The Dutch 'officer's briefcase' During the mobilisation of 1939, every Dutch officer was issued a case of maps covering the entire Netherlands at a scale of 1:50,000, with 1 cm on the map representing 500 m in the field. This scale was chosen because it allowed for all the necessary spatial details to be represented. However, these topographic maps were publicly available, resulting in the invading German forces also using them during their occupation of the Netherlands.
