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Rare British Indian b/w propaganda map 44x35cm, printed on economy paper. Good, neatly folded with closed tears, hole-punched for filing, with minor impact on content. "WNR" identifies this as part of a series of maps produced to accompany the World News Report issued by the Director of War Publicity, National War Front. Undated, but relating to the period immediately after Nazi Germany's invasion of the USSR in June 1941, when the Allies began providing the Red Army with material support. Bounded by Iceland (NW) and the head of the Persian Gulf (SE), it shows the "Russian Fighting Line", and Allied supply routes to the USSR via the Arctic and Mediterranean, with an indication of the Persian Corridor. Natural challenges with the Arctic route are shown by Freeze Lines drawn through the USSR as of 1 October, 1 November, 1 December, and 1 January. Iceland (captioned "Here Winter brings fog, gales and pack ice") is shown as an important US hub with routes across the Arctic to the Barents Sea (Northern Route) with "Pack Ice - Oct to May"; and via Britain to the Mediterranean: "Re-opening of Mediterranean would mean short, ice-free supply route to Russia". The less defined and untitled Persian Corridor option has a line passing through Iran diverging in the Caspian Sea. This poster supported the British Indian Government's comprehensive propaganda operation to keep the population onside. With India providing over 2 million troops and several million others to the war effort at home, it tied the war to the fate of India, praised Indian contributions, and countered Axis propaganda. It began in 1940 with Provincial and District War Committees coordinated from Calcutta, and continued with the National War Front (NWF) from 1942, under the Director of War Publicity at Victory House in Madras. The NWF operated through Directors at Presidency level supported by District and Divisional organisers, and an array of lecturers, propagandists, village leaders, and inspectors reaching deep into the grassroots. In support, Victory House published the weekly "Madras War Review", and served as a Central Information Bureau with a Showroom displaying its models for railway cars, charts, maps, posters, and other material, which were replicated in local NWF "Victory Houses" across India. Very few of these materials survive. This one is not recorded on Worldcat or Library Hub. (References: Tamil Digital Library; P. Priya, "Popular Distress and the Second World War: Malabar, 1939-45, Proceedings of the Indian History Congress, Vol. 74 (2013), pp. 602-610).
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