"Sonderkommando Dora” – Special Military Geoscientific Unit of the German Counter-Intelligence Service in North Africa 1942

Autor(en)

Hermann Häusler

Abstrakt

The counter-intelligence service of the German Armed Forces High Command
launched Operation Dora in 1941 to update terrain information of North Africa for
the German warfare and to reconnoitre the frontier between Libya and Chad. This
article presents Sonderkommando Dora as an example of military geoscientific
reconnaissance during World War II in the North African theatre of war where the
German Armed Forces needed more accurate military geographic information on
the Western Desert. The scientific personnel comprised geographers, cartographers,
geologists, astronomers, meteorologists and road specialists, and they prepared special maps on the environmental setting of the Libyan Sahara. As far as it is known, these special maps were never used by Axis troops (who fought in World War II against the Allies) for tactical purposes – although it cannot be ruled out that the maps provided general information on the proximity of the German Africa Corps, the Panzer Group Africa and of the Panzer Army Africa, respectively, and also of the retreating Army Group Africa.

Organisation(en)

Journal

Scientia Militaria: South African Journal of Military Studies

Band

46

Seiten

37-57

Anzahl der Seiten

21

DOI

https://doi.org/10.5787/46-1-1224

Publikationsdatum

2018

Peer-reviewed

Ja

ÖFOS 2012

105110 Geschichte der Geologie

Sustainable Development Goals

SDG 16 – Frieden, Gerechtigkeit und starke Institutionen

Link zum Portal

https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/de/publications/f68fc381-d308-4b48-af85-e3bf1b2f2071