Escape and evasion map printed on playing cards distributed to Prisoners of War which could be soaked and pealed apart revealing the escape map. Many of the maps of the Pacific region were printed by the US Army Map Service, while the UK was responsible for many of the European Theatre maps. Many of the US Navy charts were folded in envelopes and distributed to the air crews before a mission, and to be turned in when the mission was successfully completed. They were called "drift charts" by the Navy, "...since their prime purpose was to indicate to aircrews survivors in their life rafts
Escape and evasion map cracking at folds and corners when carried on flying days for several months as USAF Captain Roger Locher noted when using one during his record 23-day evasion and rescue near Hanoi after his F-4 Phantom fighter jet was shot down. He also suggested a more detailed 1:50,000 map would have been more useful to him as a combat evader on the ground than the 1:250:000 evasion chart, Locher recommended two evasion charts could be overlapped to protect a downed airman from rain if worn "like an armidillo". Locher's evasion experience, the longest for an uncaptured American pilot since WW-II deep