Before the war, Royal Navy and Imperial German Navy personnel met during visits, parties, and regattas. German hosts saw British midshipmen sketching and treated it as an artistic interest. Those drawings accumulated into detailed maps of German bases that became useful after 1914. The episode shows how routine peacetime contact could produce intelligence without an obvious reconnaissance mission.
Notable Point · 1:09:26-1:11:08
How peacetime sketches mapped German naval bases
Sketches made by British midshipmen during friendly prewar visits later gave the Royal Navy detailed maps of German naval bases.