View Full Version : 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?
DeepestSouth
15th Dec 2011, 15:54
Contact, or even better arrange a visit and take it to, the RAF Museum. They are extremely helpful and will probably tell you not only WHAT it is, but a lot more besides. Look after it, too - even silk can get quite fragile with time. The museum might also be able to advise you on how best to preserve it.
Thanks DS. It's a good idea - I'll get in touch with them.
Rgds SOS
jamesdevice
16th Dec 2011, 17:25
I've seen several similar maps in the stores of a company called Special Air Sea Services, though this sounds slightly different / older
They're based in Lancaster and - among other things - trade in such items
Art of flight
17th Dec 2011, 10:36
Thought this thread might be about tranche 2 redundancy, never mind.........;)
Airborne Aircrew
17th Dec 2011, 11:45
SOSL:
Any chance you could post a photo? Just for interests sake and all that...
I've got pictures in my mobile phone but I haven't a clue how to post them. I'd be only too glad if I could.
Regards SOS
Thanks, check your e-mails. They're not great works of art!
Rgds SOS
Pontius Navigator
6th Jan 2012, 08:47
SOSL, what is the predominant colour of the map?
If it is fairly crude with browns and purples then it may be WW2 and in use in the 60s/70s. I early 70s modern ones were produced that looked like their paper counter parts with greens and blues etc.
I worked alongside US elements in Gulf 1.
RAF E&E Map -
1:500 000 of the whole of Iraq, on a natty silk scarf, excellent for wearing in an open cockpit, so that it fluttered behind one's neck.
US E&E Map -
1:250 000 of most of Iraq, larger scaled areas of emergency RV points, pictures of edible and poisonous plants, useful phrases, foldable and designed to fit in a aircrew pocket, national flag on the front to be shown to advancing rescuing troops, made of plasticised paper which could be used to carry water or act as a shelter.
I know which one I preferred.
I've still got my copy of the RAF E&E map, along with two "goolie" chits promising to pay the bearer £10,000 for safe return of pink body. Unfortunately, we had to give back the 8 gold sovs that were supposed to ensure immediate safe passage...
What I did (inadvertently) retain, though, was 3 combo pens nestling safely in my respirator bag. As we didn't bother too much with GDT immediately after the war, these were only discoverd after the sqn move back to Marham form LBH in 1992. The look on the rock cpls face was priceless, especially when he tried to launch into a serious bolloxing, only to be presented with several more pens from other forgetful aircrew, oops:O
Mister B
Airborne Aircrew
6th Jan 2012, 12:23
PN:
SOSL, what is the predominant colour of the map?SOSL emailed me two pictures taken on his phone. One was so blurry as to be unusable but this one will answer your question.
http://www.hqrafregiment.net/images/aircrewmap.jpg
Thanks for that, mate. Iv'e decided to give the map to the RAF Club. If it is an E&E map, it will be better appreciated by my sort of guys than stuck in a corner of my cottage.
PN - Difficult to say because I am colour blind; which is why my early attempt to enroll as a pilot didn't work.
The Wg Cdr Optician at Biggin Hill asked me why I was applying for aircrew when I was colour blind; I had realised that everyone else had problems with colours but it hadn't occurred to me that it was me that had the problem!
He went on to say that I would have made a good pilot - not much hand-eye coordination but I was a complete tosser. (No he didn't, I just made that up)
AoF - Maybe we should ignore the tranche 2 redundancies, there's not much to say that hasn't already been said.
Rgds SOS
Pontius Navigator
6th Jan 2012, 16:35
That looks very much a WW2 map. It is even larger than the WW2 ones we had in the V-force. Mapping in those days was often more stylistic than detailed. It was probably based on post-WW1 surveys. It was normal for the map to be quite old as preparation was time consumming and expensive.
Only today are maps updated almost at the push of a button.
That makes sense PN, thanks for the info.
SOS