U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY TEAM PREPARED TERRAIN MAPS OF GERMANY AFTER WORLD WAR II

From 1954 to 1964, eight American scientists of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Military Geology Branch and the U.S. Department of Agriculture Soil Conservation Service, together with several German scientists and some very competent enlisted personnel, constituted the USGS Team (Europe) based at the Engineer Intelligence Center of the Heidelberg headquarters of the U.S. Army Europe (USAREUR). Their principal mission was the preparation and publication of 131 maps entitled Cross-Country Movement at a 1:100,000 scale for Germany, and of 24 maps entitled Military Engineering Geology at a scale of 1:250,000 for Western Germany. Each of these maps was a complete document unto itself. The Cross-Country Movement maps showed trafficability classes based on soil and slope, overprinted with obstacle effects of steep slopes, forest, and surface drainage; the text on the back of the map summarized climate and described terrain regions. The Military Engineering Geology maps showed units of natural materials with critical culture and surface drainage features at a l:250,000 scale. Summary maps at a 1:1,000,000 scale showing natural landforms, vegetation, and constructional aspects also were on the front of the sheet; complete descriptions and engineering evaluations were tabulated on the back of the sheet for both natural materials and military geographic subregions.