Paper shortages during the Second World War meant that large numbers of maps were re-used to produce new sheets on the backs of older copies. While for the most part this meant that cartographic departments of various armies, the Geographical Section General Staff for the British and the Generalstab des Heeres for the Germans amongst others, would use old stock from their collections towards the end of the war Allied forces began to capture large areas of land formly occupied by Axis troops, and with this also captured large amounts of enemy resources, including maps.

With the push into Germany starting in late 1944 the need for large scale detailed mapping of the country became clear, and this is one of the sheets produced by the G.S.G.S. at 1:25,000 scale. The example here is one of a set of over 2,500 sheets.

But what marks this sheet out from all the others is what is on reverse. When you turn the map over you find, overprinted with thick blue lines and the word ‘Cancelled’, is part of a map which made up a series made by the German Army in preparation for the planned invasion of England in 1941. With perfect symmetry you have an map for the invasion of Germany printed by the British War Office printed on the back of part of a sheet published 3 years before by the Germany Army for the invasion of Britain.

Germany 1:25,000. Geographical Section, General Staff No. 4414. Published in 1945 by the War Office. C22 (15a), sheet 1321.