Military Geographical Information about England Thought that these publication may not be widely known in Great Britain:
Funnily enough Kuno, it was released in translated facsimile form quite recently: German Invasion Plans for the British Isles, 1940: Amazon.co.uk: Military Highcommand: Books Nice to see a more original form though, the facsimile reads like a rather odd document, almost half-hearted and more of a vague 'just in case we ever need it' Staff study.
Are you sure that it is the same? The Germans had such books - something like a travel guide- for all countries of interest.
Cheers Kuno.....That looks rather interesting. Could I trouble you to ID the pictures of the posts for me, just out of curiosity more than anything if its not too much trouble. Cheers Andy
@Andy; downloaded it from Ebay this morning - am sorry but cannot say more about the pics than what is written on them...
05 - Portheleven 61 - Folkstone 73 - Grand junction channel, Sudbury, west of London 95 - Bridge crossing Menai-Strait 111 - Vye-valley at Tintern
In a similar vein, I just got this is an email: GermanInvasion.co.uk : German military and Luftwaffe maps, photographs, town plans, documents They seem to be the same firm who run UKBookworld.com
Before anyone starts marvelling at the Teutonic efficiency of the Nazi intelligence machine, it should be noted that most of the information in these handbooks came from readily-available pre-war sources such as the not-very-top-secret Automobile Association Road Book. German 'humint' in the British Isles during World War II was very poor and that which existed was largely a tool of Masterman's 'double-cross' sysyem.
Correct, Marc; the Germans collected whatever was available about a particular country - no need to invent the wheel from new. I guess that it only had to be completed by their "local staff" then...
Cheers Kuno.....That looks rather interesting. Could I trouble you to ID the pictures of the posts for me, just out of curiosity more than anything if its not too much trouble. Cheers Andy Hi Andy, 60 is Dover looking at Granville and Wellington docks. Prince of Wales pier to the right, Derek.
The Bildheft booklet in the images at the top of the thread serves as a general overview of the English landscape, coastline and city areas. It also seems to double as a basic index to another series of publications which comprised regional dossiers. Interestingly, these regions were based on the sheet numbering of British Ordnance Survey quarter-inch maps that the Germans had acquired before the war and reprinted in their own metric scales. Each dossier contained a regional map and large-scale plans of key towns and cities in the region, as well as an Objektbilder (target photograph) booklet. These photographs are numbered and marked on the maps and some of them appear in the Bildheft in question. As already mentioned, these photos mostly came from prewar British publications, although a few wartime Luftwaffe aerial photos also appear. Many photos the Germans had were simply seaside picture postcards; having worked in my local library service for 10 years I recognise many East Sussex views from various items in the local studies collections. Some of these postcards dated back into the 1920's and one view of Bexhill the Germans were using predated the construction of the De La Warr Pavilion (1935) - a major landmark, so not everybody had done their homework! Interesting to note that Allied intelligence later used French holiday postcards/photos sent in by the public when planning Overlord. The Bildheft in the photos is the 2nd edition; I have a copy of the 1st ed. correct to 1 Aug 1940. The pagination is the same for the posted shots, so I can fill in the gaps for those not already identified in the thread: 04 - Mousehole Harbour, Cornwall 72 - Lock on the Thames near Reading 94/95 - Bridge crossing Menai-Strait 110 - Wye Valley at Symonds Yat I'm currently writing some webpages about Sealion and this material, but can post some pics of bits from my collection if anyone's interested. - Pete
