In chewing the cud with a colleague this afternoon I mentioned this recent acquisition saying I could not trace the town of origin,  RENGU is clear but the remainder of the word is less well inked and over the stamp.  Can anyone tell me the town name please?  I cannot find a Russian town beginning as this one in either a world gazetteer or a world atlas.
The interest for me is that this cover from Russia 8 Aug 17, to Switzerland 23 Nov 17, was routed via London where it was censored by the French team which had been working in London since the Spring of 1916.  The reader of the contents was "number 27" and the desk was 912.  The arrangement with the British was designed to speed the flow of work in the censorships.
The letter was forwarded from Lausanne to Saanen where it was back-stamped the next day.
Best regards to all
Graham

I have taken on a small job re WWII where my lack of knowledge is hampering me.
The subject is a PoW in Stalag IX C.  He wrote to USA on 14 June 1940 to acknowledge receipt of a letter, so that seems much to early for him to have been captured during the German invasion of the West of the previous month.  Moreover his PoW number 64 is a very low one.  So I am wondering how and where he was captured.  I have no information as to the man's rank, service, nationality etc, but he has an anglo-saxon sounding name, Edgar Olver.
Please can someone offer some guidance - were the camps in Germany at this date separated into Luft, Stamm, Mar, etc?
If not there will be no telling where to look for this man's background.  I have wondered if he was aircrew, or a passenger taken off a ship (or rescued survivor), or a visitor/traveller interned in the early days of the war.
Your help will be appreciated.
Graham Mark

In Alistair's material was a cover with a censorship label reading OPENED FOR THE CENSOR.
It is addressed to Military Tailors at Winchester. 
The 1d stamp and its postmark 28 Dec 14 both cover the label.
The place of the postmark is not too clear but I think it is Chelsea.
Clearly this is not censorship of civil mail as the label does not match anything recorded by civil censorship specialists and because the postage stamp and postmark are over the label.
It does not appear to be naval as the addressee is "Military Tailors" and Winchester being an important garrison city.
Has anyone seen anything similar to this please?
I have not found any mention of this in the Journal or Newsletter.
Graham Mark

This cover from the DADOS to the OC DAC at Ferdan, on the Suez Canal, 18 April 1916, is a puzzle.
According to the Order of Battle, vol 3A, the DAC remained in England when the Division sailed for the Aegean in July 1915, and did not rejoin the Div until it had moved from Egypt to France in July 1916.
Can anyone solve this one for me.
Best wishes to all.
Graham

A query has come to me about censorship of civil mails in France in 1918.  I concerns an encircled five-pointed red star.  Bourguignat's "Le Controle Postal et Telegraphique Francais pendant la Premier Guerre Mondiale" tells me that a directive of Feb 1918 stated that letters from le Zone des Armees, passed without opening, had to be marked with this circled star.  He illustrated an example from Department Aube, some 90 miles SE of Paris, addressed to Paris in June 1918.
Can anyone tell me, in general terms, how far back from the front lines the military control stretched?  Did it fluctuate during the war?
Graham Mark

Query originally asked on the Civil Censorship website
Cover to HMAS Adelaide in 1941

A couple of questions about a WWII cover posted from UK by air to the H.M.A.S. Adelaide c/o GPO - The ship was initially used for convoy escort and protection duties in Australian waters.

I am not familiar with the Dumb Machine "Paid" cancel – any info would be appreciated. Why used and under what circumstances?

Also where was the boxed blue Passed By Censor handstamp applied – likely somewhere in the Australia/Pacific area, but anything more specific? The handstamp is dated 23/2/41 and initialled.

No markings on the back.

For me, this is a somewhat intriguing cover.
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I think I have answered part of my own question – the censor mark is a naval censor handstamp applied somewhere in the Pacific region – the resource book "World War Two Censor Marks" (The Forces Postal History Society, edited by John Daynes, 1986) lists the marking as type N 537 (pages 39-40). A notation beside the type marking indicated "Hong Kong 5/40" although the one in question is dated "23/2/41". Any further information on the handstamp would be useful.

Still curious about the so-called dumb machine "PAID" marking – its use and under what circumstances.

Can anyone tell me a bit more about this ship please?
 
The card is addressed to Ulceby (spelled wrongly by the writer).
The pmk is APO 47 (Rouen) 8Jan15.  CM2/2000 not allocated by FWD.
The LtCol who signed the card in pencil was Percy Umfreville (1868-1922), Major Ryl W Kent, temp LtCol.  Governor 1st class 5Aug14-14Aug16.
Brev LtCol 3Jun17. Temp BrigGen 15Aug16.  Director of Military Prisons in the Field (graded AAG) 15Aug16.  Commdt 1st Class, Detention Barracks 22Aug17.
4 mentions, CMG 1915, CBE 1919.
Forgive me if you have seen this question before but I could not find an earlier entry by me on this subject on the forum.
Graham

A member of the German ArGeZensur asks about Miss Ord.
She was obviously involved in sending aid parcels to PoWs; the example shown was a thanks postcard (written in French) from Giessen PoW camp in January 1918.
Googling for Miss Ord I found a discussion forum where similar cards from Russian PoWs were shown and translated.
Also I have found some information about the family, but there is no mention on these websites about Miss Ord's activities in WWI.  Postcards are reported with printed address of Miss Ord indicating she must have been in more than a mere modest effort to help destitute PoWs.
Does anyone have any information please?
Graham Mark

In the Ypres exhibition last year I had a frame of letters from this officer.  I have someting over 300 covers of which about one third have the letters intact.
Limerick University have recently been in touch saying they hold the Armstrong family archive and can they have access to the letters.  I am happy to oblige them.
WHen I acquired this shoeboxful (about 1995) the dealer was selling items one by one and the Gallipoli period had been well picked over before I saw it.
WMA was ADC to deLisle in 2 CavBde from early Sept 1914, then 1CavDiv.  When deLisle moved to 29Div at Gallipoli WMA followed and in Nov'15 made StaffCapt.  Back in France still with 29Div he was made GSO3 then BdeMajor 86Bde.  WMA was kia 23May17.  Promoted Capt (gazetted posthumously).
If any member has examples of this man's letters, mostly to his mother I am sure Limerick University would appreciate copies.  Scans of two examples atached.  Please send any scans to me at Oast House West, Wiveliscombe, Somerset TA4 2PP, or gmarkb34@btinternet.

Here is the other side of the cover

A colleague has asked me about the cover shown here, from Indian FPO 76, at Kazvin, Persia, in August 1919.
He tells me that he has asked among collectors of Persia and drawn a blank - and that censor 7/555 has not been recorded used by them.
The signature is not the easiest to read but as a half-colonel that ought to make it a bit easier.
The offical "Operations in Persia" is not very helpful as there is little in that volume of doings of the British forces once the armistice has been signed.
My colleague will be most impressed if FPHS members can identify the signing officer and even more so if more reports of 7/555 can be provided.
As the scans I have received are too big for this site and I do not know how to reduce them (bitwise) I will have to put one side of the cover with this message and the other as a separate message.
Graham

A colleague in USA has asked me about a cover from an RASC officer interned in Switzerland.
The illustration of the cover is too large for me to upload into the forum.
It was send by 2Lt KR Gough RASC from British Military Internemtn Camp, Biezwil, 21 Nov 40, paid 60c for airmail, to "Esquire" (the magazine) at Chicago.
WWII is outside my usal area - can anyone give an authoratitive answer?
Graham

A contact who collects Persia has asked me to comment on a cover with censor type 7, No.555 posted at IFPO at Kazvin in 1919.
There are five censors of this type known used in that theatre 549, 550, 558, 559 and 560.
I cannot identify the signature of the sender.
My contact asks if anyone can confirm that 7/555 was used in Persia and to what unit can it be associated.

This recent puchase is a puzzle.  Can you help please.
After Gallipoli the Notts & Derby Mtd Bde went to Salonika in Feb 1916 and was numbered 7 Mtd Bde.  The London Mtd Bde was numbered 8 Mtd Bde and remained in Egypt until Nov 1916 when it went to Salonika until June 1917 when it returned to EEF.
The cover has the cachet of The London Mounted Brigade Field Ambulance RAMCT "B" Section and a postmark FPO 7Y of 8 JU 16.  The cover is backstamped Base APO X, 9 JU 16.
Did a section of the London Mtd Bde Fd Amb accompany the Notts & Derby Yeo Regts ?
The cover is addressed in pencil to "The Administrative Centre Medical ... and London Division, Duke of York's HQ, Chelsea.  It may not come out very clearly is the scan.