War Diaries Talk

Trenches and moving around

  • Col._Gibbon by Col._Gibbon

    Hello.

    I've been finding lots of references to spacific trences. How do I log these?

    I've been finding some of the text hard to read, because of the script used, but as I'm going on more is becoming understandable, but I can't seem to go back to earlier pages, to re-edit them. How do I move back to earlier pages?

    Posted

  • spof by spof moderator

    Log trench names as a Place. Don't worry if the drop down list doesn't recognise it. I understand the techies will review these later and plot them but the main thing is to index them to start with.

    Going back to old pages isn't possible but as each page is tagged by several different people, anything missed or not quite right should be tagged by the others.

    Posted

  • Col._Gibbon by Col._Gibbon

    That is a shame about not being able to go back. I'm only doing the basic stuff I can easily see, but as I go along I've noticed things go over pages, and when you read the second bit, it makes sense.

    Most Of the trenches are not named, just numbers like M1/M2/M3, so those will do? There are also slang names for places, which don't seem to make sense, but I've entered those as place names.

    Posted

  • charcinders by charcinders

    I'd like to know the answer to the last question because I'm currently working on a diary with a lot of references to trench sections, such as "Z2 subsection of trenches". Should I tag this as a name, a grid reference or not tag it?

    Posted

  • Maria64 by Maria64 in response to charcinders's comment.

    Hi there,
    I've been logging any trenches mentioned as places, regardless of their name being slang or numerical. I would put all of your title "Z2 subsection of trenches" as a place name and as spof said, the tech people will need an index of the trench names to review and plot them. I just wanted to share my opinion - hope this helps. 😃
    Best wishes,
    Maria.

    Posted

  • HeatherC by HeatherC moderator

    Here's what the Field Guide says "Ignore locations that do not have a proper place name eg ignore Camp F or Hill A. Do tag named trenches or positions eg Jupiter Trench. "

    Here's how I think we interpret that.

    Firstly if the trench actually has a name - e.g. Black Watch Alley, Northumberland Avenue or whatever, then yes add it as a place name. Be aware of course that the Google interface will NOT recognise it, so for example don't tag Northumberland Avenue as being in the north of England or in central London! Just use the "none of these" check box.

    If the trench has no name but is just described as "left sector trench" or similar then really there's no possibility of this being identified even from a trench map and so there's little point in tagging it. This is what the Field Guide means by "does not have a proper place name"

    If there is a grid reference, or part of one (often just a letter and number) then tag it as a grid reference. As the Field Guide says "Sometimes locations are shown as a series of letters and numbers and there is a separate Grid Reference tag for these." However, the grid reference system only used the letters A-X so Z2 isn't a part of a grid reference (I'm not sure exactly what it is!) so in this specific case I would not tag it at all.

    Having said all that, if you do tag it and then it's found not to be useful it will just get left out when the master tag list for that page is compiled so it's not that big of a deal if you do. It does however save you time not to tag things that won't be useful! 😃

    Hope that helps?

    Posted

  • charcinders by charcinders

    Thanks Heather. My main concern was that it might be a map reference but clearly it is not.

    I would imagine that trying to find these trench sections could only be done manually by checking the appropriate trench map for this date and section of front, so trying to locate them would be a major exercise and not within the scope of O.W.D. Also, the diarist gives proper location names as well, for instance when the unit retires to billets, so pinpointing where the unit was is not going to be a problem.

    Posted