Locating the enemy battery

[charlie962]

I thought this snippet from May 1916 interesting:

(courtesy National Archives)

Can anyone plot this on a period map, please ? - out of curiosity, not neccesity !

Charlie

[jonbem]

perhaps if we knew which Battalion War diary it came from it would help narrow down things as many maps had squares W and X.

[charlie962]

28 minutes ago, jonbem said:

if we knew which Battalion War diary it came from it would help narrow down things

oops, shows how little I know of mapping.

it came from X Corps GOC Heavy Artillery War Diary and in May 1916 based (presumably HQ) Bouzincourt, NW of Albert.   Is that sufficient ?

 

Charlie

 

 

[jonbem]

ok so plenty to choose from on McMaster - Bouzincourt at http://lt1.mcmaster.ca/ww1/wrz4mp.php?grid=57d

Place	Map Sheet #	Map Squares
Bouzincourt	57dSE3	W7

 

 

and if you haven't read it this might help

https://www.longlongtrail.co.uk/battlefields/how-to-read-a-british-trench-map/

 

[jonbem]

So first position W15.b.6.3. is on the left arm of the "W"

[jonbem]

X.9.d.6.7. - green circle just to right of railway line

 

 

above map extracts from

http://digitalarchive.mcmaster.ca/islandora/object/macrepo%3A3952/-/collection

 

[charlie962]

5 minutes ago, jonbem said:

W15.b.6.3

W15.d.6.5  would be about the centre of the bottom right square of 15 ;

Many thanks for the tutorial and links.

 

So this would be the approx line of fire ?

 

which line is indeed about 5250 metres if I've read the scale correctly but how is the bearing, 12°15' right of zero determined ?

 

Thanks, Charlie

[jonbem]

13 minutes ago, charlie962 said:

W15.d.6.5  would be about the centre of the bottom right square of 15 ;

 

Must get me eyes checked again! 

yes about there. and I guess it must be that line as i don't know of any in that era that could turn corners.

13 minutes ago, charlie962 said:

but how is the bearing, 12°15' right of zero determined

errr? More learning needed or an expert, sorry. There is an angle on right of the map.i think that indicates map deviation from true/magnetic north I may be wrong

Edited 30 August , 2019 by jonbem

[charlie962]

2 minutes ago, jonbem said:

There is an angle on right of the map.i think that indicates map deviation from true/magnetic north I may be wrong

That's how I read it.

[Open Bolt]

Good plot - very interesting.

I would have thought Zero would have been determined by how the sound ranging was set up. Also the fuze would have travelled further than its setting.

 

[jonbem]

try messing around with this.....an online protractor you can upload an image into.

https://www.ginifab.com/feeds/angle_measurement/

 

[charlie962]

1 minute ago, jonbem said:

try messing around with this

a useful tool, many thanks,  but even by eye going 15° left of the line doesn't mean anything obvious?

 

Charlie