The Story Behind the Maps
David Heathcote writes > I am writing this as we approach the 80th Anniversary of VE-Day. By now, we are reasonably confident that all the RAF men who landed on Omaha Beach on D-Day in 1944 have passed away. May they Rest In Peace.
However, it would be wrong to think that there is no more information to be discovered about the D-Day landing. A search of the internet recently produced a link to a research paper, entitled “Specialist Maps Prepared by British Military Geologists for the D-Day Landings and Operations in Normandy, 1944”. Using this material, for the first time it is possible to retrace with a degree of confidence the paths that British, Commonwealth and American soldiers took when they invaded the Normandy beaches. The first part of the paper is reproduced below
Specialist Maps Prepared by British Military Geologists for the D-Day Landings and Operations in Normandy, 1944
Edward P F Rose, Department of Geology, Royal Holloway, University of London, Egham, Surrey
Jonathan C Clatworthy, Lapworth Museum of Geology, School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham, Edgbaston, Birmingham
C. Paul Nathanail, Land Quality Management Group, School of Geography, University of Nottingham, Nottingham
Extracts from the article published in The Cartographic Journal, Vol. 43 No. 2 pp. 117-143, July 2006 (27 pages)
This paper records the meticulous work carried out by military geologists in preparation for the Allied invasion of Normandy in 1944. For those interested in the RAF team who landed on Omaha Beach on D-Day, the Beach Maps hold particular significance. The extract posted below addresses the challenge of providing Beach Maps. The full article also deals with Airfield construction suitability maps, Water supply maps, Construction materials maps, and Cross country movement and “going” maps. The full article is available at:
https://geologyglasgow.org.uk/docs/017_283__specialistmapsprepared_1402305576.pdf
During World War II, British military geologists played a crucial role in planning the Allied invasion of Normandy. They created detailed maps that helped the troops navigate the dangerous terrain and set up airfields quickly. These maps showed the best places to land and where to build airfields, and they even helped the troops find water sources. Some maps showed the soil conditions, so they could know where to store supplies and build roads. Overall, these maps were a key part of the Allied victory in Europe.
INTRODUCTION
The British army made maps during World War II, so did British military geologists. However, an official book about British military maps and surveys during that time only mentions one entry about geological maps. The book’s author, Brigadier Archie Clough, says that these maps were copied from foreign geological maps held by the Geological Survey in London. The War Office then made copies of these maps and sent them to places like Albania, Romania, Yugoslavia, Hungary, the Central Balkans, and the Middle Danube. Clough says that geological maps were extremely helpful when planning an operation, especially when thinking about water supply and terrain for building airfields. But curiously, for the Allied landings in Normandy, which started on D-Day, June 6, 1944, Clough doesn’t even mention geological maps. He only mentions one person, Major W B R King, RE, who gave geological advice.
King’s advice was really helpful when they were trying to figure out which beaches in England had similar properties to the beaches in Normandy. They even did experiments on beaches in England to test out the properties of the Normandy beaches. In 2001, Peter Chasseaud reviewed the various maps made for the Normandy D-Day invasion. The Geographical Section of the General Staff (GSGS) did a lot of the work, and their maps improved on the range of those by Swift and Sharpe (2000). There’s also a special issue of the Journal of the Defence Surveyors Association (Anon., 2004) about D-Day, with articles by Chasseaud (2004) and Grey (2004). But none of these books talk much about geology.
Rose and Pareyn (1995, 1996a, b, 1998, 2003) wrote about some British military geologists who helped plan and support the invasion and the fighting in Normandy. But they didn’t talk about the special maps the military geologists made.
This article is about those special maps made by British military geologists for Normandy. They were very important for the Allied forces, but they are not well-known or easy to find. These maps helped plan the biggest amphibious assault in history, but it seems like Clough (1952, p. vii) had trouble finding any records or reports about them because of the highly secret nature of the mission.
This article also talks about German military geologists who made special maps for a cross-Channel invasion earlier in the war, but in the opposite direction.
BRITISH MILITARY GEOLOGISTS AND PLANNING FOR THE INVASION
Detailed planning for the Allied invasion began approximately a year before D-Day (Rose and Pareyn, 1995, 1996a, b, 1998, 2003). The planning staff at that time contained a geologist – Major (later Lieutenant Colonel) W B R King OBE MC of the Royal Engineers (Figure 1), in civilian life Yates-Goldsmid Professor of Geology at University College in the University of London.
‘Bill’ King had considerable experience as a military geologist in both World Wars (Shotton, 1963a, b; Rose and Hughes, 1993a, b; Rose and Rosenbaum, 1993a, b; Rose, Hausler and Willig, 2000; Rose, 2004a, b), his work in 1915-18 as the first British military hydrogeologist providing much of the basis for subsequent Royal Engineer books on water supply (Anon., 1921) and applied geology (Anon., 1922). Ultimately, this experience led to his appointment in 1943 as the geological adviser – the SO2 (Staff Officer Grade 2) (Geology) – to the Chief Engineer of 21st Army Group (the invasion force), and effectively as the senior geologist in the British army as a whole.
The original plan, once Normandy rather than the Pas de Calais had been selected as an invasion site, was to land on the beaches of the Cotentin peninsula with the immediate objective of capturing the port of Cherbourg – deemed essential as a supply route. But air superiority and therefore a dozen temporary airfields to sustain it were also deemed essential, and it was King who pointed out that the region best suited for rapid construction of temporary airfields was not the Cotentin peninsula south of Cherbourg but the geologically very different Calvados plateau between Bayeux and Caen (Figure 2).
According to 21st Army Group’s Chief Engineer, Major General (later Sir) J D Inglis, King’s appraisal of Normandy geology ‘was, in fact, one of the main factors which led to the selection of the beaches eventually used’ (Inglis, 1946, p. 177-178).
Although King was released from the army in October 1943 to take up appointment as Woodwardian Professor of Geology at the University of Cambridge, his role passed to a protégé, also a temporary officer in the Royal Engineers: Captain (later Major) F W Shotton (Rose and Rosenbaum, 1993b; Coope, 1994). ‘Fred’ Shotton, in civilian life at that time a lecturer in geology at Cambridge, had been called-up from the Army Officers Emergency Reserve to join King on military geology tasks in the United Kingdom in late 1940. In May 1941, however, he was sent to the Mediterranean region, to take responsibility under the Director of Works, Cairo, for all British military geological activities in North Africa and the Middle East. These dealt mainly with provision of groundwater supplies and technical direction of Royal Engineers well-drilling teams (Shotton, 1944, 1945, 1946).
Shotton was recalled to the UK in September 1943 to join a team (Figure 3) on the 21st Army Group planning staff led by the distinguished physicist and crystallographer J D Bernal, Professor of Physics at Birkbeck College in the University of London but seconded as Scientific Adviser to the Chief of Combined Operations.
It has been known for some time that geologists’ tasks associated with D-Day included library and photographic study of the cliffs of the proposed invasion areas; the provision of information on the foundations of enemy defences for their effective bombing; the preparation of water intelligence maps; information on sources of road metal, sand and gravel, and on the submarine geology of ports; and the detailed study of certain rivers with a view to assault crossings (Shotton, 1947). However, Shotton’s definitive list of these (Table 1) has only recently been discovered, amongst his personal papers now preserved at the University of Birmingham.
Table 1, ‘Geological work with 21 Army Group. Including pre-D day planning and post-D day planning and operations done by SO [Staff Officer] Geology to CE [Chief Engineer] 21 Army Group (Lt./Col. King tollowed by Major Shotton) and from January 1945 also by DADW [Deputy Assistant Director, Works], Major Ponsford. Assistance from time to time from ISTD [Inter-Service Topographical Department].’ (A typescript preserved in the Shotton Archive at the Lapworth Museum.’)
Pre-D-Day
1. Detailed study of nature of invasion beaches.
2. Study of sand-bank changes on a British beach, as a guide to similar changes on the invasion beaches.
3, Selection of a British beach simulating the invasion bridge head.
4. Co-operation in vehicle trials and bombing results on the British counterpart beaches.
5. Detailed study of the Loire and Seine rivers, with a view to assault crossings.
6. Selection of an English river comparable to the Seine, and tests of amphibious vehicles on its banks.
7. Provision of information on the submarine geology of invasion ports.
8. Selection of parts of British coast for training commando parties in assault of French coast.
9. Preparation of water supply prospect maps for N.W. France (1:50 000 and 1:250 000 scale).
10. Study of the reaction of common French and Belgian road metals upon mine detectors.
11. Collaboration with MEW [Military Engineers Works] on quarry resources, NW France.
12. Forecast of soil characteristics of projected airfield sites.
13. General co-operation with ISTD [Inter-Service Topographical Department] and TIS. [Theatre Intelligence Section] on terrain
appreciation.
14. Advice on bomb weights and fusing.
Post-D-Day
1. Continuation of water prospect maps, Belgium, N.W. France and W. Germany.
2. Control of boring work RE [Royal Engineer] Boring Platoons.
3. Co-operation with CRE [Commmander Royal Engineers] (Quarrying Groups) and SHAEF [Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force] on road stone resources.
4. Preparation of soil maps for DCE [Deputy Chief Engineer] Airtields, and soil forecasts and developments for selected sites.
5. Preparation of soil maps (Holland and Germany) with particular reference to operational vehicle movement.
6. Collection of vehicle movement data (in co-operation with ORS) to provide a check upon correctness of ‘trafficability’ forecasts.
7. Detailed study of the shores of S. Develand and Walcheren previous to the assault thereon.
8. Detailed study of the shores and approaches of the Fresian islands, preparatory to proposed assault.
9. Study of the River Rhine in detail, with a view to assault crossings and bridge building.
10. Selection of training area on River Meuse, with conditions as near as possible to those which would hold on the Rhine assault crossings.
11. Study of soil in relation to frost and thaw deterioration of roads.
12. Opinion, when required, on nature of foundations.
The work of this team was complemented by that of the Inter-Service Topographical Department (ISTD), a geographical organisation administered by the Admiralty whose primary role was to provide terrain intelligence by means of maps and reports. The unit was aware of the importance of geology by 1942. Its postwar review of military geological activities for northern France acknowledged ‘An excellent picture of the geological history and structure of France is to be found in the publications of the Naval Intelligence Division in the Geographical Handbook Series on France, Vol. 1, Physical Geography (Anon., 1942). However, geologists as such were not appointed to ISTD until October 1943, and an unpublished report shows clearly that before D-Day, although ISTD as such was involved in projects concerning Normandy, the initial focus of its geologists was to prepare reports to guide planning of operations in Italy and the Far East. Non- geologists prepared Normandy maps (e.g. tactical maps at scale of 1:50 000 of the northeast coast of France and of Normandy showing communications, beaches and landing-places) and other documents (e.g. an extensive mosaic panorama of coastal photographs to guide beach landings, as illustrated by Rioult et al. (1994), Rose and Pareyn (2003, figure 22), but the growing Geological Section of ISTD began to contribute reports for northwest Europe only in March 1944, and then for Brittany rather than Normandy.
Some of the specialist maps generated by Fred Shotton and his associates to aid planning of the invasion (Figure 4) and subsequent operations during the Battle of Normandy formed part of his personal document collection.
This accompanied him postwar first to the University of Sheffield on his appointment there as Sorby Professor of Geology in 1945, then to the University of Birmingham on his appointment as Lapworth Professor of Geology in 1949. The maps are now located within the Shotton Archive in the Lapworth Museum of Geology at Birmingham, which forms the basis for much of this paper.
Preparation of specialist maps formed a significant part, if only a part, of the duties performed by Shotton before and after D-Day (Table 1) — particularly to indicate the nature of the invasion beaches, potential for airfield construction inland, and development of groundwater for potable water supplies. Such maps, if preserved within the multitude of reports relating to ‘Operation Overlord’ or to ‘21 Army Group’ preserved in the National Archives (formerly the Public Record Office) at Kew, are not recognisable amongst the National Archive maps currently catalogued (e.g. by Beech (1998)), despite the guidance recently provided by Beech, Gill and Mitchell (2005).
FRENCH GEOLOGICAL MAPS
France was the first country to create a national geological survey as such, based on earlier government awareness of the practical value of geology (Eyles, 1950). Fieldwork commenced in 1825, and was completed in 1835, although the resulting geological map of France was not published until 1840 (Brochant de Villiers, 1841). It was issued in six sheets, and at a scale of 1:500 000. Later, this was replaced by a revised map, at scale of 1:1 000 000, whose third edition (published in 1933) was the most recent version publicly available during the war. The US Army Corps of Engineers, in association with the US Geological Survey, used the map to help generate a terrain intelligence folio in 1943 and the British army reprinted the map in 1943 (as GSGS 4452), to aid Allied military planning. The Shotton Archive contains the four sheets (NE, NW, SE, SW) which together constitute the British map, indicating that this was the version immediately accessible to Shotton himself. The NW sheet (Figure 2) provides coverage of Normandy and adjacent areas.
On 1 October 1868, a new geological survey, the Service de la Carte géologique détaillée de la France, was inaugurated (Eyles, 1950). This was to prepare maps on a more detailed scale than hitherto, and the scale soon selected was 1:80 000 – that of 24 sheets for northern France published and exhibited (at Paris) in 1855 (Ian Mumford, pers. com., 2005). The whole of France was divided into a grid, and the maps published (from 1873 onwards) as sheets similar in size to the 1-inch to 1-mile sheets published for the United Kingdom by the Geological Survey of Great Britain and Ireland. Sheet explanations and vertical and horizontal sections were also issued. A first edition, of 250 sheets, was completed in 1910. A second edition followed, and work for a third edition was still incomplete in 1960 when the series was replaced by a new series at 1:50 000.
Between 1942 and 1944, copies of the 1:80 000 scale maps were reproduced by the British army for the northern third of France, plus Languedoc, Provence and most of Corsica. In total at least 113 maps were reprinted, 82 for northern France. The invasion beach areas of Normandy were covered by sheets 28 (St Lo) (a second edition map dating from 1926, replacing a first edition of 1891) and 29 (Caen) (a second edition map of 1914, replacing a first edition map of 1889) of the original French maps. GSGS reprints of first edition maps for both areas, as for northern France generally, were made in 1942 (e.g. Figure 5).
Additionally, a reprint of the second edition map for the Caen area (as for some other areas) was made in 1944 (Figure 6).
Such maps, without further annotation, were used by the Quarry Group Royal Engineers to guide deployment of the Quarrying Companies RE which generated the considerable quantities of aggregate required for repair and construction of roads, airfields, and hard standings for stores or vehicle depots in the Normandy region (Williams, 1950; Rose and Pareyn, 1995, 1996b, 1998, 2003).
PRINTING OF HIGHLY CLASSIFIED SPECIALIST MAPS
Most of the specialist maps preserved in the Shotton Archive were initially (i.e. before D-Day) classified ‘Bigot’ (a special high level of security classification created specifically for documents associated with planning for the Normandy invasion) and ‘Top Secret’. Copies were numbered individually, to facilitate strict control of use. Data printed in the map margin typically indicate the number of copies printed, the month and year of printing, the Map Reproduction Section responsible for production, and the ‘job number’, e.g. 350/4/44/15M.R.S./167/94 (printed minutely at the bottom left corner of Figure 7. Editor – It is not possible to see this on the copy reproduced here).
In this example, 350 copies were printed – most of the Shotton Archive maps show print runs of about 250 copies (sometimes in the format ‘2.5’) – and printing took place during April 1944. Printing was by Map Reproduction Section number 15.
Three special Map Reproduction Sections – numbered 11, 13 and 14 – were created by the Director of Survey Royal Engineers under Home Forces (which later became 21st Army Group) in February 1943 (Clough, 1952, p. 39). No. 11 was soon transferred to War Office control for service in North Africa. Number 13 was, from its formation, employed on urgent, highly secret map production for the planning staffs, and it continued to be so employed until the end of the war, doing duty in turn for GHQ Home Forces, HQ 21st Army Group, Chief of Staff to the Supreme Allied Commander, and finally Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force (SHAEF). With the formation of SHAEF in January 1944, the Survey organisation in preparation for Operation Overlord included numbers 13, 14, 15 and 16 Map Reproduction Sections, all under HQ 21st Army Group (Clough, 1952, p. 41), and by the end of August Sections 14 and 15 had completed deployment to France. Map Reproduction Sections were fully-equipped, semi-mobile map printing units, each with a staff of about 80 all ranks, as described by Clough (1952) and Gray (2004).
BEACH MAPS
A definitive list of ISTD reports shows that from early 1942 many were generated for coastal regions of France, but not specifically for Normandy. Sections of the Normandy coast and the beaches eventually used for invasion are amongst those later described (and illustrated by numerous ‘holiday’ photographs) in volume 2 of the Inter-Service Information Series report on France but without geological detail or illustration by geotechnical maps. However, King (1951a, p. 137), in a postwar presidential address to Section C of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, noted that from 1943 planning for the Normandy invasion included ‘preparation of large-scale maps of the beach indicating those parts which were unsuitable for the passage of assault vehicles’, and that for this ‘By far the greater part of the geological research was carried out by Professor Shotton who was then geologist at HQ 21st Army Group’. Neither King nor Shotton was ever to describe or illustrate these maps.
The British Library possesses a file which contains two coloured 1:5 000 maps of Normandy beach areas prepared in October 1943: Ver-sur-Mer and Courseulles-sur-Mer. Marginal data printed on these maps state: ‘Beach detail produced by Professor J. D. Bernal (Scientific Advisor to Combined Operations) from Air Photo and other sources’.
The file also contains full-size black/white photographic copies of five other maps, all of which (according to notes pencilled on the top margin) were returned to Professor Shotton when he was based immediately postwar at the University of Sheffield. These original maps are currently preserved in the Shotton Archive. They comprise sheets 74 to 78, providing continuous cover of the Anglo-Canadian invasion beaches from Asnelles (Figure 7) eastwards via Ver-sur-Mer, La Riviere, and Courseulles-sur-Mer to Berniéres. Headings state this series to comprise the ‘First Edition (Jan 44)’, and all five sheets are dated 23 March and numbered ‘Copy 170’.
Considerably more detail is given for natural beach features that might affect cross-beach vehicle movement than on the October maps, by overprinting in brown on the basic black (for topographic) and blue (for water) features. Black topographical data include soundings (off-shore) and drying heights (between high and low water marks), both in feet, the soundings with sea-bottom information in terms of rock, sand bank, shingle, mud overlaying rock, sand over mud, and sand. The brown ‘legend for beach between tide marks’ shows three categories of ground: peat and clay series (dark brown); problematical occurrences of peat and clay (paler brown); areas of thin sand cover, liable to have yielding patches (palest brown). Areas shown on the map by these have additional descriptions printed adjacently in brown type (see Figure 7).
Marginal data on each of these five sheets explain in brown type: ‘This map is a revision of 253/2/ 44.14M.R.S./146 of 1st FEB 44 which showed the interpretation of the beach at the end of 1943. Subsequent photographs have shown change in the beach character, and this second edition shows the state on 23 MAR 44. It embodies the agreed opinion of Professor J D Bernal (Scientific Adviser to COHQ) Lt. Col. P Johnson (ADSR HQ 21 Army Group), Major F W Shotton (SORE Geology HQ 21 Army Group) Engineer Section T.I.S. (HQ SHAEF). THE SOFT AREAS SHOWN ARE PROBABILITIES AND NOT CERTAINTIES. THEY ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE owing to wind and sea conditions and should be checked by reference to the most recent air photographs available and eventually by ground reconnaissance.’
The Shotton Archive contains three similar maps absent from the British Library file, covering beaches in the American sector of operations, each headed ‘Plan of beach… area with formation detail’. Although these maps also bear the caption ‘First edition (Jan 44)’, marginal data are slightly different, indicating a print run of 403 rather than 350, printing in March rather than April 1944, and by Map Reproduction Section 14 rather than 15, as three successive projects rather than a single task. Copy numbers differ. The statement referring to Shotton is missing from these three sheets, but in its place (beneath the scale) printed in black rather than brown type there is the explanation ‘NOTE: This plan has been prepared on a base enlarged five times from an Air Survey Map. Large Scale air photographs have been used in interpretation of detail. According to sea and weather conditions, beach detail is liable to variation.’ Also: ‘Beach Detail produced by Professor J D Bernal (Scientific Advisor to Combined Operations) from air photos and other sources.’ From these differences in detail, it appears that Bernal’s team produced beach data for all the Allied landing beaches, but cartographic usage differed slightly between British and American sectors of operation.
In a brief résumé of geological work, Shotton himself later recorded that ‘large scale maps were produced (in three editions as knowledge became more precise, and as the beaches changed their configuration)’, but none of the observed beach maps bears the designation ‘third edition’.
Rose and Pareyn (1995, 1996a, 1998, 2003) have described how, [in order] to generate such maps, the Normandy beaches were analysed in detail not only with regard to configuration and slope, but also to the distribution of the patchy peat, clay, sand, and shingle known to form the surface or near-surface sediments. Analyses were based on study of published literature, aerial photographs, beach sediments, and laboratory observations (Table 2).
Table 2. Categories of major military geological tasks in preparation for the Normandy D-Day
Detailed literature searches. Publications, some in obscure or very specialised journals, were located and studied for information on the position of erratic blocks of rock and patches of sub-surface peat. Some of these potential obstacles were only intermittently exposed by storms and exceptional tidal conditions and so were not actually visible in the months immediately prior to the invasion.
Aerial photographic interpretation. Aerial photographs, some taken obliquely by aircraft flying along the beaches at altitudes as low as 50 feet (16 m), were used to provide information on natural as well as man-made obstacles. Shotton recounted after the war how patches of dark peat could be recognised after storm movement of the lighter-coloured sand; how the load-bearing properties of some beach areas could be estimated from the depth of wheel marks left by German carts transporting defence stores; and how he himself had been flown over the beaches to make observations at low altitude.
Beach sample analysis. Midget submarine X-craft operated by COPP (Combined Operations Beach Reconnaissance and Assault Pilotage Parties) carried specially trained volunteers close to the beaches (Rose and Pareyn, 2003). Their task was to swim ashore, and to covertly auger soft sediment and collect samples of ‘stone’ as well as to make observations on obstacles to cross-beach movement and exit. On return, beach samples were sent to the Geological Survey of Great Britain for analysis. Additionally, Glen (2004) has described from personal experience how Landing Craft Personnel (Large) – motor boats about 10 m long – were used for near-shore hydrographic surveys at night, and how on the night of 31 December 1943 Major Scott-Bowden and Sgt Ogden Smith of the Royal Engineers swam ashore from such craft to sample sand at Arromanches and measure the height of the wall at the back of the beach.
Studies on UK beaches. Shotton made detailed observations on several British beaches whose geology was deemed to be similar in particular respects to those of Normandy’®. Notably, amongst trials of vehicles and equipment at Brancaster in Norfolk, the effects of peat as an obstacle to cross-beach mobility were assessed by landing large numbers of vehicles under different tidal conditions on different parts of the coast.
Beach-process laboratory study. Beach processes were studied in numerous laboratories – and particularly by R. A. Bagnold, who had served as a Royal Engineer officer in the First World War but had subsequently transferred to the Royal Signals, before retiring (as a Major) in 1935 to undertake research at Imperial College, London, on the physics of sand movement. He rejoined the army in the Second World War, founded the Long Range Desert Group in North Africa, and subsequently became Signal-Officer-in-Chief, Middle East. Bagnold, who became a Fellow of the Royal Society, was released from the army in 1944 (as a lieutenant colonel, honorary brigadier) to continue research, on the action of marine waves on the formation and erosion of beaches.
The British Library file also contains 12 sheets of the same and adjacent areas at the same scale which lack beach information but show topographic features (including provisional contours at 10 m vertical interval) in black, water in blue, and woodlands in two shades of green. Some are designated ‘First Edn Feb 44’, others ‘2nd ed April 44’. However, none shows indication of any geologist assistance in preparation. These maps were all drawn, according to marginal data, ‘by 62nd Engrs Topo Co U.S.A.’, and ‘prepared on a base enlarged five times from an Air Survey Map. The standard of accuracy is therefore the same as that of the 1:25 000 map. Additional detail has been supplied from large scale air photographs. Printing was by Map Reproduction Section 14, in April 1944.
Clough (1952, p. 595) has described how ‘A small section of topographical draughtsmen was formed at the GHQ Home Forces Survey Directorate. hey started work on 30th April, 1942, on a programme of beaches selected by the planning staff. The objective was to provide technical beach data from which the Admiralty Hydrography Department would produce beach-gradient charts.’ Later, US Engineers formed a Beach Intelligence sub-section, which established liaison with ISTD at Oxford, and the Hydrographic Department of the British Admiralty (Clough, 1952, p. 598). Early in April 1944, a photographic interpretation team specially trained in the development of information about beach areas was attached to the sub-section. Chasseaud (2001) has described how beach maps at a scale of 1:5 000 were produced by a combined US-British section at Kew (alongside 660 Engineer Topographical Battalion of the US Army) for 21st Army Group – but neither Clough nor Chasseaud refer specifically to the versions of beach map (e.g. Figure 7) made possible by Shotton’s geological input. That the Americans did use geology in formulating beach appraisals before the D-Day landings is evident from map sheets (e.g. Figure 8) preserved, as part the records of the European Theater of Operations of the United States Army, at the National Archives and Records Administration in the USA (Richard H Smith, pers. com., 2005). Six of these map sheets are also known from copies preserved in the Map Room of the Bodleian Library at Oxford in the UK. Four relate to Omaha Beach, ‘Beach No. 46’, and provide data for beach exits D-1, D-3, E-1 and E-3. Two relate to Utah Beach, ‘Beach No. 49’, and provide data for beach exits S-9 and T-7. Each was compiled by ‘Information Section, Intelligence Division, Office of the Chief Engineer, HQ, ETOUSA [European Theater of Operations United States Army], 27 April 44’ and provides a panorama diagram illustrating the exit; a plan at small scale (1:3 000 to 1:1 800); a plan at large scale (1:600); one or two profiles with vertical scale of 1:1 200 and horizontal scale of 1:600; a geological cross-section; and an explanatory ‘geological note’. A note printed on each sheet affirms: ‘All measurements taken from aerial photographs. A stereo-comparagraph was used to obtain data for road profiles. Data for geological section was taken from 1:5 000 beach maps compiled by Information Section Intelligence Division OCE [Office of the Chief Engineer] HQ, ETOUSA.’ However, none of these American-compiled beach maps is known from collections in the UK.
The ‘geological note’ on each sheet provides both a brief description of the ground materials and an assessment of their trafficability in different style to that on the beach maps with input credited to Shotton, e.g. that for the D-3 sheet for Omaha Beach (Figure 8):
This is the geological note for Map D-3: ‘The bed rock of the beach is a hard oolitic limestone overlain by a layer of shingle which is 7 to 10 feet in depth at the back of the beach. The rocks comprising the shingle are 6 to 9 inches in diameter and have been derived from the cliffs to the west of the beach. There is sand in the low water stretch which overlays a layer of peat. The depth of the sand has not been definitely ascertained, but this is thought to be sufficient so that the peat will not be an obstacle to traffic movement. Behind the beach is a layer of peaty clay which overlays the limestone.
Over the shingle portion of the beach it is recommended that some kind of surfacing, such as Somerfelt Track, should be used. If tracked vehicles were first landed on the beach, it is possible that the shingle would be crushed and compacted to form a firm surface for wheeled vehicles. No surfacing will be required over the sand in the low water stretches.’
(David Heathcote writes > In the original research paper, the image of D-3 sheet for Omaha Beach, Figure 8, is poorly reproduced. But this was the sheet that traced my own father’s route up the beach on D-Day, so it holds particular poignancy for me and my family. With this in mind, I contacted the Map Room within the University of Oxford’s Bodleian Library, where copies of D-3 and five other maps are stored. Thanks to their Library Assistant, Leah Brown, the maps were made available, and colleague Peter Best and I made copies of them. I have substituted the better quality image for D-3 above, and all six maps are uploaded to this site under a separate heading.)
Wikipedia postscript > The list of personnel cleared to know details of Overlord was known as the BIGOT list, and the people on it were known as “Bigots”. “BIGOT” was the highest level of security classification, standing for “British Invasion of German Occupied Territory.” The details of the invasion plan were extremely secret, adherence to the list was rigidly enforced. U.S. military advisor George Elsey tells a story in his memoirs about how a junior officer turned away King George VI from the intelligence centre on the USS Ancon, because, as he explained to a superior officer “…nobody told me he was a Bigot.”