Robbie's map

Robbie Turner's map is a rear-area military map he prizes from the fingers of a dead captain in the West Kents, lying in a ditch outside a village whose name he cannot remember. Along with the map he takes the dead captain's revolver, not to impersonate an officer but simply to survive. The map is rare and precious, and he carries it with him throughout the retreat to Dunkirk, using it as his only privacy in the company of Corporals Mace and Nettle, who depend on him for navigation. The map is a lifeline, but also a source of doubt and disorientation, as the landscape he traverses is often unrecognizable from its cartographic representation.

Acquisition and Early Use

Robbie first becomes aware of the map when he reaches a level crossing after a three-mile walk along a narrow road. He stops to consult it, but cannot find it in his pocket or tucked into his belt. He lets his greatcoat fall and reaches inside his jacket, only to realize the map is in his left hand, where it must have been for over an hour. He had prized it from the fingers of a dead captain, and the act of holding it has become so automatic that he forgets he is carrying it. The map is a rear-area map, not the standard issue for a private soldier, and its possession marks him as someone who has scavenged from the dead. He folds it away and, as he straightens from picking up his coat, sees a leg in a tree—a severed, pale, child-sized limb wedged in the first forking of a plane tree. The map is his only privacy in the company of the corporals, who tease him about his doubts and his preoccupation with "crumpet."

Navigation and Disorientation

As the retreat continues, the map becomes increasingly unreliable. The landscape is scarred by war, and the features marked on the map—roads, villages, fields—are often obliterated or unrecognizable. Robbie stops to consult the map again when they hear antiaircraft fire ahead, near a church spire. He leans his weight against a fence post, his side hurting with every step, and tries to find the village on the map, but the track they are following is not marked. He knows they will have to join the road and stay on it all the way to the defense line at the Bergues-Furnes canal. The map confirms his fears: there is no other route. He folds it and walks on, the corporals' banter continuing behind him. The map is a constant reminder of the distance still to be covered, and of the impossibility of escape.

Symbol of Hope and Despair

The map is not merely a practical tool; it is a symbol of Robbie's desperate hope for survival. He uses it to measure his progress, to calculate the distance to the coast, and to imagine a future beyond the war. He walks across the land until he comes to the sea, and the map is the only thing that gives his journey a direction and a purpose. But the map also represents the futility of his efforts. The landscape is a nightmare of destruction, and the map cannot account for the bodies, the craters, the burning vehicles, or the Stuka attacks. When he is separated from his unit and loses his rifle, the map becomes his only possession of value, a talisman he clings to even as his mind begins to slip. In his fevered state, he imagines that the map is his only privacy, and he uses it to retreat into his own thoughts, to remember Cecilia, and to plan his future. The map is a thread connecting him to the world he has lost, and to the woman he hopes to return to.

Final Significance

By the time Robbie reaches the Bergues-Furnes canal, the map has become a burden, a reminder of the miles he has walked and the horrors he has witnessed. He no longer needs it to navigate; the road leads straight to the coast, and the black cloud of burning oil marks the destination. But he keeps it, folded in his pocket, as a record of his journey and a symbol of his survival. The map is a witness to his transformation from a confident young man to a traumatized soldier, and it remains with him as he crosses the canal, walks through the bombed-out village, and finally reaches the beach at Bray Dunes. In the cellar where he spends his last night before the evacuation, he still has the map, though he no longer consults it. It is a relic of a past that is already receding, a reminder of the distance he has traveled and the distance he still has to go.