Morval 1916 - from the German side

[Biltea]

Hi there

I'm trying to write a book on the Battle of Morval (25-26 September 1916). Unfortunately, I am lacking in information from the German side - ie the German units involved, their success/failure and maps showing their disposition in the line on 25 9.16. I've read Christopher Duffy's "Through German Eyes, the British & the Somme 1916" & Jack Sheldon's "The German Army on the Somme 1914-1916."  Both are excellent, but I feel I need more detail from the German perspective. I would be grateful if any members could recommend any other books/publications, etc which cover Morval, from the German side and any maps showing the positions of the German forces on 25.9.16. 

On a slightly different note - for GWF members with no German (like me), is there any way of accessing the German archives in Stuttgart, Munich, etc?

 

Thanks in advance -  Bill

[EDWARD1]

Will this help

Eddie

[Biltea]

Thanks for the map Eddie - Bill

[AOK4]

Most of the German units involved are mentioned on the map. Before going to any of the relevant German archives (no problem if you know exactly what you're looking for and if you can also read the Kurrent in use at the time as a lot of the diaries etc. are handwritten), you should look at the published unit histories.

[Biltea]

On 18/06/2019 at 11:18, AOK4 said:

Most of the German units involved are mentioned on the map. Before going to any of the relevant German archives (no problem if you know exactly what you're looking for and if you can also read the Kurrent in use at the time as a lot of the diaries etc. are handwritten), you should look at the published unit histories.

 

Thanks for your helpful comments, AOK4. You mention "published unit histories." This is what I am looking for, ie the unit histories of the German Corps, Divisions (6th Bavarian, 52nd and 51st Reserve Divisions), Regiments etc, involved at Morval and Lesboeufs on 25-27/9/16. But - can I find these unit histories in English? As I've said, I don't read or write German at all. If the unit histories are only available in German, is  there any other way round the problem? - thanks - Bill 

[AOK4]

I have most if not all of the published histories. Unfortunately for you only in German. They have not been translated in English.

 

Jan

Edited 22 June , 2019 by AOK4

[gareth morris]

Where there is a will, there is a way. It might take a while, but yes it can be done. 

If you can get hold of the relevant pages in pdf format then you should be able to apply OCR (optical character recognition). 

You may have to get a program that can perform OCR or you may already have it on your PC. Search the internet using PDF & OCR and you will find out how it can be done. 

Once you have OCR’d your pages you will have “editable” text, such as you find in a Word document. 

Copy and paste into Google Translator and it should covert to English. 

It wont be perfect and you may have to refer back to the original pdf to make corrections, but overall it shouldn’t be to bad. 

I have done this quite a lot, but not for a good few years, I was always happy with the result given that English is my one and only language 😢. 

Hope this helps,

Gareth. 

[Biltea]

Hi Gareth

 

Thank you for your helpful reply. I have already started looking at the internet and hope to find some useful information there.

 

Thanks (Danke)  - Bill