CWGC: Changes, Updates & Access difficulties

Discussion in 'War Cemeteries & War Memorial Research' started by Monty, Mar 18, 2004.

  1. Charley Fortnum

    Charley Fortnum Dreaming of Red Eagles

    Not really on.
    I hear they were a little busy '14-'18 & '39-'45.
     
    Tricky Dicky likes this.
  2. timuk

    timuk Well-Known Member

    Quite agree. I think CWGC classifies Gurkhas as Indian!
     
  3. geoff501

    geoff501 Achtung Feind hört mit

    Gus,
    Post a couple of your links here, there is probably a Find/Replace text I could suggest for the spreadsheet
    Geoff
     
    gmyles likes this.
  4. vitellino

    vitellino Senior Member

    Hello everybody,

    Has anyone tried using the CWGC's new fomat website for general research?

    I am trying to find out how many Prisoners of War were brought into Milan War Cemetery from the Rapallo area of Liguria in the period 1 July 1942-September 7 1943. I have found an Italian document stating that thirteen men from Camp PG 52 had died, ten of them in hospital, and have been looking on the CWGC website to see in which war cemetery they might have been buried.

    Milan seemed the obvious choice, and by using the old 'between dates' format I identified fourteen casualties and fortunately downloaded the appropriate concentration form. I returned to the website half an hour ago to double check only to find that the 'date search' longer appears to be an option.

    Perhaps I am just being stupid...

    Edited: I have now discovered that to get the dates you need to order the results according to date...not quite the same thing though

    Vitellino
     
    Last edited: Sep 7, 2017
  5. Tricky Dicky

    Tricky Dicky Don'tre member

    On this new site they only use the phrase Indian Army or the word Indian when relating to the option for Forces then selecting Indian - there is no Gurkha option, especially as they are not Indian. Perhaps its time for Joanna Lumley to come to the fore again

    TD
     
    timuk likes this.
  6. Tricky Dicky

    Tricky Dicky Don'tre member

    Hi vitellino

    you need to see the other thread - Why?

    TD
     
  7. dbf

    dbf Moderatrix MOD

    Have you tried using Geoff's wonderful Search engine? I still prefer it over any revamped CWGC engine.
    Geoff's 1939-47 Search Engine
    For date ranges - do not use spaces eg 01/01/1945-31/01/1945

    you can also exclude regts, specify cemetery, limit the search to Army Number block ranges, etc, etc.
     
  8. idler

    idler GeneralList

    But the Gurkhas were Indian Army. It's no different to British officers being listed under the Indian Army, it's the nationality of the force, not the individual.
     
  9. Tricky Dicky

    Tricky Dicky Don'tre member

    Then do they need to include West Africans as well as specify only South African forces?? What about the Singalise forces??

    I'm just having a good moan day today (right or wrong)

    TD
     
    CL1 likes this.
  10. von Poop

    von Poop Adaministrator Admin

    Looks like the link format hasn't changed since the shift they made October last year.
    If old format, they've been 404-ing since then.

    Old format:
    Code:
    http://www.cwgc.org/search/casualty_details.aspx?casualty=2710027
    New Format:
    Code:
    http://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/2710027/
    Was fixable quickly last time with Find & replace, (then adding the slash at the end).

    Geoff's Engine used to pump out a slightly different format. That should be similarly straightforward to fix too, as the ID number seems to be the key.
     
  11. CL1

    CL1 116th LAA and 92nd (Loyals) LAA,Royal Artillery

    now shows a place for a photograph and the inscription on the CWGC placed headstone (it wont show private headstone inscriptions apart from the name)
     
  12. geoff501

    geoff501 Achtung Feind hört mit

    This bit is OK if you don't have 1000+ records to do. If anyone is really stressed out on this, I have written code before for a few bods, which reads in the CSV data, modifies the link and spits it out again.
    The 'You have made too many requests' nag seems to have gone for these shortened URLs.
    I suspect some of the reason for the update is to make it more 'friendly' on mobile computing. I never use that stuff, so it's only a guess.
     
  13. KevinBattle

    KevinBattle Senior Member

    Can't help but agree that this change to the CWGC seems solely to reinvent a circular wheel.........
    Gone is any image of Poppies, National flags, soldiers or the like that could previously make their site stand out.
    Now, it's like millions of other web forms and taking up much more space needing scrolling around than before.
    What a lame colour - I suppose not to offend with being warlike, religious or any one of the number of PC snowflake causes.

    The big surprise is I'm sure I was using the old format only the other day and suddenly this one has appeared.

    By the way, Honours and Awards is one of the options at the foot of the page.

    I sincerely hope the CWGC haven't spent a fortune over this - they did it previously for no better reason I could find than to spite Geoff and his Search Engines which made a better fist of searching their older format.

    So many charities these days seem able to find ways to pluck at heart (and purse) strings and then you check and find that the CEO's etc are on massive salaries. They claim it's not out of THEIR donations - no, because there seems to be a swings and roundabouts process where one charity pays the salaries and bonuses of another....

    God! I'm on a rant......... steps hurriedly from soapbox........
     
  14. geoff501

    geoff501 Achtung Feind hört mit

    I wondered where you were....

    IT expenditure was dropped off the annual report several years ago.
     
  15. Drew5233

    Drew5233 #FuturePilot 1940 Obsessive

    Just gone on the website - I don't like change but OMG that is dog shit !
     
    High Wood likes this.
  16. SDP

    SDP Incurable Cometoholic

    Giving inconsistent results. Is it me?

    Searched for 24th Lancers.....gave no results but, when I entered Lancers it gave all sorts of prompts so I thought 'good'.....but didn't give 24th Lancers as an option! I then searched for a known 24th Lancers casualty and it produced the details. So I guess it's now good for answering questions if you already know the answer. Doh!

    I can understand why they have changed the style of the web site because more and more people are using phones and tablets and the new style suits that, but why change the functionality of the site. Makes no sense.
     
  17. geoff501

    geoff501 Achtung Feind hört mit

    This problem has come up before with RAC units. In my search engine you have to enter Royal Armoured Corps in Regiment and 24th in Unit Text. CWGC have never liked a Unit Text field. You have to make it visible by selecting from More search options.
    If what you enter does not exactly match any of the items in the drop down, the search fails.

    I guess their new system is Marmite.
     
    SDP and Tricky Dicky like this.
  18. SDP

    SDP Incurable Cometoholic

    Geoff

    If that was a known issue then they have missed an opportunity to rectify it. In this day of string searches (is that term still used?!) aka 'search box', I would have thought it (in this case 24th Lancers) would have shown up anyway: it's not rocket science!

    Incidentally I like Marmite even though I know how it's made!
     
  19. geoff501

    geoff501 Achtung Feind hört mit

    Geoff's Search Engine uses string searches, nothing more nor less.

    (Marmite is like sausages and laws, best not to see how they are made - attributed to Bismarck, but probably apocryphal)
     
    SDP likes this.
  20. lionboxer

    lionboxer Member

    Just a little observation on the new site. How can a casualty be buried at a cremation memorial?!! This is what the panel states where you click to download a commemorative certificate, in this case the Imphal Cremation Memorial.

    Lionboxer
     
    Tricky Dicky likes this.

Share This Page