Marc

All I can add is that a listing I have shows 159:

28 June 1946 - 27 L of C
19 Apr 1947 - HPC RE

27 L of C refers to 27 L of C Postal Unit which The National Archives war diaries shows was in Italy (the war diaries only go to June 1946, thereafter they were quarterly historical reports.

This appears to support your theory, but a view of the war diary is necessary to ascertain the location of APOs ran by 27 L of C Postal Unit.

Mike

Thanks Marc, I hadn't realised Catterick Camp was also used as a POW camp in WW2.  There is very little online about this - plenty for its use as a POW camp in WW1.  I have, however, found the following:

From The Guardian - "Every prisoner of war camp in the UK mapped and listed"
[url=https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2010/nov/08/prisoner-of-war-camps-uk#data]https://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2010/nov/08/prisoner-of-war-camps-uk#data[/url]
see Camps 631, 662 and 664

The only other reference is Wikipedia with the brief mention and that came from the above reference: "During the Second World War the camp was once again used to house prisoners of war":
[url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catterick_Garrison]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catterick_Garrison[/url]

The above three camps are listed in Derek Tomlin's publication "World War II P.O.W. and Internment Camp" (date of publication not known; source of information not known)

Mike

Ingo

Please ignore my question - I saw this on your Facebook page and now see that it has NOT been folded over but has been torn off!

Mike

Ingo

The reverse scan has part of the envelope bent over near to the senders name - is there anything under that bent over part of the envelope?

Thanks, Mike  :)

Ingo

Your datestamp was used by the Royal Engineers Mobile Display Team during 1963 - please see attached Word document for details.

Mike  :)

Jim

I have found this link - it relates to the Catholic Herald newspaper in 1942 and the article refers to the Vatican Information Bureau in Cavendish Square:
[url=http://archive-uat.catholicherald.co.uk/article/4th-september-1942/1/missing-relatives-post-arrives-at-the]http://archive-uat.catholicherald.co.uk/article/4th-september-1942/1/missing-relatives-post-arrives-at-the[/url]
"Enquiries should be sent to the Convent of the Holy Child, Cavendish Square, London, W.1, marked " Vatican Information Bureau.""

There is also this link which eventually provides a pdf document with the title "The Holy See and WWII Communications" - from the Postal History Journal No 143, June 2009:
[url=https://silo.tips/queue/the-holy-see-and-wwii-communications?&queue_id=-1&v=1603141895&u=ODAuMC4yMDkuMjMw]https://silo.tips/queue/the-holy-see-and-wwii-communications?&queue_id=-1&v=1603141895&u=ODAuMC4yMDkuMjMw[/url]

I hope these help.

Mike  :)

SCF is indeed Senior Chaplin to the Forces and RC is Roman Catholic.

Mike

Chris

What a very nice item - I am envious !

It is certainly some form of proofing sheet - or a sheet produced for a collector at the time (I'm thinking of Captain (Dr) M W Carstairs who was in BAOR during the early 1960s and as a FPHS member who compiled lists for our then newsletter and a text on the postal service in BAOR).  As a Captain he could exert a certain amount of authority to get these "proofing strikes".

I cannot imagine them being done for official purposes as I'm sure there would be some form of form for proofing strikes.
Also, they are from two distinct locations, albeit close to each other (Mönchengladbach and Rheindahlen).

In Ransom's draft publication the following information is given:

FORCES POST OFFICE 6:
1961-1977 Type B1 GERMANY  BFPO 40  Mönchengladbach  Ayrshire Barracks
1961 Type P1 GERMANY  BFPO 40  Ayrshire Barracks, Mönchengladbach

FORCES POST OFFICE 14:
1962 - 1964 Type B1 GERMANY BFPO 40  Rheindahlen  HQ NORTHAG
(Not seen) Type P1

So your very nice item will remove the "not seen" comment for the Parcel FPO 14 !  Thank you for sharing it with us.

Mike  :)

Frank

A very nice postcard and a very good story to go with it - well done with your find.

Mike  :)

Chris

I can make out:

Soldiers Mail
C.F. Moritz (first initial may be wrong)
Private Infantry
c/o A.E.F. Siberia

Mike  :)

Chris

Two comments:

- a nice cover, although you have posted it a day early as it is dated 2nd October!  ;D ;D

- 2nd October is my birthday so I should have that cover!!!  ;D :) :)

Not seen this postmark before.

Mike  :)

Chris

I have been studying ARMY SIGNALS / ARMY TELEGRAPHS datestamps for some years now (amongst many other subjects) - whilst mainly WW2, I have recorded WW1 and earlier.  I have come up with the following (based on evidence seen in War Diaries, covers and other documentation):

The code letters which appear in ARMY SIGNALS datestamps can be loosely divided into the following groups:

(i) Abbreviations

Codes which were an abbreviation, even if somewhat non standard, of a geographical location or military formation, e.g:

HPN = Harpenden
BASP  = British Army Staff Paris

(ii) Field Formation Representation

(a) Codes in which one or more letters represented a particular type of field formation, while the remaining letters represented an alphanumeric code for the numerical designation of that formation, as in the First World War:

Y =  Division
Z =  Brigade

Example:

YEI = 59th Infantry Division
(Y for Division)
(E is the 5th letter)
(I is the 9th letter)

(b) The above referred to infantry formations only, while for armoured formations the above codes were prefixed with the letter M, i.e.

MY =  Armoured Division
MZ =  Armoured Brigade

Example:

MYG = 7th Armoured Division
(M for Armoured)
(Y for Division)
(G is the 7th letter)

(c) For Canadian formations codes were prefixed with the letter C, as shown in the following two examples:

Examples:

CYC = 3rd Canadian Infantry Division
(C for Canadian)
(Y for Division)
(C is the 3rd letter)

CMZB = 2nd Canadian Armoured Brigade
(C for Canadian)
(M for Armoured)
(Z for Brigade)
(B is the 2nd letter)

(d) Corps were represented by the letters CO which appeared as the last two digits of the code:

Examples:

CBCO = II Canadian Corps
(C for Canadian)
(B is the 2nd letter)
(CO for Corps)

CKCO = XXX Corps
(C is the 3rd letter)
(K is the 11th letter !)(see below)
(CO for Corps)

The second example poses a query: K is the 11th letter so why does it represent the '0' of 30 ?  The only explanation I can offer is that by leaving out the letter I, the letter K then becomes the 10th letter or just zero.  See Appendix 'B' for further uses of the letter K in this respect (e.g. YEK for 50th Infantry Division). 

COCO = XXX Corps
(C is the 3rd letter)
(O for zero)
(CO for Corps)

I also found useful the 1915 Director of Army Signals - Circular Memorandum (small pocket size booklet of 64 pages).  All the codes mentioned and the official notices I have comes across do not specifically mention datestamps - they are telegraphic codes but the datestamp appear to follow them in the majority, if not all, cases.

So your forms follow the following format:

YBF
(Y = Division)
(B is the 2nd letter)
(F is the 6th letter)
= 26th Division

Mike  :)

Frank

It just shows that we can learn something new about WW1 every day!  A good find and well done for finding confirmation of such a rank.

Mike  :)

Jim

All I can say is that it is part of the Adjutant-General's Branch of the War Office.  I've tried to look online and it will require a very long and detailed search.  I don't know if any lists exist of the breakdown of the various War Office departments.  I hope someone else can come up with an answer!

Mike  :)

We have received the following request for information:

[color=maroon]In John Daynes' excellent book, one that is now a standard reference book on "The Forces Postal History of the Falkland Islands & the Task Force" (FPHS, 1983), I refer to page 6 on which at the bottom is featured a scan of a OAS cover to Mrs G.A. Symons of Teignmouth with an HMS Exeter Passed by Censor marking, and a London Received from HM Ships arrival datestamp of 3 FEB 1940.  Towards the top of this page 6, the second paragraph of this page, and I quote ...

"Mail from Royal Navy ships in the Falkland Islands took about six weeks to reach London as the following list shows:

Ship date of letter date of London "Received from HM Ships" postmark

Ajax etc etc
Exeter 5th December 1939 17th January 1940
19th December 1939 3rd February 1940" [this is the illustrated cover]

I now have records of some five Symons covers but none with an enclosed letter.

The request to your membership is this – does any member have, or have knowledge of, a similar cover which contains the original letter?  If so a scan of the letter, and related cover, would be welcome.

Why the request?

We do not for certain know who wrote this series of similar covers – the Symons correspondence.  Many collectors, I believe, have assumed that the letter writer was a Symons, the husband of the cover addressee without doing any research to confirm this assumption.

On a number of HMS Exeter and Battle of the River Plate websites (when Exeter was seriously damaged just managing to limp into nearby Stanley harbour to be patched up for the sea voyage back to a RN Dockyard for a complete overhaul/refit) there are lists of the HMS Exeter crew at the time of the Battle.  There is no Symons listed.  In the crew list for Exeter for the time after her return to active service in the mid/far east where she was sunk and the surviving crew was taken to Japanese POW camps, there was a H.E. Symons, a Shipwright who survived both the battle, sinking and being held in a POW camp.

So, in conclusion, the request is a possible step that might lead to establishing the source, or writer, of this correspondence. Did Daynes have access, or a scan, of a Letter to Mrs Symons? [That is the question?][/color]

If you think you can help please let me know and I'll pass on your response or details to the person making the enquiry.

Thanks, Mike  :)