Can anyone make this out?

[Simon O.]

I just got a WP to a Wachtmeister in 1./Geb.Nachrichten Abteilung 91 today. Inside the front pocket was this thin strip of paper. It's clearly some sort of message, instructions, orders or something like that but it seems, at least to me to be in some kind of shorthand, i can make out a few numbers, dates and times but that's it. Anyone out there make out any more?

the thing is just 25mm wide and each side 14.5cm long.

side 1



side 2



side 3



side 4

[Robin Lumsden]

It's not often you see Suetterlin in shorthand!

Any secretaries from the 1940s still around to decipher?

[Simon O.]

They didn't need the Enigma with shorthand like that!

[john moody]

Simon,
I love to collect feldpost; just to discover what the ordinary german soldier thought about the war.
I have approximately 1200 feldpost letters and have come across sutterlin shorthand on several occasions.
My partner is a German lady who can translate sutterlin script (no mean feat in itself) which has not been used in Germany for many years.
She can not translate German sutterlin shorthand which this message is written in.
This intrigues me more as a person trying to camoflage a letter may write in this way to convey a message which an official censor may not understand.
My partner can translate modern German shorthand but not this writing system.
I wonder if any members her can translate sutterlin shorthand?

Best regards,

John.

[byterock]

Short-hand was used extensively by German junior staff officers (a rather long and boring part of their training according to what I have read)

They used it for taking minutes of meetings and such of more senior officers.

My understanding is that the two or three systems were standardized at some point in the 1930s so this could be one of the earlier ones that was dropped later.


There were at one time expert Int-Os who could read this sort of thing but I think finding one of them would be rather hard now.

[Simon O.]

I think this maybe something used by signallers, I used something similar myself in the army so the abbreviations could well be military type abbreviations. The only other thing i can think of is if it's written using some kind of low level code.

The clue here is that the message comes from a Signals sergeant, the paper makes me think of the kind of thing they might have used when sending messages by carrier pigeon or dog.