MartinWills Posted 29 October , 2008 Share Posted 29 October , 2008 10 years ago researching WW1 using trench maps was a complex and time consuming art, typically involving trips to various archives to consult originals and going to all sorts of lengths to get them copied, most usually in dreary monochrome rather than the original colours. Original trenchmaps were quite expensive even then, and they now typically sell for around £75 - £100 and more in some cases, and that's if you can find the ones you want. Dr Peter Chausseaud's atlas, Topography of Armageddon, in glorious but unwieldy large-format paperback was the first step in making maps more widely available and reproduced monochrome maps of most of the Western Front at times of key actions. It remains a very useful volume. Another initiative resulted in printed colour reproductions, at 70% size, of a few selected maps from G H Smith (Printers) for around £3.25 and these are also sold at the IWM. The big breakthrough in accessibility of originals, however, has come with the advent of computer imaging technology. Visitors to archives have been able to use digital photography to copy part or all of original maps in colour with relative ease. More importantly collections of maps have become available in CD or DVD format. Naval & Military Press broke new ground with their series of CDs covering Western Front Trench Maps, German Maps and two discs of the large folding maps that accompanied the Official History text volumes. Some while later the Linesman based product provided something like 750 trench maps of the entire front alongside modern day mapping of most of the French (but not Belgian) areas. It also provides GPS compatibility and a 3D visualisation of the landscape. More recently the WFA have scanned a vast number of maps and a number of aerial photographs from the IWM collection and these are issued as a series of DVDs containing simple image files with an index document. A generally fine collection but a little unwieldy to find what you want with no front-end navigation. Naval & Military Press have now released a new Trench Map DVD under the title of "The National Archives British Trench Map Atlas Disk 1 - The Western Front 1914-18 1:10,000 Regular Series". I have rapidly been won over to this issue which covers the British sector from the coast down to the area around St Quentin. The maps are exclusively 1/10,000 scale and include most if not all issues for the majority of the maps giving a chance to analyse the Western Front as it developed. Installation is extremely straightforward, both in XP and Vista, and running the disc firstly installs the Atlas software followed by the ermapper software (v7.2 including an MS Office plug-in). The program also loads very simply - there is none of the intrusive "C-dilla" disc authentication/copy protection software that came with earlier map discs - protection is now rather more discreet. The default prompts through the process are generally fine and include an option to tick boxes to link other files such as "tiff" and "jpg" to use ermapper automatically. You will probably not want to do that as it will change your system defaults for these files away from your current standards. The front end is very slick and intuitive to use and remarkably simple to pick up, though a few of the features may not be obvious at first such as those allowing you to explore and zoom-in on the overview index of maps. In particular the little patch of coloured squares below the index map accesses a fuller menu allowing you to superimpose the Franco-Belgian border and location of key towns. You can also add the position of the front line as it was on 1st July 1916; December 1916, December 1917 and Mid 1918 after the German offensive. The search facilities are most impressive, allowing you to find the relevant maps through search by trench name, feature name or place name and it also identifies in which part of the map the feature appears. For a given location there will probably be a number of different editions of the map depicting different dates, allowing you to chose the period that interests you and see how that sector changes with time and actions or offensives. How often do Forum users ask where a particular trench is to be found? The atlas answers these questions quickly and directs you to a choice of maps. Be warned, however, that a given name may appear in more than one place on the Western Front so you may need to know in broad terms where a location actually is. In addition not all maps include trench names so you may find yourself looking at a part of a map with several trenches marked but unsure as to which is which as they are not named. In some cases maps will only show German or British trenches. Another edition of the map may often answer the question. Very occasionally a location is given as not appearing on any maps. This is simply because mapping is not available or included for that area, typically outside the principal strategic areas, such as Villers-Bretonneux. The basic recommended minimum PC specification is Windows XP or Vista with 512MB RAM installed and a 4X-speed DVD drive. If you only have 512MB RAM in your system I would suggest an upgrade anyway - PC memory is very cheap at present. You will also need at least a 1024 x 768 size display - less than that (eg 800 x 600) will not allow you to display the full home screen and menu options. There is a supporting website which provides troubleshooting - currently the only flagged issue is that to print Dr Peter Chausseaud's overview articles requires the pdf format which means that you need to have the (free) Adobe Acrobat reader installed on your PC. A "Map Room" site is also being developed. You can use the measure tool to measure distances, but it is not wholly straightforward. Whilst you are given a numerical figure for a distance you need to calibrate it against the map scale such that if the measuring tool displays 450 units, and on the scale bar for the map "500 yards" measures at 300 units you work out that the distance is 750 yards. The maps are drawn from the National Archives collection (WO/297 series) and are generally free of markings. There are just over 700 maps covering the British sector of the Western Front from the coast (Nieuport/Zeebrugge) down to slightly beyond St Quentin and Peronne. Should you want to delve further into the originals at the National Archives, the file title shown in the ermapper header bar gives the piece number at Kew. The image quality does vary with the originals but I was struck throughout at the remarkable quality and clarity of all the maps - much better than many originals I have seen. In addition to the standard maps there are also a number of combined sheets which contain parts of two or more standard maps and there is at least one "overlay trace" designed to be placed over the relevant map to add additional or updated information. Each map has a short but useful description placing it in context and explaining what is or isn't shown by way of front line and trenches. Additionally there is a selection of invaluable descriptive articles, also by Dr Peter Chasseaud, which repay reading at length and give much useful information - including how to read and understand map references - a question often asked on the forum. They cover: What is a trench map Understanding a trench map About these maps About the database What about printing? The ermapper software allows you to print to the printer of your choice (A0 if you have it!) and reproduces pretty much what you have displayed on your screen whether it is the complete map or a small section you have zoomed-in on. Your screen display is naturally "landscape" so do remember to select "landscape" as a printer option before printing and the image will be printed to fill the page. The cost (£145 plus VAT where applicable at £35.38) is not insignificant, but the same amount would probably only buy a pair of original maps. It might also save you more that that in the cost of trips to archives such as the NA or IWM to research the originals. On this basis it is truly worthwhile. It also provides comprehensive cover of the British sector in one volume. You would need to buy several volumes of the very basic WFA series at £25 (£20 to members) each to begin to achieve the same coverage, though the WFA give you more than just the regular 1/10,000 maps together with some fascinating aerial photographs. The Linesman based product from Great War Digital is an altogether different proposition - as well as the trench maps it provides modern mapping (for France, but not Belgium). It also offers a 3-D visualisation of the terrain using modern mapping contours and is registered such that it can be used with GPS as you walk the battlefields. Inevitably it comes at a price (£249 including the modern mapping) and you need to add a PDA such as the Mio P360 (at £199 or a little less) to use the GPS in the field. If you don't need GPS and its additional cost and want something more than basic files that you need to sift through then this is an excellent product. It also covers the entire British Sector (you would need several WFA sets to do that). The WFA sets, however, carry a range of assorted maps at various scales in addition to 1/10,000 maps whereas this set concentrates upon providing uniform 1/10,000 scale coverage. This trench atlas is a real delight to use. It is fascinating to look at Beaumont Hamel as it was in September 1915, or to scan the coastal areas to the north such as Knokke or Fort Orange, the latter map being something like 80% sea. Zeebrugge is also interesting, spelling out much of the landward detail of the Zeebrugge raid. Just browsing through some of the most familiar sections of the Western Front, particularly Arras, Loos and the Somme I was left with the urge to get out to France to walk the territory again with prints of the maps that were used on the ground. I would have no hesitation in recommending this to anyone wanting to access comprehensive and well-indexed trench maps of the British Sector of the Western Front in an easy-to-use format. This issue is described as Disk One and I wait with interest to see what emerges in subsequent volumes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kathie Posted 8 November , 2008 Share Posted 8 November , 2008 Thank you for that overview of what the new CD will do. I received a brochure from N&M last week gving me until 18 November (I think) to send back my old CD to pay only $45 (I think) for the update. I have checked on the website - liked what I saw - and have posted off with details for payment. Now I wait excitedly. Your comment that this is only CD 1 is good news - suggesting more. My usually unappiness is that I am interested in where the South african were at certain times and the maps so far dont really cover them - but still its been a good tool. Kathie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken Lees Posted 8 November , 2008 Share Posted 8 November , 2008 As a registered user of the previous version I have had the reduced-price offer for this product. How many more maps are there in the new version. I'm happy with the functionality of the original, so is it worth the money for the additional maps? Ken Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mick D Posted 8 November , 2008 Share Posted 8 November , 2008 Martin, Can I congratulate you on a thorough and useful review of this item, If I had the money I would love to buy such software. Do you know if a Belgian volume is to be made available ? Mick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnreed Posted 8 November , 2008 Share Posted 8 November , 2008 Martin I have had the Trench Map CD for some time and the search facility is good to a certain degree, it does not always find the feature you are looking for. To this end I am compiling a Gazetteer of the Western Front with Farms and Prominate features, it will be listed alphabetically with columns listing Location Name, Map Sheet, Sheet Name, Position in Lat and Long and the Map Square the feature is in, I have been so far fixed the location of 6,780 features, hopefully I will get this published. I have been working on the for nearly 9 months with 124 Map Sheets completed with 36 to do, hopefully to complete within the next 6 Months. Because of affordable Sat/Nav was the reason I included the Lat and Long. John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MartinWills Posted 9 November , 2008 Author Share Posted 9 November , 2008 Folks, Just to answer a few questions: The coverage is a little broader than the old CD, but more importantly you will find that for most maps there are several different editions available - in some cases virtually reaching double figures. This makes it easier to follow changes and development of a particular area as the war progresses. If you want to check which maps are on ther new disc (a little over 700) you will find them listed on the N&M website for the product - I'm not even going to try and paste them in here!! Linesman also detail their coverage on their website. Mick asks if there is a Belgian version to be made available? I'm not sure what you mean here - the N&M DVD offers trench maps for both the Belgian and French sectors where the British were active - effectively all of Belgium and in France down to the south of Peronne & St Quentin. If you were thinking of modern mapping of Belgium as an addition to the Linesman product I understand this is imminent and will likely be a separate "add-on". If you are considering the N&M or Linesman options you may want to use the relevant websites to assess the coverage. N&M gives you the set of maps as they were printed and suits those who are fluent in map reading. Linesman offers a 3-D interpretation on screen based on the modern mapping contours and allows you to place the period map features in context on a modern map. It also offers you the ability to move from one map onto the next in a "joined-up" fashion whereas N&M simply gives you the maps sheet by sheet. Linesman, of course, also offers you GPS and the ability to locate your position on the battlefield in both the trench maps and in modern mapping. Personally I have a liking for using copies of the original trench maps unadorned but this is probably because I learnt the art of detailed map reading both in theory and in practice in the field at a young age. I also learned that maps are not always 100% correct when trekking in some wild corners of Iceland crossing a snow covered landscape and suddenly encoutering a 150 foot precipice where mapping led me to believe there was a simple sloping descent. If you are not a map reader you may well want to take a good look at Linesman. John, As for a gazeteer, this was not provided on the N&M CD but is on the new DVD - essentially as I understand it is the information given in Dr Peter Chasseuad's volume "Rats Alley". There will always be omissions but the coverage is pretty good. Hope this helps, Martin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
green_acorn Posted 9 November , 2008 Share Posted 9 November , 2008 Martin, Thank you for an excellent and comprehensive review, cheers, Hendo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimSmithson Posted 9 November , 2008 Share Posted 9 November , 2008 As a registered user of the previous version I have had the reduced-price offer for this product. How many more maps are there in the new version. I'm happy with the functionality of the original, so is it worth the money for the additional maps? Ken Just to add to Martin's notes, the older disc format does not function with Vista and will therefore not work with Windows 2008 or anything following. This may be the one time you can get a discounted upgrade so unless you aim to be on XP for ever..... Jim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ericwebb Posted 11 November , 2008 Share Posted 11 November , 2008 There are other map CDs in the N&M series. Any inkling when/whether upgrades are planned for these too? Whilst accepting the commercial realities of the situation, I wonder whether I am alone in feeling a little sore that the discount for existing users wasn't more generous. I have paid up, but not cheerfully. I am encouraged by Martin's posting to believe that this is a genuine upgrade, not just a reworking to suit new software. It had better be! I wonder too what the score will be when son-of-Vista rolls along in a few years time? Perhaps by then a better model will be to make the maps available on-line, password protected and with a suitable fee structure, after the manner of the DNB. Eric Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MartinWills Posted 11 November , 2008 Author Share Posted 11 November , 2008 Eric, I'm sure you will enjoy your upgraded disc and I have the feeling that Microsoft have learnt a lesson with Vista. Even now apparently only 13% of Windows users have moved to Vista - not least because of the compatibility issues. If you do move on in future I wonder if the Linesman system will become the way to go? Who knows. Regards, Martin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnBelcher Posted 12 November , 2008 Share Posted 12 November , 2008 Am afraid I am with Eric on this one. The discount is not that generous and still leaves the price at £111.63 (why N&MP can't quote the prices inc VAT??) to replace a program that works fine with my set up and does what I want it to. So for the price what are we actually getting? Seems to me that essentially - a search facility and a program that works with Vista? Having had amy fingers burnt so to speak when I upgraded the SDGW CD to V2.0 a couple of years ago....sorry will wait until such time as I get a new PC and then will look at buying this then. In the meantime - the £111.63 is going towards the £249.90 (inc VAT) for something I haven't got.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Best Posted 14 November , 2008 Share Posted 14 November , 2008 The discount is not that generous and still leaves the price at £111.63 . . . . to replace a program that works fine with my set up and does what I want it to. Now I'm seriously miffed. Bought the DVD when first released on special promotion (and very pleased with product) but never offered a discount against my registered ownership of the earlier CD. Off on hols later today. I'll bring this up with N&MP on RHE! Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MartinWills Posted 14 November , 2008 Author Share Posted 14 November , 2008 Am afraid I am with Eric on this one. The discount is not that generous and still leaves the price at £111.63 (why N&MP can't quote the prices inc VAT??) to replace a program that works fine with my set up and does what I want it to. So for the price what are we actually getting? Seems to me that essentially - a search facility and a program that works with Vista? Having had amy fingers burnt so to speak when I upgraded the SDGW CD to V2.0 a couple of years ago....sorry will wait until such time as I get a new PC and then will look at buying this then. In the meantime - the £111.63 is going towards the £249.90 (inc VAT) for something I haven't got.... John, You will find that there are more maps (more room on a DVD than a CD) - though mainly additional editions - and maps are now from the NA collection - the previous disc was from the IWM collection; equally I am sure you will be very happy with the £249 product. Martin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Curragh Posted 14 November , 2008 Share Posted 14 November , 2008 Mick asks if there is a Belgian version to be made available? I'm not sure what you mean here - the N&M DVD offers trench maps for both the Belgian and French sectors where the British were active - effectively all of Belgium and in France down to the south of Peronne & St Quentin. If you were thinking of modern mapping of Belgium as an addition to the Linesman product I understand this is imminent and will likely be a separate "add-on". Martin Martin The Linesman product for Belgium is out - as an existing user I received an email yesterday announcing its arrival. (So if anyone I know is having problems thinking of a Christmas present for me .... ) Regards Brian Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnreed Posted 14 November , 2008 Share Posted 14 November , 2008 Martin As I said in my previous post I have all the map CD's that have been on the market, in all map CD's there are features which could be improved, as I said in my previous post the search facility is good in the Trench Map Atlas but is not infallible. One of the reasons I started the Gazetteer of the Western Front is because the series of Memory Map Trench Maps does not have a search facility and Peter Chasseaud book "Rats Alley" has only trench names so hopefully I can supply the other need without going to the expense of paying for more CD's. I am also a map lover having spent 10 years of my army career as an army surveyor. John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MartinWills Posted 14 November , 2008 Author Share Posted 14 November , 2008 John, The Atlas does include some placenames - such as villages, but as you say the coverage is not that thorough other than for trench names - I was worried that you might be repeating the work on the trench name listings. Having a fuller gazetteer will be very useful. I also have a suspicion that some of the 1918 coverage is not as full as it might be. Do keep us posted, it sounds a useful project. Martin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnreed Posted 14 November , 2008 Share Posted 14 November , 2008 Martin I have only included physical features but not Trench Names. John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
green_acorn Posted 15 November , 2008 Share Posted 15 November , 2008 Martin, Do you know if N&M are going to redo the German and offical history maps for Vista and other 32/64 bit OS? Cheers, Hendo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Posted 17 November , 2008 Share Posted 17 November , 2008 Martin The Linesman product for Belgium is out - as an existing user I received an email yesterday announcing its arrival. (So if anyone I know is having problems thinking of a Christmas present for me .... ) Regards Brian Nice, but £89 ???? Seems a bit steep to me. Mick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MartinWills Posted 17 November , 2008 Author Share Posted 17 November , 2008 Hendo, No I don't know what N&M have planned, however with regard to the OH maps some, but not all, are on the WFA disc - though it does not include some of the boxed map sets for the Western Front - I think it is one of the 1918 volumes that is missing - sad really as it is rather a missed opportunity. As regards the Belgian mapping, I believe that the price is effectively governed by the price for what is in effect a commercial product offering modern mapping and not something specifically developed for Linesman/GreatWarDigital. It does, however, demonstrate how modules can easily be added to the Linesman/GreatWarDigital suite - I believe further additions and areas are expected during 2009. Martin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Skipman Posted 19 May , 2021 Share Posted 19 May , 2021 Just chanced on this. noticed this for sale for £63.99 NATIONAL ARCHIVES BRITISH TRENCH MAP ATLAS THE WESTERN FRONT 1914-18. VOLUME 2 SPECIAL SHEETS Is this an update of the original, or a different disc. Does the original still work? mike Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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