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Plotting my Uncle's Naval Journeys

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Plotting my Uncle's Naval Journeys

Postby Malc2098 » 25 Mar 2017, 18:45

This one's a bit nerdy but might be of interest to some of you.

My cousin's dad, died in the late 50s in a motor bike accident. Her mum only died last year. Her dad, joined the Navy in 1941 when he was 19 and kept a diary from the moment he was called up.

Last year, my cousin donated the diary to the Imperial War Museum, who were delighted to receive it. They then scanned every page, and it is available for research.

http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/1030031319

Most of his service he was on a ex Grimsby trawler, HMS Ganges which was a minesweeper for the convoys.

I have been known to dabble with GIS systems in my previous employ, but since retiring, have no access to one. Thinking laterally, I created a spreadsheet of each ship, port, station, base of home he mentioned in a diary with a date, obtained a latitude and longitude for each one and using a free data visualisation application, I managed to plot them on a world map.

https://public.tableau.com/views/TomFordhamsWarService2/TomsTravels?:embed=y&:display_count=yes

Hope this link works.

I posted it this in case anyone else has relatives/ancestors that moved a lot during the war and might like to see a graphical representation of those travels.
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Re: Plotting my Uncle's Naval Journeys

Postby Rod » 25 Mar 2017, 19:25

That looks like areas where the Uboats used to patrol?
My uncle was in the Army but attached as a gunner in the Merchant Navy - he travelled all over the world including Africa and India going by the items he brought back.
My father's friend was on a Minesweeper that was torpedoed, unfortunately he did not survive.

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Re: Plotting my Uncle's Naval Journeys

Postby Malc2098 » 25 Mar 2017, 19:26

Now I know what you're thinking! It looks just like a world map with blobs on it.

Well, zoom and hover.

And it's my first go at this, so be gentle with me!
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Re: Plotting my Uncle's Naval Journeys

Postby Andyp » 25 Mar 2017, 19:39

Malc, that is interesting. Thanks for posting.

A great uncle of mine served in the Navy in WWI. I obtained his seaman's records which list every ship he served in and with a little more digging we worked where each ship was and when. Spent most of the war on Cruisers patrolling in the Indian Ocean, China, Singapore etc. I might have a go at plotting his travels.
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Re: Plotting my Uncle's Naval Journeys

Postby Malc2098 » 25 Mar 2017, 21:02

Andyp wrote:Malc, that is interesting. Thanks for posting.

A great uncle of mine served in the Navy in WWI. I obtained his seaman's records which list every ship he served in and with a little more digging we worked where each ship was and when. Spent most of the war on Cruisers patrolling in the Indian Ocean, China, Singapore etc. I might have a go at plotting his travels.


If you know your way around spreadsheets or databases, it's not too difficult - Lats and Longs are data, too. All you have to do is find them, and google maps helps with that. Tableau and Power BI are the two major viz apps.
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Re: Plotting my Uncle's Naval Journeys

Postby Malc2098 » 05 Mar 2018, 16:11

It's taken a while, but I've made a little progress in learning QGIS and also how to animated 'flight paths'.

This was just one month's movements in 1941 and I've got the rest of his war to go!! I'm trying to learn how to zoom in to the destinations as the path arrives at them.

But I'm quite proud of this, and my cousin, his daughter, is over the moon.

[youtube]i0qO1SIf6Mg[/youtube]

Her's the URL if you want to see it full size.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0qO1SIf6Mg
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Re: Plotting my Uncle's Naval Journeys

Postby RogerS » 05 Mar 2018, 18:01

Brilliant, Malc. :eusa-clap:
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Re: Plotting my Uncle's Naval Journeys

Postby Rod » 05 Mar 2018, 18:39

Wouldn’t it be better to plot his sea routes - I’m assuming he didn’t fly to each port?

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Re: Plotting my Uncle's Naval Journeys

Postby Malc2098 » 05 Mar 2018, 19:28

Rod wrote:Wouldn’t it be better to plot his sea routes - I’m assuming he didn’t fly to each port?

Rod


I will be, Rod. He kept a diary from the day he started in the Navy. That diary is now with the IWM and for which they are extremely grateful.

I've plotted everything in that diary onto a spreadsheet. For the last quarter of '41 and most of '42, he was in training as a wireless telegrapher. The routes on this bit of map are just for one month and were mostly by train except for the odd ferry crossing.

For my cousin's sake, I will plot everything from when he joined up, including training and sea trials. Her mum, my aunt, only died a couple of years ago, and as her dad died in the late 50s, and I can just about remember him, I'm plotting his service from start to finish for her.

But I've got to learn all the IT tricks to get these journeys plotted and animated, and that's really slow for an old boy like me.

But I'll get there.
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Re: Plotting my Uncle's Naval Journeys

Postby Pinch » 05 Mar 2018, 20:38

Excellent work Malc!

This stuff is so time consuming. I've been trying to trace my grandfather's movements who was killed in Burma 1944 - Battle of Kohima I think. And then there's my great-grandfather who fought in the Gallipoli Campaign - he survived and I remember him when he passed in 1973. I know one of my uncles tried to research, but the records were lost during the London Blitz together with so many others.

I know how difficult this stuff is, so well done ole chap!

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Re: Plotting my Uncle's Naval Journeys

Postby Malc2098 » 05 Mar 2018, 21:37

Thanks, Chaps.

I've been lucky. Uncle Tom kept a diary, but my dad didn't. I've got some stuff for his regiment. He was in the BEF and was one of the last to be evacuated from Dunkirk on the Royal Daffodil. But I've not got dates and locations to plot him across France, and then India, Persia, North Africa, Sicily, Italy and Germany. That's all the info from the regiment, but it's bit general.

If anyone has got dates and locations for their relative, I'd be happy to try plotting them.
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Re: Plotting my Uncle's Naval Journeys

Postby Rod » 06 Mar 2018, 00:28

My Dad was in the RAF mainly Bomber Command ground crew and a spell at Calshot on the Flying Boats.
He’d like to visit there when he came to stay with us. He didn’t talk too much about his experiences except to say he lost a lot of his school friends in the war. He did mention once about a horrible job cleaning out the shot-up gun turrets on bombers that had made it back.
My uncle was in the Army but attached to armed merchant ships as a gunner. He went all over the world, Africa, India etc.
In WWI my maternal Grandfather was in a reserved occupation as a machinist in an Ordnance Factory, whilst my other one was in Chile seeking his fortune in Copper Mining - he was killed in 1918 in a mining accident.

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Re: Plotting my Uncle's Naval Journeys

Postby MattS » 06 Mar 2018, 10:18

What an amazing thing to to do, but a big task!

Being a little younger than some of you I don't have any family members I knew personally who fought in the war. My Grandad however was stationed at an RAF base in Singapore after the war, as an engineer. Not sure quite what his role was but according to stories he made wood prop blades including Sptifires.

Can't even begin to imagine what people went through.
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