Original Item: Only One Available. British made topographical silk escape map of Western Europe typically carried by members of Parachute Infantry Regiments of both the 82nd Airborne and 101st Division.

A nearly identical map was carried by First Lieutenant Leonard Greenblatt during his service as a US soldier in Germany in May 1945. Leonard, age 23, enlisted in November 1941. He deployed with his unit, the 504th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 82nd Airborne Division, in April 1943 to French Morocco. Leonard was a platoon leader and participated in eight campaigns as the 504th advanced into Germany. On April 6, 1945, the unit crossed the Rhine near Hitsdorf, Germany, as a diversionary tactic to mislead the Germans for which it was awarded a Presidential citation. Leonard also was awarded a Bronze Star for his actions at Anzio. On May 2, the 82nd Airborne liberated Wobbelin prison camp. Leonard visited Wobbelin, took photographs, and wrote a letter home about the atrocities he witnessed. On May 7, 1945, Germany surrendered. The 82nd Airborne was placed on occupation duty in Berlin. Leonard returned to the US in September and was discharged in November. That map was later donated to the United States Shoah Memorial Museum in 2013 by Marilyn D. Greenblatt, the daughter of Leonard Greenblatt.

Double sided, square, off-white silk topographical map of Western Europe. Country names are printed in uppercase blue letters and cities and towns in black; the background is off-white with water in blue and mountains and elevated areas in shades of yellow and orange. The scale is 1: 1,000,000. The inset map is 1: 250,000, both with a kilometer and a mile scale. Longitude and latitude are numbered in a border around the map. On the main map, the front is labeled Sheet A, 43/A and depicts France, Belgium, Holland. The back is labeled Sheet B, 43/B and depicts France and Spain. There are legends for the main and inset maps with an elevation scale in meters and feet, important roadway features, and former and present frontiers. The front has a legend in the top left corner and the back main and inset legends are along the bottom. This map is in very good condition with one small one inch area of damage.

History of these maps:

In 1943 another series of cloth escape maps were produced that are immediately recognized by their vivid colors.  These maps are of the European Theater and were issued to Allied pilots of the US, RAF, and RCAF.  Printed by the company of John Waddington, Ltd, the maps consist of eight colors and are primarily at a scale of 1:1,000,000 with larger scale inserts. There are ten sheets in this series, which are composites of various paper sheets of the then existing International Map of the World, unlike the previous escape maps which were exact copies of existing paper sheets.  The sheets are numbered with the prefix 43 followed by one of the upper case letters:  A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, and K (east) and K (west).  When all the maps are laid out they basically overlap to provide a complete map of Europe.  The maps were usually printed on both sides, although single-side versions exist.  Normally, the maps were printed sequentially--A on one side and B on the other side; C on one side and D on the other side--although that was not always the case.  For example, maps with C on one side and E on the other side are also occasionally found.

An interesting feature of the maps is the black points on the map with corresponding distances between the points expressed in kilometers.  For example, the distance would be marked indicating the distance between two large towns.  This assisted the user in readily identifying distances without having to measure the distance with the scale legend printed elsewhere on the map.