Graham

Does this help:

The Eagle Squadrons were three fighter squadrons of the Royal Air Force (RAF) formed with volunteer pilots from the United States during the early days of World War II (circa 1940), prior to America's entry into the war in December 1941.

Taken from Wikipedia
[url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eagle_Squadrons]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eagle_Squadrons[/url]
see also:
[url=https://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/research/online-exhibitions/americans-in-the-royal-air-force.aspx]https://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/research/online-exhibitions/americans-in-the-royal-air-force.aspx[/url]

In other words he could be an American in the RAF.

Mike

Hi Jim

Sadly I have to agree with John.  For some reason I didn't expand your original scan but took it as read that it was a 4.  Now that I have opened and expanded the image I can see that it is, as John has stated, a figure 1 with something across the bottom to make it look like a 4!

Mike

Jim

I will send you an email with John Davis' email address and you can contact him direct concerning this to see if he can help.

Mike

Frank

As usual a very nice item - good postal and censor strikes.  As you say it does look very much as if the photo was staged!

Mike  :)

Jim

I'm the same as Peter - I simply don't know. 

As a Society we don't appear to have published much about the MPO E series in Egypt - I have checked our Newsletter / Journal up to issue 300 (Summer 2014) and found only two references:

- A small item published in our Newsletter No 39 (p.89) (September/October 1959) - "Military Mail from the Sudan 1940-1954" regarding the use of M.P.O. 604.

- An article by Alistair Kennedy published in our Newsletter No 261 (Autumn 2004) - "Egyptian Military Post Offices of the E600 series".  However, it referred to E numbers and locations only and, I presume, assumed all the datestamps were of the same type (i.e. straight rather than curved M.P.O.).

It also struck me that the following publication by John Davis might provide some insight - "Egypt: From the Postal Concession until Suez 1932 to 1956, Part I: Until 1st May 1941".  It includes a chapter heading "The E600 Series of Date-stamps: Use by British Forces".

Depending what Peter Harvey may obtain from his contact in the Egypt SC and what the John Davis book may contain I would suggest this may well warrant a query in our Journal to see what else may be uncovered.  If you don't have or require a copy it may well be available for loan from our Library - contact Richard Berry.

Mike  :)

Frank

An interesting piece of ephemera and a fitting item for today - noted time you posted it.

Mike  :)

Peter

Unfortunately I cannot help -

Alistair's record card for 754 only records Proud's dates
The typescript listing I have also only gives 20 Aug 48 APO S.564 BTA
The earlier recording is 14 Apr 44 S.574 CMF

Mike

I would have to agree with Peter Harvey - the gap may look big enough for two characters, but I cannot make out a single one.

Mike

Peter

I don't know the full answer to your query but I may be able to offer an explanation.  Have you seen "Indian Army Post Offices - Locations and Movements 1939-1947" by Brigadier D S Virk AVSM (pub FPHS March 1973) ?

Under Section 2 - Improvised Field Post Offices:

p.109: "A few FPOs were issued with datestamps having only the number, without the letters "F.P.O."; this type of datestamp was not intended for use by the army postal service."

p.110: "Datestamps showing only the number are illustrated in Figures 125 and 126.  Normally, this type of datestamp was intended for use at civil post offices in India for segregating troops' mail for purposes of censorship, concessions and circulation.  They were issued to Army Commands for distribution to the affected civil post offices through their Circle offices.  Numbers are known running from 1 up to the 700's.  A few of these, numbered in the 500's and 600's, were issued to FPOs, apparently in error."

Mike

Alan

Many thanks - however, what Alan omitted from his posting was that he met Dan Barton, the artist responsible for the display, and his
son. Part of the exhibit was a series of extracts from letters from British soldiers in WWI. It was all very moving but Dan said they had
had difficulty in finding suitable letters for that part of the exhibit.  Alan took the opportunity to tell him that a point of reference was the FPHS and his son noted that down.  So we may expect a request for help for future exhibits and I'm sure that our WW1 collectors will be more than willing and able to come up with suitable extracts from letters / postcards home.

Mike

Frank

Many thanks for this - an appropriate posting for today Remembrance Sunday - your writer was one of the lucky ones who survived the war and was on their way home on demobilisation.

Mike 

Andy

Your "unused" envelopes - are they sealed or do they show signs of having been opened?
Looking at them the labels appear to have some form of stains on them, but not the envelopes.
I do wonder if someone had some pre-prepared address labels and simply stuck them onto unused envelopes?
The handwritten 'secret' in red would appear to indicate that it was for use on a letter whose contents were secret information.

Mike

Andy

I can help with S.A.A.M. but don't know as yet what S.O.R.S. stands for:

Department of the[b] Scientific Adviser, Air Ministry [/b](SAAM), later Department of the Chief Scientist (Royal Air Force) CS(RAF) relating to research and development work including operational research for the Air Ministry, later Ministry of Defence, Air Force Department.

Taken from The National Archives
[url=https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C2131]https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C2131[/url]

Mike  :)

Well done Frank - I do like it if errors found in official records are (and can be) corrected.
A good write-up to your postcard.

Mike  :)

Michael

Have a look at the Library section on our website (from the Home page select Society and down the list select Library.  The select "Country" then search for Poland.  You will find a number of books on Polish FPOs - I don't know what they all cover and don't know which would be best for you - get in touch with our Librarian & President (Richard Berry) if you would like to borrow any.  I'm sure he can arrange a meetup at Victoria Station on a day he travels in to his office for work to hand any over to you (saves  having to rely on Royal Mail).

Another book in the Library is: Postal Markings of the Allied Forces in Great Britain 1940-46, (Billig's Handbook on Postmarks Vol 11) by Norman Hill.  It is 56 pages, slightly larger than A5 size and contains Polish Forces postmarks used in UK.

I don't know what the Anders Army is?

Hope this helps, Michael  :)