Original Second World War Escape and Evasion Map Printed in full color on a Rayon scarf and covering Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Poland

Edité par British War Office, Directorate of Military Intelligence, Section 9 (M.I.9) circa 1943, Great Britain, 1943

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This fascinating Second World War artifact is an escape and evasion map produced in Great Britain by Section 9 of the British War Office s Directorate of Military Intelligence (M.I.9). This map, likely produced in 1943, was distributed by M.I.9 to facilitate the evasion and/or escape of downed Allied airmen or prisoners of war. Printed on a rayon scarf, the map measures 36.5 x 32.5 inches, with a color-printed Central European Map. Drawn at 1:1,000,000 scale, the map was designed to overlay other area maps. Condition is near fine, complete, clean, bright, and legible, with slight toning to the marginal edges of the rayon. This map is larger than the so-called "handkerchief" maps that were often sewn into clothes, but is still considered small-scale. Maps like this were a lifeline for Allied forces that ended up behind enemy lines when planes were shot down or when paratroopers were blown off course during landing. This example of a 43E series map shows national boundaries, cities, railroads, and basic topographical features of "Germany, Protectorate, Slovakia, Poland, and Hungary". These areas correspond to modern-day northeastern Germany, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, the tip of Hungary, and a small sliver of Russia. The map shows the post-1939 partition of Poland into a German-controlled eastern zone, a German-occupied central zone (here called "Government Poland"), and a Soviet-controlled western zone.Numerous large cities are represented on the map, including Berlin, Stettin (Szczecin), Danzig (Gdansk), Kongsberg, Warsaw, Poznan, Lublin, Katowice, Breslau (Wroclaw), Olomouc, Praha (Prague), Leipzig, Plzen, Dresden, and Chemnitz. The city of Oscweicim better known today as Auschwitz appears in the lower left quadrant of the map; there is no indication of the city s proximity to the most notorious concentration camp operated by the Third Reich.It is estimated that Britain alone produced more than 1,750,000 copies of 243 different maps depicting places all over the world. Second World War-era maps were made from silk, acetate rayon, balloon cloth, and mulberry tissue paper. Rayon was the preferred material because it was light-weight, resilient, resistant to mildew, and unfolded silently. The map s maker, Military Intelligence, Section 9 (M.I.9) "was an ingenious branch of Second World War military intelligence, tasked with assisting evaders and escapers. Established on 23 December 1939, M.I.9 was based for most of the war at Wilton Park, Beaconsfield." M.I.9 s "ingenious inventors… created an array of gadgets to aid evaders and escapers" including "silk maps concealed in garments, secret compasses, tiny radio receivers hidden in cigar boxes, and ration boxes, among other items." Maps were smuggled into Axis-held territory via all manner of inventive subterfuge, including relief packages, hidden in hollowed out belt buckles and boot heels, or layered inside or between gramophone records, gameboards (famously including Monopoly), and playing cards.Reference: Imperial War Museum.

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Détails bibliographiques

• Titre: Original Second World War Escape and Evasion Map Printed in full color on a Rayon scarf and covering Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Poland
• Éditeur: British War Office, Directorate of Military Intelligence, Section 9 (M.I.9) circa 1943, Great Britain
• Date de parution: 1943