World War II cartography

World War II cartography involved creating detailed maps to support military operations, strategic planning, and logistics. These maps depicted troop movements, front lines, supply routes, and geographic features essential for navigation. They ranged from simple sketches to highly detailed topographic and political maps, often classified during the war for security. Cartographers used aerial photography, surveys, and intelligence reports to update maps rapidly. This visual information was crucial for decision-making, understanding battlefield environments, and ultimately influencing the war's outcome. After the war, many of these maps contributed to geographic and geopolitical understanding of wartime Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Pacific.