1941 WWII German Propaganda Bombing and Invasion Map of England

WWII Propaganda: Bombing Britain.

This is a 1941 German propaganda map of Great Britain published by Carl Lange Verlag during World War II (1939 - 1945). The map emphasizes British cities bombed by the Luftwaffe and reinforces the powerful German occupation of the entire coast of continental Europe.

A Closer Look

The map depicts from Connacht (here as Connaught), Ireland, to Norway and Mönchengladbach, Germany, and from the Shetland Islands to Chartres and Joinville, France. Red circles mark cities bombed by the Luftwaffe.

Red highlighting along the coast of continental Europe emphasizes the German-controlled 'Atlantic Wall'. This includes the coast of Norway. Germans thus occupied Europe's coast from Brest to Norway, including parts of the continent not illustrated here.

A German Invasion?

Red arrows point toward Britain from the entirety of Europe's coastline, declaring Germany's potential to invade the island nation. However, with the benefit of hindsight, we know that Germany could not have managed an invasion of Britain in 1942, or even earlier. Germany lost the Battle of Britain in 1940, and without aerial superiority over the English Channel, an invasion was not possible. Hitler elected to invade the Soviet Union instead and launched Operation Barbarossa on June 22, 1941. The Nazi Army got bogged down in the east, and even if the Luftwaffe had managed to defeat the British Royal Air Force, they would not have been able to continue fighting the Russians and invade Britain. Hence the propaganda aspect of this piece. This map was intended to convince the German people that an invasion of Britain was still a viable option. It also must have been meant to show the Germans that, even though they were being bombed night and day by Allied forces, the Luftwaffe was returning that violence in kind by bombing British cities. Ironically, the German phrase 'Ohne Gewähr!' appears below the border at the center, which translates to 'Without Guarantee!'

Publication History and Census

This map was created and published by Carl Lange Verlag in Duisburg, Germany, in 1941. We have previously sold a later edition (Englandkarte-langeverlag-1942) which differs from this example in the date printed below the key (here February 10, 1941, and January 20, 1942, on the later edition). The present edition also bears a publication date of 1940, while the later edition bears a date of 1942.

This map is not cataloged in OCLC, and we have not found any records of it in institutional collections. We note only a couple of instances in which it has appeared on the private market, and every digitized example bears slightly different dates and printing details. Of the four digitized examples, only one (the one previously sold by Geographicus) does not bear the stamp of Zeitschriften-Buchhandlung K. O. Gassdorf, a German bookstore/publisher in the upper right corner.

Condition

Good. Wear along original fold lines. Slight loss at a few fold intersections. Verso repairs to fold separations. Closed edge tears professionally repaired on verso.