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Remembered Today:

Body density maps


jay dubaya

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Hi folks,

would anyone have and be willing to share good quality copies of the 'body density' maps for the Western Front, any help will be most appreciated and help greatly with my research, many thanks

Jon

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Jon

I have a couple, send me a PM with your e-mail address. They are very big, 20 odd meg, so I will try and send them.

Regards

John

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Jon

Just tried to PM you and you cant receive, try me again.

John

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Many thanks John, I hadn't realized that the cemeteries themselves were marked on the maps.

I'm still looking for more maps that cover the battle areas France and Flanders so if there's another kind soul out there who can help it would be much appreciated,

cheers, Jon

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Good Evening.

Could someone please tell me how many of these maps there are?and what areas do they cover,I am intrested to know how many cover the area around Villers-au-Flos, Barastre,Bancourt and Fremicourt.I think they are on the Sheet 57 series.Also what years do they cover?

Best Regards Andy

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Andy,

I'm not entirely sure how many maps there are but I suppose one could assume that all battlefield areas were mapped, I believe there were several searches during the 1920's and again in the early 1930's and of course there was the inital searches of 1919.

Does anyone have a copy of the WFA map disc as mentioned by Chris?

Jon

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  • 4 weeks later...

Hi

Do any forum members have a copy of the WFA maps CD. Its something that i would payout on for sure if recommended.

Best regards

Bob

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Andy There are several WFA cd's. If you look on their site I seem to recall that there are lists of all the maps on each of the CD's. The series was still some way from complete the last time that I looked, so only certain areas are covered at present.

Keith

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  • 2 weeks later...

There has been discussion on the forum in the past about the meaning of numbers within area squares on body density maps, and I recall that a member who eventually departed the forum in a huff (about something of little obvious consequence) made a number of illuminating posts that challenged the conventional notion that the figures represented the numbers of bodies found. If I remember correctly, he demonstrated that the figures actually represented burials known or expected to be found in the area concerned. My recollection of these postings is fragmentary, to say the least, but I think it would be rewarding to use the forum search functions to find previous discussion of this subject.

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I had much discussion with Peter Woodger (the member that Mick refers to) about his theories regarding these maps. They made sense to me and I certainly got the impression he had given it plenty of thought. I still have his emails with his thoughts but am reluctant to post these messages (written to me) on the forum.

A brief summary of his research was that if the blue figures represent bodies found they are in gross error and there is no practical use for the information. However, if the blue figures were expected burials, less the registered cemeteries within that square, then there was a short term use in the planning phase. Once the exercise was complete the maps were redundant. Sadly there was no explicit primary source in writing to confirm his theory.

Must dash, Day 3 of Test Match just started....

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I have to admire your sense of priorities, Jeremy! I wasn't privy to your exchanges with Peter W, but remember his thoughts on the meaning of the annotations on body density maps (which also made sense to me), so I think they must be contained somewhere in the forum's archives.

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I had much discussion with Peter Woodger (the member that Mick refers to) about his theories regarding these maps. They made sense to me and I certainly got the impression he had given it plenty of thought. I still have his emails with his thoughts but am reluctant to post these messages (written to me) on the forum.

A brief summary of his research was that if the blue figures represent bodies found they are in gross error and there is no practical use for the information. However, if the blue figures were expected burials, less the registered cemeteries within that square, then there was a short term use in the planning phase. Once the exercise was complete the maps were redundant. Sadly there was no explicit primary source in writing to confirm his theory.

Must dash, Day 3 of Test Match just started....

Try: Body Density Maps (2) - Great War Forum

David

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