Early in World War II, the success of the German Blitzkrieg was apparent, and little thought was given to developing equipment for a static, defensive war. Even into the early stages of their invasion of Russia, codenamed Operation Barbarossa, the offensive German war machine seemed near unstoppable. However, by the end of 1942 this all changed, with the German advance grinding to a halt, and many areas of the Eastern Front devolving into static trench warfare. Due to this, the Germans began looking back upon lessons learned and equipment developed in the trenches of World War I. This device is a product of that, and shows a lot of similarities with its earlier counterparts. These indirect firing devices were developed to allow the user to fire his weapon over the top of a trench or dugout without exposing any part of himself to enemy fire. The World War I devices had incorporated a complicated cocking mechanism to work with bolt action rifles, however with the development of semi-automatic rifles such as the G41 and later G/K43, this was no longer necessary, and was omitted from the new design which became known as the "deckungszielgerät", or "DZG". Some versions of this device were also adapted to function with captured Soviet SVT rifles, as the G41 and 43 rifles failed to make it to the front lines in great numbers. This is an example of one fitted for an SVT, having the "R" marking, for "Russian/Russich" on the left near the plug slot. This example shows a thick coat of black paint on the metal with "DZG" over a faint Waffenamt proof on the left and "1311" in yellow paint on the right. All components appear to be present. Includes copies of a manual in German, copies of photos of the device in use, and other research documents.