Thanks for this information. In the meantime I found out that Camp 127 was located in Chanzy some 32km South of Sidi Bel Abbès in the Department of Oran in the West of the country

I possess this Army Form W3054 printed in Italian and written by an Italian Officer forming part of the Italian Headquarters in Tunisia. He surrendered and wrote this message home on 27 May 1943. There is an indication in another handwriting that he stayed in Prisoner of War Camp 127. I presume its a British Camp in North Africa. However, I have no indication where that one was located. I presume it was in Algeria. Could anybody confirm this and its exact location and period of use.

This scrubby cover is posted 14 OC 1944 at FPO 291 which Gould, Robert W. & Edward B. Proud (1982). History of British Army Postal Service Volume III. 1927-1963. state to be in Italy between 11.9.44 - 13.10.44 and used by the FPO GK 3 8th Army. I presume that it concerns the Greek Third Mountain Brigade, that arrived in Athens on 9th November 1944 from the Italian front. So the cover extends the date of use of FPO 291 by one day at least. Can anybody confirm that it was indeed in use by the Greek Third Mountain Brigade. What is also of interest is that at the back it has an Athens arrival postmark of 18th November 1944 so a week after the unit arrived there as well.

Mike
I hope the Royal Artillery Museum will come back to me and provide some clues
Marc

Dear Mike,

Thanks for this clarification. Actually I have another cover from the same correspondence with FPO 121 dated 21 sp 46. In the meantime I have written to the archive of the Royal Artillery Museum. Hopefully they are able to tell more about the movements of the 69/9 Field Regiment Royal Artillery in the Middle East at the time. He also wrote a number of letters with FPO 123 dated between 04 my 46 and 29 no 46 that was used in Egypt and 2 covers with FPO 257 dated 13 & 16 ju 46 that was used in Palestine. It would be good to get a better idea of these post-WWII days.

Marc

I had a look at the cover addressed to Kribi as I used to live in that coastal town myself in the 1990s. It looks like Mr. Evere Hermann Romain could have been a local although I do not recognise the family name. But people in Cameroon sometimes still have German first names like this one with Hermann. Messrs John Holt & Co. was a British trading company trading in such goods as cocoa, cotton lint and groundnuts, alongside the traditional trade in palm oil and rubber across the West African coast. However, Pte Hope Nacooba will have come from the British Cameroons if not from Nigeria. The resealing label and censor marks are the usual ones applied in Douala

I have a cover dated 30 AP 47 FPO 121 MELF from British HQ 69/6 Field Regt RA. For 1947 Proud and neither Derek Ransom provide any info for that year only as from 1949 that the location is Aqaba, Jordan under MELF 18. I tried to figure out where 69/6 Field Regt RA was based in 1947 on internet but wasn't successful. Has anybody an idea? 

Hi John,
In this case I think Walter Wulknitz was involved in the May 1940 attack of the Low Countries and bellied landed at Zevenhuizen the first day of the attack. Even if he was taken a PoW that day since the Netherlands surrendered after 5 days following the bombardment of Rotterdam, and after the Germans threatened to do the same with Amsterdam, he was released when the Germans occupied the entire country. So his promotion in February 1942 was while he was still serving at the Luftwaffe. Only in August 1944 he got (again) PoW or interned somewhere at another front. I hope this makes sense.
Regards
Marc
 

This is not the proclamation of independence of Georgia but to remember the first anniversary. It is also stated that 200,000 Georgians served in the Russian Army and now had to form their own army

A rare one though as only 0.7% of all censored covers show this 'Acheminé sans controle' - routed without control. Normal Tunisian censor numbers are 887 to 889

In my article titled 'Indian Prisoners of War in Germany after Rommel's first offensive in April 1941' in Journal 283 of 2020 there figures a Singh

As for the CS-C2-54xx I can report that 5412 (04 jy 43) and 5433 (10 jy 43) where used at Malta by units involved in Operation Husky to invade Italy at Sicily

Indeed Proud lists it as M.E.F. 179 Bde (FPO 179) from April - June 1946. However, I hold a copy of the book I bought years back second hand and the previous owner in pencil changed M.E.F. into Greece and put as a location Patras. So it looks like they were involved in events concerning the Greek Civil War that started in March 1946. I am in the process of writing an article/update on the British FPOs used between 1944 - 1952. Any scans are most welcome

Find attached a naval cover addressed to Captain, to become Rear Admiral Kelly (1886-1956) who was on duty at the American Legation, The Hague as United States Naval Attaché and naval attaché for air when the Germans invaded the Low Countries on 10 May 1940. He was ordered by the Navy Department to return to the United States on 12 July 1940. At the backside we see the address: 21A, Portman Square which was the address of the Royal Netherlands Embassy in London at the time. I checked with some Dutch contacts on the initials in the tombstone which is what I believe to be CHB (can anybody confirm) from R.N.N. H.Q. Attaché at the time was LTZ1 A. de Booy (Dutch Naval Liaison Officer). After 14 May 1940 it was vice admiral Furstner. De Booy was supported as from 12 May by a civilian (Grootenhuis), vice consul W.J.D. Philipse, res lt wn G. Leverland, LTZ2 M.J. Vos en LTZ1 K.J.F. Krediet. So no one of them fits the initials CHB. So it might be a British liaison officer also by the fact that a British tombstone was applied. Where can I found out who CHB was in that case? Was it normal to send naval covers from London and have the machine cancellation RECEIVED FROM H.M. SHIPS applied? I hope somebody can shed some light on this

This POW lettersheet I obtained recently and what attracted it to me was the fact that it concerned a German POW in Greece after the war. When I received it it turned out to have been written in Athens in November 1946. However what surprised me even more was that the sender's address was 971 German Workshop Coy with postal address Egypt. Does anybody know more of these German POWs held in Greece at the time and whether 971 German Workshop Coy is the only one recorded so far. I suppose that all POW around the Mediterranean had as address PW Postal Section MEF Egypt as I have seen likewise those who were kept on Malta after the war. Does someone know of a list of POW camps and workshop coys and or philatelic articles on these? Thanks for any assistance on this. Wishing you all a very fruitful philatelic 2021!