Five WWII Bird's-eye View Maps including the Pacific and Southeast Asia.

Five printed colour maps each: 31.4 x 47 cms; 46.3 x 53.3 cms (sheet), central fold, marginal edge wear, chips and a few small edge tears, tidemark affecting the ocean at the outer edge of Map VII, but all the maps in very good condition. From a series of World War II battlefront maps "for the delight of arm-chair strategists" published by the Library Bureau of Remington Rand (seven were published). Taken from a bird's eye view of the globe and with relief artistically rendered by artist Kenneth Thompson (1907-1996) and descriptive text by George Fielding Eliot (1894-1971). Eliot spent his youth in Australia, attending Melbourne University, serving with distinction in the Australian Infantry in WWI. Moving to the United States (after a short stint in Canada serving with the RCMP) her served as a reserve officer in the U.S. Army reserve, in military intelligence, from 1922 to 1933 and during WWII Eliot famously broadcast the first extended television coverage following the attack on Pearl Harbor. He continued to write books and articles about military strategy and world politics into the 1960s. In keeping with the "aviation-age" cartography of Richard Edes Harrison, the unusual perspective of the maps--from above, and often with a direction other than north at the top of the map--challenges the viewer to reconsider the geopolitical situation, with the text of Eliot as a further prompt (his captions below): Map III Italy & South France "Hannibal Caesar and Napoleon made their reputations here" Map IV The Western Front "Will the cockpit of 1918 see the decisive battles of 1944" Map V Southeastern Asia "The road to Mandalay -- and to China --along which bombs for Tokyo must travel" Map VI The Southwest Pacific "Island-hopping toward Japan -- in short and long hops" Map V11 The North Pacific "Here the enemy trusts in the protection of vast ocean distances".…