Using an amazing collection of maps from the Imperial War Museum archives, showing how – pre-computer - maps were used as a means of momentarily pinning down the action, they also recorded the past – damage from aerial bombardment and into the future with the Cold War and Hiroshima. Although copiously illustrated, it's not a coffee table album, you won't be able to read all the map details or even understand the language of some of them, it's a comprehensive history showing the necessity of maps in military situations for both those on the ground and those back in HQ. ~ Sue Baker
Mapping the Second World War The History of the War Through Maps from 1939 to 1945 Synopsis
Types of maps featured: * Strategic maps showing theatres of war, frontiers and occupied territories * Maps covering key battles and offensives on major fronts * Planning and operations maps showing defences in detail * Propaganda and educational maps for the armed forces and general public * Maps showing dispositions of Allied and enemy forces * Bomber and V-weapon target maps Descriptions of key historical events accompany the maps, giving an illustrated history of the war from an expert historian. Key topics covered include * 1939: Invasion of Poland * 1940: German invasion of Low Countries & France * 1940: Battle of Britain & German invasion threat * Dec 1941: Pearl Harbor * 1942: Turning points: Midway, Alamein, Stalingrad * 1941-45: Barbarossa and the Eastern Front * The War at Sea * The advances to Jerusalem, Damascus and Baghdad * The War in the Air * 1944: Neptune & Overlord; D-Day & liberation of France
Peter Chasseaud is a historian of military cartography, a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, the founder of the Historical Military Mapping Group of the British Cartographic Society, a member of the Defence Surveyors' Association, the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) and author of definitive works on trench mapping and toponymy.
