In the 1940s the American Battle Monuments Commission published a “Summary of Operations” for each American Division that fought on the Western Front.  Each book contained numerous large fold-out maps showing the divisional actions and the approximate front line position at various points in time.  The University of Texas at Austin has scanned the entire collection of Divisional maps as large JPEG files; so they can be accessed, easily downloaded, and used by those serious battlefield tourists who want to follow the places where a specific division fought.

There are a few drawbacks to the maps:  First, they only show the approximate American lines at various dates; and they give no information on the German opponents.  Second, they are 1:20,000 scale, which makes them just off-size of today’s 1:25,000 French Series Blue IGN maps.  Third, they are JPEG files, so the webmaster does not believe they are downloadable into various mapping software.

On the positive side, they contain the landmarks, elevation contours, etc. that are described in the “Summary of Operations.”  Also, they are useful for those individuals who do not have access to high-quality scans (in other formats), but who still want to explore a division’s activities in-depth.

The map collection can be accessed by clicking on this link.