# WW1 Battle Locations



## logau (11 Sep 2004)

What if you could trace back where your regiment fought at before during and after Vimy Ridge....

Its easier than you may think

First you start with the National Archives of Canada War Diaries

In our example we will use the Canadian Scottish Regiment from Victoria which was known as the 16th BN CEF in WW1

Go to this link http://www.collectionscanada.ca/archivianet/02015202_e.html
and type in 16th Battalion

4 references pop up and three of them are the on-line war diary

Read through them at your leisure -- as you do you will start to see locations listed - typically after December 1916 when they all were located west of Vimy Ridge

In this case I looked at the June 16 Battles near Ypres Belgium when the Germans tried to get past Ypres.

I took the map from the WW1 Official History and compared it to the MAP CD for Belgium from their Government Geographic agency. It kicks out Latitude and longitude readings you can plug into a Canadian Tore GPS set.

I locate a position either by chance or via a map reference in the war diaries and/or divisional location reports. These typically can be deduced by knowing the neighborhood the operations were taking place in and from there - the map reference IE somehting like Sheet 28 H.4.a.1.2.8 -- then I load up the maps CD of the area from Belgium or France as the case may be and navigate to the area. Then I look for a common point of reference - say like a road junction and make a triangular measure from the original map source - south of or north of the point and then so many metres east or west.

Then I do the same thing with the modern map CD and it kicks out the latitude and longtitude as I arrive at the point I want.

This may not be 100% exact - but it is close enough that if it was the WW1 period you`d be right in the middle of a Canadian combat unit perimeter.

Once I am at the point with the cursor on the screen pointing at it - I hit print screen to capture the lat and long and then use my graphics program to cut it out and paste it into the Powerpoint Slide show at the link at the BOTTOM

So now you know the secret.

The Imperial War Museum Map CD is about $150 and the French maps are about $25 each. I have the Southern half of Belgium and most of the areas the Canadians fought in.

Need a map reference decoded? Send me a puzzle. First 5 are free if you have the grid ref.   - after that $2.00 each as I am raising money for the   241 maps maps from the National Archives. They were made by the 11th Canadian Brigade that cost $4 each. Once I get them I can make digital images for you.

You must have the grid ref or the page reference or I can't do it quickly or for free. If no grid ref then the price goes right up.

All freebies will be put in line but I will do them for you.

AND NOW WE TAKE YOU TO THE CAN SCOTS JUNE 16 CLICK LINK below

http://www.donlowconcrete.com/44/jackwar2_files/fullscreen.htm

Warning - 2 other great WW1 sites are linked at the end


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## rlaughton (17 Oct 2004)

New to the site, brought here by my search on the Topham VC project.   My research is on my grandfather at Vimy Ridge, details of which are well documented at http:/www.censol.ca/research/greatwar/ and so I welcome your visit and comments.   My grandfathers MC will never leave the family!!


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