JOVE23
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- Jun 15, 2010
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Remember how I found out how my great grand uncle won the silver star in WWI?
I've been doing a lot of digging and I found out how he won the medal, and roughly where. I'd like to narrow it down as much as possible.
Here is the citation for his medal:
The sergeant that wrote the citation was captured in this engagement, and in the unit history I have that mentions this engagement says they were in a shell hole near a patch of woods.
http://wikimapia.org/#lat=49.3075554&lon=5.04262&z=13&l=0&m=b&search=gesnes
the Bois de Gesnes is the forest with the crosshairs on it, I would think the open space between that forest and the one just south to it (the Bois de la Morine) would be a great killing field for the german machine gunners mentioned in the citation.
Now, onto the other documents (and the crux of this post). The National Archives sent me some documents that reference the location of my ancestor's original battlefield grave. I'm assuming that because of the chaotic nature of WWI and the specific engagement where our guys got captured, they buried my ancestor where he fell.
Here are those documents:
Both the Very 211 Groupe de Canevas de Tir and NE35 maps are French trench/artillery maps. I think these maps and those specific coordinates would allow me to pinpoint the exact location where my great granduncle was when he was killed in 1918.
If anyone is a map hound or war buff and wants to help me dig for these maps, I'd appreciate it very much.
Best,
JOVE23
I've been doing a lot of digging and I found out how he won the medal, and roughly where. I'd like to narrow it down as much as possible.
Here is the citation for his medal:
The sergeant that wrote the citation was captured in this engagement, and in the unit history I have that mentions this engagement says they were in a shell hole near a patch of woods.
http://wikimapia.org/#lat=49.3075554&lon=5.04262&z=13&l=0&m=b&search=gesnes
the Bois de Gesnes is the forest with the crosshairs on it, I would think the open space between that forest and the one just south to it (the Bois de la Morine) would be a great killing field for the german machine gunners mentioned in the citation.
Now, onto the other documents (and the crux of this post). The National Archives sent me some documents that reference the location of my ancestor's original battlefield grave. I'm assuming that because of the chaotic nature of WWI and the specific engagement where our guys got captured, they buried my ancestor where he fell.
Here are those documents:
Both the Very 211 Groupe de Canevas de Tir and NE35 maps are French trench/artillery maps. I think these maps and those specific coordinates would allow me to pinpoint the exact location where my great granduncle was when he was killed in 1918.
If anyone is a map hound or war buff and wants to help me dig for these maps, I'd appreciate it very much.
Best,
JOVE23
