WWII AAF - RAF Map Europe (Air) 1/500,000, War Office, 1944 36" x20"!!

Description

SCARE! ORIGINAL! NAMED!
dated
"1944" f
rom the
"DIRECTORATE OF MILITARY SURVEY, WAR OFFICE."
This was designed for use by the
R.A.F. (Bomber and Fighter Commands)
and the
U.S.A.A.F.,
e.g. the
Eighth Air Force.
Here is SCARCE MAP for use during the strategic bombing campaigns (such as the aerial bombing of the Rhine-Ruhr Valley; the
Operation Millennium r
aid on Cologne: culminating in the controversial bombing of Dresden in 1945).
The cover reads,
CODE AF
FOLDEX
Europe (Air) 1/500,000
NOTE:
These maps are varnished. Courses can be marked in Chinagraph Pencil and subsequently erased with an ordinary rubber eraser.
DIRECTORATE OF MILITARY SURVEY / WAR OFFICE
/ DECEMBER, 1944
On the inside of the front cover is the
"Key Plan"
which explains
"How To Use FOLDEX Back and Front Index."
"World Copyright by and License from Foldex Limited, London, W.C.I."
Shown on the map are numerous cities that figured prominently in the air and ground war, ranging in the West from
Paris, Dusseldorf, Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Strasboug
... to
Bremen, Hamburg, Leipzig, Dresden, Berlin, Nurnberg, Regensbug,
Calais, Brussels, Antwerp, Rotterdam,  Copenhagen, Reims, Metz,
and Munich
in the East.
The Map also indicates in color principal geographic features, e.g. rivers, bodies of water, forested areas, as well as major lines of communication (road and rail)
Folded DIMENSIONS:
6" x 10 1/2"
Open
DIMENSIONS
:
36" x 20"
This large, double-sided, folding map
of Europe
of
VARNISHED PAPER
between
STIFF
Boards is named to a pilot, flight officer, or navigator,
"STEVENSON, W."
and uses real and repeated use by a crew of a
Vickers Wellington
, ,
Halifax
, a
Lancaster
or a
de Havilland Mosquito
or a
B-17
during the the many devastating and costly raids on Hitler's
Festung Europa
(Fortress Europe). In addition to the enormous destruction and loss of life to the populations of Axis cities, the casualties to the the
RAF
and the
USAAF
was staggering:
Bomber Command
crews suffered an extremely high casualty rate: 55,573 killed out of a total of 125,000 aircrew (a 44.4 percent death rate), a further 8,403 were wounded in action and 9,838 became prisoners of war. This covered all
Bomber Command
operations. A
Bomber Command
crew member had a worse chance of survival than an infantry officer in World War I; more people were killed serving in
Bomber Command
than in the
Blitz
, or the bombings of Hamburg or Dresden. By comparison, the
US Eighth
Air Force
, which flew daylight raids over Europe, had 350,000 aircrew during the war and suffered 26,000 killed and 23,000 POWs. Of the
RAF Bomber Command
personnel killed during the war, 72 percent were British, 18 percent were Canadian, 7 percent were Australian and 3 percent were New Zealanders.
This "combat veteran" show wear at the corners of the hardboard Covers as well as fingerprints, some fold-separations of the Map itself, and several tears, but overall is INTACT! Colors are BRIGHT and unfaded!