GSGS Restricted silk Malayan Emergency escape/evasion map—Singapore—Penang 1957
SKU: P-6-111584
Singapore — Restricted— Edition I–GSGS— Fabric Map 1:1,000,000 [Strait of Malacca—Southern Malaya—Sumatra] // Penang — Restricted— Edition I–GSGS— Fabric Map 1:1,000,000 [Northern Malaya, Strait of Malacca & Sumatra]
A Malayan Emergency-era silk escape map—Restricted—Singapore // Penang, Edition I–GSGS, issued by the Geographical Section General Staff, War Office, in 1957. Fabric escape-and-evasion maps were developed during the Second World War by the British military intelligence organisation MI9, notably under the direction of Christopher Clayton Hutton. A prolific inventor of devices for covert military and espionage use, Hutton is also thought to have been one of the inspirations for Ian Fleming’s conception of Q Branch. Printed on both sides of rayon cloth, such maps were durable, silent in use, and easily concealed. Originally issued to airmen for use if shot down behind enemy lines, they were later also supplied to Special Forces, and were notably used by the SAS during the 1991 Gulf War. The present example was produced during the Malayan Emergency, when British forces continued to require robust survival mapping for operations in the jungles of Malaya and the surrounding waters. One side maps Singapore, Johor, and the southern Malay Peninsula; the reverse covers Penang and north-western Malaya, with parts of Sumatra and the adjacent seas. It preserves the late-colonial political geography and communications network of British Malaya at a pivotal moment in the region’s decolonising history, on the eve of Malayan independence and a few years before the creation of Malaysia.
Size 70 x 101 cm | 27.5 x 39.5 inches
Date Published: 1957
Type: Cold War era double-sided GSGS silk fabric escape and evasion map
Author: War Office
Publication: War Office
Condition: Good |
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