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This is a fascinating map and pamphlet created for soldiers travelling in 1944 leave convoys. A major part of this journey included the road from Baghdad to Beirut, a 695-mile route through arid desert. Soldiers would head west from Baghdad until reaching the Kirkuk-Haifa pipeline, before cutting north to Damascus and then west on to Beirut. The road is shown in green on the map, as are numerous roads, pipelines, geopolitical boundaries, cities, rivers, and more.
British troops had arrived in Iraq in April of 1941 after a coup by the pro-Nazi Rashid Ali. "Iraqforce" remained in Iraq for the remainder of the war, and later became the "Persia and Iraq Force" (Paiforce) in 1942 and placed under the newly created Persia and Iraq Command, formed as German troops were advancing to the Caucuses. This German threat never materialized, and the soldiers left in Iraq spent the rest of the war without seeing much further conflict. Evidently, by 1944, leave convoys were already being organized, and soldiers sent home, either temporarily or permanently.
The text paints a fascinating description of the road that these soldiers would have taken. Historical and geographical context is provided, and soldiers are warned about the hardships of the desert. An additional section discusses the road from Haifa to Beirut.
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