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Description

Rare two sided example of these interesting pictorial maps, published by Ernest Dudley Chase in 1942, to illustrate the various theaters of war around the world.

A patriotic pair of maps, published during the first year of U.S. entry into the war. The maps show an American-centric view of the War, with a number of annotations showing distances between locations in the U.S. and theaters of the war, such as San Francisco to Manila.

The legend contains symbols for British Possessions, joint British and U.S. possessions, U.S. possessions, Japanese, French, and Dutch possessions, pre-war boundaries, naval bases and railroads. Japanese- and German-occupied or controlled areas are shown in black.

Vignettes show various weapons: coast artillery, mobile field gun, new anti-aircraft gun mounts by Westinghouse, a Yank Tank, and a Flying Fortress. Small illustrations of battleships and airplanes are shown in and above the oceans. The letter V peeks out from behind the cartouche and is worked into the design of the border, as explained in the inset caption: "A Battle Map, to set the stage For 'total war' on land and sea; And, in the border, just a hint -- A prayer for total Victory!"

The border pattern is also the Morse code grouping for the letter V. That is why the Allies also used the four opening notes of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in their radio broadcasts. This is also probably why the map includes Beethoven's statue standing unscathed in Bonn, surrounded by rubble.

On the Verso is Chase's second WWII map, The Victory War Map (1942), which focused on the European theater, which more normally appears as a separate map.

In a biographical pamphlet on Chase published toward the end of World War II, author Tim Thrift asserts that Chase's battle maps had helped the American public follow the war as it unfolded.