Changes to location references

[Rockdoc]

From late December 1917 onwards and becoming consistent in January 1918, the AA Section War Diaries stop recording planes as "travelling E towards Seres" but changes to a system of Areas, with no place-names being used. There were five AA guns in use at this time in the 16th Corps zone:

74th - Mekes and Kopaci Spur

91st - Coles Kop and Turica

98th B Gun - 49 km on Salonika-Seres road, near Lahana.

74th tends to report planes over Areas 1 and 6; 91st Areas 6, 7 and 8 and 98th's B Gun Areas 10 and 11 - it engaged a plane to the East of Area 11 on 21st January. That edge can be no more than 7000 yards away from the position, if not less, since they fired a total of 44 rounds at the plane. Any further than that and they fired only a couple of rounds as "directing" shots for patrolling Allied aircraft.

The picture deveoping in my mind is a ladder of Areas, with Mekes in or close to Area 1, suggesting this begins above Lake Tahinos. I can't yet make up my mind whether the Areas were two- or three-wide but I'm leaning towards the former at the moment. I'm also of the idea that the odd numbers were to the east of the even ones and the even-numbered Areas came well away from the valley floor into the hills.

Has anyone else come across this system and/or seen a map outlining it?

Keith

[Rockdoc]

Things have clarified a bit in the last few weeks but there's still a considerable fog surrounding this system of AREAs. They were not laid out in what I'd see as a logical order. Three Areas have definitely been placed from overt statements in the Diaries:

Area 3 was Lake Tahinos

Area 4 was the area around Stavros

Area 7 contains Kopriva

2nd Edit Area 10 contains Butkova

Odd-numbered Areas seem to include enemy-held territory since they're described as being to the east of the even-numbered ones and one record is of an Allied bombing mission into an odd-numbered Area.

Keith

1st Edit Odd numbered Areas mentioned in the last sentence are those to the NW of Lake Tahinos. It would appear that Areas 3 and 4 do not have adjacent Areas.

[apwright]

Hi Keith,

I'm wondering if it's based on the grid of 1:50,000 maps in WO 298/479 to 586.

Lahana is near the bottom right-hand corner of the "Lahana" map. The aerodrome would be about 7,000 metres from the eastern edge and 3,500 from the southern edge. Are aircraft to the south of Lahana in a different Area from those overhead or to the north and west?

BUT, Turica and Kopriva are also on the "Lahana" section, although in the top right corner and Kopriva is less than 1,000 m from the eastern edge, so anything east of there would be over a different Area (the "Orljak" section). Anything more than 8,000 m north of Kopriva would be on the "Butkova" section.

There are separate isolated (and partially overlapping) maps for Stavros and the Neohori/south Tahinos area.

Do you have a copy of the Index Chart to the maps? I'll send you one if not.

I've been trying to number the grid to fit your reports, but without much success! When they say "a/c sighted in Area 7", do they say which direction Area 7 is from the point of observation?

It's an interesting riddle!

Adrian

[Rockdoc]

Adrian,

This system is very frustrating - as well as confusing! I keep altering my concept of it as the odd snippet appears in the Diaries. At the moment, I'd say that the East/West dividing line is the River Struma, which would make life very easy for spotters. This side is even and that side is odd.

There is very little detail in the records of this period. Before the change, aircraft movements were given against place-names so it would say something like "and disappeared in the direction of Rupel." Once the change is made, definitive references are few and far between and it's only by putting two and two together from scraps - and probably getting 74! - that I'm getting the remotest idea of how it worked. After the change the records will say something more like 07.15 WA 14 report Hostile plane flying E high over Area 10, which tells you nowt! It's only when you get a fixed point that you can do anything and the AA guns are the best form of this. The other spotting points, with confusing tags such as OS A, OS C and OS D or WA 2, WA 13 and WA 14, are clear as mud unless there's a clue elsewhere. I now know that WA 2 was at Ano and that was in Area 3 so it looks as if Areas 3 and 4 were contiguous.

Area 1 is just to the NW of Lake Tahinos. I don't think I've come across a reference to Area 2 but it looks as if the concept began life at the SE end of the valley, with Area 1 probably opposite Nigrita, Area 3 being the lake itself and down to the mouth of the river and Area 4 around Stavros. The last two are definitively given in the Diaries of the L of C guns, of all places. I'd say that Lahana is in Area 10 and that Area 11 lies to its NE {Edit: changed from NW}, probably (and I'm guessing) the Rupel Pass. Area 9 is "opposite" Area 10. So I think we can say that the NW of the lake is covered by Areas 1 & 2, 5 & 6, 7 & 8, 9 & 10 and 11. I think this makes them a lot wider than they are long.

My head hurts!

Keith

[Rockdoc]

As I wrote above, frustrating is right! You'd think that it would be sensible for all the Areas NW of Lake Tahinos to be arranged in the same way but that would be FAR too simple! 95th AA Section's A Gun at Iviron, on the lake-side, records the following on 18th June, 1918:

At 19.30 observed 2 UAs {i.e. Unidentified Aircraft} flying low W to E over enemy lines, minimum range 17500, Area 2

That means Area 1 is on the southern bank of the Struma but so are Areas 6, 8, and 10! I'd say this makes it very likely that the Area system was first produced for the front from Nigrita (Area 1) to Stavros (Area 4) and then extended NW later.

Keith

[Rockdoc]

It must have been a successful exercise because it was extended, with renumbering, to the entire British front in September 1918. It must have begun with Area 1 by the Vardar because Area 2 now seems to have been around Doiran. The areas must have been completely reorganised because 95th reports from 'B' Sub at Tasli that it can see planes over Area 15 and 'A' Sub at Kato Kreusoves is observing Area 16.

Keith