Multimap.com: Online Maps to Everywhere

[Richard T Eger]

Thanks to Stevin on 12 O'Clock High!, Feb. 2, 2002, for this lead to a very useful map search engine on the web. The address is:

http://www.multimap.com/

A map of the world is offered. By clicking on the area you are interested in, you can gradually focus in on specific localities. Being interested in Watson's Whizzers, I elected to find out if I could locate where Querqueville was at Cherbourg. I clicked on France, typed in Cherbourg, and, with a bit of looking, there it was. With a click, I could get a printer friendly version. Very nice.

Leads to aerial and historic photos are given. If you want to work your way around the London tube system, that help is also provided. A directions service is available. Maps can also be ordered.

Regards,
Richard

[Richard T Eger]

From within a thread on 12 O'Clock High!:

Christer Bergström
The complex situation of airfields on the Eastern Front
Sun Feb 29 11:55:13 2004
81.225.209.29

Steve W. is absolutely right:

"Dozens and dozens of units passed through Shatalovka, none of them staying for very long, usually no more than a few days or a week."

Exactly. That is the general picture of the Eastern Front. You can't compare with e.g. U.K., where, say 74 sqn was definitely stationed at Hornchurch and nowhere else on 1 August 1940. On the Eastern Front, the Luftwaffe units generally passed through lots of airfields, often being shifted between two or three airfields on the same day.

The same Luftwaffe unit on the Eastern Front also often was divided between different airfields. So often it one can't say definitely that a certain unit WAS stationed at a certain airfield. Sure, one part of it was stationed at one place, but that doesn't mean that the whole unit was there. When you see the lists at M. Holm's excellent Luftwaffe site, or in Prien's various books, they refer to either where the headquarters of a unit was stationed, or to the bits of information that they've found. Maybe Holm & Prien should explain this in their books, in order to avoid confusion?

One example:

In "Die Jagdfliegerverbände der Deutschen Luftwaffe", 6/II (p. 66), Jochen Prien et al write that III./JG 52 was stationed at Stschastliwaja 27 Aug - 2 Sept 1941, Mironowka 2 Sept 1941 - 12 Sept 1941, and Berislaw 12 Sept - 15 Sept 1941.

However, the Flugbücher of individual pilots of that unit (III./JG 52) show a more complex picture:

Edmund Rossmann: Sschastliwaja 26 Aug - 11 Sept, Mironowka and Sschastliwaja 12 Sept - 13 Sept, Sschastliwaja 13 Sept - 15 Sept, Krementschug 15 Sept - 17 Sept.

Alfred Grislawski: Mironowka 2 Sept, Sschastliwaja 2 Sept - 12 Sept, Berislaw 12 Sept - 17 Sept.

Kurt Schade: Sschastliwaja 28 Aug - 12 Sept, Berislaw 12 Sept - 15 Sept.

Günther Rall: Stschastliwaja 27 Aug - 2 Sept, Mironowka 2 Sept, Stschastliwaja 2 Sept - 12 Sept, Berisslaw 12 Sept - 15 Sept, Stschastliwaja 15 Sept - 17 Sept, Bjelaja Zerkow 17 Sept - 21 Sept.

Above I have used the exact spelling of these place names that was used in the various sources I refer to. Of course, we wouldn't transcribe them in that way in English, but then the German soldiers in WW II often didn't care much about exact transcription of Russian place names (which often is a cause of confusion). "Shatalowka" is transcribed as "Shatalovo" in English.

Here is a good source for place names. But then one has to use adopted English transcription when it comes to Russian place names:

http://www.multimap.com/map/home.cgi?client=public&db=w3&overviewmap=w3&lang=

All best,

Christer Bergström

http://www.graf-grislawski.elknet.pl/index.htm

http://www.bergstrombooks.elknet.pl/bc-rs/