WW2 British /Canadian map symbols

Discussion in 'General' started by COMMANDO, Sep 30, 2011.

  1. COMMANDO

    COMMANDO Senior Member

    Can someone help me with a list of the tactical map symbols used by the British and Canadian forces during ww2 ???

    Thanks in advance
     
  2. Richard Lewis

    Richard Lewis Member

    Here's a list of Military Conventional Signs dated 1941 for insertion into the Field Service Pocket book.

    Map symbols 1941.jpg


    Interesting to see that red is for own forces and blue for the enemy, the opposite of today's system.

    Regards,

    Richard
     
    Last edited: Jul 1, 2017
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  3. idler

    idler GeneralList

    There's a bit on that here, if it really is of interest!

    Link fixed!
     
    Last edited: Oct 30, 2019
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  4. Sheldrake

    Sheldrake All over the place....

    post-357-1168431174.jpg
    I thought the assumption was that British were marked in red and the enemy in blue because we wore red coats and the enemy were usually French who wore blue. The official history of the first world war shows the French in Blue and the Germans in green.
     
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  5. Wiserman

    Wiserman New Member

    These maps are interesting. Thanks for posting.
     
  6. 51highland

    51highland Very Senior Member

    Found this in some war diaries.
     

    Attached Files:

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  7. djbamforduk

    djbamforduk Member

    Thank you for this supplement, which includes several additions and variations not in the 1941 guide posted above: e.g. details on different kinds of gun emplacements and a new (clearer) symbol for inundations of water.
    However, this looks like one section from a larger guide, which has been cut / torn off.
    If anyone else has come across the rest of this later blue guide sheet, then please post images here.
    This is clearly the symbol guide that was being used in the 1944 Rhine crossing maps that I'm trying to decipher at the moment, rather than the 1941 guide:
    Rees, Defence Overprint [Operation Plunder], 12 February 1945: Germany 1:25,000:
    Rees, Defence Overprint [Operation Plunder], 12 February 1945 | Digital Archive @ McMaster University Library
     
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