Allied map system

[Richard T Eger]

From 12 O'Clock High!:

Christian Möller
Book project: Combat Reports/downed Ju 87; Allied Map System
Mon Feb 25 10:57:23 2002
217.184.237.81

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen!

I´m looking for some USAAF combat reports for my book project on the German Störkampf- and Nachtschlachtgruppen during WWII.
Could anybody tell me please, where I can find detailed combat reports of the following units/Ju 87-claims?

- 12 RCN Sqn., April 4, 1945: 1 Ju 87.

- 15 RCN Sqn., November 17, 1944: 3 Ju 87 prob.
- 15 RCN Sqn., March 27, 1945: 3 Ju 87.
- 15 RCN Sqn., March 28, 1945: 1 Ju 87.
- 15 RCN Sqn., April 5, 1945: 1 Ju 87.
- 15 RCN Sqn., April 8, 1945: 3 Ju 87.
- 15 RCN Sqn., April 27, 1945: 3 Ju 87.

- 356 FTR Sqn., April 8, 1945: 2 Ju 87.

- 386 FTR Sqn., October 12, 1944: 1 Ju 87 prob.

- 414 NFR Sqn., February 4, 1945: 1 Ju 87.


Additionally, could anybody bring some light into the Allied map-system?
So, where would be the following areas in Germany:
F-3062, F-4067, F-4247 (VII US Corps area), G-9638, J-6838, M-5496, N-3864, N-4735, N-5468 & O-8580.


I´d really appreciate any help!
Thank you very much in advance.

Many greetings,
Christian Möller (M.A.)
Germany

[Richard T Eger]

From TOCH!:

Nick Beale
You may not like the answer!
Tue Feb 26 23:09:21 2002
212.159.1.4

As far as I have been able to work out, the Allies used a grid of 100km squares.

A reference in such a square could be given more or less precisely. F-95 would mean a position 90km east of the bottom left corner of the square and 50km north of the baseline. F-9253 would mean 92km across and 53 km up. F-921534 would give the postion to within 100 metres nad so on.

I ahve a xeroxed map from PRO file AIR24/1530 which shows the lettered squares for Holland, Belgium, part of Germany. To take one east-west strip, the sequence runs VH (which includes Lille) VJ (inc. Brussels), VK, WF (inc.Köln), WG, WH, WJ, WK, XF. In each case the second letter is printed about twice the height of the first and is (AFAIK) the one used in the references. Trouble is, you'll see there's two F's in that sequence, so you have to know which area your source is talking about!

To make matters worse, the grid gfor the North Sea and Scandinavia works the same way but joins the one on my map at an oblique angle, not 90 degrees. the same is true where the Italian grid (which I have on another map) meets the Adriatic/Balkans one.

The saving grace is that if you have the grid reference of a known place,you can construct the rest of the square and overlay it on a map. I've spent quite a lot of time in the past collecting these names/references but it was a while before I cracked that the square was in kilometres rather than miles.

[Richard T Eger]

From TOCH!:

Walt Morgan
map grids
Wed Feb 27 00:55:34 2002
209.193.81.60

Thanks Nick. Really strange that they would use kilometers unless they were British based maps. Which, I guess they probably were. Thanks a lot.

Walt

[Richard T Eger]

From TOCH!:

John Manrho
Allied Maps
Wed Feb 27 21:36:13 2002
195.121.22.212

Nick,

the quest for these maps can truly be an long one!. I have been struggling with this several years ago until I discovered that the Topographic Agency in the Netherlands (some 25 kilometres from my home...) holds an extensive collection of origial maps with the grid already marked on them. The collection contains almost complete part of NW Europe (Netherlands/Belgium/Luxembourg/Northern France/NW Germany). I would assume that every serious topographic agency in other countries would have a collection too.