RAF Aircrew escaping map?
I have acquired a piece of silk about 18" by 24", it has a uniform hem all round and a map of the Eastern Mediterranean and surrounding countries, printed on both sides.
One side has at it's Northern end "Anatolia" and to the West "Iraq". On its Southern limit it has "The Great Nefudi", in the East it goes as far as "al tarfaiya" in Egypt.
On the other side it goes from about 200 miles North of the Black Sea down to and including Cyprus. To the West is Moldova, part of a country ending in "NIA" which I can't read and then a slice of Turkey. The Eastern end of this side covers Rostov in the North, the Eastern end of the Sea of Azov and on down to Beyrouth.
It must be quite old because it includes places such as "Transjordan" and the "British Mandate of Palestine". It came in a very old and brittle package.
It is pretty obviously of British military origin - it has a print run number and the scale is quoted as "1:3,000,000 0r 47.34 English Miles to 1 Inch". As well as national boundaries it shows: "Main Motor Routes; Secondary Routes; Caravan Routes and Tracks; Railways; Oil Pipe Lines; Principle Airports (only 6 in the whole Eastern Med/Near East) and Sand Deserts"
I think it may be a RAF Aircrew escaping map; probably issued to RAF Aircrew who were busy bombing Iraq in the 1930s.
What do you think?