Plotting Convoy’s Using Lats/Longs on Google Maps

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Temujin
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Plotting Convoy’s Using Lats/Longs on Google Maps

Post by Temujin » Wed Feb 05, 2020 7:51 pm

Recently, I was working on a document for my Father in Law, who served in the Perth Regiment, 11 Cdn Infantry Brigade, 5th Cdn Armoured Division thru Italy until he went home to Canada (thru NY CITY) in May 1945 (he did not go with the Regiment to NW Europe). While doing this work, I discovered that you can can use Latitudes and Longitudes on Google Maps, and it will plot the position for you........This is excellent if you have reference points, such as Convoy information that is in Lat/longs

How to enter Latitude and Longitude in Google Maps - https://support.google.com/maps/answer/ ... ktop&hl=en

I’ll give an example of the process below:

First, I have a record of Convoy GUS 91 - Oran, Algeria to New York City, NY, USA (this is just the one of the days position of the ships, after they left Oran, Algeria.....I have the entire Convoy info from Fold3.com)

The specific ship I was tracking was the US MV Joseph Gale, a Liberty Ship, which had been converted to a troop transport. Here is the information on the ship, it left Leghorn, Italy as an “Independent” sailing (no escorts ships), went to Naples, Italy, departed to Oran the same day, again as an “independent” sailing to Oran.........In Oran, it joined Convoy GUS 91, which I was then able to plot the convoy’s route on Google maps
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First, the records is below:
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You can see on the above, from the Naval Log, the days positions on the 23 May 1945 at 0800, 1200 & 2000 hrs is recorded

You can see the Log’s first position for that day is at 0800 and is 36 degrees, 14 minutes North and 04 degrees, 37 minutes West

You can take this and put it into the “search box” of google maps as 36°14'N 04°37'W.......then hit enter.
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Google maps then marks the spot on the map
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What I then do is Mark the spot as one of my “favourites”......which gives you a yellow point with a white STAR in it.....which stays on the map until your ready to erase it
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Then I plot all the other Lat’s and Long’s using the same method and Google Maps will give you the exact “track” of the convoy. The first part of the US MV Joseph Gale’s trip is in “red” an just my “guess” at its course to Naples and Oran......then the track of GUS 91 is show in “yellow dots with a green line”
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PLEASE NOTE: the “texts and lines and arrows” I added to the map AFTER I completed all my plotting, and then took a “screen shot” of the map in order to add that information

ALSO NOTE ON THE RECORD ABOVE.......the record has a “typo” and calls the Convoy UGS 91........this is “INCORRECT” and all other documents I have studied call this convoy GUS 91.......below is a Admiralty War Dairy and you can see the Convoy NAME, and the ships that left ORAN, Algeria in that convoy
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These users commended the author Temujin for the post:
Phil (Wed Feb 05, 2020 8:24 pm)

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Re: Plotting Convoy Using Google Maps

Post by Temujin » Wed Feb 05, 2020 8:02 pm

The second example I will give......is the JUNO BEACH Landings

And specifically the position of HMS Hilary, Force “J” Headquarter’s Ship, this information is from the Operation Neptune Naval Orders

In the Orders, it give the position of HMS Hilary at it’s “Lowering Position” of “XX’ and when the ship moved into the anchorage (waiting position) at 4:00 pm that day, Position ‘Z1’.
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Using the same method in my first post, I was able to exactly pin point BOTH locations off of Juno Beach.....and I also plotted the ‘Lowering Positions’ of the Right Assault force, and the Left Assault force.....Positions ‘PP’ and ‘QQ’
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Google Maps will also allow you to “measure” from a point, such as the positions above, to any other spot on the map you choose.

I measured from the HMS Hilary to the “beach’s” to determine how far away the ship was........and with this information, I could check to see how long a landing craft took to move from the ship to the beach (for research that I was doing)

PLEASE NOTE: the “text and lines and arrows” I added to the map AFTER I completed all my plotting, and then took a “screen shot” of the map in order to add that information

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