Inter-Services Topographic Department
# Inter-Services Topographic Department

The Inter-Services Topographic Department (1940–1946) was a joint British Army and Navy organization created during World War II that was responsible for supplying topographic intelligence for all combined operations, and in particular, for preparing reports in advance of military operations overseas. This is an intelligence unit administered by the Royal Navy.

## Origin

The Interservices Topographical Department (ISTD) came out of the near-fiasco of the British invasion of Norway (9 April – 9 May 1940). Prior to that time, the Army and Royal Navy had different intelligence units that were independent of each other. The ISTD was established at Manchester College, Oxford. Working together with members of each arm and the Allies, this unit was able to bring together zero-elevation aerial photography, which is photography taken as close to the wave tops as possible, in order to bring the views of the beach landscape, which were then made into continuous horizontal strip photographs. These files were marked with military targets such as bridges, marshalling yards and the like, and up-to-date photos and intelligence were used to up date obsolete maps. From these new maps, and from older maps, magazine illustrations, and old family photographs taken on holiday collected from the public, new maps could be produced for the planning staffs and operations forces.

## Departmental actions and publications

"Inadequate topographic intelligence could result in troops encountering impenetrable terrain, amphibious assaults landing on impassable beaches, or airborne assaults dropping into water. The U.S. Army's plan to provide photographic mapping support to advancing troops illustrates topographical intelligence's importance to the Western Allies. Further, the British developed the Inter-Service Topographic Department (ISTD) in October 1940. The ISTD responded to the British topographical intelligence shortage before the April 1940 German invasion of Norway. In fact, the paucity of topographical intelligence on Norway resulted in Royal Air Force Bomber Command pilots relying on 1912 revised Baedeker's guides—commonly used by foreign travelers— for navigation when attacking airfields in Norway. This lack of intelligence also caused Royal Navy carrier pilots to rely on contourless Admiralty charts during their attack on Narvik's port. Later, the topographical intelligence produced by the ISTD proved invaluable to the Royal Navy midget submarine attack and the Royal Navy torpedo aircraft attack during September 1942 and late 1944, respectively, on the German battleship Tirpitz based in Norway. It was also invaluable during the November 1942 Allied North African landings, and the St. Nazaire commando raid in March 1942. In tribute to the ISTD's effectiveness, the department received compliments from General Dwight D. Eisenhower for its support to the allied landings in French North Africa."

"Although direct foreign procurement could not be undertaken at this time, substantial amounts of material were received from the British Inter-Services Topographic Department and the Royal Naval Intelligence Division 5, respectively the publishers of the ISIS reports and the Geographic Handbooks. Colonel C. Bassett, R.M., and Admiral John Henry Godfrey, directors respectively of the ISTD and Naval Intelligence, RN, assisted in establishing map exchanges between the Allied planning staffs; subsequently a working alliance was maintained through the London Map Division of the OSS."

## Museum and library cooperation

As the war progressed, the Museum and Library staffs participated more and more in the activities of the Inter-Services Topographical Department (I.S.T.D.), a special department responsible for supplying topographical intelligence for all combined operations, and, in particular, for preparing reports in advance of military operations overseas. It relied in large measure upon the Museum and Library organization for the provisions of the geological information incorporated into the reports, such information being written up by the Museum staff or by the staff of the I.S.T.D. from bibliographies, maps and texts supplied to its Library Liaison Service from the Museum. The work was of a highly confidential character but, in special circumstances, of great importance and interest, and it is now permissible to state that the Museum and Library staffs provided information relating to every considerable military operation in Africa and Europe from the first landings in North Africa. Of special significance, not always apparent at the time that they were supplied, are the reports of North Africa and other Mediterranean territories in 1942; on Yugoslavia, Crete, the Dodecanese, and Möhne Valley, Lampedusa, Pantelleria, the geology of certain Alpine tunnels, and various regions of the Far East in 1943; and those on the flying bomb sites in France in 1944. In connexion with this class of work and in the course of a visit to the United States in 1944 by a member of the Museum staff, the opportunity was taken to establish contact with the Military Geology Unit of the US Geological Survey, with most helpful results. Considerable assistance was also given to the Naval Intelligence Division, whose handbooks are extensively used by the Services, by Government Departments, and by British embassies abroad. Chapters were contributed on the Mineral economics of West Africa, the Belgian Congo, Mozambique and Angola, and accounts of the geology and mineral resources of other territories prepared the staff of Naval Intelligence Division were checked prior to printing off. In addition to the contributions made to the work of these two service Departments, assistance and information was given from time to time to various Government Departments such as the Ministry of Supply, the Ministry of Economic Warfare, the Ministry of Works and Buildings, the Imperial War Graves Commission, the Ministry of Information, the Ministry of Aircraft Production, and to the scientific liaison officers of the Dominion Governments.

