October 2020 German naval charts of British waters, 1938-1945

Some new maps on the NLS website


October 2020

German naval charts of British waters, 1938-1945

I have a few wartime German charts of northern Europe so it is good to see their British coverage. It is also good to see some firing ranges (Schießgebiet) are marked on them as well.

A splendid amount of information on those relating to bombing ranges. It even has the Reighton Sands bombing range marked on one of them. Of more interest is the Schießgebiet just east of Reculver as it is in an area where the bouncing bomb was tested. If this is in fact the danger area for that how did the Germans get hold of the details of its limits?
If this is a specific danger area then it changes what I have been saying for the past ten years, that there was no specific range, just an extension of the Herne Bay air to air firing danger area.

I haven't seen a plan of the Reculver test area so cannot confirm anything - yet.

Have they not just got hold of of information on danger areas without knowing why they were Danger Areas?

I suspect is is a combination of different intelligence sources, like pre-war aeronautical maps and sea charts which did show ranges and captured material which may have had new danger areas marked manually, although this was not allowed after 1940. I doubt aerial photography played a part as it is very difficult to spot firing areas unless they included a bombing target, although in Reighton's case they may have spotted a direction arrow.