SURVEY OF PALESTINE. 1:25,000 Palestine Series. [No place, but Jerusalem:] Survey of Palestine, 1941-1943.

Large and unusual collection of maps of Palestine with intriguing provenance.

37 photolithographic folding maps (most approximately 630 x 480 mm. when unfolded, a few larger and smaller), all on the scale of 1:25,000 using the Palestine Military Transverse Mercator Grid, all printed in monochrome, with the exception of sheets Umm Ez Zinat and Umm El Fahm with purple overprinting dated to September 1942, El Bira with paper overslip and manuscript correction to serial number. (All with horizontal and vertical creasefolds, scattered spotting and browning, occasional marginal dampstaining, a few minor marginal tears.)
Provenance:
'Sztab Zwalczania Artylerii' (Polish 'Staff Counter-Battery' stamps on 3 sheets [Acre East, Ya'Bad and 'Ein Harod], 2 of which with accession dates of 20 October 1943 in manuscript, and all sheets with small accession stamps with the sheet name in Hebrew manuscript in a hand matching that used in the larger Counter-Battery stamps) -- Gabriel Goldwein (ink ownership stamp giving an address in Haifa).

FASCINATING COLLECTION OF MAPS. Due to wartime conditions, paper was scarce, and a number of the maps are printed on the reverse of other maps that have been cancelled. These are: Deir Mar Sara, 1943, and Ras Fashka, 1943, both printed on the same 1:200,000 colour-printed map produced by Survey Directorate GHQ, ME, June 1941, reprinted Sept. 1941, of Lake Tiberias; Beit Fajjar, 1943, Tel Hordos, 1943, and Bir Zeit, 1943, all on two-colour 1:25,000 map sheet Rass Baalbek printed by 517 Corps Field Survey Company Royal Engineers April-June 1942; Indur, 1941, on 1:25,000 Bardala map; El Mughaiyir, 1943, on 1:25,000 Es Salihiya map; Jerusalem, 1943, on 1:100,000 Ras Ez Zuweira, May 1941; El Bira on colour-printed 1:200,000 map showing Qariateïne (Al Quaryatayn) in Syria, printed by 512 Advanced Field Survey Company Royal Engineers August 1941; 'Ein Et Turaba on 1:200,000 colour-printed map produced by Survey Directorate GHQ, ME, June 1941, reprinted Sept. 1941, of southern Lebanon.

The appearance of the Polish stamps, and the fact that some of the cancelled maps are of Syria and Lebanon dating from 1941-1942, are suggestive not only of the British campaigns in Syria and Lebanon in those years to oust Vichy French forces, but also of Polish military involvement from those regions.

The Independent Carpathian Brigade (Samodzielna Brygada Strzelców Karpackich, SBSK) was a Polish military unit composed of exiles after the German invasion of 1939. Formed in April 1940, the brigade was designed to specialise in mountain warfare, and was attached to the French Armée du Levant in Homs, Syria. It was envisaged to have about 7,000 men, but in fact never had more than 3,700, and would have fought in an Allied campaign in the Balkans. However, the fall of France in May 1940 led the French troops in Syria to side with Petain's Vichy government, and the Carpathians decided to defect to the British in Palestine. There, based in Latrun, the brigade was armed and trained by the British, who tried to increase the number serving in the unit to over 5,500, although, again, the brigade never reached this level. It embarked to North Africa, serving with distinction at the Siege of Tobruk in 1941. By 1942, the Carpathians were back in Palestine, where they were disbanded, and merged with Wladyslaw Anders' Polish II Corps to form the 3rd Carpathian Rifle Division (Dywizja Strzelców Karpackich).

Anders had been captured by the Soviet Army after its invasion of Poland on 17 September 1939. Due to pressure from the British and the actions of the Polish government-in-exile in London, Anders was eventually released by the Soviets in an amnesty of Polish citizens, who allowed him to form a Polish army. This met many obstacles, before the Anglo-Soviet invasion of Iran in September 1941 allowed about 79,000 soldiers and 37,000 civilians – Polish citizens – to leave the Soviet Union via British controlled territories. Upon arrival in Palestine in 1942, Anders' Army was placed under the British Middle East Command, and reformed. The main bulk of the soldiers were from the eastern voivodeships of pre-war Poland, and included over 4,000 Jews. According to some historians, perhaps as many as 3,000 Jews left the army, some deserting, others, including Menachem Begin (1913-1992, member of Irgun, and sixth Prime Minister of Israel) obtaining official permission to leave.

Polish II Corps, as part of Polish Armed Forces in the West, fought tenaciously in the Italian Campaign, including the Battle of Monte Cassino, and had 248 pieces of artillery. It is quite possible that this collection of maps was originally part of a Polish counter-battery unit's map library, before moving into a private collector's hands.

The maps comprising the 1:25,000 Palestine Series are compiled from a number of previous surveys and sources, including those of the 7th Field Survey Company Royal Engineers Egyptian Expeditionary Force 1918, Plane Table Surveys 1926-1927, principal roads and detail revised to October 1942-March 1943, and a final photo-reduction from the 1:20,000 Series in October 1942.

The maps described are accompanied by a further 12 miscellaneous maps of various scales and dates, but all are of the Second World War era, and all relate to Palestine and the greater Middle East.

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