
The secret maps used in World War II - MiriamWeiner
http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20180712-an-ingenious-way-to-hide-a-map
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Steve44
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.military-history.org/articles/your-mh-secrets-of-hughenden-
manor.htm)

[https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/hughenden/features/hughende...](https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/hughenden/features/hughendens-
second-world-war-story)

There is an image of a map, along with other pictures here
[https://castlesandcoffeehouses.com/2016/02/13/hughenden-
mano...](https://castlesandcoffeehouses.com/2016/02/13/hughenden-manor-
winning-the-war-in-the-icehouse/)

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

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CoolGuySteve
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.

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

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

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everdev
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.

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ceejayoz
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.

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adamsea
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.

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

