Great Escapes: The story of MI9’s Second World War escape and evasion maps. Barbara Bond

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       Detail from this sheet, clearly showing the borders of Switzerland, France and Italy.

      Escape and evasion versions of some seventy-four sheets were produced. Over 35,000 copies were printed between 10 July 1942, when production apparently commenced, and an unrecorded day in July/August 1944, when the decision was taken to cease production. One can therefore conjecture that MI9’s contact with D.Survey, either directly or using the Ministry of Supply as an intermediary, had started at least by mid-1942. Despite the significant number of copies produced, relatively few surviving sheets have been discovered. This may reflect the fact that many of the print runs were very small, 45 and 100 being common.

      The sheets in this series were produced sometimes singly and sometimes in combination, although it has not proved possible to identify from the records the various combinations which were produced. They were produced on fabric or paper, the latter being variously described in the print record as ‘RL’, an acknowledged abbreviation for rag lithographic paper, ‘thin BANK paper’, ML (Mulberry Leaf) or MLS (Mulberry Leaf Substitute). One interesting group of a block of four of these sheets was produced under the codeword ‘Dutch Girl’. They are centred on Arnhem and are of non-standard geographical extent, location and scale, being 1 inch to 6.56 miles or approximately 1:420,000; as a result they are referred to in the record as Sections 1, 2, 3 and 4. The record shows that some 4,400 copies of these four sheets were produced in June 1942 and were described by Hutton in earlier correspondence with Waddington as ‘a very, very urgent requirement’. The purpose of producing these sheets at that stage is not clear, although it might have related to the combined operations which took place at that time and are known to have involved Section X of MI9 and the Special Operations Executive (SOE). In all probability, the subsequent printing of the same sheets, which took place in the period prior to August 1944, was in timely support of the Battle of Arnhem, otherwise referred to as Operation Market Garden, which took place in September 1944.

      NORWAY 1:100,000 GSGS 4090 [FABRIC]

      Once again MI9 must have acquired access to the reproduction material of another operational map series produced by D.Survey. Thirty-three sheets of this pre-war GSGS series of Norway at 1:100,000 scale were printed on silk, apparently for escape and evasion purposes, in 1942. The sheets are located in a block to the north of Oslo and adjacent to the Swedish border. Thirty-one sheets are monochrome, based on the 1940 state of the original GSGS 4090 sheets, while two sheets (26B and 26D) are printed in four colours (black, red, brown, blue) and are based on the 1942 revision of the GSGS 4090 sheets. The original lithographic paper maps were based directly on original native Norwegian maps, some of which dated back to the early years of the twentieth century. The original Norwegian maps were based on the Oslo meridian. The GSGS series maps, therefore, carry a conversion note to the effect that the Oslo meridian is 10° 43' 23" E of Greenwich.