German Military Geologists and Geographers in World War II

During World War II the German army developed the largest organization to be used by any nation to contribute military applications of earth science in wartime. In the summer of 1940 two of its military geologist “groups” as well as units of military geographers focused their activities on preparations for Operation Sealion - the cross-Channel invasion of England, planned to be the greatest amphibious assault to that time in world history. The German military geographic service generated topographic maps and target appraisals, and the military geology units produced specialist geotechnical maps which analyzed the terrain of southeast England in terms of coastal geomorphology, water supply, construction materials, and cross-country trafficability. British victory in the aerial Battle of Britain led to cancellation of Sealion in late September 1940, but the maps (similar in category to those prepared for the Allied cross- Channel invasion of Normandy in June 1944) were preserved amongst archive documents seized by American forces at the end of the war.