{"title":"South African Survey Coy. S.A.E.C.","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"ww2-siege-of-tobruk-derna-libya-south-african-survey-coy-saec-september-1941-map-p-8-006534","title":"WW2—Siege of Tobruk—Derna—Libya—South African Survey Coy—SAEC—September 1941 map","description":"\u003cp align=\"left\"\u003e'Derna—Not to be Published—Libya 1:500,000 Sheets 5 \u0026amp; 13 Derna'\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp align=\"left\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp align=\"left\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eDerna — Not to be Published, Libya 1:500,000, Sheets 5 \u0026amp; 13, drawn and reproduced in September 1941 by the South African Survey Company, South African Engineer Corps. Produced during the critical phase of the North African campaign, the map covers eastern Cyrenaica at a moment when Allied forces were preparing operations to relieve Tobruk. Compiled from rapid field surveys and revised intelligence, it was intended for operational use only and explicitly marked “Not to be Published”, restricting circulation to authorised military personnel. Such sheets were essential for planning troop movements, supply routes, and artillery coordination in terrain where pre-war mapping was inadequate or unreliable. As a contemporary field-survey product of an Allied specialist unit, the map offers a direct documentary record of wartime cartography under combat conditions and is a scarce survivor of operational mapping from the Western Desert in 1941.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Antiquemapsandprints.com","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52173552451931,"sku":"P-8-006534","price":320.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0923\/9583\/1643\/files\/P-8-006534a.jpg?v=1770310705"},{"product_id":"derna-bardia-ww2-secret-operation-crusader-place-names-code-3-1-dec-1941-map-p-7-028159","title":"Derna-Bardia—WW2—Secret—Operation Crusader—Place names code #3—1 Dec 1941 map","description":"\u003cp align=\"left\"\u003eSitrop Map Sheet 2: Derna—Bardia—Secret—Map Illustrating Place Names Code No. 3 [MDR 542\/630—WDR\/Misc\/1182]\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp align=\"left\"\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp align=\"left\"\u003e\u003cem\u003eThis “SECRET” overprinted sheet covers the coastal strip from Derna eastwards past Tobruk to Bardia, extending inland across the desert escarpment toward the Egyptian frontier. Issued as Place Names Code Map No. 3, it standardised spellings and grid references for operational reporting—vital in a theatre where inconsistent transliterations and sparse topographical features complicated navigation and intelligence. The numbering suggests a revised iteration; the periodic alteration of code names was intended to frustrate German signals interception. The overprint date, 1 December 1941, places the sheet at a decisive moment in the Western Desert Campaign during Operation Crusader (18 November–December 1941). Launched by the British Eighth Army to relieve the besieged garrison at Tobruk and destroy Rommel’s Panzergruppe Afrika, the offensive culminated in fierce mobile fighting around Sidi Rezegh in late November. By 1 December the battle had reached a turning point: Axis forces were overextended and short of fuel following Rommel’s counterstroke toward the Egyptian frontier, while British formations regrouped after heavy tank losses. Tobruk had been relieved only days earlier. The geography shown here formed the operational core of the campaign. Tobruk—centrally placed on the sheet—was the hinge of the front. Coastal roads and desert tracks plotted on the map were indispensable to the armoured manoeuvre warfare conducted across vast, waterless terrain. Issued at the height of fluid desert operations, this overprint captures the battlespace at the moment the initiative was shifting away from Rommel—an evocative documentary survival from one of the most dynamic phases of the Western Desert Campaign.\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Antiquemapsandprints.com","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52409179439451,"sku":"P-7-028159","price":420.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0923\/9583\/1643\/files\/P-7-028159a_5454a597-bf7f-4e8d-bc92-b66eac4daf44.jpg?v=1771442665"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.antiquemapsandprints.com\/fr\/collections\/south-african-survey-coy-s-a-e-c.oembed","provider":"Antiquemapsandprints.com","version":"1.0","type":"link"}