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Aspects of military hydrogeology and groundwater

development by Germany and its allies in World War I

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DOI: 10.1144/SP362.6

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Geological Society, London, Special Publications

Aspects of military hydrogeology and groundwater

development by Germany and its allies in World War I
Dierk Willig and Hermann Häusler

Geological Society, London, Special Publications 2012, v.362;

p85-103.
doi: 10.1144/SP362.6

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Aspects of military hydrogeology and groundwater development by

Germany and its allies in World War I
DIERK WILLIG1* & HERMANN HÄUSLER2
1
Bundeswehr Geoinformation Office, Frauenberger Strasse 250, 53879 Euskirchen, Germany
2
Department of Environmental Geosciences, University of Vienna, Althanstrasse 14,
1090 Vienna, Austria
*Corresponding author (e-mail: Dierk.Willig@Bundeswehr.org)

Abstract: The German Army developed a military geological organization during World War I
largely as a response to near-static battlefield conditions on the Western Front, in Belgium and
northern France. In 1916 it was assigned to support military survey, but in late 1918 it was reas-
signed to the engineer branch of the Army. It contained over 350 geologists and associated tech-
nicians by the end of the war. Military geologists contributed advice on engineering geology
and hydrogeology (principally on water supply, but also site drainage). They compiled a large
number and wide range of groundwater prospect maps to guide military planning, at scales typi-
cally from 1:250 000 to 1:25 000. They contributed advice to guide effective use of groundwater
by means of dug or bored wells, ‘Abyssinian’ driven tube wells, and protected capturing of springs.
Field hygiene was of particular concern, and military geologists helped to avoid contamination of
groundwater, for example by appropriate siting of cess-pits and cemeteries. A few officers made
use of dowsing in attempts to locate groundwater, including at least one German in support of
Ottoman Turk campaigns SW from Palestine towards the British-held Suez Canal, their Austro-
Hungarian allies in campaigns south against Italy and in the Balkans, but with relatively insignif-
icant success.

Water is the essence of life, and the availability of
sufficient pure water is the basis for human activities.
Consequently, adequate drinking water is also a
prerequisite for military operations. In wars fought
in past centuries, polluted drinking water and inade-
quate hygiene could result in disastrous epidemics,
in diseases afflicting both military forces and asso-
ciated civilian populations. The number of soldiers
killed by such epidemics was typically much
higher than that of those killed in action. In conflicts
that involved German-speaking nations, a change in
this ratio did not occur until the Franco-Prussian
War of 1870– 1871 (Rebentisch 1980). Thereafter,
clean water and good hygiene became standard
requirements for German soldiers.
This paper gives examples of how German
military geologists helped to provide adequate
drinking water and sanitation for combat troops in
World War I. For brevity, it focuses mainly on
the Western Front, across Belgium and northern
France, rather than the Eastern Front (facing
Russia) or southern fronts manned principally
by Germany’s allies (mostly by armies of the Austro-
Hungarian and Ottoman Turk empires). Data are
drawn partly from references selected from a wide
range of contemporary and postwar German-
language publications, partly from archive docu-
ments contained in the Heringen Collection, the
numerous unpublished reports of which are now
mostly preserved in the Bundeswehr Geoinforma-
tion Office at Euskirchen in Germany (Willig 2009).
The German situation early in
World War I
In the German Army at the start of World War I, in
August 1914, measures taken for ensuring an ade-
quate water supply to military forces were based
on the ‘Kriegssanitätsordnung’ of 1907. These
medical regulations for the military (Kriegsminis-
terium 1907/1914) specified principles for the
‘assessment of drinking water; verification of
central water collection facilities, especially those
with sand filtration; protection of wells [from
contamination]; marking of good drinking water
supply points; exploitation of groundwater in river
plains with favourable soil conditions; construction
of ‘Abyssinian’ driven wells subject to suitable
geological conditions [as described below, and illus-
trated in Fig. 11]; water trucks and drinking water
preparation devices; purification of drinking water
and service water by means of filters; boiling
water; chemical agents and accelerated filtering’
(translated from Hambloch & Mordziol 1915,
p. 8). The ‘Kriegssanitätsordnung’ also identified

From: Rose, E. P. F. & Mather, J. D. (eds) Military Aspects of Hydrogeology.

Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 362, 85– 103, DOI: 10.1144/SP362.6
# The Geological Society of London 2012. Publishing disclaimer: www.geolsoc.org.uk/pub_ethics
 Downloaded from http://sp.lyellcollection.org/ by guest on April 17, 2012
86 D. WILLIG & H. HÄUSLER
responsibilities for compliance with hygiene regu-
lations related to water supply. Army physicians
were responsible for the use of mobile drinking
water preparation systems in the area of operations,
and hygiene advisers for making recommendations
concerning the supply of drinking water and the dis-
posal of sewage water. In arid areas, physicians at
corps and division levels were responsible for ensur-
ing an adequate water supply.
Water was not only needed for quenching sol-
diers’ thirst. Water of good quality was needed for
drinking by pack animals and cavalry mounts, and
the livestock that provided fresh meat. Water fit
for human consumption was required for food prep-
aration by troops in general and especially within
field bakeries and field butchers. It was needed in
large quantities to supply camps for troops and pris-
oners of war, and to supply military hospitals.
Relatively untreated water, of lower quality, was
required for the cleaning of barrack quarters, mili-
tary hospitals, field bakeries and butchers. It was
required to provide baths, laundries and delousing
centres; for mixing concrete and washing of gravel
prior to its use in concrete mix; as coolant for use
in machinery and vehicles (especially locomotives);
and for spraying to prevent generation of dust clouds
during earthwork construction (to reduce the risk of
detection of this activity by the enemy).
The required quantities of water depended on the
number of consumers, the physical stress they were
under and the climatic conditions in which the mili-
tary action took place. Tables 1 and 2 give contem-
porary German estimates of water consumption per
soldier and horse on the Western Front, and for
animals and appliances in an arid climate.
More detailed information about military water
consumption has been documented by Range
(1921), Peltret (1936), Volkskommissariat (1939),
BMVg (1995), Umweltministerium (1995) and
Willig et al. (2002).
When World War I began, it was assumed within
the German Army that conflict would be brief and
mobile. Water was therefore supplied from existing
facilities, through routine logistic channels. Early in
the conflict, water was typically extracted and trans-
ported to the forces in the field using barrels and
tanks (Fig. 1), before the source had been thoroughly
examined to assess water quality. Because the water
had not been subject to chemical/bacteriological
Table 1. Drinking water consumption in the field by
German troops (after Wilser 1921)
Soldier in front line position 2 – 4 l/day
Soldier in readiness 5 – 10 l/day
Soldier in camp 20 – 30 l/day
Horses 30 – 80 l/day
Table 2. Daily requirements for water to support
military operations in a desert climate (from Range
1919)
Useful animals
Camel 25 l/day
Donkey 20 l/day
Sheep/goat 5 l/day
Mule/horse 30 l/day
Ox/buffalo 35 l/day
Appliances
Truck 50 l/day
Locomotive 10 – 20 m3/day
Gas preparation for tethered 2 – 4 m3/day
observation balloon
analysis, it was mandatory to boil it before use
(Selter 1918). This presented no problem if the
water, like other beverages, was supplied through
field kitchens.
As conflict on the Western Front became less
mobile, it was soon realized that in some areas
groundwater might be developed as a means of
water supply, and that geologists could assist with
this development (cf. Kranz 1937). Thus, late in
1914, for those German troops then occupying a
zone inland from the Belgian coast, a professor of
geography and assistant physician of the Landsturm
(part of the German reserve army) called Siegfried
Passarge was assigned specifically as a geologist
to support the consulting hygienic officer of the
German 4th Army (Kranz 1938).
Lessons quickly learned during the war included
the fact that a requirement-oriented water supply
could only be ensured if the following prerequisites
were met:
(1) Identification of the amount of water required;
(2) Pro-active planning, taking into account the
overall military conditions (mobile or static
warfare, and the availability of water distri-
bution maps); consideration of climatic con-
ditions and seasonal variations in water supply;
(3) Involvement of an appropriate number and
range of water supply experts;
(4) Holding available labour and material
resources for the treatment, storage and distri-
bution of water (pipeline material, cisterns,
transport and storage tanks).
Stabilizing of the Western Front in late 1914 resulted
in static warfare and ever increasing demands for
material. The problems in static warfare, particularly
those related to water supply, showed that expert
advisory services were urgently required. In order
to ensure water supply and to comply with hygienic
requirements, it was necessary to have a detailed
knowledge of the subsoil situation. Soon, major pro-
blems had to be faced in water supply. As there was
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GERMAN MILITARY HYDROGEOLOGY WORLD WAR I
Fig. 1. Water supply to German troops in World War I by hand pumping from a well and transport by drum mounted on
a horse-drawn cart (from a contemporary postcard: author Willig’s collection).
no express directive concerning the involvement of
geologists in water supply, and the number of military
geologists was initially small, they were at first asked
for advice only sporadically.
However, on the basis of this early experience,
Salomon (1916b) distinguished between three
zones of water supply that became evident in
static warfare: a forward zone exposed to hostile
infantry, mortar and artillery fire; a second zone
further back, but still within reach of hostile artil-
lery; and a rear zone forming the ‘military hinter-
land’. In this third area, water was supplied under
near-peacetime conditions, subject to enough suit-
able water being available. If this were not the
case, the local civilian population would have to
bear drastic limitations to their own water supply
for the benefit of the occupying troops.
In the hinterland of the Western Front, existing
supply facilities were examined and improved,
if necessary, by water expert commissions that
were also responsible for building new facilities.
Ideally, these water commissions consisted of a
hygiene expert, a military geologist and experts in
hydraulics and well construction. In the two zones
closest to the frontline, the activities of these
experts were obviously only possible to a limited
extent. In the artillery fire zone, facilities such as
water towers and rigs for well construction that
were visible from afar could only be built if
enough cover from observation was provided. The
closer one came to the line of the fire trenches, the
more of a problem it became to supply the troops.
Personnel carrying food and beverages into the
most forward zone were often on suicide missions.
One of the primary tasks of the first military
geologists arriving at the front was to ensure water
87
supply and, at the same time, disposal of sewage
water. After some initial difficulties, military geol-
ogists within the army were grouped into teams,
and tasked additionally with providing an advisory
service including construction of underground
facilities, guiding mine warfare, development of
military sites, drainage of field fortifications, pro-
curement of construction material and siting/
routing of earth telegraphy (Kranz & Scupin 1937;
Kranz 1940).
Military geological organization
Contemporary literature provides little precise
information on the numbers of geologists initially
employed as such in German forces during World
War I. According to Kranz (1915, p. 2, translated)
‘approximately 115 geologists and miners with geo-
logical training were under arms’ in the German
and Austro-Hungarian armies of 1915. A handful
of geologists in uniform who were engaged in
geotechnical work from the beginning of the war
pioneered the creation of a military geological
organization as a ‘bottom-up’ initiative. Major
credit for this must go to Captain Walter Kranz,
who had been working as a government engineering
geologist in the Strasbourg region from November
1914, to the Professor Passarge already mentioned,
and to Professor Hans Philipp, who had been
assigned (in the rank of lieutenant) to support No.
121 Infantry Division in the Priesterwald region of
Alsace from May 1915 (Kranz 1917a –c; Rose
et al. 2000; Häusler 2003). These pioneers were
not deterred by the resistance of some higher
ranking Army officers to their initiative.
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88 D. WILLIG & H. HÄUSLER
Formation of a military geological organization
began on the Western Front in 1915 with the for-
mation of geology teams within high commands
of the Army (Häusler 2000). Subsequently, by
directive of the Chief of the General Staff of the
Army in the Field, military geology was annexed
to the field of surveying on 6 September 1916.
Major Boelcke, the Chief of Military Surveying
but not himself a geologist, was thus also made
Chief of Military Geology. However, he was
assisted in his command role by a geologist as a
consultant: an experienced academic geologist
appointed as a Second Lieutenant in the reserve
army, R.J. Wilser (Wochinger 1919; Willig 1999;
cf. Häusler 2000, 2003).
Geology teams formed up to this time were
incorporated into the surveying branch of the
Army. Each of the then 28 survey sections (Vermes-
sungsabteilungen, commonly abbreviated as Verm.
Abt.) was assigned a geology team (Geologenstab
or Geologenstelle). The chain of command thus
led down from the Chief of Military Survey, via
the survey sections attached to individual armies,
to the respective geology team (Fig. 2). Addition-
ally, the Chief of Military Survey could seek
information from advisory centres at provincial
institutions and technical colleges that had access
to geologists as consultants. Geologists thus
worked to support the general staff of specific
armies primarily through the associated survey
section. Initially, about 50 military geologists were
appointed to survey sections to serve in this way.
Once the organization was operational and
the services that could be rendered by geologists
became widely known and accepted by troops,
the uncoordinated activities of the relatively few
earlier military geologists were succeeded by
much more systematic work.
Experiences gained during the war showed
that the combination of military geology and sur-
veying had more disadvantages than advantages.
On the one hand, geologists had direct access
to the high-standard technical equipment of the
CHEF DES KRIEGSVERMESSUNGSWESENS
Vermessungsabteilungen der Armeen
Geologenstäbe
Fig. 2. Chain of command for German military geologists immediately prior to 13 March 1918 (from Wochinger 1919);
for translation, see text.
Vermessungs-Abteilungen, such as printing machines.
On the other hand, the Geologenstellen were typi-
cally stationed inconveniently far from their main
customer, the engineers. On 13 March 1918, the
Chief of the General Staff of the Army in the
Field therefore ordered military geology to be put
under the control of the engineer branch (Kranz
1927). However, this reorganization was not
implemented before the Armistice on 11 November
1918 brought hostilities to a close.
Although most German military geologists
served on the Western Front, there were also
teams on other fronts, notably in the Balkans, and
in Palestine to support Turkish operations against
the British.
The precise overall and peak personnel strengths
of the military geologist organization are not known.
However, according to Kraus (1941/1968), a total
of 28 army geology teams with 126 geological
experts existed on 18 October 1918, near the close
of hostilities. In addition, there were at that time
241 assistant geologists who served as technicians
or cartographic draughtsmen. At the end of the
war, it therefore seems that the military geological
service consisted of ‘367 geologists and individuals
with pertinent training’ (Willig 1999, pp. 33/34,
translated).
Military geological advisory services
regarding water supply
All force headquarters could request geologist advi-
sory services concerning subsoil-related issues. This
advisory support was given either face-to-face in the
field or through written reports. The substantial
support services rendered by military geologists
included the preparation of special-purpose maps
that depended on the intended use (e.g. water
supply or mining). Water supply maps at scales of
1:80 000 and 1:250 000 (e.g. Rose 2009, fig. 16),
for example, were compiled for planning purposes.
They were then printed by the survey sections to
Auskunftsstellen der
Landesanstalten
und Hochschulen
Beratende Geologen
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GERMAN MILITARY HYDROGEOLOGY WORLD WAR I 89

which the geologists were assigned, and afterwards
distributed to the force headquarters.
Late in the war, water supply and other geotech-
nical maps were printed at more detailed scales:
1:50 000 and especially 1:25 000. Figure 3 shows
an example of a 1:50 000 map from a ‘Kriegsgeolo-
gie’ [war geology] booklet (Schmidt 1918) issued in
the final year of the war, when warfare on the
Western Front finally became more mobile as first
German forces and then the Allies achieved signifi-
cant advances. This water supply map [Wasserver-
sorgungskarte] has been overprinted in colour to
distinguish ground according to six categories of
water occurrence and means of supply (Fig. 4),
and to indicate sources of drinking and ‘service’
water classified into three major categories (Fig. 5).
Rose (2009) has illustrated and described
examples of similar ‘water supply’ (effectively
groundwater prospect) maps but at a scale of
1:25 000. His examples come from three different
German army areas of the Front, and illustrate
three different styles, an indication of the lack of
overall standardization even late in the war. The
map he illustrates as representative of those pre-
pared for Army Group C, deployed in the France/
Germany borderland of Alsace, is one of a set of
nine printed for this region (as indexed by Rose
2009, fig. 18), a set complemented (like specialist
maps for many other regions) by an explanatory
booklet (Geologen-Gruppe 1918) issued by the
local ‘survey’ unit: ‘Vermessungs-Abteilung No. 2’.
This companion booklet is an especially full and
detailed example of the type often published with
water supply maps, to illustrate different means of
water extraction by capturing of springs in various
ways and emplacement of different kinds of wells
(as explained more fully below, with examples pro-
vided as Figs 10 –13).
In addition to such general regional accounts,
specific technical reports along with proposals for
engineering works were issued for individual
water abstraction projects. In all of these accounts,
geological and other specialist terms had to be
explained and/or illustrated carefully to make the
booklets and reports readily intelligible to non-
specialist military users.
For example, the Heringen Collection of the
Bundeswehr Geoinformation Office in Euskirchen
(a collection explained by Willig 2009) contains
364 expert reports written by Geologische-Gruppe
V.A.8, Lothringen: the geological team of ‘Vermes-
sungsabteilung 8’ which was in 1917 based in the
province of Lorraine [Lothringen], in the France/
Germany borderland. This unit was incorporated
within Army Group A: a Group commanded by
General Ludwig von Falkenhausen, and like other
major German units, also known by the name
of its commander as an alternative to letter

Fig. 3. German water supply map, original at scale of 1:50 000, for an area between the Maas and Mosel rivers
near Germany’s western border; the west–east cross-section at the bottom illustrates a westward dipping bedrock
sedimentary sequence from Early to Late Jurassic in age. From Schmidt (1918); for explanation, see text and
Figures 4 and 5.
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90 D. WILLIG & H. HÄUSLER

Fig. 4. Part of lower key to map illustrated as Figure 3. In translation, the six categories represent (from the top down):
zone of springs; zone of [dug] shaft wells; zone of bored wells; water-bearing gravels/sands; waterless limestone
areas of highland plains; waterless clay areas of the Woevre plain. Adjacent tables on the map summarize for each of
these six regions (1) conditions of water occurrence and (2) the means of obtaining a water supply.

designation. Army Group A was deployed in the
vicinity of Strasbourg, to the SE of Army Group
C. Its geological team was headed by a reserve
army officer, Second Lieutenant Wagner, and con-
sisted of four military geologists/assistants with
military ranks and five military geologists in
uniform designated as ‘Beamtenstellvertreter’: an
appointment for geologists who had not held mili-
tary rank prior to being called to arms. An analysis
of the team’s reports (Fig. 6) reveals that water
supply and drainage tasks formed a major com-
ponent of its overall work (Geologen-Gruppe
1917a–d ). From July through August 1917, in par-
ticular, 62% (69 tasks) were related to water supply
(Geologen-Gruppe 1917b).
Advisory services related to water issues inc-
luded imparting information about water hygiene
to avoid troops polluting their own drinking water
through ignorance of the local geological con-
ditions. Figure 7 illustrates some of the potential
problems. Cess-pits and cemeteries sited at unsuita-
ble locations may pollute groundwater, so wells
should be sited accordingly. Conversely, military
cess-pits and cemeteries should be sited so as not
to have a direct impact on the quality of potentially
drinkable groundwater.
Walter Kranz, the ‘father’ of German military
geology, presented a doctoral thesis (Kranz 1917c)
based on lessons learned during the early years of
the war that is of particular significance. Its title
may be translated as ‘On soil filtration, the position-
ing and protection of water abstraction with special
consideration of military requirements’, and so indi-
cates how important matters of water supply and
sanitation had become to the German Army.
Water supply methods
An extensive range of contemporary methods for
utilizing springs and groundwater is illustrated by
explanatory booklets issued for Army Groups B
(STOVERM 1918a, b) and C (Geologen-Gruppe
1918). That issued for Army Group C, commanded
by General Hermann von Strantz, is particularly
informative. It was compiled by the geological
team assigned to ‘Vermessungs-Abteilung No. 2’
to accompany a set of nine ‘water supply’ maps,
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GERMAN MILITARY HYDROGEOLOGY WORLD WAR I 91

Fig. 5. Upper key to map illustrated as Figure 3. Top symbols (in red) distinguish water supplies for villages and farms:
drinking water (usable without boiling) (round symbols) contrasted with lower-quality ‘service’ water (usable only after
boiling) (square symbols), both categorized according to supplies available for average occupancy (by soldiers), in
descending order: abundant (solid symbol), adequate (symbol with diagonal division) and inadequate (symbol mostly
blank). The lower eight symbols (in blue) distinguish natural and artificial water outlets and supplies, in descending
order: spring with yield .1 l s21; spring with low but continuous yield; spring with intermittent (i.e. seasonal) flow;
borehole for water (with depth in metres); solitary well, outside village; water treatment facility; pipeline with water
tower (H), pumping station (P) and filling-station outlets; and pipeline planned or under construction.

as noted above, for an area of responsibility that
comprised a section of the front line to the NW of
Army Group A. This booklet contains the following
(translated) introductory remarks to qualify the
maps it accompanies:
As already reflected by its name [‘water supply’], this
map is to support water supply and cannot be used just
like that for other military geological tasks such as site
development, mine warfare, extraction of construction
material, etc. It is rather to provide the forces with an
overview of the groundwater situation in the area and
of resultant water supply options and is to list all exist-
ing, natural and man-made water outlets and facilities.
The companion booklet contains clear sample draw-
ings of simple field water supply facilities, including
some short notes on their use. The map and the compa-
nion booklet are to prevent wasted effort, time and
material at places where water supply is futile. They
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92 D. WILLIG & H. HÄUSLER
Fig. 6. Tasks undertaken in 1917 by the military geology
team assigned to Vermessungs– Abteilung 8 categorized
to show the high proportion involved with water supply
and/or drainage (based on 364 projects in
Geologen-Gruppe 1917a –d )
are to show the forces in the field where and how they
can satisfy their water requirement most appropriately.
(Geologen-Gruppe 1918, p. 1)
There were essentially three options for the supply
of drinking and lower-quality service water, with
the option adopted being determined by the geologi-
cal situation in the theatre, the technological possi-
bilities and the tactics of the military situation:
(1) The use of local surface water, by direct
abstraction and treatment of water from
lakes or rivers.
(2) The use of local groundwater, by means of dug
(i.e. shaft) wells, driven wells (i.e. Abyssi-
nian/Norton tube wells), bored wells, captur-
ing of springs or construction of infiltration
galleries, where appropriate, involving wells
sited in river banks to obtain gravel-filtered
river water, or induced recharge of an aquifer.
(3) The use of purified surface water and ground-
water distributed from a remote source by
means of a field pipeline network.
Surface water is mostly polluted in its natural state,
and some degree of effort must therefore be put into
treating it before it can be used for purposes other
than sanitary or cleaning activities. To this end,
static, mobile and hand-held water purification
systems and devices were developed and used in
the field (e.g. Fig. 8) (Thiem 1916).
Groundwater is normally less contaminated than
surface water, and its use is therefore generally pre-
ferred. This implies the use of existing wells (where
undamaged and uncontaminated) or the construc-
tion of new wells, a procedure that usually requires
significant technical effort (Figs 10–12).
On the Western and Eastern Front, shaft wells
(Figs 9 & 10) were dug, lined and equipped by tech-
nically well-trained soldiers or by specific well-
construction teams from the corps of engineers.
Where appropriate, such wells were dug by means
of the ‘drum shaft’ procedure also used to construct
vertical access shafts in mine warfare (Kraus
undated, p. 112). In this procedure, heavy concrete
rings succeeding an iron bottom ring are used.
Unconsolidated soil is loosened manually to initiate
a shaft and then hoisted out by means of a winch on
an axle stand (Fig. 9). This winch is also used for
lowering the rings into the developing shaft, succes-
sive rings being added from the top as the shaft is
deepened. When reaching groundwater level, the
water table is lowered by means of pumps so that
the aquifer can be penetrated to maximum depth.
Field engineer units, field bakeries and field
hospitals had the necessary equipment for construc-
tion of Abyssinian wells (Christian undated), a well
type (Fig. 11) so named from its use by British
troops campaigning in Abyssinia (modern Ethiopia)
during the 19th century, but also known as Norton
tube wells from an early patent.
Railroad construction companies as well as
engineer units had boring and well construction
equipment (for wells with a maximum depth of
40 m; Hambloch & Mordziol 1915). It is question-
able, however, whether all of the 63 railroad con-
struction companies eventually in operation had
such equipment. Deep borings and reconnaissance
borings were sometimes made by contractors.
Thus in his account of the military geological con-
ditions in the Upper Rhine region (Kraus undated),
Professor Kraus, the former head of the geology
team operating with Army Group B, describes test
borings for water supply made by the contractor
Meyer from Nuremberg.
The geology team serving with Army Group C
published a memorandum that described the
military boring methods then in common use
(Vermessungs-Abteilung No. 2, 1916). In addition,
the military geologist Herbst (1916) provided gui-
dance on the calculation of the costs of boring com-
pared with those for installing pipelines. Such
information allowed the most cost-effective option
to be chosen in individual cases. In addition, his
memorandum contained a list of efficient German
boring contractors.
Borehole depth at that time was normally con-
strained to about the depth of the water table,
because of the difficulty of draining the hole during
construction. Exceptionally, the newly developed
method of freezing the ground, developed for shaft
building in mine warfare, was used to penetrate
water-logged strata (Infanterie-Division 1917).
Springs were captured wherever this was practi-
cal to provide a water supply, but it was realized that
the outflow needed to be controlled by appropriate
engineering works (e.g. Figs 12 & 13) if contami-
nation by surface waters was to be avoided.
If large troop concentrations have to be supplied
in confined spaces, a piped supply network that
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GERMAN MILITARY HYDROGEOLOGY WORLD WAR I 93

Fig. 7. Three examples from Kranz (1940) that show diagrammatically how water supply may be contaminated: by
leakage from a cess-pit contaminating a well through groundwater flow despite an intervening hill (top); by seepage
through graves in a cemetery contaminating a spring below (middle); and by runoff from a hill slope into an
earth-impounded reservoir being contaminated through boggy ground conditions en route.

brings water into the combat zone is ideal. This
requires a highly productive water source, adequate
material and time to construct the water storage and
distribution network (pipeline system, storage
tanks/water towers, pumping stations, and power
lines for the pumps), and an organization to
operate and maintain it.
Such a system was installed on Wytschaete
Ridge near Ypres in Belgium, and operated by
the Technischer Betrieb XIII Armeekorps, Abt.
Kriegswasserleitung, Stab I Pionier Bataillon 13
(Technischer Betrieb XIII Armeekorps 1916; see
also Behr undated, pp. 30–31). The water for the
pipeline came from four wells in the Halluin area,
all between 156 and 256 m deep. Their construction
was approved by A.O.K. 4 (the High Command of
the 4th Army) and started on 1 April 1915. The
water was primarily earmarked for combat troops.
The pipeline system led as far as the relatively
safe marshalling areas, and had an overall length
(of cast iron pipes of 50 –150 mm diameter) of
about 250 km. The system supplied an area of
155 km2. A total of 6000 m3 of water were extracted
every day from 2000 taps. Guards were responsible
for maintaining the water pipelines and protecting
them from sabotage.
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94 D. WILLIG & H. HÄUSLER
Fig. 8. Portable water filters used by the German army
in World War I: model AF II (left) and field filter F 4
(right) (from Berkefeld, undated).
Use of dowsing rods in the search for water
In the German Army, the attitude of military geol-
ogists towards the use of dowsing rods was ambiva-
lent, to say the least. Kranz (1915, p. 251) stated
Fig. 9. Soldiers during well construction using the ‘drum shaft’ method, at Masuria on the Eastern Front in 1915 (from a
photograph in author Willig’s collection).
(in translation) that: ‘Anyone who does not believe
in dowsing rods will know for certain that only a
geologist will be able, on the basis of his analyses
and observations, to determine with reasonable or
perfect certainty whether it is possible to construct
a well in certain places’. In the same paper he com-
pared the relation between a geologist and a dowser
with that of a physician and a charlatan (see also
Salomon 1916a, b). Moreover, the German military
geologist Dr. Paul Range, who served with the
Turkish army in the ranks of captain and major in
Sinai and Palestine, reported that 75% of all bore-
holes proposed by dowsers yielded water, but less
than half of them could be used as drinking water
(Range 1920).
The situation was less clear-cut in the allied
Austro-Hungarian Army, although it too employed
military geologists on all its major operational
fronts, seemingly about 60 in total by the end of
the war (Häusler 2000). In parallel with the develop-
ment of geophysical instruments for subsurface
investigations at the beginning of the 20th century,
the use of the dowsing rod as an aid to the location
of groundwater was tested by geoscientists and
physicians (Häusler 1986). These tests indicated
that a positive reaction of the dowsing rod was influ-
enced by the dowser himself and what he wished to
find. Nevertheless, several articles on the supposed
successful use of the dowsing rod (Wünschelrute)
for military purposes during World War I were pub-
lished in the German journal ‘Die Wünschelrute’.
The rod, it was claimed, had military applications
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GERMAN MILITARY HYDROGEOLOGY WORLD WAR I 95

Fig. 10. Diagrammatic cross-section through a field-type shaft well with side pump, as constructed by German troops in
World War I (from Geologen-Gruppe 1918).

in that it could be used for mine detection on battle-
fields as well as in rivers, and for groundwater
exploration in arid regions. Because the technique,
if successful, would be able to detect groundwater
without the more time-consuming and expensive
subsoil investigations associated with routine geo-
logical or geophysical work, the Austro-Hungarian
Army sometimes used dowsers to explore for
potable groundwater in arid regions, even when
military geologists were attached. The best
examples of this use come from karstified limestone
regions of SW Europe, where two officers – the
graduate engineers Major Friedrich Musil and
Lieutenant-Colonel Karl Beichl – have been cred-
ited with successfully supporting Austro-Hungarian
forces with up to 20 million litres of water per day
(Flachenegger 1953).
Of these two, the career of Karl Beichl (Fig. 14)
with respect to water supply can be traced particu-
larly well from documents in the military archives
(Kriegsarchiv) of the Austrian State Archives
(Häusler 1986), and from an account by Waagen
(1918) that described several of Beichl’s experi-
ences during the war.
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96 D. WILLIG & H. HÄUSLER

Fig. 11. Diagram showing ‘Abyssinian’ well technology: (a) completed drive well with pump fitted to the top of an iron
tube driven into shallow ground, and water entering the tube via perforations in the lower section, behind the drive
point; (b) the ‘driving’ apparatus, comprising a pulley-operated weight, used for hammering the tube into the ground
by blows on a clamp attached for this purpose to the upper tube; (c) a bored ‘Abyssinian’ well, in which the iron tube is
driven into a gravel-packed borehole (from Geologen-Gruppe 1918).

The archive documents show that in February Construction Department (Ingenieur-Offiziersk-

1914, the then Captain Beichl was serving in the orps, k.u.k. Militärbauabteilung) of the 13th Corps
Engineer Corps of the Imperial and Royal Military in the city of Zagreb (now the capital of Croatia),
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GERMAN MILITARY HYDROGEOLOGY WORLD WAR I 97

Fig. 12. Diagrammatic cross-sections illustrating means of abstracting groundwater from a water-bearing stratum
beneath chalk and overlying impermeable clay: (a) natural spring at foot of the slope, but groundwater outflow
contaminated by mixing with waters percolating through superficial deposits at the slope surface; (b) the same spring
with engineering works installed, including gravel pack behind a rear-perforated reservoir, with a clay/concrete seal
above to prevent ingress of potentially contaminated near-surface water (from Geologen-Gruppe 1918).

in the Balkan Peninsula. When asked for a prognosis
of groundwater as a water supply source for the for-
tress of Petrovara, situated near the River Danube,
he identified coal at a depth of 80–83 m (correlated
as belonging to the Karlowitz coalfield) supposedly
crossing water-bearing strata at 38 and 41 m depth,
where he recommended drilling. When a borehole
was discontinued at a depth of 36 m due to lack
of water, he requested a deeper borehole down
to 41 m, and then down to 75 m. Captain Beichl
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98 D. WILLIG & H. HÄUSLER

Fig. 13. Diagrams to illustrate appropriate capturing of a horizontally confined spring discharge. Cross-section M–M1
shows engineering works with a gravel pack adjacent to a sand aquifer beneath coralliferous limestone, with clay or
loam emplaced to form an impermeable seal above (top). The plan shows lines of sections M–M1, F–L and F– R, and
the lateral extent of the gravel pack (middle), cross-sections F –L and F–R (bottom) (from Geologen-Gruppe 1918).

also warned that a pavilion near the fortress should
not be used during thunderstorms because of its
supposed position above three major water-bearing
horizons, a detail not subsequently tested, but
which probably impressed his higher military
command at that time, as he soon went on to
achieve higher rank.
As documented in his diary, in addition to
dowsing countless shallow wells at depths of 10 –
15 m, Beichl also dowsed for oil in cooperation
with the Geological Survey of Austria north of
Vienna in January 1915, and for oil and gas fields
in Hungary. Presumably the then Major Beichl
impressed his general, the Archduke Eugen of
 Downloaded from http://sp.lyellcollection.org/ by guest on April 17, 2012
GERMAN MILITARY HYDROGEOLOGY WORLD WAR I
Fig. 14. Lieutenant-Colonel Karl Beichl, of the
Austro-Hungarian Army, who in May 1915 was
decorated with the Franz Josefs Medal for his work as
a diviner in locating military water supplies in the
limestone karst terrain of the Isonzo region, then in
southern Austria but now part of modern Slovenia and
northern Italy. The River Isonzo rises in the Julian Alps
and flows south through a steep-sided valley to the
Friulian Plain, flanked to the east by the Bainsizza and
Carso Plateaux, a stark landscape of ridge and stone. The
Isonzo region formed the focus of 12 battles between
the Austro-Hungarian and Italian armies between June
1915 and November 1917. (Photo courtesy of the
Kriegsarchiv, Austrian State Archives, Vienna.)
Austria, Prince of Hungary and Bohemia and Com-
mander of the Southwest Front, when on 27 March
1915 he reportedly used dowsing to detect a
golden cigarette case, which the Archduke had
lost. In May 1915, he was decorated with the
Franz Josefs Medal for his accomplishments in pro-
viding water supplies to military forces in karst
areas of the Isonzo region.
99
The following year, in July 1916, Beichl sup-
ported the high command of the Austro-Hungarian
fifth army (k.u.k. 5. Armeekommando – Quartier-
meisterabteilung) in Adelsberg (today Postojna in
Slovenia), where a group of military engineers
headed by Colonel Trieb (Ingenieurgruppe Oberst
Trieb) enhanced the water supply to the town,
sited in a region of karstified limestone, by the con-
struction of pits down to 15 m.
On 1 May 1917, Beichl was promoted to the rank
of Lieutenant-Colonel in the well construction
department (Brunnenbauabteilung) of the Austro-
Hungarian Army of the Isonzo. Reports dated May
1917 show that he was tasked with the identification
of groundwater and the provision of military water
supplies in the karstified region of Istria for the
17th Corps.
During the war overall, Beichl thus served
actively within several military commands, notably
in various departments of the Austro-Hungarian 5th
army. He also supported the Austro-Hungarian
Navy (K.u.K. Reichskriegsministerium, Marinesek-
tion, 5. Abteilung) by prospecting for mines in the
River Danube west of Belgrade. He documented his
experiences and described very carefully the differ-
ences between dowsing for water, thermal water,
coal, oil and gas, techniques that were also tested in
laboratory experiments. These records credit Beichl
with considerable skill in the use of dowsing rods
for military purposes, most of all for identifying
groundwater occurrence. Because of his engineering
expertise in drilling deep wells, he was certainly suc-
cessful in supporting the Austro-Hungarian army
with potable water at several locations on the SW
Front, in Southern Tyrol, Carinthia and Istria, in the
Karst Mountains, in Hungary, in the Carpathian
Mountains, and on the Turkish Front.
Beichl was thus a talented water engineer if not a
hydrogeologist. However, in the field he sometimes
had close contacts with geologists, notably Drs.
Hermann Vetters and Lukas Waagen of the Geo-
logical Survey of Austria, who themselves tested
the dowsing rod for special purposes. The
‘method’ of dowsing for groundwater remained a
very subjective one but it was, nevertheless, used
again as an aid to determine sources for water
supply at the beginning of World War II.
Water supply in arid regions
Water supply is of particular importance when mili-
tary operations are conducted in an arid climate.
An example of this from World War I is provided
by the Ottoman Turk campaigns SW from Palestine
across the Sinai Peninsula in an effort to wrest the
Suez Canal from British control. These operations
were supported by the Germans as Turkish allies.
 Downloaded from http://sp.lyellcollection.org/ by guest on April 17, 2012
100 D. WILLIG & H. HÄUSLER
Among other technical services, they organized
water supply. To this end, the military geologist
Dr. Paul Range and a water engineer, Dr. Schuhma-
cher, among others, were sent to serve on the Pales-
tine Front from autumn 1915 to 1918, Range in the
forward operational area, and Schumacher in the
rear area. They were placed in control of a water
supply task force consisting primarily of Turkish
soldiers.
In the autumn and winter of 1915, the then
Captain Range (later to be promoted Major) carried
out a detailed investigation of water sources and
groundwater conditions in the Sinai Peninsula fol-
lowing the first attempted Turkish advance (Range
1919, 1920, 1921). Based on these studies, he
planned the systematic exploitation of the potential
water resources available to supply Turkish forces
within the developing theatre of operations. A
Turkish labour ‘battalion’ consisting of eight
Turkish officers and, initially, 600 Turkish soldiers
as well as 10 German war volunteers was available
to implement his proposals, plus three military
boring rigs. These were used for well boring under
the command of the German Second Lieutenant
Beyer. In the winter of 1915/16, six wells were
bored with an overall depth of 333 m. In addition,
23 wells to a total depth of 313 m were dug by
hand. In the rear area to the north, a total of 131
additional shaft wells were dug and lined with wood.
Some of the drilled wells were sited by a dowser:
Major Otto von Graeve, well known (Braikovich
1917) to have served in 1915 with the Turkish
army in Sinai and there to have used a divining
rod. However, according to Wagner (1955), only
one of his many predictions proved correct. Near-
contemporary accounts note that 75% of wells
sited by a diviner struck water, but less than 50%
had an adequate yield (Range 1920, p. 96) and
that six wells sited by von Graeve fell into this
‘inadequate yield’ category (Range 1921).
Fig. 15. Organization of the German/Turkish military water-drilling section in Palestine during 1917/18; translated
from Range (1921).
When a second Turkish attack was made towards
the Suez Canal, in summer 1916, many small water
supply points had to be established along the
advance route in order to avoid large troop concen-
trations and consequently minimize losses caused
by air attacks. The intention was to drive Abyssinian
wells in regions with a high level of groundwater,
but it was not possible to supply the necessary
equipment in time, so shaft wells were dug instead.
For dug wells with an edge length of 1.5 m, twenty-
four 1 in (25 mm) thick timber planks per metre
depth were needed. For approximately 300 wells
with an average depth of 2.5 m each, 18 000 timber
planks plus timber for the cover were required.
A Well Sinking Company (Brunnenarbeiter-
kompagnie) was formed for this work. It consisted
of 160 personnel, subdivided into three platoons
with 40 personnel each, plus another 20 soldiers
and 20 cameleers held ready for special purposes.
The platoons were again subdivided into detach-
ments. Each platoon had 12 camels to transport
material. The company commander was a Turkish
captain but the platoon and detachment leaders
were German war volunteers who were proficient
in Turkish. In sandy soil, this company could
complete four 2.5-m, three 3-m or two 4-m dug
wells per day.
In the winter of 1916/17, the Turks had to with-
draw to the Gaza-Birseba (Beersheva) line. In
summer 1917, 40 000 soldiers and more than
10 000 animals had to be supplied with water there.
Given the need for 20 l per man, 30 l per animal
and 100 m3 of reserves, 1200 m3 of water had to be
provided each day. During fighting in winter 1917/
18, a Well Drilling Section (Fig. 15) was formed by
order of Field Marshal Otto Liman von Sanders,
newly appointed to command the combined
German-Turkish forces on the Palestine Front.
This period ended with the collapse of the
Turkish Army in September 1918. It was only
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GERMAN MILITARY HYDROGEOLOGY WORLD WAR I
Table 3. Cumulative drilling/digging lengths
achieved by German-led well boring units in
Palestine (according to Range 1921)
In Sinai 1915 – 1916 646 m
Task force I 1916 – 1918 3134 m
Task force II 1917 – 1918 519 m
Total 4299 m
possible to save the boring rigs and part of the equip-
ment. Two members of the Well Drilling Section
were reportedly killed during the retreat, and 52 of
140 other ranks were listed missing. Most of the sur-
vivors, including the heads of the drilling task
forces, were taken prisoner by the British. Including
drilling by their parent units before re-organization,
Task Forces within the Well Drilling Section
had achieved a cumulative well length of 3653 m
(Table 3). Overall, German expertise had contribu-
ted to wells totalling 4299 m in length in this
theatre of the war.
Conclusions
It is evident that provision of an adequate water
supply was important to the allied German, Austro-
Hungarian and Ottoman Turkish armies in action in
World War I. Although the Austro-Hungarian
armies made use of a significant number of military
geologists (about 60 in total, according to Häusler
2000), partly to facilitate groundwater use,
German armies deployed a far greater number in
total. These mostly supported troops in the near-
static battlefield conditions of the Western Front
across Belgium and northern France, but also pro-
vided significant geotechnical expertise to the com-
bined German-Turkish forces operating in the arid
climate of Sinai and parts of Palestine.
From scattered use of military geologists on the
Western Front in 1914 and 1915, a German military
geological organization was eventually formed as
such, in 1916. Initially under the auspices of military
survey, this developed into an organization compris-
ing over 350 geologists and associated technicians
that was earmarked for transfer to engineer
command in 1918, as conflict ended.
German military geologists were employed on a
wide range of tasks associated with engineering
geology as well as hydrogeology, but a high pro-
portion of their tasks was typically concerned with
provision of adequate water supplies for combat
troops and the drainage of waste water from areas
where troops were concentrated. Geologists
guided abstraction of groundwater by efficient
siting of shaft wells, dug by hand to shallow
depths or deeper if utilizing the mining technique
101
of ‘drum shaft’ emplacement; ‘Abyssinian’ tube
wells driven in weak strata also to shallow (,7 m)
depth; boreholes drilled to greater depths; and cap-
turing of springs so as to prevent potential contami-
nation by surface waters. They also provided advice
to prevent contamination of groundwater by inap-
propriately sited cess-pits and cemeteries. Hygiene
in the field was of great concern to German troops,
to prevent casualties due to water-borne disease
rather than enemy action.
A major innovation was the compilation by the
military geologists of ‘water supply’ maps at a
variety of scales, notably 1:250 000, 1:80 000,
1:50 000 and eventually 1:25 000, to guide planning
by non-geologist staff officers. Developed in differ-
ent styles in different army command areas, essen-
tially these were simplified geological maps
colour-coded to indicate the effect of ground con-
ditions on potential sources of water supply, and
the best means of obtaining a supply (whether
from surface or groundwater).
Military geologists rather than dowsers were
used for predicting sources of potable groundwater,
although a few charismatic officers in the German
and Austro-Hungarian armies did use dowsing to
influence the choice of sites for new wells, notably
in arid regions of Palestine and karstic limestone
regions of the southern Alps and northern parts of
the Balkan Peninsula. Few sites chosen in this way
proved truly successful.
Wartime experience in the military applications
of geology gave rise to an extensive literature (in
German) generated by the many military geologists
who obtained academic or geological survey
appointments on return to civilian life. The books
by Wilser (1921, 1924–1930), Wasmund (1937),
von Bülow et al. (1938), Kranz (1938) and Mordziol
(1938), all of which include sections, sometimes
whole chapters, on military aspects of hydrogeol-
ogy, are of particular significance. They were
useful as textbooks to help train a new generation
of German military geologists for World War II
(Häusler 1995).
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