Third Party Press

WWII German map case with maps

8x57mauser

Senior Member
I was down in Fort Indiantown Gap at the end of January for our annual Battle of the Bulge reenactment and there were a few vendors there with piles of surplus military material. Picked up an original 1917 dated US gasmask few other items, and this map case. It was cheap, in good shape, very pliable and not dried out, and it had a couple maps in it. I only just got around to taking a closer look at it and the maps are 1944 dated, Belgium and Germany. The larger one has troop positions written on it. It also appears that something passed through the case as there is a hole in the front, inside divider and the back of the case.

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Man FIG always had great vendors there....Its a great event.

Great pickup! Original maps are always a bonus....
 
Man FIG always had great vendors there....Its a great event.

Great pickup! Original maps are always a bonus....

The vendors seem to get better each year. I picked up a cool battle damaged m1919 barrel from Sarco there for $20



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I can't believe I still haven't made it to this. Every year it seems like it's something else. I need to try and make it a priority for 2018.

Great find btw.
 
It looks like it. Would be nice to have the background of the vet who brought them back. This one looks interesting as it was one of the artillery special prints for use in artillery ranging, most I have seen are the 'street level' of accuracy. Usually captured maps were among the things that went straight to the S2, but I know of some (many) found in captured and abandoned vehicles being prepped for removal or destruction (as well as callsign cheat sheets stuck behind R123s, coins and money under the seats, etc). I also learned when I collected maps in the past, that many of them were as unmarked as possible, for you would mess up and clutter your references. Markings usually went on onionskin or acetate overlays.
As an aside, we used a lot of the captured Iraqi maps after DS2, flipped over, as paper for range qualification (doesn't matter about recovery or after-action reviews, don't let your range qualification scores age or you won't be promotable!) The only ones I know are real are the ones I found and reported up, but then I was the S2 NCO.
Wonder what the future 'map collector' will find as everyone wants to rely on GPS, and UTM/GK coordinates are handled electronically....
 

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