Original Items: Only One Lot of 4 Available. Evasion charts or escape maps are maps made for service members, and intended to be used when caught behind enemy lines to assist in performing escape and evasion. Such documents were secreted to prisoners of war by various means to aid in escape attempts.

During World War II, these clandestine maps were used by many American, British, and allied servicemen to escape from behind enemy lines. Special material was used for this purpose, due to the need for a material that would be hardier than paper, and would not tear or dissolve in water.

Evasion charts produced for the US, UK, and NATO were printed on vinyl sheets in the 1960s. Modern evasion charts are made of Tyvek 'paper', which permit printing of minute detail while remaining waterproof and tear-resistant.

New US evasion charts were also printed for the US Air Force after the war on synthetic fabric from 1947 to 1951. There are nineteen sheets printed in this series. Each sheet has a graphic in the lower right-hand corner showing where the sheet lies. Each sheet is identified by a "CL" followed by a two to three digit number. Map coverage in this series starts at the North pole and covers down to the equator. The 19th sheet is at 1:500,000 scale and covers both North and South Korea.

The post WWII charts were superseded by evasion charts printed on vinyl plastic sheet and included multiple declination corrected compass roses and a star chart for finding Polaris for navigation at night. These were issued during the American conflict with Vietnam, but the print was subject to wear and the plastic was prone to stress cracking at folds and corners when carried on flying days for several months as USAF Captain Roger Locher noted when using one during his record 23-day evasion and rescue near Hanoi after his F-4 Phantom fighter jet was shot down. He also suggested a more detailed 1:50,000 map would have been more useful to him as a combat evader on the ground than the 1:250:000 evasion chart, Locher recommended two evasion charts could be overlapped to protect a downed airman from rain if worn "like an armadillo". Locher's evasion experience, the longest for an uncaptured American pilot since WW-II deep in enemy territory, would guide USAF survival training and future design of evasion charts.

Current USAF evasion charts, introduced immediately before Operation Desert Storm, and also issued to many allied air forces, are printed on spunbonded olefin fiber polymer sheet and are waterproof and extremely strong. They include survival navigation instructions using the US lensatic compass and basic celestial orientation for use when lacking a compass or GPS, use of the survival radio, edible and dangerous plants, fish, and animals found in the map area, sea current flow rates, first aid instructions, and other localized survival tips. The maps are camouflage patterned and can be used as a blanket, sun cover, splint, food or water carrier, and wound cover in addition to assisting in navigation, they are large enough to even use as a sleeping wrap. USAF Captain Scott O'Grady, brought down by hostile fire over Bosnia in 1996, later wrote “When I was finally settled in, I pulled my evasion chart from my G-suit pocket and began to plot the longitude and latitude coordinates I’d gotten from my GPS receiver last night… [It] showed all the hills, valleys, rivers, and land features around me. On the legend was other helpful information about local vegetation and animals”. Captain O'Grady found the chart so large that he cut out his evasion area to make it more usable.

The Maps/Charts In This Lot:
- (3) Kara Sea / Arctic Ocean USAF Cloth Charts (43” x 34”) Dated 1950: Great, lightly used condition.
- (1) East China Sea & Japan / South China Sea (33” x 31”) Dated 1945: Great condition, moderate use, staining and fading.