WWII on Land, Sea & Air Charts The Demand and Challenge for Cartography (1942-1945)

Gord Beck, Map Specialist Lloyd Reeds Map Collection Outbreak of WWII Existing Maps (1939-1940)

State of Cartography: Map Grids • Inadequate, inaccurate, and uneven coverage covering western Europe in WWII

UTM Grid Employing: not yet in existence • Different projections, coordinate systems (grids), symbols, colour schemes, and methods of depicting elevation and relief

MI4 (Military Intelligence 4): Geographical Section, General Staff (GSGS), War Office

Prior to Dunkirk: France & Belgium series, 1939-1940 Army/Air Map

• 1:50,000 (GSGS 4040) based on pre-war French series • 1:80,000 (1820-1890) found to be inaccurate in WWI • new aerial photographs improved accuracy but maps still suffered from poor height control and depiction of relief (affected artillery targeting data)

• 1:250,000 (GSGS 2738) WWI series updated to cover central & southern France for Overlord and Anvil

• 1:250,000 (GSGS 4042) in new Army/Air style Dunkirk & the Fall of France Intervening Years (1941-1942): Maps for Commando Raids

‘Defence Overprint’

Dieppe Raid (Operation Jubilee, August 1942) 1:25,000 ‘Defence Overprints’ prepared from aerial photographs 1:12,500 ‘Defence Overprints’ prepared from aerial photographs Not complete coverage—only coastal areas Laurier’s collection (LCMSDS): sheet depicting no. 3 Commando’s objective Digitized by Waterloo and available from Scholars GeoPortal and McMaster websites Intervening Years Maps for the Air War (1941-1942) • 1940 daylight bombing raids suffered appalling losses • Bombing switched to night raids to minimize losses • Navigation by bearing, dead-reckoning, and visual checks (topos) • 3 out of every 100 bombs fell within 5 miles of their intended targets • In order to improve accuracy, a switch was made to coastal targets • ‘GEE’ radio navigation introduced in 1942 • First used on bombing raid of Cologne/Köln on May 30, 1942 • 1,046 bombers using ‘GEE’ results in success but also a ‘Firestorm’

Aeronautical Chart

Plotting Chart Intervening Years Lattice Charts for ’GEE’ Radio Navigation (1942) • Navigator uses oscilloscope to translate radio signals into hyperbolic lines on the lattice chart • ‘Interception’ of lines NOT ‘intersection’ • Passive system (air crews only receiving signal—not sending one), planes could not be tracked. • Limitation of GEE: range of 400 miles • Mobile GEE Stations need on the continent after the invasion to follow the advance • Required continual update of lattice charts Planning for D-Day by Air High-Altitude Topos, Army/Air & Drop Zone Maps Drop Zone Map Bomber Night Target Map Air Force 1:100,000 Army/Air topographic 1:250,000 Army/Air topographic 1:500,000 Army/Air topographic 1:1,000.000 Plotting Charts 1:2,000,000 Plotting Charts Army/Air Map Escape Maps (silk, rayon, tissue) Bomber Night Target Maps Fluorescent Maps (U.S. only)

Fighters 1:1,000,000 high altitude topographic

Airborne (Glider and Parachute) 1:25,000 Defence Overprints 1:12,500 Defence Overprints 1:5,000 Village Photo Plans Drop Zone Maps Planning for D-Day The Quebec Conference, codename: ‘Quadrant’ (1943)

• Planning for D-Day began as early as 1941 • Confirmed for May 1944 at Quebec conference

Pas de Calais: • Heavily fortified • More cliffs Normandy: • Minimum of clay and depressions • More suitable for landing troops and supplies • Resupply: close proximity to port of Cherbourg • Lessons from Dieppe • Airfield sites Site Selection for D-Day Geology and the Importance of Airfields

Portion of an Airfield Suitability Map

Caen Caen

• Airfields: best natural foundation is middle Jurassic limestone • Information provided through analysis of France 1:80,000 geology series reprinted by British GSGS (MI4) • 24 airfields by end of Overlord 2 months later Dumps, Water & Roads Geology and Logistics for Supply • Supply dumps: firm foundations, well-drained sites (soil and geology maps) • Water Supply: where, quantity, quality, and at what depth (aquifers, bedrock, boreholes) • Roads and airfields: material for road repair and construction (sands, gravels, road metals)

Road Materials

Soil Map Planning for D-Day by Sea - Neptune Mulberry Harbours: • Bring your own harbours • Site selection • Hydrographic surveys

Mulberry Harbour Model in McMaster Archives

Secret Hydrographic Survey: “Bellpush” at site Charlie

Planning for D-Day by Sea Where & When to Land the Assault Force Beach Gradient Profile: Courseulles-sur-Mer Beach Obstacles

High Tide vs Low Tide High-tide: less distance to traverse but risk of obstacles (wooden poles with mines, hedgehogs, Belgian gates) • Profile maps needed showing beach gradients • Gradients to be compared with profiles of ship fore and aft trim based on tonnage • Tide photographed at 6 levels and corresponding lines superimposed on photo mosaic map of low tide Planning for D-Day by Sea Beach Analysis

COPP: Combined Operations Pilotage Parties

Existing Sources of Information: • Foreign booksellers, obscure journal articles • captured enemy maps • Travelling businessmen and engineers • Prewar postcards, BBC vacation photo contest New Sources of Information: • Labourers and the • Clandestine hydrographic surveys from small, 10 metre vessels • X-Craft Midget subs: Special Boat Service “frogmen,” Amphibious Scouts, Combined Operations Pilotage Parties • Best source: aerial photos (30-50 foot “dicing” missions) revealed peat, depth of cart tracks • Testing at similar beaches in the UK (Brancaster in Norfolk) with various vehicles and tide conditions

By D-Day over 200 beaches photographed and gradients determined Mapping for D-Day by Land Benson & Bogus Topographic Maps • 1:25,000 scale ‘Bensons’ named after airfield used for photo reconnaissance sorties • preferred scale for the Infantry • 1:12,500 scale ‘Baby Bensons’ primarily for coastal areas • detail showed every cart track, footpath, hedge, wall and feature dividing fields • Tanks normally used 1:100,000 but found them invaluable in the Bocage countryside • Bogus/Deception versions were issued with substituted fictional toponyms Bogus version (e.g. Oslo for Ouistreham or Venice for Bénouville) Mapping for D-Day By Land American Photo Maps: Brest Peninsula

• Produced by U.S. in case topos not ready in time • Brest Peninsula objective of U.S. forces • Photomaps scorned by the British • Not needed, never used

Portion of a photo map

Index to photo maps frOm Overlord to Antwerp Communications Maps, Through Maps & Town Plans

Through Map

Communications Map Red Ball Express: • Supply routes overextended • Truck convoy system to expedite delivery of supplies • Priority trucks and routes marked with a red ball • ‘Communications’ maps and ‘Through maps’: fastest and alternate routes • At its peak, close to 6,000 trucks delivered 12,500 tons of supplies per day • Not needed after port of Antwerp captured and route to the sea secured D-Day tO War’s enD ‘An Army Moves and Fights on Maps’ Interesting Statistics: • 170 million maps produced for D-Day alone • 120 million more maps were produced from D-Day to end of the war in Europe • U.S. Army Map Service went from 150 personnel before the war to 2,500 at the end • U.S. Aeronautical Chart Service went from 20 personnel before Pearl Harbor to 5,000 just 1 month later (many were subcontractors) • USSAF initiates new WAC series at 1:1mil (1942) • 950 sheets by end of war = 15 million square miles mapped = ¼ of the world’s landmass • Combined output of both U.S. agencies between 1941 and 1945 was 650 million maps War’s enD & BeyOnD The ‘Survey’ Monuments Men

‘HOUGH TEAM’ (Oct. 1944-Sept. 1945) 3 officers, 4 engineers, 10 enlisted men Commanded by Major Floyd W. Hough, (geodesist) U.S. Army Engineers tasked with acquisition of enemy maps, geodetic data & cartographic equipment • searched universities, libraries, archives on American advance through Germany • Discovered warehouse (Saalfeld) containing entire archive of the German Army (90 tons amounting to 75 truckloads of maps, equipment and geodetic data) Floyd Hough • Captured Chief German Engineer of National Triangulation, Erwin Gigas • ‘Persuaded’ German geodesists to work on the European Datum 1950 (ED50) Legacy: • Hough continues after the war as key figure in creation of UTM and MGRS • GEE becomes DECCA, SHORAN becomes LORAN: leads to GPS • Large number of trained men stay in the field of cartography after the war (ASE)

250 tons of material found in: • Basements and behind walls • Cemeteries and monasteries • Caves and salt mines • Piles of earth, sawdust and manure

Letter from Floyd Hough to his Commanding Officer regarding his discovery at Saalfeld WWII on Land, Sea & Air Charts The Demand and Challenge for Cartography (1942-1945) References: Allen, Gordon. (2005). Mapping and Charting for the Greatest Collaborative Project Ever. The American Surveyor. June.

Allen, T. (2002). Untold Stories of D-Day. National Geographic, v.201 (6), pp. 2-37.

Chasseaud, P. (2001). Mapping for D-Day: The Allied Landings in Normandy, 6 June 1944. The Cartographic Journal, v.38 (2), pp. 177-189.

Clough, A. B. (1952). The Second World War 1939-1945, Army Maps and Survey. London: War Office.

Doyle, P. and Matthew, B. (2002). Fields of Battle: Terrain in Military History. London: Kluwer Academic.

Monmonier, Mark. (1987). The History of Cartography, v.6, pt.2. Chicago: University of Chicago Press

Rankin, W. (2016). After the Map: Cartography, Navigation, and the Transformation of Territory in the Twentieth Century. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Rose, E.P.F., et al (2006) Specialist Maps Prepared by British Military Geologists for the D-Day Landings and Operations in Normandy, 1944. The Cartographic Journal, v.43 (2), pp. 117-145.

Thomson, D. (1969). Men and Meridians: The History of Surveying and Mapping in Canada, v.3. Ottawa: Queen’s printer.

Williams, R. C. Jr. (1949). Amphibious Scouts and Raiders. Military Affairs, v.13 (3), pp. 150-157.