Digital Images Archive
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GSGS 2823 1:250,000, War Office, August 1916, with ‘Secret’ red air information overprint
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This map was produced during the Battle of the Somme (July–November 1916) for the Royal Flying Corps (RFC), and shows (in red) a staging airfield at Hawkinge in Kent, and the Front Line, Squadron Aerodromes and what appear to be Royal Flying Corps Brigade airfields/parks in France and Belgium. The most likely reason for its production was for the pilotage and navigation of ferry pilots and new squadrons when taking aircraft across the Channel, delivering them to base parks and aerodromes, and vice versa. There is also the possibility of a ‘strategical’ use in connection with the Battle of Flers-Courcelette (15 September 1916), an important stage of the great Somme battle, in which tanks were first used.