Very Rare WWII Escape Money/Map Purse RAF Issued With Early Silk Maps

This is a very rare and interesting item from WWII.
They were developed by British Lieutenant Clayton Hutton whilst working for MI9 for the purpose of being issued to RAF aircrew whilst on missions over all areas of operations to assist in escape of downed aircrew. The maps to aid in this and the enclosed money to aid assistance from locals. The silk maps themselves are in circulation but to find a almost complete issue pack is very rare.
This pack is correctly coloured khaki with the green and blue stripe in the top left the FI indicates that this contains French and Italian currency with the appropriate maps.
In issued state it should contain
1,000 French Francs and 2,000 Italian Lira.
The actual set consists of 500 French Francs and 1,600 Italian Lira.
The correct silk maps are complete and these cover France, Holland,Belgium,Germany,North Italy,South Italy,Spain,Portugal,North West Africa and North Africa.
The maps are in superb condition with no staining the colours are nice and sharp.
The maps included are the early rarer WWII Bartholomew types to support this the later 1943 series maps with more detail were issued in a similar purse with 43 stamped in the top left corner.
It also includes a button hole escape compass which was part of the set, this compass is the less common found earlier circular rotor with luminous two dots and red dot indicating North. The compass is in good condition with nice clean glass undamaged and fully working. The compass is the standard half inch diameter. This fits in well with the early issue pack that this is. The compass is unmarked as would be expected with a escape and evasion kit. Sadly the small saw blade which was most likely included in the kit is missing.
The purse wallet is made from a rubberised waterproof cotton material the weld has lifted slightly to one side but the original tear off top is still present. The front of the purse states " if this packet is found it must be handed in to the nearest Police station at once"
The currency is in circulated condition which would make sense as new currency make look suspicious behind enemy lines.
Clayton Hutton seems to be one of those unique characters during research he became associated with Harry Houdini. Houdini put out a challenge for a box to built that he could not escape Clayton took up the challenge, Houdini did escape but the story went that the carpenter was bribed to use shorter screws unknown to Clayton.
A very rare and interesting item that has interest with the air war of WWII involving Bomber/ fighter escort crews.
Research shows that about only 1,150 of these particular sets were ever issued and that would be for the particular region of operations I guess Italy. If you compare another purse for the Northern Europe air campaign 20,000+ were issued.
As can be imagined the purses were closely guarded and accounted for because of the money that they contained.
A very rare historic item rarely seen on the market.

Code: 50845