DIEGO GARCIA WORLD WAR 2

[Ross Debenham]

I note with interest that there was a seaplane base established at East Point on Diego Garcia from 1942 to 1946 in WW2. I also have heard that there were Mauritian coastal gunners as well. Can members tell me if military postal facilities were on the island and has any member ever seen any military mail from there.

[Neil Williams]

Ross

I can't directly answer your questions, except offer some thoughts based on examples from elsewhere around the Indian Ocean, particularly Socotra Island which similarly had flying boat detachments and a small garrison (from the Aden Protectorate Levies in that case).

the aircraft involved at Diego Garcia were detachments from 205 and 240 Sqns RAF both with Catalinas and 230 Squadron with Sunderlands. First use was July 1942. Probably 2 or 3 aircraft in total were at Diego Garcia at any point in time.

Experience with Socotra, and the small wartime airfields on coastal Arabia, with relatively few personnel, indicates mail was collected and flown to base by supply and swap-over aircraft and there entered the military postal system proper. For Socotra, Kamaran Is, Masirah Is, Riyan, Salalah and Ras-al-had this was Aden. In the case of the squadrons on Diego Garcia, this is likely to have been the flying boat base at Koggala (close to the city of Galle) in Ceylon, where the HQs of 205 and 230 were located, and 240 had a detachment.

maybe this helps a little!

Neil W

[Ross Debenham]

Thank you for that information, Neil. I thought that is what it may be. I have covers fr0m some of those squadrons with KUT stamps and APO's used, which isn't surprising I suppose as part of the squadron/s were stationed at Port Reitz.