Kalisz Area Maps

[Mahatatain]

I'm wondering if anyone can help me with detailed maps for the Kalisz area that are pre 2000 and available in an electronic format? I'm looking to start a new online Escape from Kalisz scenario and I'd rather not use Google Maps as a reference point.

I've tried the University of Texas at Austin website as their maps of Vietnam are incredible (presumably a legacy of the Vietnam War) but they don't have anything as detailed for Poland, specifically the Kalisz area.

I therefore wondered if anyone here had had any success in finding appropriate maps of Poland/Kalisz area in something like 1:50,000 to 1:250,000 scale? My presumption is that something would have been produced during the Cold War.

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Mahatatain.

[Mahatatain]

I've found some US Army maps of Poland from 1944 and a comment from someone that "the infrastructure in 1995 wouldn't be radically different to 1944".

Do people agree with that? Do you think that it's feasible to use a 1944 maps to represent what Poland would look like in 2000?

[StainlessSteelCynic]

Originally Posted by Mahatatain

I've found some US Army maps of Poland from 1944 and a comment from someone that "the infrastructure in 1995 wouldn't be radically different to 1944".

Do people agree with that? Do you think that it's feasible to use a 1944 maps to represent what Poland would look like in 2000?

They're a good start point and I would agree that up to a point, the infrastructure probably wouldn't have changed that much. The only issue I think you'll face using 1944 maps is that many place names will be German (because many of the areas were part of East Prussia) and it can take a bit of time to find what the town has been renamed in Polish. That plus some former German towns were taken over by the Soviets and made closed sites.

I have a vague memory of seeing some Soviet military maps of Poland & Germany dating from the 1960s and/or 1980s in some online map collection. I'll search for them and if I actually do remember it correctly, I'll post the info.

[Legbreaker]

This may be of some use. https://maps.vlasenko.net/?y=48.34&x..._map=0&search=
Shame it's all in Russian though...

[StainlessSteelCynic]

If you want to spend some money, the following sites have topographic maps from the 1970s-90s for varying prices: -
http://www.omnimap.com/catalog/int/poland1.htm#p7
https://mapstor.com/map-sets/country...1989)--preview


If you're not so keen to spend money, these links have maps of various utility: -

Map: Poland - Time: 1967 - Scale: 1:1,250,000 - Note: large download size
https://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/ser...205445~3002423
If nothing else, this map will give you a good comparison to check for changes from the 1940s maps. (On this particular map, find Warsaw in the top right-hand side, then head S-W to Lodz, then move slightly West to find Kalisz).

Map - Krakow and surrounds - Time: 1956 - Scale: 1: 500,000 - Note: large download size
http://legacy.lib.utexas.edu/maps/am...akow-232-a.jpg
Same story as map above, doesn't show small detail but gives a good overview of the region in the 1950s. (On this map, locate Lodz in the top right-hand corner and travel slightly West to find Kalisz).

This map may be some help as well. It shows land use as of August 1990. You can see that a lot of Poland is used for agriculture and forestry. Even in 2010 (I was in Poland for about a month in 2010), they were barely growing enough food for their own consumption.
https://legacy.lib.utexas.edu/maps/a...nd-landuse.jpg

And there's this tactical pilotage chart from 2001 that covers a wide section of Poland. Again, the download size is rather large.
Scale: 1:500,000
http://legacy.lib.utexas.edu/maps/tp...34566_e-3d.jpg
On this map, find Warsaw in the top centre of the map, head S-W to locate Lodz and again travel slightly W to find Kalisz.

Hopefully with those three maps, you can chart any significant increase in town sizes compared to the 1940s maps. From a quick glance, I would say that generally, watercourses, road & rail have barely changed locations (if at all).

[ChalkLine]

PM'd you