WW2 map references don’t tally …
 

I’ve come across some map references in WW2 Canadian documents. They are of locations in and around Eastbourne, on the Sussex coast of England. The documents refer to army maps ‘Sheets 134 and 135’ but the civilian 1 inch Ordnance maps for Eastbourne produced immediately after the war were known as ‘Sheet 183’.

The grid co-ordinates in the documents do not tally with my 1-inch map, ‘Sheet 183’. The same is true for recent metric maps produced by the OS. Yet both the old military maps and the post war versions are presumably overlaid with the same 1-km squares.

The military documents contain some references to places which I think I recognise on the ground. It seems that by adding the number 566812 , I am able to convert the army references to civilian references as shown on my OS maps.

I’ve written to Ordnance Survey asking for information on converting army map references to civilian equivalents, but they cannot help. They referred me to the MOD, but my letter has yet to produce a response.

Have other people come across this problem? Can anyone confirm whether my figure of 566812 is an ‘approved’ correction figure, and one which holds good throughout the UK? Did the army use different co-ordinates for security purposes? How about present day army maps?

Comments appreciated.

Mike