Interesting large-format WWII "Newsmap," providing up-to-date coverage of World War II to American servicemen. The verso, meant to be displayed the next week when the recto has gone out-of-date, has etiquette rules for servicemen.
As the Battle of Stalingrad enters its third month and the brutal winter, the article reports, "... the Luftwaffe put only a fraction of its former strength over Stalingrad. The cold was constantly lamented in German communiques." In the Pacific theater, the American victory in the Battle of Guadalcanal is defined as, "one of the greatest victories of the war." A photograph of Italian prisoners of war in Libya is captioned, "These are Italian paratroops who were officered by Nazis. Their equipment poor and morale low, they said they were glad to be taken."
The base map is surrounded by news-style articles, images, photographs, and other information regarding the war's progress, including smaller maps illustrating a single theater or front.
This series was first published on April 27, 1942, by the Orientation Course Section. The course distributed the maps to company-sized units of the Army, libraries, and Service clubs, and the army in turn distributed them to other branches of the military. Newsmaps were edited in New York, initially under the Special Service Division and then the Morale Services Division after its establishment, and except for overseas editions, printed in Chicago.