[Drivingforfun]

I recently found this

https://redatlasbook.com/maps

During the Cold War the Soviets spent a considerable amount of resources employing an army of people to map the world in great detail. No one really knows why but the best guess is they didn't trust the local maps and wanted their own map of everywhere, just in case they decided to occupy

It's quite fun looking at places you know and while it's an impressive achievement by the Soviets it's sometimes it's quite amusing seeing what they marked as strategic targets... for example I found a map of my mum's village when she was growing up and they have an airbase marked, which is correct but it would have been derelict at that point, because my mum learnt to drive on the runway!

[Rolebama]

It is interesting to see that they are missing roads that were built in 1973/4, but do have roads built in 1976/7. They also have houses where no houses ever were. We had copies of a few of their maps in 1968/9, which although generally good, failed in the detail.
As an aside, every map produced in this country whether OS, A to Z, or whoever, has deliberate mistakes to enable copyright claims.

[olduser]

I suppose it's an age thing but I do like a good map to OS standard, there's so much information.
Whilst I use a satnav, I am always frustrated because there is not enough shown to be able to confirm you are where you and it think you are.

When I started working on meter inspection, satnav's were expensive and only worked on the out code, (the first group of characters in the postcode) the company would not help with maps or satnav.

I was not a native of the areas I worked in, so it was paper maps.
Knowing what was on route, woods, open fields, high ground, water towers, rivers, lakes etc, made it all possible when trying to find a game keepers house on an estate but the estate had been divided up.
It was in awe of WW2 fighter pilots, finding their way about while flying at 200 - 400 MPH with a map!

In towns new to me, I found a base on a main road into the town. (somewhere to park).
From there I could plot a route to the street/s I wanted, I worked those, and return to plot the next batch, should I get lost (I did) I could always return to base.
Then off to the next town.
Later in the day, I would be back to the first town and call again (if needed) but in the dark!

Of course in somewhere like Cambridge or Norwich, when you arrive in the street it was usually no parking!
The company gave us cards to put in the window ("Emergency Call") but they didn't work and we had to pay our own fines.

How do/did lorry drivers manage?

[Drivingforfun]

I don't know if there's any truth behind it, but has anyone heard about the British not putting a scale in some of their WW2 maps? Apparently if you knew the height of the plane you could use the size of a cricket pitch to determine the scale? Of course every British person worth anything would know the size of a cricket pitch and there was no worry about Nazis getting the maps as they were barbarians who wouldn't know that kind of cultural info!!

[Rolebama]

I don't know if it is still there but Hughenden Manor, near High Wycombe, (Not that near, but they have a website), had a display of mapping done for WW2. Most of it is of Germany, but there were some GB maps which I am sure didn't all have scales.
As for the length of a cricket pitch, aren't they measured in some kind of dark art witchery of the metric system?😁

[Drivingforfun]

Just bumping this up as I placed an order as a gift for a hard-to-buy-for relative, who was an aerospace engineer, sadly a bit after the Cold War or it would've been even more apt!!

We opened it up on the table (it came in a tube and we had make room on the table, then unroll it and spread it out on the worktop like proper military commanders) and it's very well printed on good quality paper

Definitely recommend to anyone, but it's £25 a map + £10 postage (only one lot of £10 for however many maps you want though) and it comes from Latvia so whether I've been put on a "list" somewhere, who knows!!!