USE OF SURVEY SECTIONS IN OPERATIONS |
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| Abstract: | AbstractWhen I took over the command of a West Africa Brigade Group in 1939, I found that one of the units in the brigade was a survey section, and, in the course of training this brigade, I was rather concerned as to how this survey unit would or should be used. It was a small unit consisting of three officers (Europeans) and approximately 50 African other ranks, all belonging to the local Government Survey Department. I knew that it could map any particular piece of country, or could lay outbuilding sites, ranges, etc., but, beyond this, and normal military training, I am afraid that I could think of no other ways of using it. I knew also that, when the brigade was trained, we were to move to another part of Africa and that operations were likely to take place over country which was mostly unmapped. This, then, would be the opportunity for the survey section. At the same time, the size of the country we were likely to operate in was so enormous that my little survey unit would be swamped and quite unable to produce operational maps in time for me to use them. In due course we arrived on the scene of operations. My survey section was taken away from me and merged with other sections in a survey company. This company commenced to map parts of the country in which it was considered likely fighting might take place. This was exactly what I had anticipated, although I still considered that even this bigger unit was much too small for the huge job it had to do. |
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