Extraordinary history and an aspect of the CBI campaign that never crossed my mind. To emphasise the importance of military maps a brief story. Years ago I read an account of US Army advisors working with the Republic of Vietnam Army (ARVN). The US advisors experienced great difficulty calling in artillery fire support because the maps they used were hopelessly out of date. It was even claimed that the maps had a zero meridian that went through Paris rather than Greenwich, that might be apocryphal.
Brilliant!
Why thank you, Rob - much more on the Far East mapping to come!
Good! I’ve referred you to a US MA student doing some interesting mapping of Sangshak
I have a suspsicion it was your US MA student who prompted my thinking, and then the article!
Extraordinary history and an aspect of the CBI campaign that never crossed my mind. To emphasise the importance of military maps a brief story. Years ago I read an account of US Army advisors working with the Republic of Vietnam Army (ARVN). The US advisors experienced great difficulty calling in artillery fire support because the maps they used were hopelessly out of date. It was even claimed that the maps had a zero meridian that went through Paris rather than Greenwich, that might be apocryphal.
… exactly, James; exactly! The emergence of more accurate mapping and its implications in WW2 has long been overlooked.