My father was a member of the 2nd Monmouthshire Regiment, he was killed in Normandy on the 16th of July 1944. I have visited his grave at Brouay on several occasions and although I never knew him it is still a difficult but rewarding trip. I have found out more about his war on this site than anywhere else, the war diaries http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/53rd-division-documents/24174-2-monmouthshire-regiment-war-diary.html tell the story of where he was when he was killed. With this new information I intend to travel his route in France this year and would like to obtain maps if they are available with the wood numbers marked on them especially Wood 917625 as this seems to be his location on 16-7-1944. I would like to thank Swiper for posting this Diary and the web site in general for keeping the history alive. Rog.
sometimes WOII 1:25.000 maps are available on Ebay, I don't know were in the UK, no doubt others may know, maybe even in the war diary itself. its not a wood number but a map coordinaat, which would make it easier to identify this piece of wood
What was his full name again mate? There are reasons. Please email me with your phone number as that date I have been doing lots of work on... Indeed a bit too much to put in such a public area... [You may or may not be aware that Bronay was the 53rd Divisional Cemetary for the fighting over the Odon, so where his mates laid him in 44 is where he still is. Really 'adds' to the place for me. Also most likely have his headstone photographed to upload here.]
Cahier paper map Air view 1947 Location of Cahier is given as 905 628 Start from line 90 (vertical) and move toward 91 (the '5' means halfway along because the line is assumed to be '10' long) Then start at line 62 (horizontal) towards 63 for 8/10ths of the way = 628 for the 'wood' at 917 625 I would say any of the 3 groups of trees in the yellow circle but the 'U' shaped copse at the extreme right is nearly dead on 917 625
Trust me to be caught out by an area on the join between two adjacent maps! Here is a view with more of the east included and a great big wood comes into view. See it better today Note that 'Cahier' appears to be a phonetic rendering of the real name of Cayer.
