The Internet is a fascinating invention and a wonderful window into the world. It may seem trite, but the movie ‘Little Warriors’ showed a moment when one of the toys stumbles upon Encarta and discovers the window to knowledge. Maps are another great invention of humanity, and when combined with the internet, interactive maps emerge. This category contains all kinds of maps that allow us to discover which historical figures were born in our town, maps of ongoing war conflicts, and even Google Maps of the Roman Empire.

For those who love the Second World War, there is also a map where we can navigate as we want while finding the important events of the war, but also discovering not so well-known monuments, stories and taking a virtual walk leaving home for each of these locations.

Google Maps of World War II

“Virtual guide to souvenir tourism” says KilRoy Trip’s homepage. It is a French non-profit organization that aims to promote the memory of places connected with the Second World War. You can access this map from this link or by downloading the Android or iOS app. And with that, let’s see what it has to offer.

It is an open project with 88 active participants, nearly 3,400 points of interest with photographs and descriptions, and a total of 13 categories. Come on, a huge encyclopedia with the possibility to choose whether we want to virtually visit a historical building, museum, cemetery, real vehicles following at certain points, monuments, shelters and even geolocated photographs.

Although this classification and division is great to find something concrete (and since we have the possibility of organizing routes and getting information about the most famous points through Google Maps), the really interesting and intriguing thing to do from home is to see the magnitude of the conflict is to start navigating the map.

This link has the vision of the map created with OpenStreetMap and there are two options: either we look for something specific that will take us directly (e.g. ‘Pearl Harbor’) or we start building draft with the mouse. Any is valid and we will see different markers on the map. So, in some points we have colored circles with numbers as well as small icons that represent monuments or individual events.

Clicking on one of these circles will automatically enlarge the image and we can see the important places shown at the bottom of the page. For example, on Omaha Beach we can see the monuments, the WN62 bunker and the observation point, as well as the monuments. By clicking on any of these points we can see more detailed photos and even the ability to navigate on Google Maps, as well as more information.

For example, we can read that there was an artillery observation point in the WN62 shelter, that there were four positions for MG42 machine guns and mortars, and that 40 people were assigned to defend this position. It also has features such as being approximately 330 meters long and that thanks to the virtual tour mentioned above on Google Maps, we can look at the perspective of the squares owned by the Nazis.

On the same page we have a series of labels that allow us to jump to nearby locations and more relevant information, very reminiscent of the legendary Encarta.

There are many points of interest between England, France, the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany, but of course we also have information from Norway, North Africa, Austria, Stalingrad, the Eastern Front, the United States, Italy and Japan.

A more concrete, interactive map of World War II

There’s enough content from World War II to get you lost for hours on Google Maps, but if you’re looking for something more limited, the American Battle Monuments Commission has a few very interesting offerings. It’s an interactive world map that we don’t need to navigate because everything is more chewable.

You can enter from this link and we find a bottom bar where we can filter by events (from the pre-war period to the post-war period, lasting from 1939-1945). Depending on the year chosen, the main areas of conflict will be colored in different colors; so we can see areas controlled by allies, neutral areas and axis areas, as well as a number of landmarks.

If we click on one of them, a detailed map of the battle, a video with relevant historical facts, and a small legend telling us both the history of the battle and the groups involved are displayed. The page is in English, but if you are not fluent in the language you can always use the translation option in your browser.

And we can see the facts in the form of a map or graph represented in a timeline. At the bottom left it is possible to switch between both views and just like in the map view when we click on any event more information and videos will be displayed.

These are two very interesting ways to relive the main events that took place during World War II, but while this second map is like an animated Wikipedia, the Kilroy Tour option allows us to take virtual walks using Google Street around the actual locations of the battles, seeing both the memorials that might have been there and the perspective that each side had of certain areas.

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