War Diaries Talk

Grid

  • erik.schaubroeckscarlet.be by erik.schaubroeckscarlet.be

    This grid looks like X.10.P.4.8????

    Posted

  • marie.eklidvirginmedia.com by marie.eklidvirginmedia.com

    Read it as X 10 P 4 8, as also on 2nd line.

    Posted

  • cyngast by cyngast moderator

    It certainly does look like P, doesn't it? He doesn't say which map that reference is on, but it must be 27.SE 1/20,000.

    From looking at that map, I think it is probably square b, so X.10.b.4.8. There is a farm at that point, southeast of Les 4 Fils Aymon in X.4.c.

    Posted

  • erik.schaubroeckscarlet.be by erik.schaubroeckscarlet.be

    I don't think it's a clerical error, because on the next page he writes it the same way. For a moment I thought the 4 was a +, but then the grid would be X.10.P and 8, and that makes no sense either.

    Posted

  • cyngast by cyngast moderator

    It could be that he is writing from notes that aren't very clear, or that someone read it off to him and he heard P instead of b. Despite the fact that the information here on OWD that adjutant's wrote the diaries, I've seen instances where it was an assistant or an orderly officer who wrote it up.

    You can skip that part of the grid reference, I think, when you tag it.

    The only other answer I have is that it is not a grid reference at all, although the format and the way it is used on the page seems to indicate that it is one.

    Posted

  • erik.schaubroeckscarlet.be by erik.schaubroeckscarlet.be

    Image AWD0003m2j Anohter strange gridreference C.3.51.38. on page Image AWD0003m5l it was D.3.3.3. The map reference is Dunkerque 1A 1/100.000, but there no such map in http://library.mcmaster.ca/maps/ww1/home nor in http://maps.nls.uk/ww1/trenches/index.html

    Posted

  • cyngast by cyngast moderator

    That map actually is available at McMaster University http://library.mcmaster.ca/maps/ww1/ww1_Multiple_100k_Sheet_01A.htm

    I think that for the C.3.51.38 reference, the C and 3 mark a rectangle--the C is at the bottom and there is a 3 (in red) on the left side of the map. The 51 could be the latitude, as printed on the left-hand side of the map at the bottom edge, but I don't know what the 38 means, unless it is latitude 51' 38".

    The D and 3 are the same as the C and 3, but I don't know what the 3.0 indicates. You can see Mardick clearly marked on the map.

    McMaster has quite a few of these 1/100,000 scale maps: http://library.mcmaster.ca/maps/ww1/ndx100.htm I've never looked at one before, and unfortunately I don't really know how to relate these coordinates to them.

    Posted