1945 U.S. Navy Hydrographic Office Map of America's 'Sea Frontiers'

Defending America's Maritime Frontiers.

This is an unrecorded 1945 U.S. Navy Hydrographic Office map of the Americas, delineating the territory of different U.S. Navy Sea Frontiers. These zones were critical components of the U.S. war effort, securing America's coastline and shipping lanes throughout the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.

A Closer Look

The map covers from the Russian Far East and the Marshall Islands in the west to Greenland, the Azores, and the Cape Verde Islands in the east, and from northern Canada as far south as Brazil and Bolivia. U.S. and Canadian coastal defense zones are traced throughout, along with maritime control areas, naval districts, and land-based (Army) defense commands and coastal frontiers. Principal Joint Operations Centers (JOCs), which coordinated between the Army and Navy, are also indicated. An inset map at the top depicts Southeast Asia and the Philippine Sea Frontier.

U.S. Navy Sea Frontiers in World War II

Elaborating on pre-war plans, the U.S. Navy established several Coastal Frontiers around the U.S. mainland and its territories on July 1, 1941, before the U.S. had entered the war. These were renamed Sea Frontiers in February 1942, after the attack on Pearl Harbor. Similar to the Army's Western and Eastern Defense Commands, these designations were meant to better coordinate defensive operations against enemy espionage, sabotage, and outright attacks. In the case of the U.S. Navy, this generally required a rapid evolution from traditional shore defense to anti-submarine warfare, as with the response to Nazi Germany's January 1942 U-boat offensive (Operation Drumbeat) off the Atlantic seaboard and in the Caribbean. Armed with advanced radar, sonar, and a rapidly expanding fleet of sub-chasers and destroyer escorts, the Atlantic and Caribbean frontiers neutralized the U-boat threat along North American shores by 1943, securing vital coastal shipping channels. In the Pacific, Sea Frontiers were equally vital, serving as the logistical engines for Allied offensives and safeguarding vast maritime sectors, conducting search-and-rescue operations, managing mine defenses, and routing ocean-going convoys across thousands of miles.

Publication History and Census

This map was prepared in January 1945 and printed in March 1945 with small corrections for COMINCH (the Commander in Chief, United States Fleet) by the U.S. Navy Hydrographic Office. The 'Special COMINCH' notation at the bottom-right indicates a special-purpose naval chart or map produced for the COMINCH staff, rather than for ordinary commercial distribution, with H.O. referring to the Hydrographic Office and 'Misc. 10,194' being the Hydrographic Office's internal designation. The COMINCH headquarters operated in Washington, D.C. from December 1941 until October 1945 and directed American naval operations during World War II under the leadership of Fleet Admiral Ernest J. King (1878 - 1956), who served in the dual role of COMINCH (operational fleet commander) and Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) throughout most of the war.

The map is marked as 'Restricted,' not as tightly secured as Secret or Top Secret, but still not intended for distribution outside the U.S. military. Though referred to as a third edition, we have been unable to locate any other examples of this map in any edition in institutional collections or on the market.

Cartographer

United States Hydrographic Office (1866 - 1962) was a brach of he U.S. Navy that prepared and published maps, charts, and nautical books to aid in navigation. Before the establishment of the Hydrographic Office in 1866, U.S. navigators were almost entirely dependent on British charts. There had been a few private enterprises that had prepared and published charts, but none had been able to do so profitably. The Office was established 'for the improvement of the means of navigating safely the vessels of the Navy and of the mercantile marine, by providing, under the authority of the Secretary of the Navy, accurate and cheap nautical charts, sailing directions, navigators, and manuals of instructions for the use of all vessels of the United States, and for the benefit and use of navigators generally.' This way the Navy Department could furnish navy and merchant ships with charts illustrating the results of surveys and explorations undertaken by naval officers. The charts were priced to cover the cost of paper and printing alone, not preparation. Its main objective was to survey foreign coasts, as the Coast and Geodetic Surveys were responsible for surveying domestic waters. The Hydrographic Office was transferred from the Department of the Navy to the Department of Defense in 1949 and was replaced by the Naval Oceanographic Office in 1962.   Further Details...

Condition

Very good.