Making Maps: DIY Cartography

Scouts, snipers, poison gas, gas masks, trench warfare, rifle ranges, gun positions… Maps and war ca 1917…

And a terrific type at that.

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Map Reading and the Training of the Intelligence Section, i.e., Scouts, Snipers and Observers are a group of subjects which every officer should personally take interest in.

Not only because they are, as subjects, most interesting, but because they are of the most vital importance when in actual warfare.

To be unable to take a map of a strange sector of country, and thoroughly understand what every line and sign means, is to be helpless in the face of the enemy.

Consequently, I would advise every officer, N.C.O and man to improve his knowledge on map reading and its component parts, as active service in war will call on them every day for a thorough understanding of this subject.

LIEUT. COL. R. B. HAMILTON
Late O.C. Queen’s Own Rifles, 1917

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Orienteering with maps.

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Orienteering with maps.

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In Plate No. 10-A, we have a sample page of a field book after the traverse has been made and all the desired notes are completed ready to plot on arriving at headquarters or camp.

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Trench raid mapping.

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Trench map showing snipers and observation posts.

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Indirect firing at the longer ranges requires a proper fixed rifle stand, something on the lines of the stand shown in plate No. 25.

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Gun position.

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Map showing gun ranges and compass bearings.

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C. D. A. Barber

Map Reading and Intelligence Training.

Cleveland, Edward McKay, 1917

Book available at Google Books