RAF: SILK AND MULBERRY PAPER ESCAPE MAPS.

RAF: SILK AND MULBERRY PAPER ESCAPE MAPS.
[RAF Silk Escape Map.] [England: Air Ministry, c.1941.]
RAF pilots' silk escape map. 590 x 460 mm. Printed recto and verso, the first of France, Belgium, Holland and parts of Germany and Switzerland, the coastal defense area in red, clear national boundaries and areas of occupied and unoccupied France, as well as the "Southern boundary to Zone Interdite"; The verso with a line map of Germany, labelled MOST SECRET, marking in red symbols various camps, Oflag, Dulag Luft, Stalag, and Stalag Luft, annotated with potential escape routes via the Baltic and through Switzerland, as well as marking coal rail and river traffic routes of escape. Folds, a few small spots but in fine original condition.
WITH: A mulberry paper map of Germany. [1941-45.] 500 x 480 mm. The map untitled, printed in red green and black on thin mulberry paper. One clean tear along fold at upper right, folded. Together with a standard pilots color-printed silk map of France and Belgium, second edition, dated Mar[ch] 44, marking the coastal zones and Spanish border patrols.

Three interesting pilots' escape maps, including a rare silk map, marked MOST SECRET, dating from around 1941, to assist downed pilots in their repatriation to England. In France the Resistance maintained a network of operatives who would report downed pilots to MI9 in London and agents would be parachuted into France to rescue the pilots. In Germany that was not possible, so MI9 would often send in Red cross parcels with compasses, maps and other objects to allow groups of escaped airmen to find their way out of Germany. Most flyers had maps and compasses sewn into their clothing in the eventuality that the were shot down over enemy territory.

The Escape map of Germany on mulberry paper is particularly interesting as it was ultra light and foldable, and could be hidden in a shoe, or in objects smuggled in Red Cross parcels into POW camps. The man behind these ingenious lightweight maps was Christopher Hutton, who experimented with tissue and other light papers until he used mulberry paper (which had been in use for 1,000 years in Japan). The mulberry paper could be soaked or screwed into a ball, but the image on the map was never compromised.