Cover of the day 8th April 2020

[Peter Harvey]

Here is my cover/letter of the day from a well known WW1 correspondence between the Wenham brothers.

Cover is cancelled WEYMOUTH 10 DEC 18 with the senders address to the reverse Pte Wenham R.D.C. Smallmouth Camp, Wyke Regis, Nr Weymouth. The YMCA stationary gives the same address and his letter mentions he has joined another regiment, The Royal Defence Corps, which I understand to have been the forerunner of the Home Guard, disbanded in 1936 and then reformed on the outbreak real of WW2.

The letter is addressed to Arthur 'A.C. Wenham RAF Kite Balloon Base Brindisi Italy, with blue crayon redirection R.N.Hospital Malta. You can read more about the Kite Balloon stations in Marc Parren's article at http://www.philafrica.be/MAGHREBOPHILA/articles/6-parren-bizerte%20kite.pdf which has another Wenham cover pictured.

So back to the letter, certainly not censored (December 18 would have been late), with amazing content, train journeys listing the stations, been to Gosport and seen HMS Repulse, went to see the two U-boats come in, fine sight about 50 aeroplanes escorting... etc

Certainly worth being my cover of the day.

[Nick Guy]

I've not been on for a few days so I'm taking licence to show a pair of closely related items.  They are two Japanese postcards used as Christmas Cards posted on 12.XII.44 and 22.XII.44 at East African APO 55 in Burma.  The APO - as EAAPS 5 and then APO 55 - is recorded as the Brigade office of 26 (EA) Bde from Dec 1940 to Nov 1945.  From August to December 1944 the Brigade had fought its way down the Kabaw Valley, taken part in 11 (EA) Div's establishment of a bridgehead across the Chindwin and in November and December was responsible for maintaining the bridgehead, initially together with 21 (EA) Bde until that Brigade withdrew to India, as 2 Div passed through to continue the offensive.  Proud/Rossiter records the APO at Kyigon, to the West of the bridgehead, from 24 Nov with a LRD of 20 Dec; the next date is a "definite" opening in India on 31 Dec and while I don't place too much reliance on the book's dates, I am reasonably confident both would have been handled by the APO in Burma as Moyse-Bartlett records that the last two battalions of the Brigade did not leave Burma until "The end of the year." 
According to Wikipedia II (EA) Div's Divisional Artillery consisted of 302, 303 and 304 East African Field Regiments so I presume that Capt Butler who wrote the 22 XII 44 card was posting through whatever APO was convenient.
Reading the 12 XII 44 card, I assume a stock of postcards had been captured and were available in the area.

[Chris Weddell]

Sorry I have missed a few days. I will try and add two today. This is my cover no1 of the day.

This is an official  wrapper posted at the 1 penny rate posted to Captain Sir Arthur Auckland Leopold Pedro Cochrane who commanded HMS Horatio which was with the Baltic Fleet. I am not sure where she was when the letter was posted in July 1855 but at the end of June the Baltic fleet was at Spithead.

Cochrane took part in 1855 in the Crimean War with HMS Horatio seeing service. He developed a method of towing torpedoes to their targets with the aid of kites during his time there in 1855.

Cochrane was born in 1824 and died in 1905. He was later to became an Admiral and became Commander in Chief of the Pacific Station. 

[Chris Weddell]

Cover of the day no.2.

A picture postcard with the Gould 1A23 censor mark of HMS Centurion. The card is dated for the 4th October 1918. In pencil on the bottom is written "Eastern Med to oversee Turkey Capitulation". Can anyone confirm this for me as I cannot so far find out anything about HMS Centurion taking part in this ???

                                                  Cheers

                                                    Chris 

[Alan Baker]

According to Wiki, she was present in November 1918 at the surrender of the German fleet

The pencil writing looks vaguely familiar -  I think it is a dealer, but don't think it is Frank

[Howard Weinert]

Here is a postcard sent by Capt. William Judson in Manchuria to his wife in Lexington, Kentucky, then forwarded to Eglon, West Virginia. Postmarked in Washington DC on 15 August 1904, in Lexington on 16 August, and in Oakland on 18 August. To avoid censorship, Judson sent this card by diplomatic pouch. With handstamps reading "EMBASSY OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
ST. PETERSBURG" and "Received through State Department." The postage was underpaid by 1 kopeck, resulting in one cent postage due. The message is datelined Haicheng on 28 June and reads, "Had a real drink of whiskey and soda in this club yesterday. Have been in saddle for about 10 days. Fine climate. Feeling like fighting cock. Billy." During the Russo-Japanese War, William Voorhees Judson [1865-1923] was US military attaché at the US embassy in St. Petersburg and with the Russian army in Manchuria. Haicheng was a city between Newchwang and Mukden. The Japanese army occupied Newchwang on 24 July and the Russians evacuated Haicheng on 1 August. During the latter half of 1917, Brig. Gen. Judson was once again US military attaché at the US embassy in Petrograd, as well as head of the US Military Mission to Russia. He is buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

[Ross Debenham]

Nick, I have a cover from East African APO 55 dated 3 November, 1945, located at Ranchi prior to repatriation to East Africa. The sad part about the end of the war is that native troops were not repatriated until the end of 1945 because of a lack of shipping resources. What has not been acknowledged by most of the historical sources is the 306(EA) Field Regiment which had been attached to 11 (EA) Brigade from 7 October, 1944 to 31 August, 1945 as a replacement for 301 (EA) Field Regiment which had been decimated in the the torpedoing of the Khedive Ismael whilst in convoy to India. I attach a scan of an envelope from this regiment post marked at APO 79 which was with 11 (EA) Postal Unit from 306 (EA) Regiment. As can be seen from the scan the unit censor number is AA241 reflecting it's later entry into the theatre. I would say that these covers emanate from one of the earlier regiments.

[Nick Colley]

[quote author=Alan Baker link=topic=1398.msg6307#msg6307 date=1586368925]
According to Wiki, she was present in November 1918 at the surrender of the German fleet

The pencil writing looks vaguely familiar -  I think it is a dealer, but don't think it is Frank
[/quote]

Alan, Chris, Centurion was indeed present in the escort of the German Fleet to Scapa Flow. She was 14th from the front in the starboard column (which consisted of 41 vessels). (The port column was composed of 36 ships). That was on the 21st November 1918. The Armistice with Turkey was concluded on 30th October. Your item is, what, 4th October, with one of the British 8 bar postmarks. We'd need to see the ship's log to be sure (not yet available on naval-history.net), but it seems pretty unlikely she was in the Med between the 4th October and 21st November, wouldn't you say?

By the way, that pencil manuscript is definitely not Frank Schofield's handwriting.

chrs
N

[Chris Weddell]

Nick and Alan,
             
Thanks for the help that is very much in line with my thoughts. I tried to tie up the note on the card but dismissed it almost straight away after I could not find ant supporting information. Now I can get on and write it up.

                                                    Thanks

                                                    Chris

[Nick Guy]

Hello Ross

Thanks for that.  You say it all, really.

Nick