wehrmacht leadership. Federal Archives / Military Archives, Freiburg 1947