[France and Germany – WWII Escape Map]

Early example of a WWII escape map.

This is an early example of a World War II escape or evasion map, designed by Section 9 of the British Directorate of Military Intelligence (MI9) in 1942. They were produced for distribution to crewmembers of the Royal Air Force who might be shot down over occupied France or Germany during an attack. Printed originally on parachute silk and later on synthetic material, the maps were sturdy, easy to store, waterproof, and quiet.

One side of the sheet shows a three-color map of France, with international boundaries outlined in green and various defense areas and internal borders highlighted in red. The verso offers a simple transportation map of Germany. Since both maps were issued at a relatively small scale of ~1:2,500,000, they could only be used for general direction finding and evasion methods.

These early editions were known as Bartholomew maps, since the content was based largely on bicycle maps produced by the well-known Scottish firm of John Bartholomew and Son. The patriotic publishing house dismissed any suggestion of compensation for the trademarked material, citing it as a worthy contribution to the war effort.

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