RNAS Armoured Cars in Russia

[Tony Walker]

A second post on this topic - thanks Frank for censors name and details in response to my first post on this subject

The two cards (see attachment) have a large boxed A4 censor mark, Russian I'm sure.  Both censor no 256, with a vertical O.B.O. between A and 4.

I've checked the literature I have but none of it says exactly what this censor mark is.  These two cards were sent when the armoured car division was in Tiraspol from later in January 1917.  It does not appear on another card I have of the same period, although a similar but not identical mark is illustrated in Michael Goulds RNAS publication of 1983.

By the way, I'm looking for an item of mail sent during the Rumanian campaign by this Division, between December 1916 and January 1917.  Ever the optimist !

Cheers
Tony

[Nick Colley]

Hi, Tony,

Those are cyrillic characters: your 'A' is in fact the Russian 'd' - as in duck. Your '4' is the Russian 'ts' - as in cats. They would therefore seem to be abbreviations for something. Does anyone have any idea what the Russian words are for Passed Censor ??  ??? Let me try Google Translate....

I'm at something of a loss to account for the O.B.O. since there is no Cyrillic character 'O', to my knowledge.

Let me cogitate some more, and look again at the cards.

chrs
N

[Nick Colley]

Well Google Translate seems to give a strong hint that the second letter is likely to be the abbreviation for 'censor':

цензор

tsenzor

Passed for the first word doesn't work, though:

Прошло
Proshlo

No sign of the Cyrillic 'd'....  :-\ (Or Walkerian' A' if you prefer  :D)

I've tried several other words - inspected, released etc, but with no joy.

Any ideas, chaps ?

chrs
N

[Colin Tabeart]

Tony - sorry this message does not help. Just to say I have a card from the same correspondence dated 23 Jan 1917, just a couple of weeks after they arrived at Tiraspol. The censor marking is as yours complete with the "OBO". What the card also has, in common with yours, are the Russian symbols AH??IR (backwards "R". Any ideas for this folks?
Colin

[Graham Mark]

Hello Tony
I can give you the exact wording of these marks but it will mean I have to do it in a different programme, print, and then scan to put it into this forum.
Back soon
Graham

[Graham Mark]

HelloTony
I am sorry I cannot produce the Russian lettering.  I thought I had a Russian alphabet in my computer system, but I do not - there is Greek, but although some letters are the same many are different.
The two letters in the handstamp stand for "Passed censorship"
The O.B.O. should be transliterates as O V O - I do not know what the first O stands for but it is a town or District in other markings.  The V O = Military District.
Written down the lower left of the address panel is the Russian word for England - Anglia.
Just looked a bit further through my books and the handstamp on your cards is actually illustrated under Odessa.  So it must be the Odessa Military District.
If you want the whole thing in cyrillic I can do it by hand and post a scan of that.
Best regards
Graham

[Michael Dobbs]

Tony

I hope in due course to provide a translation of the various marking - at my local society meeting this evening we had a display from a Russian specialist and I gave him a printout of your two cards,  He's a busy man so I don't know when I'll get an answer, hopefully sooner rather than later.  He's lived in Russia and speaks Russian and is a big collector of Russian material.

Regards, Mike  ;)

[Michael Dobbs]

Tony

My Russian specialist (who has since re-joined the FPHS) has come up with the following answer:

The two large "д ц" letters are as I said  "allowed by censor" (дозволено цензурой)

The "O.B.O" in the centre I needed to check with the form of the censor mark as it could be one of several military districts beginning with the letter O (the first letter is the first letter of the military district). From the information I have and the type of the mark I would say this is  "Oдесскй Bоенный Oкругь" - Transliterated this is "Odessa Voiyna Okrug", translated it is "Odessa Military District"

I hope this helps.

Mike  ;D

[Ingo Egerlandt]

Tony,
your a4 censor handstamp is a D 4.
Ingo

[Tony Walker]

Many thanks to everyone who has contributed to this post, your help is much appreciated.  I can fully write up the cover.

Ingo, I emailed you after the very successful and enjoyable philatelic weekend in Vesel - did you get the message?

Tony

[Ingo Egerlandt]

Hello Tony,

yes, I received your email.

I hope we see us in Paderborn or in London with a bike and a bottle of red wine.

Ingo

[Michael Dobbs]

Ingo

Now that I would love to see - you and Tony on a [b]bike[/b] with a bottle of red wine !

(I feel you finger slipped and you meant to say bite !).

Best wishes, Mike  ;D

[Ingo Egerlandt]

Mike,
Tony can send you a picture! I was no joke. Ist was a bicycle!!!
Ingo