Cover of the Day - Discussion

[Peter Harvey]

Chris,

Can you give some more detail - 1929 datestamp?

[Michael Dobbs]

Nick

[b]Naval Party 100[/b] - just for confirmation I list below my references for NP 100 - obtained from The National Archives (ADM files)

Admiralty: Naval Staff, Operations Division: Lists of Minor War Vessels (Red Lists)
The red lists were printed at regular intervals, usually weekly.  They listed all the minor war vessels in home waters under commands and included the vessels of allied countries.  Details of all these vessels, including those being built or under repair, were given and their accounting bases listed.

NAVAL PARTY 100
British Naval Base personnel, North Russia and Murmansk

Location : Murmansk, Russia
Accounting base : (not given)

RED LIST as at 5pm 11 Oct 1944 [TNA document ADM208/28]
RED LIST as at 5pm 5 Nov 1944 [TNA document ADM208/29]
RED LIST as at 5pm 26 Nov 1944 [TNA document ADM208/29]
RED LIST as at 5pm 3 Dec 1944 [TNA document ADM208/30]
RED LIST as at 5pm 7 Jan 1945 [TNA document ADM208/31]
RED LIST as at 5pm 21 Jan 1945 [TNA document ADM208/31]
RED LIST as at 4 Feb 1945         [TNA document ADM208/32]
RED LIST as at 4pm 30 Jun 1945 [TNA document ADM208/37]
RED LIST as at 3pm 28 Jul 1945 [TNA document ADM208/37]
RED LIST as at 4pm 5 Jan 1946 [TNA document ADM208/43] [not listed]

Mike  :)

[Peter Harvey]

Hope everyone is well, great to see some fascinating covers and cards being posted under this topic heading, would be great to see some other members join in. As previously said, please lt us all see some of your collection material and tell other members some details about what you are listing, does not need to be rare, expensive or even unusual, more of a cover that you like, means something to you and maybe has a story behind it.

Here is my cover for the day....

A 1964 cover from Kampala posted to RAF El Adem BFPO 56 to reverse is shows Tripoli (machine) 8.XI.64, Benghazi Libya 10.11.1964 and Tobruk Libya 21.11.64 then on arrival Field Post Office 246 12 NO 64. FPO datestamps are not that often used for arrival, so unusual in that way and these countries are all so different today, I am certain a cover would never be handled this way in the modern postal systems.

[Nick Colley]

Pete, the date inside the cds part is January 1920. A nice combination of nations, there, though: German, Hungarian, American and Russian.

And: Chris, your WW1 card with the tank drawn on the front: that postmark is not at all familiar to me. Is it a new discovery?

chrs
N

[Chris Weddell]

Nick,

      Now you come to mention the postmark. I have not seen it before getting this card and will have a look into it.

                                                                Chris


         

[Chris Weddell]

My cover of the day. This is a secret hand message cover sent from the Royal Navy Command to the USS Scott with orders I should think. The official boxed cachet on the cover is tied with a "seal of his Majesty's ships" RN wax seal.

When I saw this on eBay I thought why send messages by hand from the RN to a US ship? So I won the cover and having just got it I have just found out why after a little digging.

The USS Scott (DE-214) was a Buckley-Class Destroyer Escort. From November 1943 until the 4th October 1944 she was assigned to the New York to Derry transatlantic convoy route as an escort. In that time she made 16 crossings without incident.     

[Chris Grimshaw]

Hello Alan

Thanks for this,  my knowledge of German is non existent so had not clicked this. 

Chris

[Nick Colley]

Here's mine for today:

This is from Instructor Captain W.I.Saxton, the Fleet Education Officer of the Mediterranean Fleet. He is Listed on the books of Cunningham's flagship, HMS Warspite at this time. However, http://www.naval-history.net/xGM-Chrono-01BB-Warspite.htm tells us that Warspite was at Alexandria between the 2nd and 8th October, 1940. It seems likely that the Fleet Education Officer shifted ashore at some point – apparently in Malta, presumably to free-up accommodation for extra personnel engaged in more war-like activities.

The date on the Granton-on-Spey re-posting cds looks like 12th October. Apparently we have an 8-day transit surface mail from Malta to the UK. Quite impressive, I suppose, under the circumstances?

By the way, it wasn't me who opened it out.

chrs
N

[Frank Schofield]

Nick

A bit more on your Pay/Lieut Pitts
His full name was C.J. P. Pitts, RNVR
Appt HMS President (The Admiralty) on 12-10-1941
25th Dec 1941 transferred to the S.A.N.F (V)
Jun 42 & Apr 44 no ship against his name
Ended the war in a warmer climate with the Eastern Fleet in Ceylon

Frank Schofield

[Nick Colley]

Many thanks, Frank.

chrs
N

[Howard Weinert]

Concerning Tony Walker's card from Bakhmach, the postmark and the censor mark were both applied in Kiev.

[Tony Walker]

Thanks Howard (Howard was replying to my post of a PC from Russia)

I think my father must have bought the card at Backmatch when the train stopped there for timber and water - it was his first trip so not surprisingly he wanted to send a card home.  But no stamps until he got to Kiev, his destination.

Thanks Howard

Tony