Map showing the German Kriegsmarine's containment of the British Isles. Author and Date Unknown (to me).
| The German Navy and the British Isles | |
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| Date: | 194x |
| Author: | ?? |
| Dwnld: | Full Size (1.9mb) |
| Print Availability: | |
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| See our Prints Page for more details | |
This map isn't part of any series, but we have other military maps that you might want to check out.
I'm not a huge WWI/II buff, but this appears, to my untrained eye, to be a (German?) depiction of a (planned?) naval (U-Boat?) encirclement of the British Isles.
Agree: it is a map of the War of 1914-18 era, and the shading of the southern part of Dutch Limburg is a bit hazy … the Germans respected the territorial integrity of the Netherlands in 1914-18.
More interesting is the use of “Holland” rather than “Niederland” for the Dutch state. Holland is simply one province of the Netherlands, now divided into two parts. It is a far smaller band of territory on the west coast of the Netherlands, north of the Rhine delta.
It is rather common in Germany to use “Holland” for the whole of the Netherlands.
It is also common in many other European states and even in the Netherlands itself (though often used ironically or in a tourism-context).
Ireland is shown as a whole land, meaning that it’s part of Great Britian. This map most likely dates from 1914 or earlier.
I noticed Holland is a neutral zone in this map. This means the map dates from the first World War.
Holland wanted to be neutral during WW II too. Despite clues about a German invasion they did few preparations because they hoped to be able to remain neutral. Interestingly the southern parts of Dutch Limburg are part of the “war zone” on the map.
This map actually serves a more general cause because it seems to be a depiction of the naval war zone around Great Britain and Ireland. This is what the caption says:
Western warzone, Map III: The waters around Great Britain and Ireland are being declared as a war zone.
Kriegs-Gebiets-Grenze: war zone border
An interesting note, Ogrus, thanks for the additional info.