Positions of royal artillery ww2 war diary

Discussion in 'Royal Artillery' started by Euphemia, Sep 10, 2021.

  1. Euphemia

    Euphemia Member

    Have lots of numbered positions in war diary for 73rd medium regiment April 1945. Is there anyway of translating them to places in Italy

    Start at 409283 on 1st and end at 185812 on 23rd April

    Thanks
     
    Chris C likes this.
  2. Temujin

    Temujin Member

    MongoUK likes this.
  3. Euphemia

    Euphemia Member

    I know they started out at Fano on 1st and were near Po De Volano on 22nd


     
  4. Chris C

    Chris C Canadian

    This site is super helpful:
    Notes on the "Modified British System" used on the European Theatre of Operations during the WWII

    If you go here:
    The grids used on the European Theatre of Operations

    You can scroll down to the North Italy Zone (I assume) and try to figure out which letter code is the correct prefix for the map they were using.

    Then go here:
    The "Coordinates Translator"
    Pick "Italian Northern Grid" in the dropdown, and then type (say)wM0000 [this should be your combination of letter code and numeric coordinate, however many digits it is) and then click Convert!

    This will then show you the longitude and latitude of the point, where it is in a map of Italy, and also a view of the position in MapQuest. If it is way off from the towns you know of, you probably guess the letter code incorrectly - try another one.

    If you then want to look at the historical topographic map, the letter prefix is I think useful for making sure you have the right one.
     
    MongoUK likes this.
  5. Temujin

    Temujin Member

    I’ve plotted the first number you gave 409283 on a 100,000 map (you can get maps that are closer) and assuming I found the right map (I think I did, I found where they had casualties buried on CWGC website and found the area in general

    https://digitalarchive.mcmaster.ca/islandora/object/macrepo:31308/datastream/OBJ/macrepo:31308.tiff

    [​IMG]

    And here’s the location, using the information Chris posted above, which CONFIRMS the location I posted on the WW2 map above in this post

    [​IMG]
     
    Last edited: Sep 10, 2021
  6. Euphemia

    Euphemia Member

    Thank you both

    Your comments are most helpful
     
  7. Tony56

    Tony56 Member Patron

    Generally, in the left hand column of the war diaries it shows the location, most often a town and sometimes a map reference. The diaries also sometimes show the letter prefix to a reference, may help if you post the pages.
     
  8. Euphemia

    Euphemia Member

    Thank you
     

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