One of the tasks facing the British Ordnance Survey Office during WWI was the conversion of the metric grid lines on French maps to British grid lines, though height information remained in metres. During the inter-war period, British OS maps continued to be produced using imperial grid lines until 1935 when Macleod introduced the metric grid. On being questioned, about the grid, he replied that this was the best way of introducing the general public to the metric system which “ere long will become very desirable if not absolutely necessary”. (https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ordnancesurvey.co.uk%2Fdocuments%2Fresources%2Fos-history.pdf&data=04%7C01%7Cusma%40lists.colostate.edu%7C23c9f1e1706f4bda8df808d931053331%7Cafb58802ff7a4bb1ab21367ff2ecfc8b%7C0%7C0%7C637594721287313378%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=miX0NXWux3PYsx071sfzpD0Amq9fiynYhZTfX%2BdUqT8%3D&reserved=0 pg 261 <https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ordnancesurvey.co.uk%2Fdocuments%2Fresources%2Fos-history.pdf%2520pg%2520261&data=04%7C01%7Cusma%40lists.colostate.edu%7C23c9f1e1706f4bda8df808d931053331%7Cafb58802ff7a4bb1ab21367ff2ecfc8b%7C0%7C0%7C637594721287313378%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=qVjxstPcIP8WLXTJbSeRGGiZocKUEeWQ5ejOjRe%2FzZA%3D&reserved=0> ).
The maps used by the British Army during WWII were in metric units. From: USMA <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Hillger,Donald Sent: 16 June 2021 20:08 To: USMA List Server <mailto:[email protected]”ere> [email protected]”ere long Subject: [USMA 1733] Re: Metric munitions Hey all, I watch “Seal Team” on network TV, and they often talk about “mikes”, which I take to mean minutes (but I have wondered if it means other things as well), so I found the following excerpt from the web: “"Mike" has multiple meanings. Yes it can be short for Microphone, or Minutes, or a phonetic letter of the alphabet, but it has other meanings as well: Mike can be a distance measurement: 300 mikes being 300 meters. it can be a size measurement: 40 mike mike being a 40 millimeter mortar or a 30 mike-mike could be a 30 millimeter gun.” They also frequently use “klicks” when they talk about kilometers, which is less vague than “mike”. BTW, by far they use metric, as does the military, but I’ve caught an occasional slip-up into non-metric units. Don From: USMA < <mailto:[email protected]> [email protected]> On Behalf Of Brian White Sent: Wednesday, 16 June, 2021 08:07 To: John Steele < <mailto:[email protected]> [email protected]> Cc: USMA List Server < <mailto:[email protected]> [email protected]> Subject: [USMA 1731] Re: Metric munitions Michael, I'm surprised you've never heard of the phonetic alphabet before. On Jun 16, 2021, at 05:27, John Steele < <mailto:[email protected]> [email protected]> wrote: They are saying em - em. When the military has to spell out something, they use a phonetic alphabet in which each letter is replaced by a standard word beginning with that letter. It aids accuracy over noisy channels. The NATO phonetic alphabet (also used by ICAO) replaces the letter "m" with the word "mike." We might prefer they replace the unit symbol with the unit word in speech, but that is the military way of pronouncing letters in any "spelling out." On Wednesday, June 16, 2021, 07:50:06 AM EDT, Michael Payne < <mailto:[email protected]> [email protected]> wrote: I read the following article which by soldiers is called a 40 mike mike. Hmm. Wondered if this was millimetres and sure enough further down it was a 40 mm grenade. I’ve never head of anyone calling this dimension mike mike before. <https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fapnews.com%2Farticle%2Fgovernment-and-politics-pa-state-wire-ga-state-wire-fl-state-wire-c1ce597ffce30b16f3b17e60dfd9161e&data=04%7C01%7Cusma%40lists.colostate.edu%7C23c9f1e1706f4bda8df808d931053331%7Cafb58802ff7a4bb1ab21367ff2ecfc8b%7C0%7C0%7C637594721287313378%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=ppvmHPiEvw3MNTe29TZVR%2F2AThe5TeTG2RRM9QPz2oE%3D&reserved=0> https://nam10.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fapnews.com%2Farticle%2Fgovernment-and-politics-pa-state-wire-ga-state-wire-fl-state-wire-c1ce597ffce30b16f3b17e60dfd9161e&data=04%7C01%7Cusma%40lists.colostate.edu%7C23c9f1e1706f4bda8df808d931053331%7Cafb58802ff7a4bb1ab21367ff2ecfc8b%7C0%7C0%7C637594721287323370%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=pe5pf4ClUqgyey7mzPBN%2F%2FcRihjWpBXzHBT4lA6wHJI%3D&reserved=0 Mike Payne _______________________________________________ USMA mailing list <mailto:[email protected]> [email protected] <https://lists.colostate.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/usma> https://lists.colostate.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/usma _______________________________________________ USMA mailing list <mailto:[email protected]> [email protected] <https://lists.colostate.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/usma> https://lists.colostate.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/usma
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