Let’s talk compasses

For those interested, probably the best written instruction on the subject is Bjorn Kjellstrom's Be Expert with Map and Compass . Still in print. Available in several languages. Kjellsrom was the recognized expert on the subject and largely responsible for bringing orienteering as a sport to North America.

As an aside, it has been a long time since I've actually shot and followed an azimuth. Rather, I simply use a compass to orient a map. Terrain association is the most important skill which is why I rarely use a compass and always use a map. That's why I'll use button compasses most often. I wear a Sun button on my watch strap and have another as a zipper pull on my raincoat. I'll refer to one of these to orient the map, then just use the map without referring to a compass.
 
Yes
Bjorn Kjellstrom's Be Expert with Map and Compass is a classic and one of the best out there
 
Terrain Association is great, as long as you have a good map. The one I mentioned in my other post in Thailand as an example. We had received a call late at night to move and meet a conventional infantry unit and lead them to their objective. The Captain in charge kept asking why the terrain did not match the map, especially the river we were moving next to, might have had something to do with the monsoon seasons that had occurred since 1969, the last time the map was updated. In Ranger School I was sure I was at the right location, hills were right, a dirt road was right, but where was the small lake that was supposed to be there? Finally the Ranger Instructor (RI) told me the lake had dried up back in the 1930's, and that was an indication of how old the map we had to use were. Now in Germany, the trekking maps are very accurate, and the legend is very comprehensive. They distinguish between deciduous and conferees trees and I found one symbol that when I looked it up was for a "Conspicuous Tree", and sure enough when we went there, it was a tall tree, all the branches cut off and some kind of Clipping of the remaining branches at the top. Somewhere around here I have a photo I took of it. In the Black Forest if you see a symbol for Christ, you will probably find a small Christ on a Cross in a little display, nailed to a tree. Bad weather is another time you need a compass. Otto, a young German paratrooper told me he never used a compass, he used the sun and stars to navigate. Two days into a 4 day snow storm, we had to go out on a reconnaissance, so I turned to Otto and asked him which way did we need to go, as we had not seen anything but snow for two days and it was another two days before it stopped. If anywhere you are going to find good terrain association it is in Germany, maps are great. John
 
In the Owen Stanley range of Papua New Guinea, much of some parts of our topo sheets where blank/white with the words "Obscured by clouds". Terrain association obviously wasn't possible in those sections.
 
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