[British Indian Government Propaganda Map] Weekly News Report (WNR) No. 156 - Axis Clean-Up Begins: September 1942 - March 1943 - Six Months Progress

Rare British Indian b/w propaganda map with explanatory texts 68x44cm, printed on economy paper. Good, tanned with some foxing, folded, creased, 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. Two maps of Europe and North Africa show dramatic Allied progress from September 1942 to March 1943, distinguishing Axis, Axis occupied, Vichy French, and Allied and Neutral territories. This includes almost total removal of the Axis and Vichy French from West and North Africa, and Soviet advances from Stalingrad to the Black Sea marking the turning point on the Eastern Front. The caption states "Six months ago German machineguns were chattering on the barricaded streets of Stalingrad. Rommel's panzers were 60 miles from Alexandria. French North and West Africa provided abundant raw materials for the Axis war machine --- To-day Rommel and Von Arnim are fighting desperately in Tunisia, with their backs to the Mediterranean, fighting for time in which to fortify Europe against the Anglo-American assault, which must come soon after Africa has been cleared of the last vestige of Axis power". 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).…