Mine for the 22nd April

[Nick Colley]

Well, most of you appear to have been silenced by recent French navy WW2 offerings....

How about an item that combines an undercover address and the Polish Navy in exile?

This is a cover from Kielce in Poland (about 200 kms south of Warsaw) to 41 Rue Alexandre Herculano in Lisbon in February 1944. The information I have is that this is thought to have been the undercover address for the Polish Red Cross.

I think it's more or less self-explanatory: the Germans have obviously had a look at it, and it's been sent onwards from Lisbon only 16 days after posting in Kielce, apparently to Polish Naval Headquarters in London. The one thing I'm a little unsure of is the meaning of the two cachets in Polish on the plain tape on the back. The notes I have about this (of some age, now) tell me this translates as 'AIR FORCE PACKET NOT FORWARDED - NO NUMBER'. I wonder if that should read AIR MAIL, not AIR FORCE? Either way, I don't see how either of those translations relates to the item? Not really understood  :(

Any thoughts?

chrs
N