Here's the google map of the battle site:
If anyone feels like drawing on the deployment I will gladly post your creation here.
I came across this great Google Maps mash up. It's a satellite map of Iwo Jima island, with relevant battle information superimposed. Click on the section you like and a pop up gives you more relevant information.
Nice!
*UPDATE*
Bob Meade has pointed me here, to a free webcast at the Pritzker Military Library with Gerald Russell and Bill Hudson talking about their experiences at Iwo Jima.
I was playing around with Google Maps today and noticed that they have added a new feature. It allows you to embed your My Maps creations into your own blog or website.
To make it work, log into Google Maps, click the My Maps tab and then click on one of your My Maps in the list (or create one). At the top right hand corner of the page, click "Link to this page". You'll notice a new option in this dialog: "Paste HTML to embed in website". You can either copy this code and tweak things like width and height values to fit in your post or web page or click the "Customize and preview embedded map" link for more options.
It’s all quite simple. I have pasted below the battle of Hasting map I created a few weeks ago.
Last night I spent about an hour populating my Google battle map. Though this was satisfying, it quickly became clear that the potential for the project was much larger then I first expected.
Google maps represents a prefect window into a wider military history topics. I want to set up the site so the viewer can filter the map to see the battles in which they are interested. Imagine you where researching the battle of Hastings. There is no reason why the map can't be set up to just show that battle. However, it could also show Harold's march from Yorkshire, the battle of Stamford bridge, William invasion route and the castles he dotted about the country in the years after the battle. I could then link this to relevant contextual pages with even more information. If I was prepared the put the site under Creative Commons Licence (which I am), I would be able to use Wikipedia as a source without breaching any copyright issues. Now, if you extend this idea to include the D-day landings or English Civil War or bombing patterns in the closing yeas of the Vietnam and you have a site wroth visiting...
My recent adventure into Google Maps has left me inspired. It turns out that the nice people at Google have published the code for Google Maps, which means anyone can play around with Google Maps and produce new applications. So, I scooted around the web looking for a good battle maps/Google Maps mash up. To my surprise I couldn't find any. Since I have a passing knowledge of Java and other such languages I decided to pull together a very simple battle maps application.
Here it is at a very, very early stage. Still needs loads of work but it will stay live at this page as I work away.
The aim of the project is as follows:
1. To produce a Google map that contains reference to all battle locations, world wide, ever!
2. To allow users to add their own battle locations.
3. To produce a database of battle locations for use by other people.
Anyway, stay tuned for more developments.
*update*
The map is now up and running in its most basic form. If you click on the map an info window appears. You can then add the information for the battle. This is then stored on the server. I am working on getting the battle locations to stay visible. Baby steps...
*update*
The map is now up and running and it waiting to be populated. Just click on the location and fill out the form that pops up. The look of the page and it's location still need from work but its live.
Well it was good while it lasted. I have spent the weekend plugging away at the battle of Hastings book and its all coming along nicely. However, this morning I returned to Google maps to draw the second map of the battle sequence and I found a flaw in my plan for using Google Maps to recreate the battle. I thought when I started that I could just create a duplicate of the previous map and add the new troop positions when needed. It turns out this isn't possible. Shame.
As a result I have returned to a more traditional method. I have taken a map snapshot from Google Maps and imported into Adobe Fireworks. In this application I was able to draw in all the units etc. I used my original Google maps to get the distances correct.
Here's the opening positions:
Here's the first infantry attack:
Here's the left wing collapse:
It has taken some time but at last here it is; the first battle map constructed via Google maps.
I am happy with the result.
Previous posts
This morning I have started to produce my battle of Hastings map in earnest. I had previously worked with Google Earth, which has a really handy ruler application. So I found myself jumping between Google Earth and Google Maps to try and get the dimensions correct.
The first step was to place the Saxons. I made the assumption that these troops would have positioned on the crest of the hill. So using a handy contour tool in Google Maps I was able to work out where the hill started etc. The result was a rather curvy formation, but I am happy.
The next job was to place the missile troops. My research had suggested that William had massed the troops from all nations together in one formation, placing them in the 'van' of his army. The result can be seen on the map below. I decided that these men must have been within bowshot of the hill, so using a bow range of 200 yards (I know, it is a kind of guess) this set the front line for the Norman army.
I then added the heavy infantry in behind the archers. I am pretty sure these were split into three 'battles' each commanded separately. Behind these I placed the cavalry.
This only left the job of adding the commanders. Harold was easy, though William took a bit of guess work. the map, contours and chronicle references to him being in the centre produced the result you can see on the map.
Happy with the result I took a screen capture image and pasted it directly into my text.
Over all the process was a bit fiddley but I am happy with the results.
You can go here to see the My Maps version.
I am currently writing a children's history book about the battle of Hastings. I would like to say that the whole process is a walk in the park but to be honest, its a slow and laborious job. When writing children's books I approach them in the same way I would for an adult project. This means lots of research, papers and primary sources. However, over the last few days my big problem has not been research, but maps.
I knew from day one that I would need to include lots of battle maps in the book. The problem is that I am really rubbish at drawing (and I mean*really* rubbish). So I have been writing away and putting off the whole map thing. But by the second draft of the book and I couldn't ignore the problem any longer. I needed maps.
For a time I played around the idea of using software to produce a decent map. I played around with the idea of producing a basic template for the battle and then manipulating it each time I needed a new map. It felt like a good idea, so I started to look at a few software packages and after a bit of research I decided on ProFantasy's CC3. I played around with the demo of an earlier version (CC2) for a few hours, but decided that the learning curve for just steep for a one of project.
So it was back to the drawing board. Just when I thought that I would have to turn to the old pen, paper and scanner, Gavin Robinson came to the rescue. In this post he talks about using Google maps for a WW1 project he has been working on for a number of months. It sparked an idea. I had already been using Google maps to lay out the battle. It had helped me greatly in trying to match up older accounts and secondary source material with geographical features. You can see my efforts here.
So this morning I decided I would use My Google Maps to lay out the battlefield and shuffle the troops around each time I need a new map. The publisher can then use these images to instruct the illustrator. This left one problem. I couldn't find an easy way to transfer the web page into my text file. However, I even managed to solve using this a nifty piece of screen capture software from infallsoft. Now I can just capture the picture of the battlefield and add it to my text as an image file. Brilliant.
Thanks Gavin!
