Series consists of First World War topographic series maps. It lists 11 different series on France, Belgium, and northwestern Europe which were published by the British government in response to the needs of the British Expeditionary Force. The list also includes a single topographic series on France that was published by the German government.
The topographic maps listed in this section were published in a wide range of scales, some of which were better suited for particular operations than others. For example, the more general maps C the 1:250,000 scale and smaller C were generally used as an office or wall map, while the 1:100,000 scale was preferred by administrators and tacticians for plotting of traffic routes, administrative boundaries, and troop dispositions. The larger 1:40,000, 1:20,000, and 1:10,000 scales were primarily reserved for trench warfare and were highly favoured by the artillery.
The maps listed here used a variety of colour schemes to delineate geographical and cultural information. The most elaborate used as many as five different colours, with blue reserved for marking water courses, green for forests, brown or grey for contour lines, and red and black for cultural features (such as roads and buildings). Other sheets will present the same information, but in one to three colours, usually grey or black, blue, and brown. The less colourful editions were intended as base maps and would be used in the presentation of other information through the application of colour overprints. This was usually the method chosen for the production of intelligence maps, especially trench series maps.
(The preceeding text is an extract from Jeffrey Murray's "Guide to maps of the First World War")
The series is broken down in the following sub-series:
Sub-series 1.1 [Belgium and France 1:10,000.] GSGS 3062. Index Map
Sub-series 1.2 Belgium and France 1:20,000. GSGS 2742. Index Map
Sub-series 1.3 Belgium and France "B" Series 1:20,000. GSGS 2742a. Index Map
Sub-series 1.4 Belgium and France 1:40,000. GSGS 2743. Index Map
Sub-series 1.5 [France 1:80,000]. GSGS 2526. Index Map
Sub-series 1.6 [Map of Belgium and North-East France]. GSGS 2364. Index Map
Sub-series 1.7 Germany 1:100,000. GSGS 2739. Index Map
Sub-series 1.8 Feldmässig Hergestellte Fliegerkarte. 1:200,000.
Sub-series 1.9 North West Europe 1:250,000. GSGS 2733. Index Map
Sub-series 1.10 France 1:250,000. GSGS 2738. Index Map
Jeffrey Murray's "Guide to Maps of the First World War" includes the following additional sub-series:
Sub-series 1.11 [Germany 1:250,000]. GSGS 2740.
