Trench map explanation

[historyguy]

I have been doing some research on a Canadian Railway battalion and their diaries are listing where they are working and moving to using trench map coordinates 

They often mention places but i would like to nail things done a bit more accurately 

For example today i read 

Move HQ to a17, D88 sheet 66E. 

How do i find these maps? 

Any ideas or sites that i can just key in the coordinates 

 

 

 

 

[RussT]

You could try inputting the Map Reference into this very handy application

tMapper: WW1 Mapping

Input as: 66e.a.17.d.88

Regards

Russ

 

[jonbem]

Hi

first look at the tab top of page and search Trench maps

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

then try

https://maps.nls.uk/ww1/trenches/

https://library.mcmaster.ca/maps/ww1/ndx5to40.htm

Edited 5 May , 2022 by jonbem

[historyguy]

6 minutes ago, RussT said:

You could try inputting the Map Reference into this very handy application

tMapper: WW1 Mapping

Input as: 66e.a.17.d.88

Regards

Russ

 

Many thanks Russ. Will do 

John

[WhiteStarLine]

On 06/05/2022 at 01:02, RussT said:

66e.a.17.d.88

That should actually be 66e.a.17.d.8.8.  Otherwise it will put you at a slightly different location a few hundred metres away.

In addition to the references cited above, if @historyguy tries TrenchMapper from The Western Front Association, there are a 1916 and a 1918 trench map superimposed over the modern landscape.  The railway system is shown on both maps.

[RussT]

4 hours ago, WhiteStarLine said:

That should actually be 66e.a.17.d.8.8.  Otherwise it will put you at a slightly different location a few hundred metres away.

Many thanks for the correction.

So just for my learning, how do we know which one was actually correct (assuming the original is written as per the way the OP wrote it viz.:

On 05/05/2022 at 15:49, historyguy said:

Move HQ to a17, D88 sheet 66E

Regards

Russ

[WhiteStarLine]

28 minutes ago, RussT said:

know which one was actually correct

Hi Russ,

It's a good point and any trench map reference expressed in a non-standard way can only be interpreted.  If I had been a little less pompous, I would have written: "When the author said D88, that means sub-square d and some value east and some value north.  I personally interpret 88 as eight tenths of 500 yards east and 8 tenths of 500 yards north."

Web conversion tools like those found on tMapper, National Library of Scotland and The Western Front Association's TrenchMapper rely on the user providing an x and y value (or leaving it blank, so a mid-point is chosen for them).  Valid choices here are 0.88, 8.8 or 88.0.  Only the original author knows the correct one.  Therefore a reasonable supposition is 8.8.  The difference between any of them is around 400 yards so the OP is pretty close no matter which one is chosen.

Cheers, Bill 

[RussT]

Thanks Bill - that's useful background and knowledge.

It's a fantastic resource - thank you for all the hard work and for sharing it.

Regards

Russ