GSGS 4347 Maps: Browse Digitised WW2 British Army Maps of France

The GSGS 4347 series was the standard large-scale tactical map used by British and Allied forces in the Second World War. Produced at 1:25,000 scale, these were the maps soldiers carried on the ground in Normandy.

The table below lists all known free digitised copies currently accessible online, drawn from the British Library, the US National Archives (NARA),Yale University, the National Library of Australia (NLAus),McMaster University Library (Mac),the Map Archive of Wojskowy Instytut Geograficzny 1919–1939 (WIG),Archeion (a Canadian military archive),and NormandyWarGuide. Where a sheet exists in more than one edition or variant, each appears as a separate row.

Background on the series, the overprint variants, and how the maps were used in the field, follows below the table.

GSGS 4347 Digitised Map Sheets

Know of a digitised GSGS 4347 sheet not listed here? Get in touch and we will add it.

About the GSGS 4347 Series

What Is GSGS 4347?

GSGS stands for Geographical Section, General Staff, the branch of the British Army responsible for producing military maps. The number 4347 identifies this particular series. The maps were produced at a scale of 1:25,000, meaning one centimetre on the map represents 250 metres on the ground, or four centimetres to the kilometre.

That level of detail set the series apart from its companion, GSGS 4250, which was produced at 1:50,000. Where the 4250 was suited to divisional and corps-level planning over wider areas, the 4347 was a battlefield map. At 1:25,000, individual farms, orchards, sunken lanes, and field boundaries were visible. These were the features that determined whether an infantry section could advance under cover or whether a tank could cross a piece of ground without bogging.

Each sheet covered an area of 10 kilometres by 15 kilometres, with sheet lines and sheet numbers based on the Lambert Zone I grid. Sheet numbers were allotted to blocks of four sheets, with individual sheets identified by the block number followed by NE, NW, SE, or SW.

Origins and Production of GSGS 4347

The 4347 series was not produced from scratch. British cartographers at the Ordnance Survey worked from French 1:25,000 Carte de France sheets produced before the war by the French military mapping authority. These provided the topographic base, including contour lines, roads, railways, rivers, and settlement names.

From 1942 onwards, this base was systematically updated using aerial reconnaissance photography. RAF and later Allied air forces flew constant photographic sorties over occupied France, and intelligence derived from those images was incorporated into revised editions of the sheets. Road conditions, newly constructed fortifications, flooded areas, and changes to bridges and trackways were all potential additions.

Production continued through 1943 and into 1944, with many sheets revised and reprinted multiple times as new intelligence arrived. By the time of the Normandy landings in June 1944, the 4347 sheets covering the invasion area had been through several editions and were as current as the intelligence picture allowed.

What the Maps Showed

The standard 4347 sheet carried a detailed picture of the physical landscape. Contour lines at 5-metre intervals gave a precise sense of relief, useful for identifying ridgelines, dead ground, and covered approaches. Roads were classified by type, from metalled main routes down to tracks and field paths. Woodland, orchards, marshes, and water features were all marked with standardised symbols. Settlements appeared with individual buildings shown at larger scales, giving commanders a sense of which villages offered defensible stone structures and which were open hamlets.

Each sheet included a glossary of French place-name terms, a reliability diagram showing which areas had been updated from air photography, and an index to adjoining sheets. The grid system printed across the map allowed precise coordinates to be communicated by radio or written order.

Overprint Variants

Several categories of overprinted variant were produced in addition to the standard topographic sheets. Two are particularly significant for researchers.

Defence Overprints were produced ahead of the Normandy landings and updated through the campaign. They showed known German defensive positions: gun emplacements, wire obstacles, minefields, anti-tank ditches, strongpoints, and trench systems. The intelligence was drawn from aerial photography, prisoner interrogation, and reports from the French resistance. For anyone researching the Atlantic Wall or the German defensive layout in Normandy, these sheets are among the most direct primary sources available. The date printed on the sheet is significant: a 1944 overprint reflects the intelligence picture as it stood immediately before or during the campaign.

Some defence overprints carry the additional classification Bigot. Bigot was a codeword applied above Top Secret to all material that directly disclosed details of Overlord planning. Access was restricted to those with a demonstrable need to know, and holders were personally logged. A Bigot-classified map would not have been distributed to troops ahead of the landing; it was a planning document for officers in the chain of command preparing the operation.

Going Overprints classified the trafficability of the terrain for wheeled and tracked vehicles. The ground was divided into categories: good going, fair going, poor going, and no going. These maps were produced specifically for armoured formations planning routes of advance and were especially important during the breakout operations of July and August 1944. The Carentan Going Overprint is one example; Carentan and the surrounding marshland were a critical chokepoint for American forces moving south and east after securing the Utah and Omaha beachheads.

How the Maps Were Used

A standard British infantry battalion in Normandy would have held copies of the relevant 4347 sheets for its area of operations. Officers used them for planning attacks, identifying forming-up positions, and coordinating fire support with artillery. The grid system meant a forward observer could call in a fire mission using a six-figure or eight-figure reference that any battery commander could plot on the same sheet.

For tank crews, the going maps were equally important. The bocage country of Normandy, with its sunken lanes and thick hedge banks, could immobilise an armoured force that had not studied the ground in advance. A going map showing a stretch of firm going through what appeared on the topographic sheet as ordinary farmland could determine the axis of an entire brigade's advance.

Soldiers who kept their maps have sometimes passed them down to family members, which is one reason copies appear in private collections as well as institutional archives. The maps are now sought after both as historical documents and as aids to understanding the ground during battlefield visits.

Phil – founder of Normandy War Guide
I started the site more than a decade ago after my first trip to Normandy and have been hooked ever since. I visit a few times each year to explore new sites and update the guide. Over the years I've also transcribed thousands of WWII war diaries and scanned original maps to keep this history accessible for everyone.