Escape and Evasion / Survival aids - Silk maps and Escape Compasses + more!

[Watchdog]

I know this thread is WWII focussed but the requirement for these items of course did not cease in 1945.

Here is another item I fished out of my "Pandoras Box" which I managed to snag whilst I was quartered on a RAF base and working nearby in an extra-regimental posting (what was I doing? That's not relevant )

This map is printed on silk as usual and is based on 1944 mapping printed in 1952 with magnetic variation (magnetic declination) overprinted in 1953.

It is double sided and the area covered leaves little to realise that amongst the only people who would have been issued this were "V Force" which included the fabulous Avro Vulcan. The blokes who knew that if they were deployed for real it was a one way flight and that they would have to fend for themselves if they survived beyond the target

The legend at the bottom includes the appropriate languages of the area covered.

It gives me the creeps just looking at this piece of a history that was nearly the end of our history.

If anybody wants better pics just ask as these were taken in very poor light.

Regards

Mark

[Grimebox]

Scarce instruction sheet and maps for sailing the RAF type Q dinghy. Approximately 32 x 32cm and printed on rayon. It consists of ten double sided sheets c.1943 rivetted together in the upper left corner. The top sheet is illustrated with a line drawing of the dinghy accompanied with detailed set-up and sailing instructions for this relatively complex multi-man vessel. The reverse side has a key map and the remaining 9 sheets contain 18 separate sea charts covering Iceland, Norway, Norway West, Faero Islands, Norway S.W., Irish Channel, English Channel, Spain, France (South), Adriatic, Gibraltar, Algeria, Greece & Tripoli, Anatolia & Egypt, Morocco, Cape Verde I & Senegal. Each prepared by the Sea Rescue Drawing Office and taken from map series GSGS 4080.
The type Q was 16' long dinghy with a pointed bow and rounded stern, equipped with a 16' high twin sectional telescopic mast accomodating a mainsail and smaller foresail.

Some further info: The Type ‘Q’ Sailing Dinghy | Bodleian Map Room Blog

[Grimebox]

An interesting little book titled ‘The Jungle Hiker’, produced by the RAF in Ceylon in 1944. It is filled with general survival advice written in a quite a jovial style along with some wonderful illustrations.

[Grimebox]

A map that I thought was quite common, however, it has alluded me for some time. Bartholomew map Sheet A and C covering France and Germany. This example has a hemmed edge.
I have shown it alongside the very rare aerogramme paper version of the same map.

[Grimebox]

Variants of Sheet A and Sheet C that I have. Shown are silk, areogramme and mulberry leaf tissue maps as well as single sided sheet A and C and double sided sheet C/D.
I have also shown the difference in printing on the double sided map to the single sided map. You can see that there are slight changes between the double sided map and the single sided map

[Grimebox]

A US Navy ‘handkerchief’ map

The below is taken from - history of wwii us cloth escape maps

The Navy handkerchief charts, so called because of their size of 15 3/4 x 12 3/4 (except for the larger S-12 chart) resembled a handkerchief, were designed primarily for use by Navy and Marine pilots operating from carriers or island bases and were intended for use in the event of a forced sea landing and as an aid in the navigation of rubber life rafts. The background color of the charts is white, with cultural features in black and land masses in green, and do not include the more elaborate elevation tints common on many AAF maps, although they do include rough elevation contours lines. At the October 1943 conference, the Navy representative agreed to also include the inland cultural features on the charts for the benefit of the Thirteenth Air Force, which also operated in the areas covered by the charts. [148] The charts are all made on the standard Mercator projection and were printed on rayon acetate.

To expedite their initial distribution, a minimum quantity (1,300 copies each) of the first six, double-sided charts were distributed to aviation units of the Pacific Fleet in the winter of 1944 without current and wind data because the data was not available in the form required at that time. [149] The first six charts issued were: (1) S12-20&16 / S12-9&26, (2) S12-11 / S12-8, (3) S12-1&25 / S12-23&25, (4) S12-19 / S12-2, (5) S12-14 / S12-2, and (6) S12-21 / S12-29&22.

In March 1944, Navy Air Combat Intelligence requested that the US Navy Hydrographic Office prepare ocean current streamlines showing current velocity, direction and steadiness for two seasons and at a scale to conform to the previously produced NACI-HO cloth charts for inclusion on subsequent reprintings. The winter stream drifts were sent to Op-16-V on April 11, 1944, and the summer data followed later. Navy Air Combat Intelligence also requested that the US Navy Hydrographic Office prepare a brief manual explaining how to use the charts so intelligence officers could briefings pilots accordingly.[150] Prior to January 1945, each chart contained either summer or winter ocean current data; however, after that date the charts were printed with both summer and winter data. [151] The ocean current data was supplied by the US Navy Hydrographic Office.
The one Navy cloth chart not of handkerchief size, S-12, is an extremely large chart of the entire western Pacific Ocean area with a trim size of approximately 36" x 27 1/2". Both sides of the chart depict the same geographic area, although one side contains winter ocean and wind currents while the reverse side contains summer currents.
Finally, there is a separate black and white instruction sheet (OPNAV-16-V #S109) that was also printed on acetate rayon and accompanied the cloth charts. This instruction sheet contains detailed information explaining how to navigate a raft using the data on the charts. The charts were intended for each by: (1) men on rafts to estimate their drift and to help in choosing a course and (2) by officers directing air-sea rescue operations to help in choosing the search area and the method of search.[152]

The introduction to the detailed instruction states:

WHAT THE CHARTS SHOW

The streamline on the handkerchief charts show the average current near the surface. The arrows on the streamlines indicate the average direction of flow, and the numbers indicate the average speed of the current in nautical miles per day.

The heaviness of the streamlines shows the steadiness of the current, that is, the percentage of the time that the current actually flows in the average direction. The heavier and more solid the line, the more you can rely on the current which it shows.

The shaded arrows on the charts give the average wind direction for each area. The numbers on the arrows show the average Beaufort force of the wind.

The direction and speed of the current will vary somewhat with wind force and direction. When the wind has been blowing for several hours, with the direction and force indicated by the arrow nearest your position, the current will flow about as shown on the chart. If the wind has been blowing in a different direction or at a different speed, the actual current will be a combination of that shown on the chart with the current set up by the wind.

Currents near shore will usually differ in speed and direction from those prevailing offshore. Such currents nearly always flow parallel to the beach and are mainly due to the tide, that is, they fluctuate in speed and often reverse direction every 6 or 12 hours.[153]

The instruction sheet goes on to provide very detailed instructions on plotting courses based on the information on the charts and explains that the charts are not accurate during the months of October and March when the seasons are changing except in limited geographic areas where the currents do not vary much between the summer and winter seasons.

Some of the charts were ordered from the commercial printer by the Army Map Service to meet requirements of MIS-X, AAF and the Navy,[154] while other copies of the maps were ordered by the Navy directly from the printers. All of the charts were printed by the Kaumagraph Company, while both Kaumagraph and the Sweeney Lithograph Company printed copies of the instructional sheet.[155]

Copies of the charts met an enthusiastic reception from British naval personnel at Colombo, Ceylon, who remarked in a letter to the US Navy Hydrographic Office that similar charts would satisfy an unmet need of RAF sea and rescue units and could be adapted by them to the Bay of Bengal, their big area of interest. The letter expressed uncertainty as to "whether there will be sufficient weight brought to bear upon some organization to prepare the drift charts on the pattern of yours for the Bay of Bengal is something we don?t know as yet." [156] The author has not found any record that suggests such charts were produced

[Grimebox]

Bartholomew map Sheets T2 and T4 covering the Caspian Sea and Iraq/Iran

[Grimebox]

An unusual cloth map (Egyptian cotton?) for Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. Beautifully printed and dated 1940

[Grimebox]

A small American booklet titled ‘If you should be captured these are your rights’. Produced in 1944

[Adrian Stevenson]

I have this one coming up for sale at work on March 20th

WW2 RAF Silk Escape Map Sheet 43G/43H. One side covers Hungary, Northern Bulgaria etc. The other side covers Southern Bulgaria and Greece, Crete, etc. No tears.


Cheers, Ade.