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

[Adrian Stevenson]

Thanks for taking the time to resurrect this great thread. It is appreciated.

Cheers, Ade.

[Grimebox]

Not a problem! I've found a program to downsize my pictures - It's slow work but I'm getting there

[Grimebox]

An early escape map. This one is single sided and printed only in black. It is printed on silk

[Grimebox]

Another early map. This is unfortunately very faded, it is double sided and shows map 9.C.a (France) on one side. The other side is too faded to distinguish what map is on there, however, it is not map 2.b. which is commonly found with 9.C.a

[Grimebox]

This is a very nice and rare silk map! This map is specific to only one Prisoner of War camp - Oflag VIIc. It has notes on it which instruct you on how to get to the Swiss border and numerous bits of information from German guards to trains. It is shown in the book 'Per Ardua Libertas', however, the example shown in the book is printed on tissue (which makes sense if you are going to smuggle it into a P.o.W camp), the example shown here is printed on silk.

Below is a what Wikipedia has to say on Oflag VIIc


Oflag VII-C was a World War II German prisoner-of-war camp for officers located in Laufen Castle, in Laufen in south-eastern Bavaria from 1940 to 1942. Most of the prisoners were British officers captured during the Battle of France in 1940. To relieve overcrowding, some of the officers were transferred to Oflag VII-C/Z in Tittmoning Castle. The Oflag existed only for a short time. In early 1942 all the officers were transferred to Oflag VII-B in Eichstätt.
The castle was then used as an Internment Camp Ilag VII for men from the British Channel Islands of Jersey and Guernsey until the camp was liberated in May 1945. Previously, in September 1944, after lengthy negotiations, 125 elderly and sick prisoners were repatriated to Great Britain via Sweden. In April 1944 the count of internees in Laufen included 459 British internees (417 Channel Islanders) and 120 American civilians who had been trapped in Europe when war was suddenly declared in December 1941. Even though the camp housed civilians, it continued to be operated by the German Army. The camp was liberated by the U.S. 3rd Army on 5 May 1945.
Eight Channel Island internees died in Laufen camp during the period of internment.

Notable inmates
Captain Pat Reid, arrived 5 June 1940, escaped 5 September 1940, later British escape officer at Colditz.
Ambrose Sherwill, President of the Controlling Committee in Guernsey, who became British Camp Senior.
Josef Nassy, a black expatriate artist of Jewish descent, holding a US passport who created a visual diary of life in the camp.

[Grimebox]

MI9 developed 'tissue' maps in order to allow them to be smuggled into P.o.W camps. The maps are actually made from mulberry leaf and are meant to be rip and water proof (I haven't tried to find out!). These maps could be hidden inside pencils, pipes and variety of other everyday objects which could then be sent to prisoners. I own three (at the moment), two are are the standard Bartholomew maps (although the one covering Germany is slightly larger - also note that the one which covers France and the U.K. was made later in the war as it shows all of the U.K. - only the South coast is shown on earlier and silk examples), the third map is rarer and is printed in black, red, green and blue and shows 'Klagenfurt'

The Bartholomew maps are shown with their silk counterparts

[Grimebox]

The first maps produced by MI9 were based on the Bartholomew maps (A long established map producer). The Bartholomew maps are rectangular in shape and were printed in three colors: map details in black, roads in red, and international boundaries in green, although some of the maps were printed solely in black on white cloth backgrounds. They are small scale and range from 1:1,000,000 to 1:6,000,000, each is undated. The scales of the maps were criticized by some personnel as being too small; however, MI 9 defended the maps as being intended only to give an escaper or evader an idea of the general direction in which to proceed. These maps were printed on to silk which had been rejected by the parachute manufacturers

The first shown covers France and part of England. The top part of England (and the rest of Great Britain) was removed as they did not want the maps falling into enemy hands and being used by them!

[Grimebox]

This map covers Germany, The Netherlands, etc. It overlaps with the France map and it's interesting to note that they are of a different size and shape. This map, along with the one covering France are the most common found of the Bartholomew maps. This map and the one showing France are single sided.

[Grimebox]

Soon realising that single sided maps were not an effective use of the scarce silk, the production of double sided maps was perfected. (I believe that the famous games manufacturer WADDINGTONS may have done this. They had perfected the art of printing on silk before the war and printed many escape maps during WW2)

This double sided map shows France and England (marked C) on one side and Southern France and Spain (marked D) on the other.

[Grimebox]

This map shows the South of France (marked D) and Spain and the Balearic Islands (marked H2)