Water-Witching /Dousing in the British Army?

[GreyC]

Hi,

the German Army officially encouraged water-witching on the Eastern front and in Asia. The Ottoman Army even hired a German "specialist" to find water this way. Does anybody know if this was practised in the British Army as well?

Thanks!

GreyC

[stevenbecker]

Mate,

That the method was used in the British Empire is well know and many practised it. But I've seen no dousers mention any where?

The German you mentioned sounds interesting who was it as I have this man?

Graeve Edlen Otto Von    Maj Eng     StabsIngenieur (Engineer officer) (Water drilling units in Palestine)    unknown    (born 1872 died 1948) searching water with a “Baquette divinatoire” was a German divining rod proponent (dowser) reported by Kress

Germans in this field are

Beyer    Lt Eng    Ingenieur (Engineer officer) - Filistin'de su sondaj islerinde Yüzbasi Range'nin yardimcisi (Afghan Range in the water drilling work in Palestine)

Bork (Borck) Erich    Capt Eng    EBSK 11 (Eisenbahnsonderkommando) special railroad service command - Eisenbahn-Sonder-Kompagnie 11 - used on the Hedschasbahn (Hedjaz Railway) - Afule'de su sondaji birlikleri komutani (OberIngenieur commander Water drilling units in Afule Palestine)

Range     Eng    Ingenieur (Engineer officer) - Filistin cephesinde su ve sondaj isleri bölümü baskani (Head of Department of Water and Drilling Affairs on the Palestinian front) & Filistin'de Tiberia'da bölge komutani (Regional commander in Tiberia in Palestine)

Reikes    Lt    Bohr-Sonderkommando 1 -  Special Command water drilling unit

Cheers

S.B
 

Edited 21 October , 2022 by stevenbecker

[GWF1967]

4 hours ago, GreyC said:

Hi,

Does anybody know if this was practised in the British Army as well?

Thanks!

GreyC

This may be of interest. https://britishdowsing.net/Dowsing at Gallipoli.pdf

[GreyC]

2 hours ago, stevenbecker said:

Graeve Edlen Otto Von    Maj

Hi,

thank you both for your comments/information.

@ Steve: His name was Otto Edler von Graeve. Edler is a low aristocratic title mainly used in Bavaria and Austria. He was a Hauptmann in the German Army and was upped one in the Ottoman Army. The rest of the guys were well known dousers, too.

@ GWF 1967 :  Thank you for the interesting article.

Edited 21 October , 2022 by GreyC