Rare top-secret map of the approaches to Cherbourg, prepared for Operation Overlord
Co. B, 660th Engrs. USA, FRANCE 1:25,000 [:] DEFENCES [:] ILES ST. MARCOUF [:] Sheet No. 34/20 S.W. [:] Information as at May 44. [England,] May 1944.
Map printed in colors, 15 ¾”h x 23 ½”w at neat line plus title, legends and margins on a 21 ¼”h x 25”w sheet. Legend printed in blue on verso. Old folds and a hint of soiling, else excellent.
$1,500.00
In stock
A very rare “Top Secret” map depicting the Îles Saint-Marcouf and the adjacent coast of the Cotentin Peninsula, just a few miles north of Utah Beach. This area saw heavy fighting during D-Day and immediately thereafter.
The area around Saint-Marcouf played in an important role in the Cherbourg campaign, as part of the early effort to secure the Utah Beach lodgment on which VII Corps’ advance to the vital port depended. The Îles Saint-Marcouf, two small islands offshore from Utah, were thought likely to contain German observers, artillery-control personnel, or mine-warning equipment that might endanger the approach lanes. At about 4:30 a.m. on D-Day, a 132-man detachment of the U.S. 4th Cavalry Group landed there—one of the earliest seaborne Allied landings in Normandy. The islands turned out to be unoccupied, but they were mined; two Americans were killed and seventeen wounded. Their seizure removed a potential observation post from the north flank of Utah Beach and reassured the assault force that German artillery fire from that direction was not being directed from the islands.
Ashore, Saint-Marcouf formed part of a fortified coastal belt around Crisbecq and Azeville, several miles north of Utah. German heavy batteries threatened the landing area and the unloading of men, vehicles, and supplies. On 8 June, the U.S. 1st Battalion, 22nd Infantry drove Germans out of Saint-Marcouf after they had reoccupied it overnight, then pushed further north toward Crisbecq. The reduction of Saint-Marcouf and nearby coastal positions helped secure the beachhead and freed the VII Corps to concentrate on the larger task of cutting the Cotentin Peninsula and advancing north on Cherbourg.
The “Defences” map
This map gave planners and troops on the ground a great deal of information about the area, though the sheer density of the symbols must have made it a challenge to use. Regarding military installations, the information is amazingly detailed: The legend on the back of the map identifies perhaps a hundred distinct symbols, including for example fixed coast guns, fixed coast howitzers, mobile guns or gun-howitzers, mobile howitzers, antiaircraft guns, and anti-tank guns; not to mention machine guns (light/medium, open/in turrets), mortars, anti-aircraft machine guns, and flamethrowers. There are even distinct symbols for barbed and concertina wire, and for single and double fences.
On the map itself, military installations that have been “confirmed” are shown in blue, while a few “not confirmed” are in purple. These are dense on the mainland along the shoreline, but the lack of information for the Iles St. Marcouf is striking, albeit consistent with the Allies’ incorrect expectation that they would have a German presence. Also of interest is the pink shading just inland from the beach. It appears that the Germans had flooded these areas by opening sluices along the coast, thus creating a deterrent to glider or paratrooper landings.
The map bears no imprint, but it was likely the work of Company B of the 660th Engineers, a photo-mapping unit of 300 men plus officers that arrived in England in September 1942 and was based in a London suburb. Its first, daunting assignment was to prepare maps of northwestern France at a scale of 1:25,000. This essentially meant “producing a completely new map”, as the only existing maps were at a scale of 1:50,000 and based on French sources prepared during the Napoleonic era! (Locke, p. 272) For lack of another option, Company B mapmakers settled on a compromise, using as control points those established during the Napoleonic triangulation, then adding detail from sources ranging from commercial maps by Michelin to photographic data derived from hundreds (thousands?) of RAF reconnaissance flights. (Locke, p. 274)
In all, a rare and richly-informative artifact from one of the most significant and dramatic campaigns in American military history.
References
OCLC #1311494962, listing a single institutional holding. Not in Library Hub Discover. For background on Company B of the 660th Engineers, see Maj. J. W. Locke, “Military Photogrammetry in Action in Europe” in Photogrammetric Engineering, vol. XII no. 3 (Sept. 1946), pp. 272-81 (accessed online Dec. 2023).
Inventory ID:
Rare top-secret map of the approaches to Cherbourg, prepared for Operation Overlord
Co. B, 660th Engrs. USA, FRANCE 1:25,000 [:] DEFENCES [:] ILES ST. MARCOUF [:] Sheet No. 34/20 S.W. [:] Information as at May 44. [England,] May 1944.
$1,500.00
In stock
Map printed in colors, 15 ¾”h x 23 ½”w at neat line plus title, legends and margins on a 21 ¼”h x 25”w sheet. Legend printed in blue on verso. Old folds and a hint of soiling, else excellent.
A very rare “Top Secret” map depicting the Îles Saint-Marcouf and the adjacent coast of the Cotentin Peninsula, just a few miles north of Utah Beach. This area saw heavy fighting during D-Day and immediately thereafter.
The area around Saint-Marcouf played in an important role in the Cherbourg campaign, as part of the early effort to secure the Utah Beach lodgment on which VII Corps’ advance to the vital port depended. The Îles Saint-Marcouf, two small islands offshore from Utah, were thought likely to contain German observers, artillery-control personnel, or mine-warning equipment that might endanger the approach lanes. At about 4:30 a.m. on D-Day, a 132-man detachment of the U.S. 4th Cavalry Group landed there—one of the earliest seaborne Allied landings in Normandy. The islands turned out to be unoccupied, but they were mined; two Americans were killed and seventeen wounded. Their seizure removed a potential observation post from the north flank of Utah Beach and reassured the assault force that German artillery fire from that direction was not being directed from the islands.
Ashore, Saint-Marcouf formed part of a fortified coastal belt around Crisbecq and Azeville, several miles north of Utah. German heavy batteries threatened the landing area and the unloading of men, vehicles, and supplies. On 8 June, the U.S. 1st Battalion, 22nd Infantry drove Germans out of Saint-Marcouf after they had reoccupied it overnight, then pushed further north toward Crisbecq. The reduction of Saint-Marcouf and nearby coastal positions helped secure the beachhead and freed the VII Corps to concentrate on the larger task of cutting the Cotentin Peninsula and advancing north on Cherbourg.
The “Defences” map
This map gave planners and troops on the ground a great deal of information about the area, though the sheer density of the symbols must have made it a challenge to use. Regarding military installations, the information is amazingly detailed: The legend on the back of the map identifies perhaps a hundred distinct symbols, including for example fixed coast guns, fixed coast howitzers, mobile guns or gun-howitzers, mobile howitzers, antiaircraft guns, and anti-tank guns; not to mention machine guns (light/medium, open/in turrets), mortars, anti-aircraft machine guns, and flamethrowers. There are even distinct symbols for barbed and concertina wire, and for single and double fences.
On the map itself, military installations that have been “confirmed” are shown in blue, while a few “not confirmed” are in purple. These are dense on the mainland along the shoreline, but the lack of information for the Iles St. Marcouf is striking, albeit consistent with the Allies’ incorrect expectation that they would have a German presence. Also of interest is the pink shading just inland from the beach. It appears that the Germans had flooded these areas by opening sluices along the coast, thus creating a deterrent to glider or paratrooper landings.
The map bears no imprint, but it was likely the work of Company B of the 660th Engineers, a photo-mapping unit of 300 men plus officers that arrived in England in September 1942 and was based in a London suburb. Its first, daunting assignment was to prepare maps of northwestern France at a scale of 1:25,000. This essentially meant “producing a completely new map”, as the only existing maps were at a scale of 1:50,000 and based on French sources prepared during the Napoleonic era! (Locke, p. 272) For lack of another option, Company B mapmakers settled on a compromise, using as control points those established during the Napoleonic triangulation, then adding detail from sources ranging from commercial maps by Michelin to photographic data derived from hundreds (thousands?) of RAF reconnaissance flights. (Locke, p. 274)
In all, a rare and richly-informative artifact from one of the most significant and dramatic campaigns in American military history.
References
OCLC #1311494962, listing a single institutional holding. Not in Library Hub Discover. For background on Company B of the 660th Engineers, see Maj. J. W. Locke, “Military Photogrammetry in Action in Europe” in Photogrammetric Engineering, vol. XII no. 3 (Sept. 1946), pp. 272-81 (accessed online Dec. 2023).
Additional information
| year published | 1944 |
|---|---|
| event | World War II |
| compiler | Co. B, 660th Engrs. USA |
| associations | Co. B, 660th Engrs. USA |
