The Fading Battlefields of WWI

World War I Battlefields

The scars of WWI are still quite evident parts of France and Belgium. But like all scars over time they fade. This article by The Atlantic shows some of the healing after a 100 years. And also shows how somethings worth saving are disappearing or how some things might never disappear.

The Fading Battlefields of WWI

Maps, Maps, Maps - Where To Find WWI Maps

Maps, Maps, Maps - Where To Find WWI Maps

Well there are lots of maps available of the War but the best ones are still in hard copy in some archive somewhere.

I eventually found some really good sources for maps which are online and some with extremely high detail.

The American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) has some really high resolution maps of the various battles along with other books in PDF format. At the webpage https://www.abmc.gov/news-events/news/world-war-i-historic-reference-book-now-available-abmcgov you will find the major maps as you scroll down the page. You can download these or contact the ABMC's Office of Public Affairs and they will send you a link for super high resolution maps. The image you download from the website is about 13,000kb... while the super high resolution one is over 220,000kb.

Also available on the ABMC page is the AABEFINAL_Blue_Book.pdf which is the "American Armies and Battlefields in Europe" which has a number of maps and data on troop movements, but I digress.

Other map locations out there include:

1. The National Archives. If you are looking for the map related to where your soldier was or was buried there is normally a map and grid reference. In my case I needed the Verdun 35 map   https://catalog.archives.gov/id/153725719
2. The Hathi Trust has numerous maps, unit histories, and other WWI documents. While all are viewable not all can be downloaded, unless you have the right user credentials.  https://www.hathitrust.org/
3. The Osher Map Library at https://oshermaps.org/exhibitions/great-war/section-4 also has some interesting maps.

And don't leave out Google Maps or Google Earth in your searches for maps.

Many people have created downloadable files, called KMZ or KML files, of trench systems, troop movements and battlefields. At this blog site, https://blog.operationwardiary.org/2014/09/05/mapping-operation-war-diary-bringing-the-battlefields-of-yesterday-to-life/,  has created some KMZ files of some trenches and machine gun emplacements.

Some great downloadable files can be found at the USNA Ruffin_Project site where they have overlaid a number of maps on Goggle Earth. Using these maps you can see the units movements over various battlefields over time.

I like Google Earth because you can put down pins for various points of interest such as tracking the movements of a division, unit or person.

If you are concerned about matching up WWI maps to Google Earth or Maps, don't be. Seems somethings don't really change much, as you can in this image where the roads, forests and clearings all still match up.