For the Map part of the EoE Project Need Daily Front Lines for Norwegian and Western Campaigns; report on Weiss translation status

[Larry Hickey]

Hello,

For the EoE Project, we've finished our map templates for all the countries involved in the European air war during 1939-40, so that we have reliable, computerized maps current as of 1939-40, that are both copyrightable and instantly scalable from which to work. This is a critical component of the EoE Project, as we've probably got in the neighborhood of 1000 hand-drawn maps with the Heinrich Weiss manuscript to enable us to lay out with great accuracy the aerial operations on all sides during the 16-month period from 01.09.39 to 31.12.40, right down to plotting the individual mission tracks of many of the recon sorties. We have spent a great deal of thought trying to see what is the best way to present this material. The scope of the Weiss maps and the work he did to generate them is beyond belief and we want to do this material justice, even though publishing all 1000 of them in our EoE book series is not practical. We may end up eventually putting many of these on our website so that they will be available in the future to historians and researchers. I doubt if the efforts that Heinrich put into this will ever be duplicated again and it would be a shame for all of this material to not be available to historians. Since the Weiss Coastal War Manuscript also covers the war in the west from 01.01.41 to July, 1941, and the EoE Project only currently is planned to cover to the end of 1940, postings accessible on the internet for the period not covered may well be the only reasonable way to do this. eBooks might also be a possibility.

That said, our next step is to put an overlay on our map bases for the movement of the ground force front lines for each day of the entire 16-month period, so that the subsequently plotted daily air mission tracks can be related to what is taking place on the ground. We've got the daily movements of the front lines plotted for the Polish Campaign of 9.39, but I need comparable daily maps for the Norwegian Campaign and the same for the Western Campaign--the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg (overrun in a day?) and France, for the period 09.04.40 through the end of June, 1940, or later if necessary for Norway. I'm sure that this information already exists in the military histories of those countries, and I'm looking for sources from each Campaign that we can use to create these daily front lines on our map bases for each country. What I'm looking for is something similar to the front lines as plotted on the maps in the JFV Volumes by Dr. Prien, et.al, only on a daily basis, rather than every few days.

Who can provide us with references to the most reliable sources for this critical mapping information?

For those who have been curious where we are in translating the Weiss manuscripts (there are two of them) from German into English, we are now complete with the original manuscript translation from 01.09.39 thru 31.10.39 and from 10.05.40 through 09.07.1940 (which is as far as it goes), and with what we call the "Coastal War Manuscript" (entirely includes the Battle of Britain) from 01.09.39 thru 31.10.40. This is many, many thousands of pages of material. We are also nearing completion of a massive compilation on a daily basis of the air war in Poland during 09.39, which was not covered in the Weiss Manuscripts (he only did the war in the west). Thousands of pages of FB, KTBs, diaries, publications, etc. have also been translated to support and supplement these materials. What we have yet to go is the Original Manuscript from 01.11.39 through 09.05.40 (however, the volume covering 18.04.40 to 09.05.40 is missing), and the Coastal War Manuscript from 01.11.40 to 31.12.40. Unresolved is what to do with the first seven months of 1941, as our translators will probably have fried brains by the time they get to the end of 1940. Just what we already plan to translate may come to well over 7000 typewritten pages.

Regards,

Larry Hickey
EoE Project Coordinator

[Frank Olynyk]

Larry,
As part of their official history of the 1939-40 campaign, the French published a massive volume of maps in 1967. It is approximately 2 feet wide by 3 feet high.
Ministère des Armées
Etat-Major de l'Armée de Terre
Service Historique
Campagne 1939-1940
Les Grandes Unités Françaises
Cartes des situations journalières

Good luck finding a copy. I can't see any being offered online.

The Norwegians published a multi-volume history of WW2:

Year PublishedAuthor Last NameAuthor First NameBook Title

Krigen i Norge 1940
1952 Johnsen J Operasjonene i Rogaland og Haugesund, Indre Hardangeravsnittet
1953 Faye W Operasjonene i Kristiansand - Setesdalsavsnittet
1953 Jensen Jorgen Operasjonene i Glamadalforet Trysil og Rendalen
1955 Munthe-Kaas O H Operasjonene gjennom Ringerike - Hedemarken - Gudbrandsdalen - Romsdalen (I)
1955 Munthe-Kaas O H Operasjonene gjennom Ringerike - Hedemarken - Gudbrandsdalen - Romsdalen (II)
1956 Jensen Jorgen Operasjonene i Sor-Trondelag og nordre del av Hedemark fylke
1956 Johnsen J Operasjonene ved Kongsberg, i Telemark og i Roldal
1960 Hertzberag Niels Operasjonene pa Ringerike og Hadeland
1960 Ostbye Gudbrand Vestsiden av Mjosa - Follegu - Gausdal
1962 Hertzberg Niels Operasjonene i Adalen og i Valdres
1963 Faye W Operasjonene i Ostfold
1963 Ostbye Gudbrand Operasjonene i Nord-Trondelag
1965 Sandvik Trygve Operasjonene til lands i Nord-Norge 1940 (I)
1965 Sandvik Trygve Operasjonene til lands i Nord-Norge 1940 (II)
1971 Hansteen Wilhelm Operasjonene til lands pa Vestlandet og i Hallingdal og Numedal

Norges Sjokrig 1940-1945
1954 Steen E A Sjoforsvarets noytralitetsvern 1939-40 (1)
1954 Steen E A Det tyske angrep i Oslofjorden og pa Norges sorkyst (2)
1956 Steen E A Sjoforsvarets kamper ogvirke pa Vestlandet og i Trondelag i 1940 (3)
1958 Steen E A Sjoforsvarets kamper og virke i Nord-Norge i ...(4)
1959 Steen E A Sjoforsvarets organisasjon, oppbygging og vekst (5)
1963 Steen E A Marinens operasjoner fra baser i Storbritannia (6a)
1969 Steen E A Marinens operasjoner fra baser i Storbritannia (6b)
1960 Steen E A Marinens operasjoner i arktiske farvann og i Island, på Grønland, Jan Mayen og Svalbard (7)
1977 Meyer Fredrik Haerens og Marinens flyvapen 1912-1945
1975 Sandvik Harald Frigjoringen av Finnmark 1944-1945

Most of the latter volumes are post-1940 operations. There is no single map volume, but the individual volumes have maps.

These ones can be found with some effort.

Enjoy!

Frank.

[Snautzer]

try http://www.digitaltmuseum.no/search?query=1940+kart

[Larry Hickey]

Hello,

Thanks to Rudi Stessens, we now have in hand complete coverage for the battle lines for each day of the Western Campaign in Belgium. We still need similar info for the Netherlands and France. We have a number of books in Dutch that may provide this for Holland, but I'll have to check on this. I know that we don't have a similar set of maps for the WC/FC in France. The reference in Frank's post may be the answer, but we've either got to get a copy of the book, or get a set of scans from the maps for each day from it, as Rudi has provided for Belgium. I looked at the Norway source referenced above, and don't see any very easy way to convert that to the kinds of front line boundaries each day that we need for the EoE maps.

Regards,

Larry Hickey
EoE Project Coordinator

[edwest]

Hello Larry,

I hope you'll bear with me since I don't know even a fraction of what you do. So I'll be scouting out some possibilities for you that I hope will help.


http://stonebooks.com/archives/040905.shtml


Hopefully, I can add a tidbit or two and actually track down a physical book.



Ed

[edwest]

It's me again. I think there are two possibilities. Someone in France going to a French library and, hopefully, getting permission to scan/copy the book(s), or possibly, individual relevant maps, or having someone in Canada do the same:

http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/l...s+Journalieres




Best,
Ed

[Larry Hickey]

Hello,

Based upon the research that Ed West did, it looks like three volumes of the German map series by Klaus-Jurgen Thies are EXACTLY what we need according to the Stone and Stone review website. They show the daily front lines for all of the combatant sides, using different line colors for the forces of each country, for every day of these campaigns:

1) Der Zweite Weltkrieg im Kartenbild, Vol 1: Der Polenfeldzug 1939, Osnabruk: Biblio Verlag, 1989

2) Der Zweite Weltkrieg im Kartenbild, Vol 2: Weserubung: Die Besetzung Danemarks und die Eroberung Norwegens, 9.4. - 10.6.40, Osnabruk: Biblio Verlag, 1991

3) Der Zweite Weltkrieg im Kartenbild, Vol 3: Der Westefelzug, 10 Mai bis 25 Juni 1940, Osnabruk: Biblio Verlag, 1994

If we use these three volumes for our map data, they will provide exactly what we need for daily front line information for all countries involved from one consistent source for the entire period of the EoE Project maps. I don't know if these books are still in print, but that is the next step we've got to find out. If someone knows if these are still in print and how to order copies, it would be helpful to have this information. For those who are interested, there are other volumes that cover the periods after 1940 also in this series.

Regards,

Larry Hickey
EoE Project Coordinator

[edwest]

Well, I'm glad to see I'm still of some use

Here is a is a link to the Netherlands National Archives map page/finder.

http://www.gahetna.nl/collectie/afbe...artencollectie


Now all we need is someone who knows the language.




Ed

[edwest]

Here's a link to a good German bookseller. See entries Nr. 2 (Band 1), Nr. 5 (Band 2) and Nr. 3 (Band 3).

http://www.zvab.com/basicSearch.do?a...author=&title=



Here is a link to the publisher's web site, but my German is poor and it appears his catalog dates to 2005. I may be wrong.

http://www.militaria-biblio.de/index01.html



Ed

[Snautzer]

Originally Posted by edwest

Now all we need is someone who knows the language.

Ed

I do