Modified British System of coordinates used on the European Theatre of Operations during WWII

Discussion in 'NW Europe' started by Stevo1, Apr 29, 2011.

  1. Stevo1

    Stevo1 Junior Member

    Hi guys,

    This is probably old news for some of you but hopefully this will be helpful to some in researching war diaries. The website link below has a converter for converting military coordinates, (like the ones listed in war diary's) to longitudal and latitude information. Entering this information in Google Earth, I was able to get a pretty good idea where the events were taking place that were described in the War Diary. There is a margin of error but it is better than nothing.

    The "Coordinates Translator"

    I used the site to create a bunch of pertinent landmarks when researching a relative. Here is my relative's site I created, the landmarks are listed under Historical Info and Maps.

    Morris Nelson Pady

    Hope this isn't too redundant for the forum. Cheers!
     
  2. Owen

    Owen -- --- -.. MOD

    A lot of us 'old hands' use it alot but it always good for the newer members to learn of it.
     
  3. IKE26

    IKE26 Active Member

    Hi guys

    Have you noticed that in these days the website echodelta doesn't work when you try to translate coordinates?

    Do you know another coordinates translator website?

    Cheers
     
  4. hutt

    hutt Member

    Ummm, I spotted that a few days ago.
    I hope it returns to functionality as I am in the middle of a project that pretty well relies on it!
     
    IKE26 likes this.
  5. Tony56

    Tony56 Member Patron

    I hope this is just a temporary glitch, it was working a few days ago.
     
  6. SDP

    SDP Incurable Cometoholic

    Just a word of caution re these 'translators': they can be 'out' by up to a kilometre. That's why, courtesy of eBay, I've gradually built up a collection of period maps for the areas relating to my late fathers experiences in NW Europe (Normandy to the Baltic). More conveniently, most maps from the period can now be downloaded FOC from a number of websites. You just need to be mindful that the grid numbering system was changed a few years post War.
     
  7. Chris C

    Chris C Canadian

    I sent an email to the site owner but I haven't heard back yet.

    By eyeballing one of the maps it looks like they were done on a kilometre basis? Which makes sense if those countries were on metric and the source of the maps. I.e. If you had position 5555 and 5655 those would apparently be 1km apart in an easterly direction
     
  8. hutt

    hutt Member

    Just tested it at work this morning and it seems to be working. Fingers crossed.
     
    IKE26 and Chris C like this.
  9. 51highland

    51highland Very Senior Member

    Thankfully it seems fine now.
     

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