[Rarebooks] fa: WORLD WAR I - SET OF 3 LARGE FOLDING MAPS of GERMAN EAST AFRICA 1915-16

[Ardwight Chamberlain]

Listed now, auctions ending MONDAY, December 10. More details and images can be found at the URL below or by searching under the seller name arch_in_la.

http://tinyurl.com/bhgav8x

Thanks,
Ardwight Chamberlain
L.A.


German East Africa. Eyássi. Tabora. Turu. G.S.G.S./O.S.O.(Geographical Section, General Staff/Ordnance Survey Office): 1915-1916. Three maps, folding and backed with linen as issued, each measuring 86 x 71 cm (34 x 28 in.). Two of the maps overprinted with a pink grid and red numbers; one map (Tabora) dated 1916 and with the statement in the top margin: "Second Edition (Railway Revised)". Light stains to the covers of two of the maps, one map with with a touch of wear/fraying to the edges of the linen; occasional mild browning to the folds; otherwise in excellent condition: very clean and fresh, no tears.

A remarkably well-preserved set of three WWI-era British maps of central German East Africa (present day Tanzania). In addition to indicating towns, villages, roads, tracks, railroad and telegraph lines, lakes, hills, etc., the cartographers have added many helpful comments on local terrain and conditions: "Grass with trees and scattered bush";  "Primeval forest"; "Dense wood on the rocky hills"; "Gently undulating country"; "Flooded in rainy season, game plentiful"; "Drinkable water here when remainder of lake is dry"; etc., etc. These maps would have been of particular use in the 1916 coordinated British-Belgian thrust to capture Tabora (map C3), and during the German offensive against  Mkalama (Turu, map C3) in 1917; and it was on Oldeani Hill, just north of Lake Eyassi (map B4), that the last German guerilla detachment, consisting of "three Europeans and fifty-three Askaris surrendered early in October, 1917" (Francis Reynolds [et al]: The Story of the Great War, vol. 7. Handsome and fascinating relics of one of the Great War's less known and more exotic theatres of operations.