The secret maps used in World War II | Hacker News Reader

The secret maps used in World War II

bbc.com

82 pointsMiriamWeiner10 comments

On a related note I visited Hughenden Manor, near High Wycombe, last year. That was used in WW2 for map making, one of the maps they made were daily specialised target maps for the bomber raids.

They have a 1940s weekend in September where there are a lot of exhibitors and period equipment & 'actors'. There was also a battle demonstration on the fields. It appears to be on 15th and 16th of September this year but doesn't seem to be well publicised at the moment

It's a National Trust property and has a few rooms dedicated to this role, very little was know until recently. It was also Disraeli’s home and has quite a lot of exhibits relating to that era too.

https://www.military-history.org/articles/your-mh-secrets-of...

https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/hughenden/features/hughende...

There is an image of a map, along with other pictures here https://castlesandcoffeehouses.com/2016/02/13/hughenden-mano...

Pity they only had a blurry tiny picture of one map and no information on how to see some better pictures of them :(

Hmmm, the RCAF silk maps we inherited are much more useful. They’re topographic maps of a few dozen square kilometers. They’re basically hiking maps you’re expected to eat if captured.

Granted my grandfather was stationed in London, so maybe the maps of England and other friendly territory were more zoomed in since any citizens you might meet were friendlies.

There is a company in the UK that makes something similar today: http://www.splash-maps.com

A great gift as you can centre it on your friend’s house

> Hmmm, the RCAF silk maps we inherited are much more useful. They’re topographic maps of a few dozen square kilometers.

Maybe I'm not understanding something, but how do you make sure you get shot down in that particular few dozen square kilometers to make the map useful?

Hard to believe these were actually useful. They look very "zoomed out" and my guess is that if you're behind enemy lines you'd want to about roads between major cities and hike through the wilderness instead, but it doesn't look like a trail map.

Zoomed out is good when you're potentially bailing out anywhere across hundreds of miles of flight paths, and allows sympathetic locals to point out "you're here, and you want to get there" as high-level info.

Wilderness areas are few and far between in large parts of Europe. Someone trekking through the countryside would get noticed quickly by the population. And it would be a very slow way of travelling. I think roads and railways were probably a better option, and this map could have helped with that.

Let's not forget a brief mention of the pointlessness of war and the value of international institutions. Which one of the interviewees in the article also alluded to.

If wars were pointless then they would be unmotivated, surely?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com