Description

An uncommon map in Polish language represents the theater of war of one of the fiercest battles of World War II, located in Monte Cassino, between Napes and Rome, which enabled the Allies the siege of Rome soon after. The British 78th Division and Polish II Corps played a crucial role in the battle, raising a Polish flag on the demolished monastery of Monte Cassino in the early hours of May 18, 1944, after more of four month of fighting, announcing the victory over the German troops.

The map was issued at the end of World War II, in May 1945, and was based on the survey made during the battle a year before. It was printed by the 12th Geographical Company, which was a motorized sub-unit of the Polish Armed Forces in the West, founded to perform field survey, as well as cartographic and photographic material. The unit was formed in the early 1943 in Iraq and was based on a British model.

The Polish II Corps (Drugi Korpus Wojska Polskiego) was formed in 1943, from various units fighting alongside the Allies in all theatres of war, one of them being located in British-held Iraq. The corps consisted not only of Polish soldiers, but also of Jews, Belorussian and Ukrainians. Many Polish soldiers were imprisoned in Gulags by the Soviets from 1939 on and were released in 1941, after the Polish-Russian Military Agreement on 14 August, which allowed for the creation of a Polish Army on Soviet soil.

The Polish II Corps played a major role in the North African and the Italian Campaigns (1941–1945) as part of the British Eighth Army. After the war the division was housed at various locations in England, where they maintained a presence until 1962.