Place of death ?

[unicorn]

Greetings to you all,

researching a soldiers place of dead, i found this eyewitness rapport.

as i know he must be killed near Molenaarselst ( south of Broodseinde ). But the report tells me Hazebrouck. Hazebrouck was the H.Q. of the First Anzac Division, so that can be the misunderstanding in the report.

My question to you is what is the meaning of the numbers, and can someone locate this place by this numbers ?

danny

[Guest Hill 60]

They appear (to my novice eye) to be map references. Iwould say that if they are map references then one of the Pals should be able to assist you.

[Paul Reed]

Hmm - quite curious. He is listed on the Menin Gate. It could be he was killed on the Broodseinde Ridge and brought back to Hazebroucke for burial by the unit. As the above account states the Germans reached this area during the Lys Offensive in April 1918 and his grave could have been lost then - perhaps a check of the unit war diary might add something further?

[unicorn]

Hello,

Looking at the Great War trench map website learned me that this is not a valid reference used in the report.

Does somebody knows if the Australians maybe used another reference system instead of the British ?

greetings

danny

[Tom Morgan]

When I first read the typed record I took it to mean that the writer had located the approximate burial position and given a map reference and then, should anyone want to check in future, he gives the scale and title of the sheet he used when pinpointing the position - "1:100,000 scale, sheet 54, titled Hazebrouck. " (or as Jock has pointed out in a later posting - "5A")

The Sergeant who signed the statement doesn't say that the soldier was buried at Hazebrouck - someone else has (I think wrongly) assumed that and added a note to that effect. A map to 1:100,000 scale including Hazebrouck would cover a huge area and a map reference would only be a rough guide to an actual position, and that position could be miles from Hazebrouck.

Could this be an explanation?

Tom

[ianw]

Yes I agree with Tom that we are talking about a 1:100,000 scale map. There doesn't seem to be a 1:10,000 Hazebrouck map - at least not on the IWM CD Rom listing - and as Tom says the 100,000 scale map would cover a huge area.

[Jock Bruce]

A look on PROCAT (the PRO's computerised catalogue) gives the following

1:100 000 (British) Series I. Sheet No and title: 5A Hazebrouck Edition No: 2 Production: O S GSGS No: 2364

There are multiple editions of this map for 1915-18 held in the PRO as WO 297/6142 et seq.

Jock Bruce

[unicorn]

Hello Friends,

May i first thank you for the reply given on this topic and .....

Jock, you solved the mystery, looking at the 1:100.000 scale map learned that 2L show the Zonnebeke area and 80.15 is just above Veldhoek.

So the Sgt was right but he used a big scale map for the place were Horrie was buried.

Comparing it to a 1:10.000 scale map gives us North of Northampton Farm.

A mystery solved by the Baker Pals.

Thank you all

Danny