Research in progress

This may be my last blog before the adventure truly begins.  I have still quite a bit of work to do and it won’t get done if I keep this natter up.  I do think I owe one last explanation of what I discovered that was so important to the trip.

As I was “browsing” and “searching” and just generally enjoying myself scrolling through tons of irrelevant but interesting historical material on the internet…I discovered the “war diaries” of a number of Canadian Second War units including the 2nd Field Regiment.   You can see some of this yourself at:

http://heritage.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.lac_reel_t15935/10?r=0&s=1

The material has been digitized and the picture below is almost as good as it gets.  I have printed copies of all of the diaries from September 43 to February 45 and most of them are a bit easier to read.

Any historian worth their salt will tell you that “popular” texts about history (even “official” versions) are interesting and generally quite accurate but they are an interpretation by the author of what actually happened, hopefully based on original sources.  The real material an historian wants is the original source.  This can be specific orders or letters, personal or official or any sort of documentation that was prepared in situ and which gives a better sense of what was happening.  I have my Dad’s pay books from the war and they are an example of original material and contain some interesting facts but they do little to advance the notion of where 10 Bty was in Italy.  On the other hand the “war diary” of a unit is just such an original document and quite a prize.

The war diary docket contains all sorts of material that describes organizational activity, specific orders, and for the 2nd Field…artillery “business”.  For example the “Return of Officers” was a sort of roll-call and often mentions individuals on leave or on training.  There are movement orders and fire plans in the form of diagrams showing  potential targets and for each gun position (GP) the officers would draw up a “defensive fire plan” that was intended to support the infantry and themselves in the event of an attack.

The most interesting part for me was the material below which provides an actual record of where they were and what they were up to on any given day…much like that diary you kept as a young thing and hid under your pillow from your older brother.

You actually can’t see from this image…but trust me…September 1st, 1943 the 2nd Field Regiment is still in Sicily at Scordia.  And on the 2nd they are at 183257 (which is a Grid Reference).  A grid reference is a fairly precise location on a specific map based on artificially created “grid squares”, which measure one square kilometer (km).  Grid References are useful for hikers and soldiers but are in no way related to latitude and longitude (lat/long).

I have a current Canadian Topographic Map on the wall in the cottage and it has grid squares laid out…as well as latitude and longitude (lat/long).  The difficulty with a grid reference is that you have to have the map that corresponds to where you are.  So if I’m at 579485 on my wall map at the cottage…you won’t know where that is unless I tell you which map to look at.  In this case it’s 31/C-10.  On the other hand if I give you the lat/long you can find my location using almost any map and especially Google Earth.

I hope you’re still with me.  I know this may be is a bit boring especially if you are not a map reader or rely too heavily on that other acronym GPS…but it has a bearing…yes that’s a MAP pun…on the journey as well as the fun part of the research.

Finding the GR of 2nd Field on any given day from September 1st 1943 to February 1945 is a huge bonanza.  It would potentially tell me more specifically where Dad and his cronies were during the entire campaign.  I still needed to figure out how to translate a 1940’s era GR to a current lat/long and I also don’t have the war diary prior to September which would cover the entire Sicilian campaign…it’s not in the collection of material that has been digitized.

I’m fairly quickly back to the internet searching for a means of converting the GR’s to something more useful.   I eventually discovered a piece on the Modified British System.  Although a grid system had been in the works since the First World War the Brits modified the system for use across the European theater of operations.  I found a specific site called “The Coordinate Translator” which shows me the grid squares for Northern and Southern Italy, allows me to select the appropriate grid map, identified by a two letter code, to which I add a GR and press convert.  You can take a look at this yourself at

http://echodelta.net/mbs/eng-translator.php#

Since the grid square is one square kilometer, the six digit GR will put you within 100 square meters of a given location.  With this in mind any conversion to lat/long is probably within 100 square meters of the actual spot.  So…I know from the September war diary that they are in Sicily and I can see that that map is wD so I select that letter combo, add the first GR of 183257 and press convert.  Wadda Ya Know…37.55.14 N  15.20.47 E.  If you check this out on Google Earth you will see that it’s at Roccalumera about 35 km south west of Messina.  It was probably a staging area as the next day, September 3rd they had landed at Reggio Calabria on the mainland.

I’m still in the process of converting.  I’ve got the war diaries up to February 1945 and at this point I’ve converted locations up to the end of April 1944.  I still have a ways to go.  As I convert each point I go to Google Earth and put in a red pin at that location with the date they were there.  Then I go to my Michelin maps and I find the same spot and paste on a marker with the same date.  I then use a yellow marker to trace a plausible route between these two points.  I will have a GPS and I can enter the points as needed but I do love maps and it’s much more interesting following a map than having some disembodied voice screaming at you to turn left when you can clearly see that it’s a goat track leading nowhere.  Although from what I’ve already seen some of the specific locations may require following a goat path that leads nowhere.

I’ve also discovered what happened to the war diaries for July and August.  It seems that a U.S. bomber was shot down and crashed into 8th Battery’s gun position on August 7th.  The Battery lost 7 men killed and 22 wounded.  The bomber also destroyed Regimental Headquarters (RHQ) with the resulting lost of all Regimental records up to that point.  The trek through Sicily will not benefit from any war diary entries during July and August.

I’m going to plod away at GR’s and Lat/Longs and while I’m at it I may just study a bit of Italian.  I do have a couple of other avenues of research but these are a bit obscure and I won’t bother reporting them if they don’t pan out.

But before I leave let me bring you up to date on the latest avenue of research that did pan out.  This occurred just days ago.  I showed you the picture of my Dad at a place called Castle Lauro and indicated that I wanted to find out where that was.  I did a lot of reading about the CMF School of Signals and the war diaries in January told me that an Officer and 2 OR’s left 2nd Field’s position southeast of Bologna for Colle Ferro and Eboli on the 15th.  February 10th all courses were cancelled.  A few days later 2nd Field received the first orders related to Operation Goldflake, which was the move to Northwest Europe.

I suspect that Dad was one of the 2 OR’s and was going to the CMF School in Eboli, which is southeast of Salerno and more in the Naples area.  The information from other sources suggests this is more likely than Colleferro, which is on the eastern outskirts of Rome.

Back to Google Earth and to make a long story short I discovered a village called Lauro which is about 50 km north of Eboli but more importantly about 35 km directly east of Naples.  There is no Castle Lauro but there is a Castello Lancellotti which has some similar towers.  Castello Lancellotti is very old, has apparently been in the Lancellotti family for years and is currently a tourist attraction as well as a restaurant.  I found there web page…what else.  I found a contact and sent an e-mail to the Superintendent Paulo along with a copy of the image.

Paulo wrote back on 2017-08-14 at 4:56:46 AM…and I quote…”Hi Ken  I am very pleased to be able to help you with your research.  And I immediately state that the one represented in the photo is our Castle of Lauro, the Lancellotti Castle.  Precisely this is a photo taken in the second courtyard of the castle.”

I’ve revised my schedule…sometime after the Monte Cassino area and before traveling through Rome…I’m going to go to Castello Lancellotti and see if Paulo can take my picture from the same point as Dad’s.

I am very excited…for an old guy…but the rest of you can…Stand Down.

Out.