I am posting this on the off-chance that a member will have information which could clarify my query around the structure of the Portuguese army in France and make sense of the abbreviations.

I am attaching a copy of a cover addressed to Manual Costa, 6th BMM (amended to 2nd BMM). I cannot work out what the BMM might stand for.

I am also attaching a copy of the first page of a service record, which I think is his, which also shows the 6th BMM. However, it gives his unit as 1st battalion, 18th regiment. Wiki gives a breakdown of the units making up each brigade, but only quotes battalions, not regiments. There is no 18th battalion listed.

Does anyone have any ideas about this or sources of information which might clarify this?

I'm attaching a scan of a cover franked American Base Forces APO807 dated Nov 11 1941. It also bears an Army Examiner stamp 401.

There are no senders details and the reverse is blank

Can anyone tell me where this originated from, or point me in the direction of where I can find out?

Not strictly a forces cover but attached is one from Jamaica in December 1941. It bears a censorship label (without number) and a stamp No 12.

My query is that this stamp seems to bear a letter "F" after the number. I cannot find any reference to this in my very old (1982) copy of The Military Mail of Jamaica (Roses Handbook No 5)

Any ideas or where I can go to find out?

I am attaching a scan of a cover sent in 1946 to the mother of an old friend. It bears the franking FPO752

Can anyone tell me where this was located?[attach id=6590]Scan_20230217 (2).jpg[/attach]

Bit out of my range of experience.

Attached is a scan of a cover which was sent to the mother of an old friend in 1946. I found this among the effects of our friend when she died last year.

Can someone give me information about the FPO? Particularly the location?

Many thanks[attach id=6488]Image-_9_.jpg[/attach]

Spending an hour or two going through my stockpile of cards and covers

This card is from Major Harold Ordish, 10th MG Coy, AIF, posted at sea on 12th July 1916. The reverse is a scene of S Vicente, Cabo Verde. It bears a straight line censor "PASSED BY CENSOR", similar to Gould 4C351.

Questions:
1. Where would this censor have been applied?
2. The sender was en route to England from where?
3. Any idea of the vessel?

I am attaching a scan of a cover bearing this mark. Dr Gould's first volume states that it is seen on mail from several ships and suggests that it was a base mark

The addressee are a firm of watchmakers in Rye Sussex. The question arises as to why the word (England) was added. Does this suggest that the sender was abroad at the time and that the mark may have originated at an overseas base?

Attached is a cover from Lt Col Watney addressed to his wife in Reigate, Surrey. It has a hand written date on the reverse of 4th August 1915, which matches the date on the franking on the front.
I take this to be a mark applied at Port Said.

According to the regimental diary of the 2/4 Battalion, The Queen's (Royal West Surrey) regiment, they arrived in Egypt on board HMT Ulysses at the end of July 1915. They sailed from Port Said on 4th August, bound for Mudros and landed at Suvla Bay 0n the 9th August.

The cover, which Watney signed himself as censoring officer, bears CM2/2813. Both Daniel and AK from his ledger confirm its usage by 2/4 Queens.

I am not familiar with franking marks from Egypt at this period. Is it a civilian postal service mark? 

I found this cover while we were clearing the house of a friend who died recently. It is outside my normal range and I should appreciate any information about it, location etc

I am attaching what seems to be an uninteresting cover from November 1942 to a lady in Sussex. However, it contains a letter from the Records Office, Canadian Military HQ, Acton W3. This advises Mrs Smith, in answer to her enquiry, that D.61928 Pte Pelletier G was listed as a Prisoner of War

Pte Pelletier was a member of Les Fusiliers Mont-Royal, an infantry battalion from Quebec. Its members were French-speaking as was its CO. Initially they formed part of Force Z on Iceland, leaving there on 31st October 1940.

On 19th August 1942, the battalion was part of the Canadian force in Operation Jubilee - the Dieppe Raid. They suffered considerable casualties and 19 officers and 325 other ranks were taken prisoner. In view of the date of this correspondence, it is possible that Pte Pelletier was one of these.

He spent the rest of the war in Stalag VIII-B, Teschen, now in the Czech Republic. I have not as yet ascertained whether he survived the experience and returned home. Similarly, his relationship with Mrs Smith is unknown.

Lt Col RTE Hicks-Lyne served as a Lieutenant with the Central Onrario Regiment in the Great War

I am attaching scans of a cover from a 2/Lt in the Canadian Armoured Corps. It is franked Camp Borden, Ont, MPO 202, dated 10th January 1944. This was an Army Training Camp first opened in 1916

He describes himself as from #2 C.A.C.T.R. I assume the "C.A.C." to stand for "Canadian Armoured Corps", but is the "T.R." "Training Regiment"?

Any ideas?

In my efforts to put together something for the next zoom meeting, I have come across this cover. It is addressed to Mount Elgin, Ontario, Canada with a receiving backstamp dated 8th July 1944. It bears a US 6c Airmail stamp , cancelled by what appears to be FPO118, 1st July.

The censor stamp is one I have not been able to find in the limited literature I have. Is it American?

Any information would be gratefully received

I am attaching a postcard from this office dated 12th July 1916. The reverse is a scene of S Vicente, Cabo Verde.

In the message, he states that he is with 10th Machine Company, AIF, part of the Australian 10th Brigade. According to Wiki, they sailed for Britain in July 1916 and this card was posted presumably en route during a stopover at S Vicente.

It bears the mark "PASSED BY CENSOR", approx 54mm long and letters 5mm high. Is there any way of finding out what ship they were on?

My wife and I recently went to Blenheim Palace to see the display on the hill up to the Victory Monument of figures of soldiers and poppies put together by Dan Barton and his son in aid of the Royal British Legion Poppy Appeal. The display is there until 22nd November

It was very moving and well worth a visit if you can, either in person or online at https://www.blenheimpalace.com/visitus/what-to-do/standing-with-giants.html

I showed this cover during the Zoom meeting yesterday (many thanks to Peter Harvey for running it - great success)

This was sent by James McLeod Thomson, Engineering Officer, HMT Laomedon, to a Mrs Thomson in Scotland. It was franked BAPO Z (Alexandria) on 29th May (?) 1916. The ship was a Blue Funnel Line freighter, which was hired by the Royal Navy and used as a troop ship and supply vessel.

However, I omitted to mention the written heading "On Admiralty Service", which I don't recollect seeing before. It doesn't look like the hand of the sender and the cover bears no censorship markings. Presumably, this choice of wording was to reflect that the ship was not a naval vessel and that it was mainly crewed by Merchant Navy personnel.

Any views?

Three for the price of one!

This card was sent on 1st August 1918 from Lisbon, Portugal to someone with the Belgian army in France. This was before Portugal became involved on the Western Front

Question - why was a Belgian army unit in Bordeaux? Bit far from the action?

This time Austrian navy.

This card was sent by a sailor of the Austrian pre-Dreadnought, SMS Zrinyi in June 1917, from the base at Pola. She had a relatively quiet war, being part of the "fleet-in-being" tying up considerable Allied naval forces to prevent a breakout from the Adriatic.

At the end of the war, she surrendered to a US squadron but was later ceded to Italy. She was broken up for scrap in 1921.

As with the German sailors, this one has written the name of the ship on the card. I should however appreciate any member who can make out the destination and perhaps the message

Keeping with the international theme, this card was sent in August 1917 by a sailor on SMS Baden. This ship was at the time the largest and most powerful in the Kriegsmarine, 32,200 tons and        8 - 15in guns. However, she saw little action in the war, still being under construction at the time of Jutland, and, in April 1918, the only major sortie she took part in ended without combat.

At the end of the war she was interned in Scapa Flow and on 21st June 1919 her crew attempted to scuttle her, in accordance with the general order, but she was boarded by British sailors and beached. She was later refloated and was sunk as a target in 1921.

The card bears the usual Marine Schiffpost stamp and the writer, as is often the case with German sailors, obligingly wrote the name of the ship on the card.

This card as sent in August 1916 from a member of the German Military Mission in the Dardanelles. This was after the withdrawal of the Allied forces from Gallipoli, but presumably there was still concern of further incursions by the Ottomans and their German allies

Here is a card addressed to a member of No 4 Battery, Portuguese artillery (Corpo do Artilharia Portuguesa).

The Portuguese artillery undertook two roles in France - as support to the infantry brigades and as an independent unit manning railway guns, under the control of the French army (CAPI). I think it likely that the recipient of this card was with the first group, but am willing to be corrected