Gee Chart, Reims Chain, December 1944, 1/1000000 scale

This lattice chart depicts the Gee Reims station chain in eastern France during the final months in the war in Europe. The chart was used operationally on a bombing raid as indicated by numerous pencil lines documenting missions to targets in Germany. One of these has an "IP" marked for an initial point to the south of Berlin. The target appears to be Zossen, which housed the German Army Staff Headquarters in the spring of 1945. Aircrews carried these charts to determine lines of position using a Gee receiver and oscilloscope. The Royal Air Force (RAF) established new chains as the Allies advanced eastward after D-Day. An operator using this chart could determine a fix using two or three lines of position within three or four minutes.Gee was a hyperbolic system that provided short range navigation and bombing guidance over Britain, western Europe and the northern Mediterranean during World War II. Developed by the British Telecommunications Research Establishment (TRE) under the technical guidance of Robert G. Dippy, the system guided ships and larger aircraft (bombers, transports, reconnaissance aircraft, and night fighters) to accuracies of a statute mile or better at ranges up to four hundred statute miles. Both the Royal Air Force Bomber Command and American VIII Bomber Command depended extensively on the technology. A blind bombing system called Gee-H (or GH) used the Gee transmitters along with modified aircraft equipment to create a transponder system that could guide bombers at night or in cloud to within several hundred yards of a target.