First some history:
Traditional land navigation maps do not provide the pilot with all of the information he needs to safely find a route. Because of this Pilots maps have been made in the same way as mariners charts. These maps include things like the flashing sequence of air and marine lights and lighthouses in order to help the pilot navigate by night. In wartime there are other pieces of information that also become relevant such as artillery ranges and other dangerous military zones.

In 1938 The Air Ministry released a series of maps which covered all of England, Scotland and Wales. This series of maps was used throughout the Battle of Britain and was only superseded in 1942. If modifications were required in service due to new airfields being built, significant changes to the artillery ranges or navigation lights then these would be provided to squadrons via “Air Ministry Notices to Airmen” The individual would then be expected to keep his maps up to date. The 1938 series are therefore the exact maps that RAF pilots used to navigate around the UK.

About these maps:
These maps have been collected over a period of about 8 years and come from a variety of sources. The entire series was created from 12 maps and range from mint to used but all are in good condition. These maps were carefully stiched together and presented in 4 high high resolution maps. Some have their owners names written on the outside cover, for example, sheet 9 was issued to P/O Woodgate and still has some of his routes marked on the map in pencil. Sheet 11 whilst not attributable to a specific pilot has had annotations, look in the middle of the map near the top border, you will find that he has added Watchfield Airfield and a height of 350ft above sea level. In the southern part of the map he has added another artillery range and again there are numerous routes marked on it. Sheets 12 and 10 appear to be mint and unwritten on.

These maps are the real thing. They are genuine Battle of Britain period RAF Pilots maps.

Battle of Britain II (BoBII) :
The terrain map in BoBII is generated from real world period data, i.e. from maps very similar to these. Because of this, we started to navigate using these maps and found that it was really quite easy as the Rowan generated terrain is very close to reality, in some areas even the woodlands are represented faithfully. We decided to scan the maps that represent the area modelled in detail in the BoBII terrain. We had four maps scanned in order to provide the majority of the detailed terrain. These were scanned by a company who create large signs and posters for hoardings from large pieces of artwork. Even so, these maps are about 80cm by 50cm and did not fit in their scanner, so they have been done in two or more sections and then stitched together but we don’t think you will find it easy to tell where!

You will find that these will help you to navigate the BoBII world and you should gain a great deal of pleasure from using real WW2 Battle of Britain RAF pilot’s maps.