8 inches x 6 inches (21 cms x 15 cms). 116 town plans of North West France, mainly printed both sides. A large folding frontispiece provides a key map of all the various towns. Most town plans are printed either one to a page or two to a page; some are large double-page fold-out plans.
In fine and virtually original condition, as issued by the Wehrmacht in 1940.
A lovely copy of the German army's atlas of town plans in North West France, published in Berlin by Abteilung für Kriegskarten und Vermessungswesen (Department for War Maps and Surveying), and intended Nur für den Dienstgebrauch! (For official use only) for the Generalstab des Heeres (German General Staff) as part of the German preparatory work for their forthcoming war plans for Europe prior to their invasion of France.
In short, this atlas of town plans is one of a number of confidential documents prepared at the beginning of the Second World War for the use of high ranking military planners, officers and their staff within the top echelons of the German war machine in Berlin.
These 116 German wartime town plans, most of which have never been republished, have immense historical significance as surviving remnants of World War Two German Wehrmacht material.
Some of these town plans have particular resonance for troops and units involved in the British, American, Canadian and Allied forces landings in Normandy on D-Day in June 1944 covering as it does many of the towns through which battles were subsequently fought between the Allies and the retreating German forces.
The 116 individual towns and cities in the atlas are set out below. Anyone in the land forces in Normandy and North West France in 1944/1945 will have had to fight his way through the actual streets shown in many of these towns.
Alençon, Amboise, Ancenis, Angers, Argentan, Argenton-sur-Creuse, Arpajon, Auray, Avranches, Bagnoles-de-L'Orne, Baugé, La Baule et Pornichet, Bayeux, Beaugency, Bernay, Le Blanc, Blois, Bolbec, Bonneval, Bressuire, Brest, Cabourg, Caen, Cancale, Carentan, Carhaix, Challans, Chateaubriant, Chateaudun, Chateau-Gontier, Chateauroux, Châtellerault, Chatillon-sur-Indre, La Châtre, Chartres, Cherbourg, Chinon, Cholet, Concarneau, Coutances, Dinan, Dinard, Domfront, Douarnenez, Dreux, Elbeuf, Ernée, Étampes, Fécamp, La Ferté-Bernard, La Ferte-Macé, La Flèche, Flers, Fougères, Granville, Guincamp, Le Havre, Hennebont, Honfleur, Issoudon, Laigle, Landernau, Lannion, Laval, Lillebonne, Lisieux, Loches, Lorient, Mamers, Le Mans, Mayenne, Montmorillon, Morlaix, Nantes (4 plans), Niort, Orléans (2 plans), Parthenay, Poissy, Poitiers, Pontivy, Pont-L'Abbé, Quimper, Quimperlé, Rambouillet, Redon, Rennes, La Roche-sur-Yon, Romorantin, Les Sables-D'olonne, Sablé, Saumur, Sées, Segré, St.-Adresse, St.-Brieuc, St. Germain-En-Laye, St.-Lô, St.-Maixant, St.-Malo/St.-Servan Paramé, St. Nazaire, St. Pol-De-Léon, Thouars, Tours, Deauville et Trouville, Valognes, Vannes, Vendôme, Verneuil, Versailles (2 plans), Vierzon.
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