Merryn

Thinking about the next ep of @newsofthewar.bsky.social coming up on Friday, this seems appropriate. Not from the 1940s ~ the French didn't want to share, and good maps of the interior were scarce ~ but isn't it delightful?! Makes the point about Madagascar, admirably. 🇲🇬

The jury will, no doubt, muse on the aesthetics of Royal Mail's new stamps for a while. In the meantime, I've been pondering on German military map sheets that were once used to print Latvian postage. 📗 Read here: sl1nk.com/caq48sv

Leaving aside my envy at Ian's access to film footage of this region ~ one day, someone will pitch 'Bulldozers in Battle: The Forgotten Story' to a decent publisher, and I will be at the front of the queue, to buy that book.

Brutal day. But a good one to check in on the tomb of James Greeve at Cley-next-Sea ~ unwittingly an inspiration for Jack Higgins’ book, The Eagle Has Landed. Greeve was the assistant to Sir Cloudesly Shovel in “burning ye Shippe in ye port of Tripoly in Barbery Jan. 14th 1676”. Yoikes.

Over on Substack, James Holland nails it again. Everything you ever wanted to know about Eagle’s Nest and more. Yes, it was a testament to evil, but also a reminder of evil’s demise and a major contributor to the area's economy today. Voila: a map. Read his stack: substack.com/profile/8721...

The debate about WW2 historians' writing style goes on. Must it all be facts and footnotes? Don't we benefit from immersive, emotive descriptions? Here's my take on it: ask me what the mapmakers' war smelt like ~ and I shall show you how Proust's ghost taps my pen.

Can’t offer an ATS. Can tell you the Weybourne walk is worth your time, any day.

A few years ago, Norway beckoned. Oslo, Rjukan, Stavanger. The Hardangervidda and the lake. Vemork - following in the footsteps of Operation Freshman, Grouse, et al. Life-changing, in the way it made me consider mapped terrain. Never forgotten it, nor the many discoveries along the way.

A little mapping to accompany your early evening @newsofthewar.bsky.social. Chaps at GSGS described the Turkish political situation as 'obscure'. 1:200k did appear, and 1:25k maps were made for Istanbul and the Dardanelles but it was never a happy mapping happenstance. Ankara. 👇

Editorial prowess from my co-host on @newsofthewar.bsky.social - this has been a whirlwind series of newspaper discoveries. One more to go, and that’s a doozy. 😊

Globes set me thinking, and some of that thinking turned into a light diversion for the end of the week, over on Substack. 🔥 Do you know what 'fougasse' was? 🌍 Do you know 'who' Fougasse was? www.merrynwalters.uk/p/what-or-wh...

Great excitement chez moi (hat tip to Tim Daw). LIDAR. Walking to Weybourne, our WW2 tank ditch has to sit in the imagination - it was largely filled in by 1952. But lo! The invsibilitymagickthing reveals works and wotnots everywhere. Thank me later. Example: shorturl.at/NlF6X

Ah, Friday. The day before tomorrow, and a time to think about yesterday. A time when shorts were short, caps weren't all that, and a chap could put his wife's name on the front of his lorry in the Western Desert. Ann - wife of Driver Mattocks, 514 Field Survey Coy.

I’m in North Norfolk. I think about this a lot. Too much, really, in the context of WW2. When they say, “He who would Old England win, must at Weybourne Hope begin” - this is why. Deep water, an open reach, and a standard gauge railway just across the fields. (Ignore the Bofors and pillboxes nearby)

Good substack from Katja Hoyer today, so it seems rude not to offer at least one map putting occupation to ‘49 in context. This lithograph was printed on ‘necessity paper’ ~ the few that exist now often turn up with a 1933 German-language map on the back. At the time, you could buy one for Rm. 0.50.

Lifetimes of learning. This great hall - the central library at the Instituto Geografico Militare in Florence - was one of the most humbling archives I’ve ever had the privilege to visit. Happy Thursday, everyone.

Just reflecting on one research trip, cogitating another, and marvelling at the last couple of years. Emengildo Samtoni ~ a pioneer in aerial photogrammetry ~ I guess the way to describe this, is it’s his multi-lens, glass plate, twin-lens mapping camera’: designed for colonial survey work.

Those awful AI posters - how long will this endure?! While it’s no surprise, many include a map ~ the OGs are best. This 1941 map by Jean Fort shows Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill in a tug-of-war over Africa. It was made for the German propaganda unit in occupied France. Love it.

🚨 Coming this Friday: our penultimate episode of our Less Expected Destinations….. we go to Turkey (not a hair transplant in sight) Find out how Turkey was reported on during the Second World War. linktr.ee/NewsOfTheWar @merrynwalters.uk @andyaitch.bsky.social

Is it me, or are mapping endpapers just the best thing ever for books on WW2? Of late though, I’ve been uncharitably critical: 🟢 Fiztroy Maclean - smashing job. 🟡 Kenneth Edwards, Neptune - understandable. 🔴 J Durnford-Slater, Commando - 100% missed opportunity!

518 Field Survey Company wrote up its experiences in a semi-official history. As in, they wrote it. And it's a bit - raw - in places. But full of photos, cartoons, stories, poems, and the odd bit of art too. Can't you just *feel* how topheavy that print wagon is?!

The sea is banging. No swimmin’. So today’s admin has to be followed by a walk - good excuse to check in on the monuments au l’epoch. Spigot mortar base. Kelling Heath.

WW2 campaign mapping for US 66 Infantry Regiment. It's not in my Top 5, but I have shared *one* of my favourites in this article, along with campaign maps for 52 (Lowland) Div. And 79th Armoured Div. And 79th Inf. Division. And 42nd Rainbow Division. And, and... www.merrynwalters.uk/p/ww2-campai...