Escape and evasion map

During World War II, these clandestine maps were used by many American, British, and allied servicemen to escape from behind enemy lines.

Modern evasion charts are made of Tyvek 'paper', which permit printing of minute detail while remaining waterproof and tear-resistant.

"[3] Some American intelligence offices visited the UK in 1942 to be briefed on the British efforts in "escape and evasion" techniques and equipment.

The cloth maps were sometimes hidden in special editions of the Monopoly board game sets sent to the prisoners of war camps.

The marked game sets also included foreign currency (French and German, for example), compasses and other items needed for escaping Allied prisoners of war.

[11] These were issued during the American conflict with Vietnam, but the print was subject to wear and the plastic was prone to stress cracking at folds and corners when carried on flying days for several months as USAF Captain Roger Locher noted when using one during his record 23-day evasion and rescue near Hanoi after his F-4 Phantom fighter jet was shot down.

Current USAF evasion charts, introduced immediately before Operation Desert Storm, and also issued to many allied air forces, are printed on spunbond olefin fiber polymer sheet and are waterproof and extremely strong.

[13] USAF Captain Scott O'Grady, brought down by hostile fire over Bosnia in 1996, later wrote “When I was finally settled in, I pulled my evasion chart from my G-suit pocket and began to plot the longitude and latitude coordinates I’d gotten from my GPS receiver last night… [It] showed all the hills valleys, rivers, and land features around me.