A signed archive regarding FM Bernard Montgomery's Overlord operations room 1944

Montgomery's mobile map room for Operation Overlord: an archive of photographs and signed letter of thanks to its builders, twenty days after D-Day.

Montgomery, Bernard Law (1887-1976). A signed letter and ten photographs relating to his wartime map caravan, including a signed photograph. 1944.

Typed letter signed, one page on pale blue paper headed TAC Headquarters, 21 Army Group, dated 26 June 1944, to H. Larkin of the British Trailer Company, 170 x 200 mm; old folds, very good. Together with ten black-and-white photographs: a group portrait of Montgomery with the manufacturers' representatives, signed in black ink, 160 x 110 mm, with a lower left corner crease, otherwise very good; two views of Montgomery inspecting the caravan, with broad white borders, each 160 x 110 mm, fine; photographs of Montgomery with George VI and in discussion with his staff, each 155 x 115 mm, the former near fine; a photograph with Churchill, 140 x 100 mm, fair, with corner loss and mounting marks; a doorway portrait of Montgomery in his duffle coat, 140 x 200 mm, poor, with upper left corner loss and two moderate tears; and three exterior and interior views of the caravan, approximately 150 x 200 mm. British Trailer Company and Official War Office stamps to their reverses.

From the collection of Samuel Harold Bond, whose firm, S. H. Bond Ltd of Stockport, collaborated with the British Trailer Company to build Montgomery's map caravan in 1944. Larkin supplied the trailer and Bond's workforce constructed the body, giving their time freely. Presented to Montgomery shortly before D-Day, it was one of three caravans forming his mobile headquarters, the other two being captured Italian vehicles used as his office and sleeping quarters.

In the letter, written twenty days after D-Day, Montgomery confirms that the caravan "has come ashore safely in France" and that he has been using it "to the full as my Operations Room", adding that it has "already proved of great value to me" and thanking the men responsible for its construction. The map caravan is now preserved at the Imperial War Museum, Duxford.