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The Battle for Brest
A visually arresting WWII "Newsmap", providing up to date, pro-American coverage of World War II war fronts in mid-August 1944. This poster is aimed at an audience of U.S. servicemen. The news side of the sheet has maps, and reports on events during the week of August 2 - 9, 1944, highlighting the Battle for Brest, with a map showing part of France. The verso of the sheet is illustrated with a menacing close-up of a rifle-mounted bayonet, with a caption printed in lurid red letters: "Let This Do Your Talking!" Next to the bayonet is the following advice to servicemen:
Silence Means Security. When a man stands ready to fight - to the last drop of blood - to his last breath of life - he doesn't do much talking. He lets his weapon do that for him. And, later, he doesn't talk about where he has been - or when - or what he did - or saw. He knows that the safely of millions depends on his silence!
The news side of the sheet includes three maps:
- Map of northern France, showing the progress of the American offensive through Brittany with red arrows.
- Pacific map showing parts of the Philippines and Melanesia.
- Small inset map showing larger Pacific region, with parts of China and Japan.
Two small photographic views show:
- Group of three American G.I.s "somewhere in China": Lt. Jack R. Hartley of Little Rock, a Voting Officer explaining soldier voting to Cpl. Alfred M. Helget of Springfield, Minn.; and Cpl. Juan Montez of Brawley, Calif.
- Photo of an extremely curvy portion of the Burma Road in China.
The tenor of the information and news set forth on the map is decidedly pro-American, for example:
France: American armor that rolled through Brittany and sealed off the Peninsula took territory at rate that rivalled any Soviet advance.
Bonins: A U.S. carrier task force struck Japanese territory within 600 miles of the main islands in attacks on the Bonin and Volcano Islands area.
![(Southeast Asia) [Unpublished Manuscript Sailing Directions from Europe to China by a French Navigational Officer]](https://storage.googleapis.com/raremaps/img/small/90507.jpg)
![(Second World War - Prelude - German Irredentism) Die Zerstuckelung Deutschlands. Vom Reiche sollen in Ost und West 5 1/2 Millionen Deutsche getrennt werden! [The Dismemberment of Germany. East and West, 5-1/2 Million Germans Are to be Separated from the Nation] (Large Edition)](https://storage.googleapis.com/raremaps/img/small/94725.jpg)
