New Year’s card – Palestine Company 18 for Map Supply, 18 PAL. SURVEY MAP DEPORT R.E, on the eve of Rosh Hashanah 1943 – featuring a map of Eretz Israel on both sides of the Jordan River. The inscription at the bottom right reads: ‘May this be the last year of bondage and the first of redemption.’ Hand-signed by the wisher Yitzhak Winderman.
This is the first version of this rare New Year’s card. A year later, towards the end of the war, the Jewish Brigade issued an identical card in design, with the addition of the inscription: “ושבו בנים לגבולם”.
The first British mapping unit to arrive in Palestine during World War II was the 512th Survey Company of the Royal Engineers. The unit invested significant cartographic efforts in Palestine. Other surveying units followed, including Company 18. The Survey Department was requested to adapt to the needs of the military. By the end of World War II, 81 maps were completed, and by the end of the Mandate period, another 27 maps were finished (with 13 more maps in the final stages of preparation by the end of the British Mandate). The Survey Department’s report for the years 1940-1946 states that from 1941-1945, approximately one million military maps of all kinds were printed for the British Army. The Survey Department also produced 130,000 coordinate list sheets during the years 1941-1945.
13×9 cm. Filing holes and a binding string. Very good condition.
