Trench map grid references

[SimonRobbins]

I thought I understood grid references but maybe not fully.

Take the following 11.R.31.a.6.6 I understand that, but what about 11.R.31.o.6.6?

I always thought the small letter, 3 from the end, could only ever be an a,b,c or d but I have found a number of 'o's. At first I thought it might be a dodgy typewriter or someone just hit the wrong key by mistake, but I have seen too many of them now, some of them very clearly an o.

Does anyone know what this means?

cheers.

[Tom Lang]

Simon,

As you say, it can only be 'a', 'b', 'c' or 'd'.

A 'typo' is your only answer, or maybe the document has 'aged' to the point where the clarity has become compromised.

Here's a link from the 'mother' site:

http://www.1914-1918.net/trench_maps.htm

Tom.

[SimonRobbins]

Well I think this is fairly clear typing and there are 3 occurrences on this page alone.

Screen Shot 2015-09-01 at 17.18.tiff

[Dai Bach y Sowldiwr]

Yep, it's an "o".

Should be a,b,c or d though.

It must be a typo.

There's a typo involving an "o" in "No3." It reads q.36.d.4.o.

It should be 4.0 (Four dot Zero) not 4.o. (Four dot Lower case O dot)

[SimonRobbins]

Yes, but strange there are three the same on one page and others in other places. Especially as o is nowhere near a, b, c or d on a typewriter.

[Dai Bach y Sowldiwr]

Yes, but strange there are three the same on one page and others in other places. Especially as o is nowhere near a, b, c or d on a typewriter.

Yes. Agree. Strange.

I've never seen that sort of typo.

So long since I saw a typewriter. Couldn't the letter-hitter-print things (what are they really called?......searches Google Images desperately...... Type Bars! ) get stuck in the up position and jam with adjacent letter hitters?

The type bars aren't in the same sequence as the letters on the keyboard.

[SimonRobbins]

Unlikely, whilst they can get stuck, usually when two keys are pressed together by mistake and the two "letter hitters" as you call them (great name by the way) get stuck together, but then the typewriter won't work at all until you manually unjam them. Thinking about it o isn't even really that close to the full stop which comes before and after it. Also there are four occurrences on the page before the the one I posted. It's not as if there are lots of mistakes in the typing, and it is always an o, never any other odd letter.

[14276265]

The typed manuscript was likely produced from handwritten orders, and the original handwriting may have been such that a c looked like an o. If the typist/clerk was not au fait with map terminology, or was understanding of it but was simply very tired and was mechanically transposing just another set of orders, he probably typed o without thinking. There is no c appear in any of the grid refs.

265

[SimonRobbins]

The typed manuscript was likely produced from handwritten orders, and the original handwriting may have been such that a c looked like an o. If the typist/clerk was not au fait with map terminology, or was understanding of it but was simply very tired and was mechanically transposing just another set of orders, he probably typed o without thinking. There is no c appear in any of the grid refs.

265

Hadn't thought of that but it sounds a logical explanation. Cheers