Covers of the day: British Forces in Germany following VE Day

[Michael Dobbs]

Yesterday we celebrated VE Day - Victory in Europe - we celebrated by joining in the 2 minutes silence at 11 o'clock and then at 4pm we went outside and joined with five neighbouring households (social distancing of course) celebrating VE Day. Nothing too extravagant - just a drink, scones and chat with a few Union flags flying.  We had to place our chairs on the public path as our gardens are too steep to place them on the grass!  We were there until around 7pm.

Anyway back to "cover of the day" - as it was VE Day what better way than to show some British FPOs in Germany during 1945 - sorry I don't have a cover dated 8 May 1945 to go with Frank's cover of 3 September 1939!

cover 1 with FPO 734 on 27 JU 45 and censorship stamp (FPHS Type A600) 15409 applied to indicate entitlement to free postage concession.  Censorship ceased on 16 May 1945, although the application of censor stamps continued to indicate entitlement of free postage until ceased altogether in July 1945.  Cover passed through Base Censor where it was re-sealed with EXAMINED BY BASE CENSOR label (A.F.W. 3312) and Base Censor (FPHS Type A600) 16000 was applied.

cover 2 with FPO 736 on 25 AU 45  - datestamps FIELD POST OFFICE 736 to 740 were issued to 3rd (British) Infantry Division Postal Unit RE on 12 June 1943.  Seen here with the Division within British Liberation Army (BLA) command address - on this date HQ 21st Army Group became HQ British Army of the Rhine (BAOR) and on or about the same day the address BLA was replaced with British Army of the Rhine (BAOR) for British Forces serving in Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Holland and Luxembourg. 

The writer is a Sergeant with 'O' Section, 3 British Infantry Division Signals and he is writing home to his wife.  He wrote the letter the day before it was postmarked (i.e. on 24th August 1945) and is feeling pretty depressed regarding a statement released on demobilisation: [i]" ... only group 23 will be away this year ... am afraid we have been led up the garden path by reports of speeding up demobilization ... officially the war with Japan is not finished yet ... they have not - cannot have done - taken the end of the Japanese war into consideration ... It is dreadful sweet when two people love as we do to be separated by the fools in authority who cannot see further than the end of their noses ... at the rate of release at present, group 27 should be out by the end of next February ... "[/i]

cover 3 an item for our RAF collectors (e.g. Nick) with FPO 760 on 24 AP 45 and RAF censor (FPHS Type R7) 69.  The datestamp is thought to have been allocated to FPO Z.118 which was located in Wunstorf (Airfield B.116) at this time.  It shows use of German stationary by a Canadian airman in Germany; the senders unit is given as 5 MFPS (Mobile Field Photographic Section), No 39 (Reconnaissance) Wing RCAF with No 83 (Composite) Group RAF.  No 39 Wing was located in Wunstorf until 25 April 1945.

Mike  :)

[Chris Grimshaw]

Hi Mike

Very nice, guess this is pretty scare material,  Thanks for sharing

Chris