[Libyan Desert map] AAF Aeronautical Chart (543) Farafra Oasis (Egypt, Africa) 1:1,000,000, Third Edition

Cold War map of the Libyan Desert. Colour printed sheet 74x56cm, with index map, keys, and aeronautical data to the verso. Near fine, neatly folded, lightly tanned. Prepared in September 1944, this 3rd edition is dated December 1948 with ACS aero overprint 12-48. Centred on the Great Sand Sea, this includes the Oases of Farafra (NE), Dakhla (E), and Kufra (SW), with the Sand Sea of Calanscio (NW). Colour tinted for elevation with contours and spot heights, details include oasis settlements and stone dwellings, desert tracks, airstrips, dune fields, rocky hills, sand or gravel plains, plateau, etc. Airstrips of unknown length are shown at Kufra and Dakhla. Several captions in the image describe the terrain, some of which are speculative, approximate or doubtful. The vast movement of windblown sand is captured with reference to "hills half buried in sand". The Sand Sea of Calanscio was where USAAF B24 "Lady be Good" crash landed in 1943, with its survivors dying from dehydration. Returning to Libya from a bombing raid over Naples, it had overflown its base at Soluch Field in a sandstorm and ran out of fuel. Calanscio is here described as "complicated big crested dunes" with "doubtful tracks" along its edges. During WW2, the USAAF had a major base at Wheelus on the Libyan coast (at one point its largest military facility outside of the US). It closed briefly in 1947, reopening as Wheelus Air Base in June 1948, retaining a major Cold War presence. At the time this map was issued, Wheelus AB was operated by the USAF Military Air Transportation Service, flying Douglas C-47 Skytrains and C-54s to Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Cyprus. …