1944 Turner Pictorial Map of Europe Just After the D-Day Invasion of France

This is a 1944 Stanley Francis Turner pictorial map of Europe just after the D-Day invasion of France. This is the first edition of Turner's 'Dated Events War Map' series to depict the D-Day invasions, published only days after the landings in France.

D-Day

This edition was published only days after the D-Day invasion of France, making it the first edition of Turner's Dated Events War Map series - subsequent editions shade liberated parts of France red.

Invasion of Sicily and Italy

Much like how later editions depict the Allied advance across northern Europe; both Sicily and southern Italy are shaded red to highlight liberated territory. Dates are provided for the liberation of Palermo (July 22), the British landings (Sept. 3), and the American landing at Salerno (Sept. 9). The Gustav Line, which stymied the Allied advance for months, is referenced.

The Eastern Front

The fighting on the Eastern Front is chronicled as well. The Nazi invasion of Poland is announced, as is their invasion of Russia two years later. Curiously, no other events of the Nazi drive across the Soviet Union are referenced, only Soviet victories in 1943 and 1944. A textbox along the top border announces the raising of the Leningrad siege in January 1943, and red stars mark and date Soviet victories. Other events, such as the American declaration of war on Germany and Italy, the American arrival in Ireland, and the Operation Torch landings in North Africa, are referenced along the left border.

A Closer Look

Continental Europe occupies most of the sheet, with England and Wales illustrated in the upper left corner. Faint markings reference pre-war borders, likely Turner's way of emphasizing the continental expansion of Nazi Germany. Major European capitals, including London, Paris, Berlin, and Rome, are all labeled in blue and highlighted with profile illustrations of famous landmarks, such as Big Ben and the Eiffel Tower. Fortifications, like the Siegfried Line, are marked by gun icons. Bomb icons mark cities in Germany and Holland that were subjected to Allied bombing raids, but only one such target is marked in France, Le Creusot, even though many other French cities were also Allied targets. An inset map, entitled 'Scandinavia and the Baltic', is situated in the upper left, and a second inset map in the lower right depicts southern Greece and the Dodecanese Islands.

The Verso - The Pacific War

A black and white map printed on the verso recounts the events of the Pacific War. Turner uses the same aesthetic and employs textboxes to recount events in this theater of war from the beginning with the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, through the capture of Madang on New Guinea in late April 1944. The Doolittle Raid, the fall of Corregidor and Bataan, and the Battles of the Coral Sea and Midway are among the many historic moments highlighted here.

Publication History and Census

This map was created by Stanley Francis Turner and published by C.C. Peterson in 1944. Four examples are cataloged in the OCLC and are part of the institutional collections at the Cleveland Public Library, Auburn University, the University of Memphis, and the National Library of Australia. Another example is part of the David Rumsey Map Collection at Stanford University.