Map sources
Why can't I download some of the maps?
Most of the maps in the TrenchMapper collection have come from the WFA's
scanning project in collaboration with the Imperial War Museums and are
covered by a formal agreement with the IWM. These can be added to the Shopping
Cart and downloaded directly. WFA members get two free downloads per month.
Some Non-IWM maps have been obtained from other sources as listed here. Most
of these sources do not allow a 3rd party to supply a download so users are
encouraged to obtained such downloads direct from the source.
It is regretted that a few maps cannot be downloaded from TrenchMapper for
technical or legal reasons.
A selection of specific sources
Source | Map types | Map ID starts with |
Imperial War Museums | All | m, ma, md or p |
Archives Departementales de la Marne | Trench Maps of Marne area | fdm |
Auckland Libraries Heritage Collections | Maps of Gallipoli | nz |
Australian War Memorial | Maps of Gallipoli | awm |
Boston Public Library | General trench maps | bpl |
Bundesarchiv Freiburg. See instructions below | German trench maps | ph |
Creative Commons, e.g. Wikipedia | Any | pd |
Landes Bibliothek, The Upper Austrian Federal State Library | German Official History maps | gohv |
Library of Congress | General trench maps | loc |
Library of Congress. Charles Pelot Summerall papers | General trench maps | loc |
McMaster University | General trench maps and aerial photographs | macrepo |
National Library of Israel | Maps of Gallipoli | pd |
North Carolina Digital Collections | General trench maps | pd |
Prussia Online | German Official History maps | gohv |
Tennessee Virtual Archive | General trench maps | pd |
University of Texas at Austin. Perry-Castañeda Library | General trench maps | tu |
University of Texas at Austin. Field Maps of Colonel Roland T. Fenton | Maps from records of Colonel Roland T. Fenton | fenton |
Wellcome Collection | General trench maps and aerial photographs | wc |
Other maps come from private collections
Bundesarchiv Freiburg- Instructions
These do not work in Firefox but do in Microsoft Edge and Google Chrome. No
login is required.
- Do not translate
- Copy Großer Generalstab und Kommandobehörden des Deutschen Heeres into the search box
- In the search results, select PH 3-KART Oberste Heeresleitung / Großer Generalstab und Kommandobehörden des Deutschen Heeres.- Karten
- Dismiss the welcome screen
- In Klassifikation in lower left panel, under nicht klassifiziert, expand PH 3 - KART Bestandsverzeichnis
- Expand 1 PH 3 - KART Oberste Heeresleitung / Großer Generalstab und Kommandobehörden des Deutschen Heeres.- Karten
- Select front
- Select country
- Select area (Sonstige means other or miscellaneous)
- When downloading a lot of maps, in the main panel, click Nur mit Digitalisat anzeigen (i.e. Show only digitised items)
- To keep track of progress, in the main panel, tick the Archivsignatur box by a map then click Digitalisat anzeigen (opens in new window). Ticking the Archivsignatur box does nothing useful except keeps track of which maps have been downloaded because on return to this screen after a download, the system returns to the top.
- Click Download
- Select Gesampte AE (JPG) or Seite 1 (JPG) then Download Starten
- Close new window on completion. Trying to go too fast causes a Too Many Requests error. Pause a few seconds.
Help Version 2 1.1