Since it’s VE day (8th May), here’s a post relating to WW2. The BSD existed before WW2, and its journal does include some articles relating to it. This short article is about the life of a dower – Mr. M. Meier – in occupied Luxemburg. It is a portrait taken from another, published in the French dowsing journal of the time, Radiesthesie pour Tous. It seems that he was an excellent dowser, making some interesting observations, but this this nearly cost him his life. He would have made an excellent spy. The reference to Vinnitsa in the Ukraine concerns “The Wehrwolf” bunkers, a smaller version of the Wolf’s Lair, Hitler’s fortified headquarters in Eastern Prussia and presumably top secret at that time.
The article is “Radiesthesia in German occupied Luxemburg”: http://www.dowsing-research.net/blog_extracts/BSD_No54_1946_p324.pdf
Incidentally, it appears that in WW2, the German government had a rather ambiguous attitude towards dowsing. The following excerpt is a brief note from page 67 of the BSD Journal No26, 1940…
“The Evening Standard of Oct 21st 1940 Stated that Le Journal reports from Switzerland that Hitler has sent a corps of 7000 water diviners to the Siegfried Line.
The German General staff were doubtful about the value of the corps, but Hitler silenced objections by recalling that in 1918, during the setting in place of a great gun that shelled Paris, water diviners were consulted to ensure that the emplacements would remain dry.”
It was in use in the German army at least until 1943. The following article provides some further insights, including the use of dowsing by prisoners of war and a remark about Adolf Hitler’s deputy, Rudolf Hess and his flight to Britain in 1941. It is under “Notes and News“:
http://www.dowsing-research.net/blog_extracts/BSD_No55_1947_p162.pdf