Extraordinary illustrated war maps tell the story of 20th-century conflict

An unusual caricature map derived from Fred Rose’s Octopus, which highlights the Japanese fear of Russia’s expansionist ambitions in Asia. It was published at the very start of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05. 

This famous image encapsulates the political and military situation at the start of the First World War. The British Bulldog, supported by a fierce French poodle, is biting the nose of the German dachshund itself tethered to a mongrel, representing the different races of Austro-Hungary. 

This map shows Germany and her allied powers, Austria and Turkey, beset on all sides by the Allies. At the centre of the conflict is Germany in the shape of an eagle and the Austro-Hungarian Empire as a fallen clown being attacked by the Russian bear and the Serbian terrier. 

A scarce French postcard of a giant French soldier wearing a red cap of Liberty and supported by a British, a Belgian and an Indian soldier, sweeping the Germans out of France after the First Battle of the Marne in September 1914. 

This striking German propaganda image is an appeal for war bond funds to support the growing U-boat fleet. Despite appearing to encircle the United Kingdom with an unbreakable blockade, the Germans in fact only had twenty- nine U-boats completed at the beginning of the war, of which twenty were ready to go to sea. 

A fascinating depiction of the German view of the situation in Europe in 1914. A confident German Michel (the equivalent of Britain’s John Bull or the U.S.’s Uncle Sam) is striking out at both France and Russia. The Germans have unleashed a swarm of bees, shown stinging the Russian Bear, the Belgian Toad and the French Cockerel, while the Kaiserliche Marine’s High Seas Fleet is a mailed fist emerging from the North Sea to strike England in the face. 

The same artist presents an anthropomorphised view of Europe in 1914. 

A map showing the German view of the situation in Europe in the summer of 1915 by Arthur Kampf. Kampf’s work was much admired by Hitler - in 1944 he was chosen to be placed on the Gottbegnadeten List (God-gifted List), considered crucial to Nazi culture and exempted from military involvement in the final stages of the war.

A rare survival of a map that depicts the Russian Civil War from the White Russian perspective. It shows the Bolsheviks beleaguered on all sides by an international coalition of their foes. However the disunity and distrust between the disparate forces grouped under the White Russian flag would lead to their inevitable piecemeal destruction by the ruthless and single-minded Bolsheviks. 

Striking image from British satirical magazine Punch depicting a lone RAF Spitfire flying towards a vast Nazi Stormtrooper, his monstrosity exacerbated by the gas mask and shadowy aircraft wings. 

This unusual and very scarce Portuguese pictorial depicts the Second World War as a straightforward conflict between mainland Europe and Soviet Russia. Portugal remained officially neutral throughout the war under the rule of its dictator António de Oliveira Salazar, who disliked the Nazi regime but saw the German Reich as a bastion against the spread of communism. 

Winston Churchill wrote that “The Battle of the Atlantic was the dominating factor all through the war...” and this is the focus of this large pictorial map of the North Sea and North Western Europe. It highlights the all-important convoy routes bringing materiel and men to Britain, North Africa and Russia. 

A fine example of the care and effort the Allies devoted to motivating their vast numbers of disparate fighting men through education rather than indoctrination. One of the principal aims of the Educational Services Section of the Navy was to inform the American service personnel about the background and context of the battles in which they were fighting. 

This exceedingly rare piece of savage anti-Bolshevik propaganda was issued as the Russian Army approached ever closer to the borders of the pro-German Bulgarian puppet state in the latter part of the Second World War. It is impossible to tell whether this propaganda piece was printed in Germany to try and garner wavering Bulgarian public support in the face of the Soviet successes in the east, or printed locally to bolster the royalist government.

This linen-backed folding map is a lavish visual celebration of the establishment of the United Nations in 1945. Bullock’s post-war map reflects a more optimistic time and is decorated with symbols of hope and security.