Before the big battle here is some context.
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| As the Allies leave the safety of the border hills, Frederick marches at speed to intercept them. Prior to this he had fined weakness to tempt Charles of Lorraine to make his move. A strategem that inspired Napoleon in the Austerlitz campaign. |
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| The German General Staff map. Prussians in blue, naturally. |
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| The battlefield today. Apart from the growth of Stzegom (Striegau), the settlement pattern looks unchanged from the General Staff map. Note the long, strung-out villages. |
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| The approximate positions of the armies superimposed on the preceding map. Names of the villages and the river added in German. The black ovals indicate higher ground. They permit guns sited on them to fire over the heads of intervening troops but otherwise only act to block line of sight. |
Loving the maps, not sure about the ffffffff’s at the bottom - is it text type swearing?
ReplyDeleteWell spotted. That was meant to be a placeholder for some more meaningful text should I write any. It got missed in the lack of editing.
DeleteWho doesn’t love a map eh?
Love the maps! The combination of historical battle maps in relation to Google Earth brings the situation into context for the modern, battle explorer. I enjoy doing these translations, myself. Always great fun and eye-opening but not always easy to get the placements correct.
ReplyDeleteThank you.
No problem Jon. Checking the map in this case was relatively straightforward as not much has changed from the point of view of villages. A bit of cross-checking where the village has a Wiki page just to make sure I have the right place. The river course looks pretty much unchanged too.
DeleteThe one big difference, apart from the size of the town, is that a large area to the west of the town has been turned into quarries.
As you say, very enjoyable to look into these things.
Very informative and I too like a good map. As you and Jon have already said, it is fun comparing the maps with Google images, street views etc, to get a feel of the terrain etc. Certainly this part of the World has generally changed less that say many of the Normandy battlefields, which is a great help to the wargamer.
ReplyDeleteI'm completely on your side. I'm working very similar using the contemporary maps and modern information. Great work!
ReplyDeleteWe seem to have quite a cohort of map devotees here!
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