The Flanders Fields War Maps found

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Olham54

The Bordeaux-Red Baron
Somewhere in the forum I had read the question for detailed maps of the war fields. Now, I don't think, the OFF-Team could really produce lots of maps showing the various theaters in the different years 1914 - 1918. But I also had the wish to get maps, I could really use in flight; and so I came across the page of the McMaster University. Under the link www.library.mcmaster.ca/maps/ww1/ndx5to40 you'll find a general raw map of the whole WW1 battle area; fragmented into rectangles. Now, when you click on one, you'll get to the maps available for that area. They are scanned wartime originals, with hand drawn battle lines, trenches, attack directions etc.; you'll find funny names for the trenches like "Curry alley", "Chutney alley" and so on. Now, you can't just copy the maps on your harddisc (or at least, I couldn't find out), but what you can do is this: 1. zoom into the map, until you find it detailed enough 2. make a screenshot (by pressing the key "print") 3. then scroll on to the neighbouring bit and hit "print"; and so on, until you have 3 or four rows of 4 - 6 of these shots. Then you can work on them, if you have a program like Photoshop or similar; and at last, you put them together in a drawing or Photo program. I got a nice map of the Cambrai area together that way, where I did even find the German aerodrome of Boistruncourt (that's where Otto von Stachel resides - cheers, Otto!). Well, and finally, you print it out, stick it together, and ready is you own war pilot's map. Off course, that can only be done by everyone for himself, and for his privat use only; anything else might be illegal. I'll add a screenshot here, but in case, the forum team finds that this might be illegal, you may feel free to remove it. So now, have fun researching. Cheers to all; Olham
 
Absolutely brilliant!
Great find:ernae:
Cheers,
shredward
 
Wow! What Shredward said.....Brilliant!!

Well done!!

Parky
 
Another VERDUN map

Here's another map for Verdun. I haven't found any trench maps or close field maps for that area, like those mentioned above, but I've ordered a DVD with pics and maps from Old Blighty; should arrive soon. If it's good, I'll post the address.
 
Thanks Oldham, I saw that one. It doesn't go far enough south unfortunately for operations out of Luxeil. We'll keep looking.
 
I may have some Verdun's front maps from l'Illustration newspaper (1916? not sure of the exact date by the way; probably the March issue).

Anyway, here's a screenshot of Verdun's area including all Forts (named like they were after General Boulanger's decret on 21th January 1887) along with few other places.
 
Bonjour Before,
Interesting - I've never seen the forts with names other than the ones we know them by (Vaux, Douaumont etc). Do you know when the renaming happened?
Bien cordialement
shredward
 
Thanks shredward :) Renaming happened consequently to Général Georges Boulanger décret (decree in English?) on 21th January 1887 and I highly supposed those names were used at the time of war (at least officially, and because I didn't find anything ordering another renaming within 1887 to 1914).

Boulanger used to be very popular among soldiers thanks to several reforms he eventually did in order to enhance their living conditions (small things that speak high: the right to have a fork, replacement of straw mattress by mattress, etc.).

The decree of 21th January 1887 ordered the renaming of each military building (fort, batterie, caserne) with the name of an heroic local (if possible) officer. For instance, Fort Douaumont became Fort Gérard, Fort de Vaux became Fort Dillon, etc.
 
Bonjour Xavier,
I'm sure you will be pleased to know that P3 has all the escadrilles de chasse up to Esc 155, as well as 313-315. We also have 256 French (and Americans serving in French escadrilles) pilots.
Bien cordialement,
shredward
 
Sounds great! :) I've watched all the preview movies and I've to confess that I've nearly cried seeing how well it fits reality. :redf:

Dunno if it could help those whom are working on P3, but I can look for data about front lines. I can't say where is my collection of l'Illustration newspaper (it makes me afraid because those 90+ years old documents are so fragile...) but I remember that some of them provide with great contemporary maps.
 
Bonjour Xavier,
We are in the last stages of getting P3 ready to deploy, so we won't be making any more changes to it. However, if we do develop it further - after a long rest! - we would love any info you have. We always try to get all aspects of the sim as authentic as available info and practicality allow.
Bien amicalement,
shredward

ps I'm sure you already know about this?
http://www.lillustration.com/
 
Thanks Shredward. :) I'm waiting impatiently for P3.

PS: Yes I know the website, there are some nice pictures available for free.
 
It would be great if we could somehow generate maps for OFF based on historic maps and the placement of dromes, buildings, etc in OFF.

But the trouble we have is the copywrites all over maps... go figure.

We'd like to offer something more detailed then the RB3D maps, but not as modern as a road map. Many folks have asked us if they could fly using dead reckoning in OFF. I think you can, if there were maps based on OFF. Not sure if it's 100% if it's based on a true WWI map.

WM definitely put in 1000% of his passion into getting things places spot on, but a game is a game. FS10 still does not have things placed properly. So if we're a little off, hey... we're human. ;)

OvS
 
Before, I'd heartily request that any info you have, please share as you can. There are many of us here who would and appreciate it and maybe could put something together with it. Any WWI info is always useful here as we have many people of different levels of knowledge and manu hungering for more.

OVS- That may be a project worth tackling. I won't bother WM with it now, but perhaps after P3 is given wings, I could get with him to develop a good map based on OFF data and later, tweak it to look like a WWI map. As I've stated many times, the MS Encarta maps are almost spot on but it'd still be nice to have names, villages, etc that we see in OFF on the maps.
 
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