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Very rare Top Secret-Bigot-rated map of the D-Day landing beaches, prepared for use by soldiers landing on D-Day and included in the very rare and highly sought-after Neptune Monograph.
The map was created to show the different beaches, their subsections, and the provide an overview gridded map for soldiers landing on the beaches. Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno, and Sword are shown. Band Beach is also shown, but it was not used on D-Day because areas inland from the beach were flooded.
The numerals VII and V represent the respective zones of the American VII Corps and V Corps.
The BIGOT classification
The cover and many of the Folios bear prominently the unusual label, “TOP SECRET – BIGOT.” Introduced during the Second World War, BIGOT was the highest-level military security classification, above Top Secret. Some sources suggest that it was an acronym for “British Invasion of German Occupied Territory;” others, that it was a “backronym” for “To Gib,” the code stamped on the papers of officers headed to Gibraltar in advance of the 1942 North Africa invasion.
Whatever the origins of the term, extraordinary efforts were made to protect BIGOT-level material. When for example a practice landing (“Operation Tiger”) on the Devon coast was ambushed by U-Boats, Eisenhower himself ordered the recovery of the bodies of the ten known victims with BIGOT clearance. This was necessary to prove that they had not been captured alive, as their capture would have compromised the invasion plans and necessitated its cancellation.
“But nothing was more secret—or more vital to Operation Neptune—than the mosaic of Allied intelligence reports that cartographers and artists transformed into the multihued and multilayered BIGOT maps.” (Thomas B. Allen, “Untold Stories of D-Day,” National Geographic Magazine, June 2002, vol. 201, no. 6, p. 15)
![[ Holy Roman Empire ] Germania del Gastaldo](https://storage.googleapis.com/raremaps/img/small/73754.jpg)
![[France] (2 maps - Ancient & Modern)](https://storage.googleapis.com/raremaps/img/small/70507.jpg)
![(Second World War - D-Day - Omaha Beach) OMAHA BEACH-EAST (Colleville-sur-Mer) [:] FIRST BEACH OBSTACLE OVERPRINT [with:] OMAHA BEACH-WEST (Vierville-sur-Mer) [:] FIRST BEACH OBSTACLE OVERPRINT. NP, April 21, 1944 (with overprinting of information dated May 12).](https://storage.googleapis.com/raremaps/img/small/100123.jpg)
