I have two identical minature (100 by 75mm) field service post cards both used as cigarette acknowledgement cards addressed to the Sudbury Cigarette Club (Canada) dated July and November 1944.  Both have the same printers imprint Form /A2042/7 by S & W Ltd. with a print run of 45,000M (45,000,000 !!!) and a date of 7/41. 

I only collect Canada WW2 material but these look like the cards used in WW1.  I have never seen these used for their apparent intended purpose in WW2. 

Were they printed in the UK or Canada - there is a Crown Copyright note in the bottom left. If they were printed in the UK how did they get to Canada.  They would have been sent to a Canadian serviceman.

Normally the specially printed full size acknowledgment cards were put in the parcel of cigarettes or tobacco when they were sent from Canada and are quite common



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These are scans of the front and back of a cover that was sent from Canada to the International Red Cross on the 25th of March 1944 it was censored in the UK but then also in the [b]Netherlands[/b].

I have never seen this before and have no idea how this cover went into the Netherlands and why it was censored there appaently not by the German Censors.

Any suggestions would be most welcome.

John Cranmer

I have just got this 1942 cover from Canada to Switzerland.  It is unusal in that the POWs name is at the top left and that here is some info about him on the net. He was the only one of the four crew members of a Hudson which was shot down on the 30th of May 1942 to survive.  It is also interesting that the censor (C 7) had to use two different types of label to fully seal the opened side.  I guess he did not want to cover the stamp with the paper label.

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I have not seen this large bilingial hand stamp before and so far cannot find anything about it on line.

I am also puzzled by the red date stamp at the bottom which is five months after the Toronto post mark.

Any suggestions will be most welcome.

John Cranmer

This is a scan of a cover from a Canadian Airman in Iceland.  Under the POSTAGE FREE with a slogan ON SERVICE machine cancellation is a date stamp RAF POST OFFICE 001 for the 6th of October 1943.  The machine cancellation is dated the 13th of October. 

I have not found any info regarding this machine cancellation  - mainly where was it used Iceland or Canada - I assume the later but some reference would be useful.

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There is also an RAF censor cachet type R6 number 114 which is recorded used in Reykjavik.

John Cranmer

First I wish you all a happy Christmas and New Year

I have just come across this postage label from a package of cigarettes seent to Private F. S. Smith a soldier with the 36th First Canadian Army Troops Composite Company R.C.A.S.C.

The meter 24 cents impression is dated the 2nd of May 1945.  The weight of the parcel is given as 12 ounces and the value as $1.00  The 24 cents makes sence if the package was just under 12 ounces and sent at the letter rate of 4 cents + 10 x 2 cents for each extra ounce.

[b]So a question[/b]. How much would the sender have paid for the cigarettes when they were bought in Canada? Was it the $1.00 declared or was that just a nominal value for customs purposes?

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I have just got an OAT cover and this wa included nn the package.
Does anyone recognise the source of this page?  It looks to be a useful reference

John

I have been asked if there was a British Naval presence in New York during the early Years of WW2.  As I only collect Canadian material I have no idea.  I wondered if anyone reading this could help.

John

Is there any information as to when the German Ax censor cachet started to be used in the Paris censor station on mail from Canada to the Red Cross in Geneva.  From examples on the internet it looks to have been sometime between November 1942 and March 1943 but I cannot find anything more definite

John

Attached is a scan of the cachet on the reverse of a letter to Canada dated the 6th of August 1943.  This was sent by a Canadian attached to 311 the Czech bomber squadron.  The date stamp is from FPO 539

The top line of the cachet is not complete.  I can read what appears to be [b]C WING O[/b] but I am curious as to the rest of the letters I assume that the O is followed by FFICE.  Can anyone help

John

This is an entry in the Luftwaffe Officers career web pages

http://www.ww2.dk/lwoffz.html

for Walter Wulknitz - I have one of his POW cards sent from Canada

WÜLKNITZ, Walter. 10.05.40 Oblt. in 1./KG 30 POW – in Ju 88 A-2 (4D+FT) forced down by AA damage
after attacking a cruiser in Rotterdam [Version #2: hit accidentally by a Bf 109], belly-landed at
Zevenhuisen. [b]01.02.42 promo to Hptm. 01.08.44 officially listed as a POW or internee in a neutral
[/b]
The part I am interested in is the "01.02.42 promoted to Hauptman ......."

How did this work and was it authorised only by the senior German officers in the Camp - in this case Camp 30 - or was it somehow authorised from Germany on the recommendation of the camp officers.  From this listing it also seems that he was only officially listed as a POW 6 months later.

As is often the case I am confused.

John

This is a bit outside my collecting area. 

Is there any information about where is censor cachet on this Indian Armed Forces Air Letter was used.  The postmark on the cover is dated the 25th of February 1944 - The only part of the cancellation I can read is BASE POST OFFICE. 

Is there any record of when civilian postal services from Paris to the Americas were restarted after the liberation from the Nazi in August 1944?

I have just found this cover which I bought for the contents.  However on the reverse there are two cachets.

On is from the 1 Bn. The Black Watch 0f Canada and seems to be typical of the many unit cachets that exist. 

However the second appears to be from the Carrier Platoon.  I have included a somewhat enhanced b & w scan of that.  From what I can find out a platoon was typically about 30 men (3 sections of 10).  This is the first time i have seen a cachet from that small a unit. 

I was wondering if anyone knows anything about this or if there are more cachets from platoon size units.  Is it genuine?

John

All the literature I have says that when the Winnipeg Grenadines were in Jamaica the air mail postage rate to Canada was 1 shilling / ounce.  This letter from Captain Gresham to  Winnipeg is paid at only 10 pence.
 
The BNAPS Military Mail study Group newsletter issue 51 has an illustration of another example paid at 10 pence.

The article in the Forces Postal History Society Journal No 325 page 275 also has 2 covers from Gresham paid at 10 pence. 

I am assuming that these were underpaid in error and allowed to pass through the post without postage due. 

Unless anyone knows better.

I have been trying to find out about the censor cachet used on this cover from the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders when they were in Jamaica.  I cannot find any references to this in the literature i have or on line. 

The signature of the officer (J M McClean?) who self-censored this letter appears to be over the cachet.

This is a letter addressed to a Canadian POW in Germany postmarked 8 March  1945 with a straight line ADDRESSEE RETURNED TO CANADA cachet.  Is there any infomation as to where this cachet would have been applied.  I assume that it was at one of the main FPOs in Germany but was there a special department responsible for these items.

John

While browsing the web I came across this report from the log of 75 Squadron for the 14 January 1943

https://75nzsquadronremembered.wordpress.com/1943-2/

[i]540956 F/Sgt Allen, W. M. Pilot 75 (NZ) Squadron it is presumed, made away with Hurricane  aircraft KX581 today. After repeated tannoy requests for this N.C.O. to report to Operations, he failed to report, and casualty procedure was subsequently taken. No trace has been found of either F/Sgt Allen or the Hurricane Aircraft.

Note;  Air Fighting Development Unit (AFDU), AIR 29/770A, 14 Jan. 1944.                      "Hurricane IV. KX.581 was stolen by an unknown person, whilst the pilot, F/Lt. E. V. Miller, was having lunch. The aircraft has not been traced."[/i]

I have not heard of this happening before and thought it may be of general interest. 

John

Is there a list of the censor numbers in the concave hexagonal censor marks used by the RAF in India during WW2 and where they were used ?  At the moment I am trying to track down numbers 146 and 391 in particular

Hopefully an on-line list but a literature reference would also be help. 

John

I got this cover and contents because of its Canadian connections and a couple of things about it that interested me. That is was from a serviceman with the No. 5 M.L.& B. unit (mobile bath and laundry unit) CenT Med Forces - and the senders service number U1582 - as far as I know the prefix U shows that he enlisted in the UK.

But now I am confused.  There is the British style FPO .(3rd August 1944) which appears to be FPO 524 cancelling am American airmail stamp. The first digit in the FPO number is not that clear but the photoshoped scan helps.  The only reference I have - Bailey and Toop - list this as used by the 5th Canadian Armored Brigade in the Ortona area from 23-12-43 to 27-3-44 but nothing after that.  The letter itself is date 1st August 1944

Any suggestions as to why the US stamp would be used with a British style FPO most interesting - or any other thoughts.

John Cranmer

This is an 8th Army Christmas (1944) Airgraph sent by a Canadian serviceman to Pictou Canada .  Most of the senders details are clear and can be read as
F44744 L/Cpl C.C.Dalton 2 Cdn 

but then there is the unit designation which appears to be [u][b]Med Regt pl[/b][/u] ?? and then RCASC (Royal Canadian Army Service Corps). 

I have not be able to find out what that central part stands for.  Any ideas would be most welcome.

John Cranmer