Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
An Investigation of Maps
and Cartographic Artefacts
of the Gallipoli Campaign 1915:
Military, Commercial and Personal
William Cartwright
Abstract Producing maps and related representations of geography in warfare
provides information about the terrain and the positions of troops. They are also
used in strategic planning and as operational tools. They are an integral part of a
military campaign. Maps are provided by military topographic agencies as the
main resource for operations. However, many complementary products have been
produced by commercial map publishers and as support for newspaper articles
reporting on battles. As well, combatants produce many 'informal' maps and
diagrams before, during and after a campaign. These products can be considered to
be more personal and to provide a different 'view' of a battle than the official maps
provided by conventional publishing methods. An international collaborative
research project is studying the geographical information resources and geo-
graphical representations used for analysis, planning, conducting and post-event
analysis of large-scale operations. The research is focussing on the geographical
information resources used in the Gallipoli Campaign in World War 1, so as to
appreciate mapping resources used to visualise the political and physical geog-
raphy that contributed to the selection of the Gallipoli peninsula as a site for a
second front during World War 1, the determination of possible landing sites,
developing 'at location' troop deployment and movement plans and the eventual
evacuation of forces from Gallipoli. This chapter provides an insight into some of
the mapping and geographical artefacts that were found during research into the
availability of cartographic resources from the Dardenelles campaign of 1915.
These can generally be described as official, commercial and personal. It describes
samples of the maps and drawings that were found in historical map collections.
These products were published by the military, by commercial map producers and
