From Viktor's Attic

World War II Models and Maps and the Battle of Remagen

From Viktor’s Attic: World War II Models and Maps and the Battle of Remagen

The largest ship in this photo is less than two inches long. Location unknown, but the back of the photo reads: "Invasion training board. Oct 28, 1943."

Last month archivist Craig Bara shared map-making technology advances developed by Viktor Schreckengost during his World War II Navy service. The topographically detailed scale maps he created were used to brief pilots and other military personnel for combat missions. This month we present photos of the tiny models Viktor painstakingly created—in great detail and on a miniscule scale—along with an example of a critical military victory achieved in part due to Viktor’s efforts. The older photos, and the models themselves, have been found recently by Craig in Viktor’s archives.

Viktor working on maps during World War II

Viktor’s topographical maps—a feat in themselves in terms of accuracy, scale and reproduceability—were not complete, he decided, without tiny three-dimensional models of the ships and airplanes that were often a target of invasion. The aircraft and ships should be as accurate as the terrain models, he reasoned. He created small scale models of several types of warplanes and battleships. He even created positionable gun turrets and lined up little planes on the flat surfaces of the ships that served as aircraft carriers. Craig estimates he has found over a thousand of these models in several boxes that were carefully packed and stored away after Viktor returned from the war.

A box of models

Included in the archives are maps and tiny scale models of Remagen Bridge, immortalized in the 1969 film "The Bridge at Remagen." Remagen was the last bridge standing over the Rhine, and American troops needed to capture and cross it in order to continue advancing into Germany. As explained by a website devoted to the memory of those who fought there: "By seizing intact the old Ludendorff railroad bridge at Remagen and quickly crossing to the east bank of the Rhine, the Ninth Armored Division opened up immense military possibilities that were realized to the fullest when it came time for the Allied armies to drive farther into Germany. No other military event in Europe, excepting perhaps the D-Day landings in Normandy, so stirred the popular imagination. An avalanche of news stories and broadcasts poured out of the bridgehead area. The Ninth Armored soon became one of the most highly publicized American divisions in history." Credit for this victory can certainly be laid at many doors, and one of them is Viktor's, for his painstaking work on the maps and models that trained the Ninth Armored for this critical success.

Remagen Bridge. A description attached to this photo reads: "Model created by Captain Elva D Brown. Lt Marvin L Marchest, and four enlisted men who were trained (by Viktor) to do the work." The vertical scale is 1:5000; the horizontal is 1:12,500.