Hi All, I've been helping a Colleague in Work, with info on His Uncle, who landed on The Beaches. His only info he had, was That he believed he Was killed on D Day, but they never found his body. After not much searching however, I was able to tell him that his Uncle, Serving with 5th Black Watch, died a few weeks after, in The Battle for The Steelworks at Colombelles, on July 11th, and is actually buried in a Cemetery in Normandy. I have co ordinates for his Initial Burial position, but I'm Having difficulty converting them into a present Day Location. Now that he is going to visit The Grave I have told him I'll try to find the inital area where he laid. The Co Ordinates I have are:- 40/16NW 08197062 If anyone can help, we would really appreciate it. I have tried one conversion method, and it came out South of Falaise ha ha, impossible with The Dates we have. Thanks All, Nigel
So that's me not knowing my arse from my elbow I posted the wrong maps above! It is Colombelles. Here the area in 1945:
Hello Nigel, Here is your grid reference 08197062 from the map GSGS 4347 (France 1:25,000), sheet 40/16NW. The whole map is here on the British Library site. On the Coordinates Translator website the details you need to enter are, “French Lambert Zone 1 Grid” and “vu082706”. This takes you to the now built up area of Colombelles about 150m north of Avenue Léon Blum. This avenue looks to me like it was the track on the 1944 map marked “R10 B2” which is your location rather than north of it. As the site itself admits the results are not always precise. Regards, Richard p.s Just superimposed the map on one of M Kenny's aerial photos and came up with this:
Hi Richard, Your location on the map is totally correct. I must apologise to M Kenny since I'm the one who gave him the (erroneous) location he showed on the aerial views, which I now see was 08197006 instead of 08197062. And I had the cheek to jest him on his initial error at that! The Coordinates Translator results are OK but they seem to systematically offset the location by about 100m North. Nice superimposition too! Michel
There is nothing wrong with being wrong! I must admit when I did the location above I did wonder to myself how he could end up being buried in German held (on the 11th)ground. I was just too lazy too check. This should cover all possible locations If anyone wants the original frame it is 8000 x 10000 and 66 mb so will have to go in an email
Hia Richard and Michel, thank you so much for your help. My friend at work will be so pleased. I can see a very emotional visit coming, when he goes over to Normandie now. Thanks again Nigel
