Piercing the Fog - Air Force Historical Studies Office

Building an Air Intelligence Organization
intelligence officers flew on both British and American bomber missions to
study better ways to identify targets and to determine what combat intelligence
aircrews needed to reach their targets and to return in the face of enemy
defenses.’6 Their experiences contributed to the development of operationally
oriented maps and charts, and modifications to mission briefings and debrief-
ings.
One area in which British experience and support proved inadequate was
that of mapping. The reason for this gap lay in fundamental differences in
doctrine for the employment of strategic air Because RAF Bomber
Command operated at night against area targets, detailed maps of flight routes
and target areas and accurate photographs of targets were unnecessary. The
daylight, precision bombing that lay at the heart of American strategic air
doctrine required a much higher degree of exactness of position as well as a
detailed knowledge of the target and the approaches to it. Eighth Air Force
intelligence responded to these needs with a series of innovative measures in the
fall of 1942.
One of the most significant innovations was the development of perspective
target maps, called Geerlings maps, named for Captain Gerald K. Geerlings, the
skilled architect and draftsman turned intelligence officer who devised them.
Early missions had demonstrated that standard flat maps offering only a
straight-down view did not provide the ever-changing perspective aircrews
experienced as they approached the target. Existing maps and photographs
tended to be so cluttered with detail as to mask critical landmarks that might
provide the proper sense of position in the midst of an ongoing air battle. As
described in the Eighth Air Force history,
The perspective target map is printed in four colors on a sheet 32” square.
In the center there is a circular map of the target area including only such
details and features as can be recognized from the air, covering a radius of
seven miles around the target itself, with a scale just under one inch to the
mile. The center map is surrounded by perspective drawings of the target
area as seen from six different approaches. Two drawings are devoted to
each approach. The outer drawing which is intended for the navigator
shows the target as it appears from a distance of 15 miles at an altitude of
26,000 feet. The inner drawing, for the bombardier, shows the target in
larger scale as it appears from seven miles and at an altitude of 26,000
feet.”
Printed so they could be folded and taken in the air, Geerlings maps greatly
improved situation awareness and bombing accuracy. In the spirit of Anglo-
American cooperation, both American and British draftsmen helped prepare
these maps, which eventually covered all priority targets. The British Army
Ordnance center did the printing and made distribution to all VIII Bomber
Command and RAF stations.99
Complementing the Geerlings maps were landfall identification maps, also
developed by Eighth Air Force A-2. By providing aviators an accurate
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