Gps Location

[Coppit]

I have a WWI letter in which it says that a soldier was killed NW of Havrincourt, northern France at K15d.95.80. Can someone please translate this to a GPS.

[4candles]

Can't make head nor tail of K15d.95.80, but it's going to be somewhere near 50·113°N, 3·08°E.

[Buenchico]

The problem with WW1 grid references is that they don't start from a common reference point. (i.e. On ordinary maps all longitudes are measured from the Greenwich meridian and all latitudes are measured from the equator but each trench map used in the Great War had its own reference points. See here:
https://www.awm.gov.au/sites/default/files/reading-map-refs.pdf

So you need to find the relevant map. Most WW1 trench maps are available on the National Library of Scotland website but, alas, yours doesn't seem to be among them:
http://maps.nls.uk/ww1/trenches/list.html

However you can get quite close to the location you require because the 'Footballer's Memorial' is located within map K15d:
http://tinyurl.com/y8shaywf
It's to be found here:
http://tinyurl.com/y7f9hfmq

[ABerrant]

This post rings a bell...

http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Technology/Internet/Question1161565.html

[Buenchico]

Further thoughts though:

Havrincourt actually appears on trench map 57c but square 15 on that map is located to the north of, and slightly to the west of, the village itself. So that might well be the '15d' part of the reference, with the 'd' indicating the quarter of that square at its bottom right (as explained in my first link above).

Taking that to be correct, and again using the information from my first link above, you need to start at the bottom left hand corner of that quarter square and go 95 yards East and 80 yards North (remembering that the dimensions of a quarter square are 500 yards by 500 yards).

That takes you to a point on the north side of what the British troops called 'George Street', approximately 100 yards to the west of 'Ryder Street'.

That's a point almost due west of the centre of Flesquieres and slightly to the east of a point midway between the Canal du Nord and what is now the D15 road, which (as close as I can get it) is here:
http://tinyurl.com/y73hywwj

All of that is derived from spending over an hour studying this:
http://digitalarchive.mcmaster.ca/islandora/object/macrepo%3A70646
and comparing it with Google's modern map.

(Use the + and - buttons or, easier, your scroll wheel to zoom in and out on the trench map. Click-and-drag to move the map about)

[ABerrant]

Chris, your methodology is faultless until the final step and thus you have erred in the transposition to Google Maps - your marker is in the vicinity of K15c.80.30

(The D15 runs north/south in K15d.40.xx and the marker should be east of it, away from the Canal du Nord not towards it)

The identical investigation 5 years ago set the spot NW of the A2 Rest Spot.

http://i1231.photobucket.com/albums/ee515/SnapshotPail/GM_overlay_K15d9580.jpg

[Buenchico]

^^^ I did write "as close as I can get it". I was working purely visually, by comparing one map with the other, rather than going to the trouble of seeking to directly overlay the square from the WW1 map onto the modern one precisely.

Coppit:
If you still want precise GPS coordinates, locate the relevant point on a Google map and triple-click on it. The coordinates will then appear at the foot of your screen.

[Coppit]

Thanks for all your answers. Yes, I did ask before and searched for a long time but was unable to find my original question.
I now have enough to go on to say 'In a place near here ...... was killed 10 Dec 1917'.