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This map is a rarity! It is an original Nazi map printed in 1941 in preparation of the planned Wehrmacht invasion of Southern England (Operation Sealion or Unternehmen Seelöwe). The cut-down 28-¼ x 35 inch Third Reich map was one-sided when printed in Germany in 1941 and was captured by Allied forces in Europe in 1944.

The blank back-side was re-used by the Allies and a detailed road map of Munich and the surrounding Bavarian countryside was printed on it. A big red X was printed on the obsolete 1941 German invasion map side of the Portsmouth area in Southern England to show that it was not to be used!

This rare map was brought back to the United States by a US Army Engineer Sergeant who spent lots of time in Bavaria rebuilding bridges destroyed by the United States Army Air Force and the retreating Germans. There are several annotations in color pencil on the 1944 Allied side of the map near rivers where postwar reconstruction projects were done (see image below).

The 1944 map published by the War Office has a scale of 1:500.000 (1 inch = 7.89 miles, 1 cm = 5 km) and was copied from the 1938 Nazi CONTI road atlas. The reference panel is in English and German and mentions Hitler's freeway system, the Reichsautobahn. The area on that side of the map includes Munich, Crailsheim and Dinkelsbühl (in the northwest), Landsberg and Fürstenfeldbruck (west of Munich), Merano, Bolzano and Tarvisio (in Italy), and north all the way to Strako in Czechoslovakia) and that of course includes Bad Tölz, Bad Wiessee, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Chiemsee, Berchtesgaden, Königssee, Salzburg and the Salzkammergut, Regensburg, and everything in between!

The detailed 1941 Nur für Dienstgebrauch! (For Service Use Only!) Nazi map shows the area in Southern England around the important port city Plymouth, in Cornwall and Devonshire, from Polperro in the west to Holbeton in the east. That area even includes the Tavistock Hamlets in the north.

An earlier British Ordnance & Survey map was used to produce the Nazi map in 1941. The reference panel on the map of the area around Plymouth is in German, and is very detailed (from highway to foot path!) so every German Landser would be able to read this map with ease. It explains English feet measurements but also has measurements in meters and kilometers.

This rare 75 year old World War II map is in very nice used condition - no tears, no tape - and will be shipped rolled up in a tube.