Sunday 13 May 2012

ARTILLERY'S ASTROLOGERS: Maps, Survey, Sound Ranging, Flash Spotting in WW1






Artillery's Astrologers - A History of British Survey and Mapping on the Western Front 1914-1918

by

Peter Chasseaud


This book, which took Dr Chasseaud over twenty years to research and write, is the definitive operational history of British field survey organisation, units and personnel on the Western Front. It covers Royal Engineers and Royal Artillery Survey, and also the aerial photography for survey and intelligence purposes by the Royal Flying Corps/Royal Air Force. It examines all aspects of map production for the British Expeditionary Force, the use of maps, and technological progress in cartography and artillery survey in 1914-1918. It also includes comparisons with French, German and American military survey and mapping.

It is available from Mapbooks, c/o The Tom Paine Printing Press, 151 High Street, Lewes, East Sussex, BN7 1XU, UK. Price £50 plus £5 post & packing in UK. Please enquire about postal charges to overseas destinations.

The book is a large hardback quarto (A4) format, comprising 558 pages of text and illustrations. It includes coverage of the following :

Pre-war military maps and survey (engineer survey, artillery survey, air survey)
Geographical Section of the General Staff
Ordnance Survey
1st Printing Company RE
The growth of the wartime military mapping and survey organisation on the Western Front
1st Ranging Section RE
1st Ranging & Survey Section RE
Trench Maps, Intelligence Maps, Hostile Battery Maps, etc.
1st Topographical Section
2nd Topographical Section
3rd Topographical Section
1st Field Survey Company/Battalion
2nd Field Survey Company/Battalion
3rd Field Survey Company/Battalion
4th Field Survey Company/Battalion
5th Field Survey Company/Battalion
Depot Field Survey Company/Battalion
Overseas Branch of the Ordnance Survey (OBOS)
Artillery Survey: fixing British battery positions
Indirect fire
Enemy battery location (sound ranging, flash spotting, air photos)
Observation Groups (Flash Spotting)
Sound Ranging Sections; Experimental Sound Ranging Sections; Wind Sections
Calibration Sections
Aerial Photography and Air Survey; Mapping from Aerial Photographs
Compilation Sections (enemy battery location results)
Corps Topographical Sections
Map Printing Technology

The treatment of all the above is primarily in terms of the chronological and operational development of the survey organisation and units, but personnel and scientific developments (e.g. sound ranging theory and apparatus) are also regarded as important.

British survey work in the First World War was mainly carried out by the sappers, though with a significant gunner contribution; this made possible the remarkable British triumphs of Cambrai in 1917 and the Battles of the Hundred Days in 1918. Far-sighted sappers like Winterbotham, and gunners like Tudor and Lecky, understood the principles of war and the necessity of using the latest technology to achieve surprise. They knew that their task was to destroy or neutralise the enemy machine guns and artillery while the infantry and tanks crossed no man's land and captured and consolidated the enmey position, or fought through to exploit success and manoeuvre to threaten the enemy's flanks and rear organisation.




5 comments:

John Mullen said...

Dear Peter (if I may), I am trying to contact you to ask you if you would be interested in writing a few pages for our British Studies Journal special issue on the Forst World War. If you could let me have your email that would be very helpful indeed/ Thank you for your time. Dr John Mullen, Université Paris Est, john.mullen@wanadoo.fr

Gordon Walker - Bertie Howard's War said...

Dear Dr Chasseaud
Where is your Mapping blog? I was given this book for Christmas and in tune with all the other things I have to do have just started reading it. It will become a great companion piece for my "factional" work remembering the students of Douai School! I found chapter one most enlightening as a summary of the events in the |Balkans through the 19th century - it has filled in may gaps in my education so thank you.

Unknown said...

Dear Dr Chasseaud,

I hope you are well. I didn't have a natural ability for economics when you taught me at Brighton College in 1992 but it was around the time of you publishing your book. My family have recently come across a number of documents of my Great Grandfather including his hand drawn trench maps from 1918. My nephew is possibly going to piece together all of his documents which form an amazing story of his surviving a bullet to the heart (which was still in him when he died aged 89) and his imprisonment as a POW.

If you are interested please drop me an email: andrew@simplysav.co.uk

Best regards,

Andrew Gresswell

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Unknown said...

Hello Peter
We spoke several times at BCS HMMG meetings during which you were kind enough to help me on various aspects of Great War trench maps.
Starting in 2005, I set out to scan the whole IWM Great War map collection. Only building works at the museum stopped this but over 95% of the collection was scanned. That took 4 years along with cataloguing all the maps and a few associated documents.
As a result of that, the Western Front Association is delighted to announce the launch of a large Great War mapping project. https://www.westernfrontassociation.com/trenchmapper-public/
The new website is free to use and displays British, French and German trench maps, aerial photographs, maps from the official history, hand drawn maps and others all georeferenced against modern mapping. The main emphasis is on the Western Front and Gallipoli but there are also UK maps of the period.
Users can employ a name search to find trenches, maps, photographs, villages, camps etc. and to see what these places look like now with Street View. They can even explore inside key buildings and tunnels.
A tool is provided to enter a Great War map reference and display that point as a modern coordinate suitable for use in GPS. Other tools measure distance and bearing, change the modern mapping background or display the current street address.
The site launched on 28th March 2022 with more than 1,100 maps but in the future that number is planned to reach approximately 7,000. This is a phased launch of the website, developments will include more maps, 3D maps of selected areas and other map types. We are also investigating other advanced features such as GPS integration.
The maps can be downloaded for a very modest fee, WFA members get two free maps a month and are able to zoom in further for more detail.
The site will be of use to people researching their family history, military historians and those who simply wish to remember.
We actively seek collaboration with any organisation that may be able to participate in this project by sharing Great War maps or aerial photographs of any battle front.
The site has a set of help files, at the start of one of then I quoted the opening sentences from Artillery's Astrologers and encouraged readers to seek your excellent book for a full explanation of the history of Great War mapping.
I trust this will be of interest and thank you for the help you gave me whilst I was a member of the BCS.
Regards

Howard Anderson