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In September 1940, 42nd Geological Section of the South African Engineer Corps moved from Kenya to an operational base near Cairo in Egypt, continuing to serve within the British Army's Middle East Command but with leadership by the newly-promoted Major Gordon Lyall Paver (1913–1988). The main part of the Section was employed to support the British 8th Army and operations west of the River Nile, particularly in the Western Desert of Egypt and Libya to Tunisia but also from bases elsewhere in Egypt, with surveys principally by means of electrical earth resistivity: guiding the deployment of Boring Sections Royal Engineers and other units in drilling boreholes from which to abstract potable groundwater. Detachments with similar roles were also employed further east of the Nile, in Sinai, Palestine, Transjordan, Syria and Lebanon, Iraq and Iran. In the Mediterranean region more generally, from 1943 additional deployments included Malta, Sicily and Cyprus, and later Greece. As conflict in North Africa came to an end in the spring of 1943, and so as to promote the use of geology and geophysics (rather than water diviners) as the best means for guiding the choice of sites for boreholes, Paver led teaching of a military training course in geophysical survey methods and the compilation of an authoritative textbook. In early 1945, as conflict in the European Theatre of Operations entered its final months, Paver assisted planning in England for potential deployment of the Section to the Far East and for the development there of an enhanced military geological staff—although hostilities came to an end before these plans materialized. Towards the end of his service, Paver completed for publication the final six of an 11-part series of articles on 'Water supply in the Middle East campaigns' that placed much military hydrogeological information on permanent public record. Demobilized in February 1946, Paver returned to a career as a consultant geophysicist, notably promoting 'resistivity' surveys to locate 'underground water', surveys including significant fieldwork in Egypt, Pakistan and Cyprus that developed his wartime skill base. He had pioneered and mostly directed the use of electrical earth resistivity surveys in support of British military operations during World War II and begun to influence a generation of Royal Engineers through his textbook: re-printed by the United Kingdom's War Office in April 1945 to facilitate its long-term and wider use. Military honours were duly bestowed upon him for 'gallant and distinguished services' during the war. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

42nd Geological Section of the South African Engineer Corps was a unique unit that supported British armed forces during World War II. It was co-founded and led for most of the war by Gordon Lyall Paver (1913–1988), one of the few 'British' officers serving specifically as geologists during the war to achieve the rank of major. Born in South Africa at Johannesburg and in his early years educated there at St. John's College, from 1926 Paver was educated in England, at Charterhouse School until admitted in 1931 to Pembroke College in the University of Cambridge, where he studied chemistry, geology and mineralogy. He graduated in 1934 and returned to South Africa, being appointed to the Geological Survey of South Africa as one of its first geophysicists and contributing to magnetometric and gravimetric surveys in the Transvaal region, expertise used in 1938 to 1940 to draft his thesis for a PhD degree (awarded in 1942). Although married in 1939 and briefly employed as a consultant geophysicist, in August 1940 Paver was one of the first three geoscientists to be mobilized as officers to found 42nd Geological Section, at Zonderwater near Pretoria in South Africa. After only a month's military training, at the end of September the Section and its vehicles deployed by rail and sea to a base near Nairobi in Kenya for operational service in East Africa, with 'Acting Captain' Paver as its Second-in-Command. Detachments from the Section were widely deployed in Kenya and later in Italian and British Somaliland (present-day Somalia) and also in Abyssinia (present-day Ethiopia) for surveys by means primarily of electrical earth resistivity but also vertical force magnetometer. These guided drilling of wells by another unit of the South African Engineer Corps to abstract potable groundwater— thereby facilitating troop concentrations and forward movements in arid or semi-arid regions during the 'British' Army's East African Campaign. Members of the Section also compiled geological maps of Kenya at scales of 1:1,000,000 and 1:2,000,000 and pioneered a military geological unit created within the East African Engineers that supported British forces in the region from 1941 to 1945. The Campaign drew to a victorious close during 1941 and, from the end of August, the Section was re-deployed northwards to a base near Cairo in Egypt. It continued to serve within the British Army's Middle East Command but with leadership now by Paver, promoted 'Acting Major' from 31 August and in December 'mentioned in despatches' for his earlier distinguished service in East Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The term 'military geology', translated from German after earlier use in French and Spanish publications, entered the English language via American publications from 1917 onwards, initially after the USA entered World War I. It was widely used in the USA and, in direct or indirect translation, in several European countries additional to Germany and Austria thereafter, but not in the United Kingdom—although military applications of geology had been perceived and utilized by the British Army for much of the previous century. However, the term was used and its scope defined on the basis of operational experience at a meeting in Brussels on 28 February to 1 March 1945 as World War II drew to an end, a meeting seemingly unique for the War in that it comprised five 'British' geologist officers of field rank: the South African Major Gordon Lyall Paver, English Major Frederick William Shotton, Australian-born but Canadian-educated English Major John Leonard Farrington, English Squadron Leader John Francis Kirkaldy, and Welsh Major David Ronald Arthur Ponsford. Their purpose was to review wartime use of 'military geology' in the British Army, and to make recommendations for a more efficient British military geological service in the future, especially in the Far East after the war in Europe entered its final phase. The meeting generated a four-page closely-typed unpublished 'Memorandum: Military geology in the British services' (now preserved in England in the Lapworth Museum at the University of Birmingham and in The National Archives, Kew, near London). This included a very brief summary of the British Army's deployment of geologists within western Europe, East Africa, the Middle East, North Africa and the Mediterranean region, and India. Those present brought together long experience from all these campaign areas except India (and the Far East in general). That deficiency was made good later in the year, on 7 December 1945, when Eric J. Bradshaw, Superintending Geologist of the Strategic Branch of the Geological Survey of India, completed an 81-page typed unpublished 'Military geology: Memorandum of post-war policy' (accessible in England at Birmingham, at Kew, and at the British Geological Survey, Keyworth). This with its 23 pages of appendices records details of wartime work in India and discussions held by the author there and in the United Kingdom following the end of hostilities in Europe on 8 May 1945. It re-defines the scope of 'military geology' for British armed forces in terms of water (resources, floods and drainage), stone and miscellaneous mineral resources, soils, engineering projects (reconnaissance, stability and excavations), terrain, 'photo-geology' and several miscellaneous applications. The memorandum proposed a grandiose organization of 151 geologist officers plus ancillary staff for British military geology postwar. That organizational scheme was not adopted—but by 1945 the term 'military geology' had clearly extended from American to significant British use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the nineteenth century, geology was perceived by the British Army as a military science, and two geological survey departments outside Great Britain were pioneered by Royal Engineer officers in the rank of captain: J. W. Pringle, J. E. Portlock and Henry James nearly successively in Ireland between 1826 and 1846; H. G. Lyons in Egypt from 1896 to 1898 and then, as a civilian, until 1909. During World War I, the Welsh-born Australian T. W. Edgeworth David and the Canadian R. W. Brock served on attachment to the Royal Engineers in the rank of major, David as the senior of two geologists in appointment as such with the British Army in France and Belgium 1916–1919, Brock in Palestine 1918–1919. (David was rewarded by promotion to lieutenant-colonel ten days before the end of hostilities). During World War II, between 1939 and 1945, W. B. R. King, F. W. Shotton, J. V. Stephens, W. A. Macfadyen, J. L. Farrington and D. R. A. Ponsford plus the South Africans H. F. Frommurze and G. L. Paver (and possibly also H. Digby Roberts) all achieved the rank of major whilst in appointment as geologists serving with British forces, complemented in the Far East by Majors A. J. Haworth and A. N. Thomas supervised by E. J. Bradshaw for the Indian Army. (King was rewarded with promotion to lieutenant-colonel in October 1943, when released from the Army to take up appointment as Woodwardian Professor of Geology at the University of Cambridge). During the remaining twentieth century, N. L. Falcon, D. R. A. Ponsford, A. W. Woodland, A. F. Fox, Frank Moseley, R. M. S. Perrin, S. C. L. Hobden, L. R. M. Cocks and J. C. Eaton became geologist majors in the British reserve army, and five majors were promoted to be geologist lieutenant colonels: T. G. Miller 1964–1967, N. F. Hughes 1967–1970, P. I. Manning 1971–1972, E. P. F. Rose 1978–1987 (colonel 1987–1990) and M. S. Rosenbaum 1995–2001. Thereafter, a post for a geologist lieutenant colonel became established in the British reserve army, an appointment held by R. I. L. Dow 2006–2011, S. R. S. Matthews 2011–2014, M. H. K. Bulmer 2014– 2019, A. G. Craig 2019–2022, and S. R. S. Matthews again from 2022, each supported by one or two geologist majors. In 200 years, about 21 British military geologists achieved the final rank of major and only 11 the higher rank of lieutenant colonel (the highest rank yet to be attained by a geologist to serve operationally as such in the British Army). Overall, they helped to pioneer and to promote an innovative range of military applications of geology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the Second World War, the central Mediterranean island of Malta was famously besieged by the Italian navy and intensively bombed by Italian and later German air forces, from June 1940 until Allied victory in North Africa in May 1943 brought an end to the siege. It was then scheduled as a staging post to support the Allied invasion of Sicily from North Africa in July 1943 and of mainland Italy from Sicily in September. From 1941 until 1945, two Tunnelling Companies Royal Engineers, overlapping in succession, excavated underground facilities safe from aerial or naval bombardment. In 1943 and then 1944–1945, two Boring Sections Royal Engineers in succession drilled wells to enhance water supplies, initially for increased troop concentrations. Borehole site selection was guided in 1943 by the Director of the Geological Survey of Great Britain (Edward Battersby Bailey: 1881–1965) and by geologists Captain Frederick William Shotton (1906–1990) and Major Gordon Lyall Paver (1913–1988). In 1944, it was guided by geologist Captain Howard Digby Roberts (1913–1971), leading a detachment from 42nd Geological Section of the South African Engineer Corps that pioneered earth resistivity surveys on the island. Overall, these military studies generated a new but unpublished geological map of the island at 1:31,680-scale and refined knowledge of its geological structure: a much faulted but otherwise near-horizontal Oligo-Miocene sedimentary sequence. Further refinement was achieved as a consequence of the 1944–1945 drilling programme, led principally by geologist Captain Thomas Owen Morris (1904–1989) of the Royal Engineers. By 1945, this had helped to develop an improved water supply system for the island, and plans to develop groundwater abstracted from a perched upper aquifer (in the Upper Coralline Limestone and underlying Greensand formations, above a 'Blue Clay') as well as from the main lower aquifer, near sea level (in the Globigerina Limestone and/or underlying Lower Coralline Limestone formations). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the Second World War, the Allied invasion of the French coast of Normandy on D‐Day, 6 June 1944, was the greatest amphibious assault in world history. An article in Geology Today (v.11, for 1995, pp.58–63) marked the 50th anniversary of the end of the war in Europe, on 8 May 1945, by describing how British military geologists had participated in planning for D‐Day and in the NW Europe campaign that followed it. The work of these geologists provides a classic case history, revealing that 'military geology' has many potential applications. Geological factors influenced site selection for temporary airfields, predictions of trafficability for the Normandy beaches, the development of potable water supplies, and quarrying for road metal—and more besides. This new article helps to mark the 75th anniversary of D‐Day by further details of how geologists and geology contributed to Allied victory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

'Bill' Wager, after undergraduate and postgraduate studies at the University of Cambridge, became a lecturer at the University of Reading in southern England in 1929. He was granted leave in the 1930s to participate in lengthy expeditions that explored the geology of Greenland, an island largely within the Arctic Circle. With friends made on those expeditions, he became in June 1940 an early recruit to the Photographic Development Unit of the Royal Air Force that pioneered the development of aerial photographic interpretation for British armed forces. He was quickly appointed to lead a 'shift' of interpreters. The unit moved in 1941 from Wembley in London to Danesfield House in Buckinghamshire, known as Royal Air Force Medmenham, to become the Central Interpretation Unit for Allied forces—a 'secret' military intelligence unit that contributed significantly to Allied victory in World War II. There Wager led one of three 'shifts' that carried out the 'Second Phase' studies in a three-phase programme of interpretation that became a standard operating procedure. Promoted in 1941 to the rank of squadron leader in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, he was given command of all 'Second Phase' work. Sent with a detachment of photographic interpreters to the Soviet Union in 1942, he was officially 'mentioned in a Despatch' on return to England. By the end of 1943 the Central Interpretation Unit had developed into a large organization with an experienced staff, so Wager was allowed to leave Medmenham in order to become Professor of Geology in the University of Durham. He resigned his commission in July 1944. Appointed Professor of Geology in the University of Oxford in 1950, he died prematurely from a heart attack in 1965, best remembered for his work on the igneous rocks of the Skaergaard intrusion in Greenland and an attempt to climb Mount Everest in 1933. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the Second World War, British military geologists assisted planning for the Allied liberation of Normandy by generating specialist maps – supporting the greatest amphibious operation in world history. Maps of the landing beaches at a scale of 1:5000 indicated natural hazards to cross-beach vehicle mobility. Maps of northwest Europe at 1:1000 000 showed the varying suitability of ground for airfield construction, and larger scale maps guided the site selection and rapid construction of numerous temporary airfields. Hydrogeological maps were prepared as tracing overlays for topographical maps to guide enhancement of potable water supplies from new wells and boreholes – at a scale of 1:50 000 for coastal areas from the Cherbourg peninsula eastwards to Calais, and at 1:250 000 for most of northern France east into the Low Countries. A few 'soil' maps guided emplacement of depots for stores and vehicles, and at least two resource maps were prepared – to guide quarrying of material for road construction and sand for engineering work in general. Pioneering British military geological work on Normandy was extended for western coastal areas by large-scale American maps which included geological features for exit routes from the Omaha and Utah beaches. Bordering the eastern coast, at least two Canadian maps at 1:100 000 related geology to 'going' (cross-country trafficability). Printed in small numbers and great secrecy, few copies of any of these maps appear to have survived the war. The most extensive collection known is preserved in the Lapworth Museum of Geology, University of Birmingham. This is part of a unique personal archive, generated by Major F. W. Shotton when serving as Staff Officer (Geology) of the invasion force. It provides the basis for appraisal of broader specialist cartographic achievements contributing to Allied victory in Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the Second World War, the German army developed the largest organization of any nation ever to contribute military applications of earth science in wartime. In the summer of 1940, its military geologists assisted planning for potentially the greatest amphibious assault to that time in history by preparing maps which analysed the terrain of southeast England in terms of coastal geomorphology, groundwater supply, quarry sites for construction materials and off-road trafficability. These specialist maps were generated at scales of 1:50 000, 1:100 000 or 1:250 000 by annotating topographical base maps, derived from the then current Ordnance Survey maps at most similar scale, with data derived from maps and memoirs published by the Geological Survey of Great Britain or larger-scale Ordnance Survey maps. They represent an early example of geotechnical mapping skills developed more fully in the German armed forces for operations elsewhere later in the war. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]