SOUTH-EAST ASIA.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Four Escape Maps. An unusual customized example of an escape map covering south-east Asia, likely issued during the Burma Campaign of 1944-5. These maps were produced for POWs and RAF personnel during the Second World War, issued as part of escape kits or smuggled into the camps.The maps covers the south of Burma (now Myanmar) and some parts of the surrounding countries, with sheets 44C and D printed back-to-back on one sheet. This example is made up of two copies of the same map stitched together along one edge. The verso of one has been stitched to the recto of the other, such they can be viewed simultaneously. The overlapping regions have been trimmed to create a complete map of southern Burma.On 23 December 1939, MI9 was established to aid in and oversee the escape of British prisoners of war in both Europe and Asia. This involved keeping in communication with POWs, training soldiers and pilots in evasion techniques, and developing escape tools. As part of this, "MI9 took an early decision to embark on a mapping programme and determined that those maps should be on silk. There were good reasons: silk is flexible and durable, in a way that paper is not and it is noiseless when hidden about one's person" (Bond). Over 240 different maps were printed with arbitrary sheet numbers and at a variety of scales.

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