This propaganda map, created by Robert M. Chapin, was published in TIME magazine on 20 December 1943, during the Second World War.

Chapin's illustration proposes a possible Allied counteroffensive, in which Soviet, British and American troops would join forces with Turkish troops to attack Germany via the Bosporus Strait. The arrows marking the counteroffensive also trace a line that clearly targets Germany.

Nazi Germany is represented by a large red swastika, whose shadow stretches across all the regions occupied by the Axis powers, such as Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Romania. The map also shows several aircraft south of Romania and Bulgaria, as well as the bombing of Sofia carried out by the Allies “last week”.

This Allied attack never took place, but this propaganda was important in enabling the Axis armies to maintain their strength while the Allies attacked on the other active fronts.

Sources

• 1943 Chapin Map of the Balkans and Eastern Europe for TIME Magazine