Specialist Maps of the Geological Section, Inter-Service Topographical Department: Aids to British Military Planning During World War II

Water Supply Maps for North-west Europe Developed by British Military Geologists during World War II: Innovative Mapping for Mobile Warfare

“…No photographs of Shotton in uniform are known: a photograph long believed to represent the planning team containing Shotton (Rose et al, 2006, Figure 3) has recently been reidentified as of the Geological Section Inter-Service Topographical Department in 1944, and the figure supposedly Shotton to be Captain A. D. M. Bell RE (cf. Rose and Clatworthy, 2007a, Figure 1). From Lapworth Club photo [1949][1950] extensive blanket of loess over much of the remaining terrain.…”

“…Both military geologist expertise and, presumably, local knowledge, would have been available to guide the choice of individual well sites -and for most Royal Engineer boreholes, Shotton examined soil and rock samples obtained during drilling, and collated details of well logs and test pumping data as the drilling programme progressed. GERMANY 1944GERMANY -1945 To extend coverage eastwards and so aid planning for the continuing Allied advance, the Geological Section of the Inter-Service Topographical Department (ISTD) prepared nine maps 6 illustrating potential groundwater conditions ( Figure 18) as transparent overlays for use with sheets of the then current 1 : 250 000 topographical map series (GSGS 4346) for northern Germany (Rose and Clatworthy, 2007a According to details recorded on his proposal form 7 for election to fellowship of the Geological Society of London, William Rees Williams (Figure 19) was born on 4 August Figure 17. Lille-Ghent, a 'secret' water supply map printed at scale of 1 : 250 000 in September 1944 as a transparent overlay to fit over topographical map series GSGS 4042 sheet 2 (Figures 4 and 9).…”

“…For key, see Table 7. Table 4) for sheet names and printing details (Rose and Clatworthy, 2007a) 1901; had graduated from the University of Wales (Cardiff) with a BSc degree in mining; and by 1942 was working as a mining geologist for Frantino Gold Mines Limited from a South American address, in Columbia. His form records that he was then also an Associate of the Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, and a Member of the South Wales Institute of Engineers.…”

“…King and Shotton are known to have worked in close association with the Geological Survey (Rose, 2004a), King notably with the hydrogeologist Stevenson Buchan (Wilson, 1985;Gray and Mather, 2004), but they developed military water supply maps which are innovative by reason of their relatively early date, relatively large and metric scale, widespread coverage, and overlay 'prospect' map style. The ISTD used geologists to generate simplified geological maps for parts of Europe other than Germany, and especially for parts of the Far East, in which water supply information was depicted -but only as one of several geotechnical components, and at small scale (mostly 1 : 1 000 000), as reviewed by Rose and Clatworthy (2007a). The Geological Section ISTD was founded in November 1943, so had no influence on preparation of King's 1 : 50 000 scale water supply maps published two months earlier.…”

“…King, O.B.E., M.C., of Cambridge University' Index map for water supply trace maps, prepared by the Geological Section ISTD in 1944-1945 to fit topographical map series GSGS 4346 for Germany at scale of 1 : 250 000, preserved in the Shotton Archive of the Lapworth Museum of Geology. SeeRose and Clatworthy (2007a, …”