Cover of th Day 15 May 2020 - APO England

[Peter Harvey]

I am always interested in the puzzle ?

Attached pictures shows an April 1944 Registered Letter 5.1/2d with no additional postage, so inland use in the UK, to Reading. Double censored with A500 7529 and A600 11458, the cachet under the Registration label I assume implies that this went through Unit censorship, prior to being posted.... but why two censor cachets.

Cancelled Field Post Office 429 - Proud has this as allocated to Scottish Command 12.11.43 and then in France at Berniers in June 44. The return address with APO England suggests it was still in Scotland on this date. The reverse has the sender with RAOC at 15 O.B.D (any thoughts on O.B.D).

I don't think this type of double censorship is common, but I would welcome any comments.

Regards Peter

[Michael Dobbs]

Peter - a very nice cover - I'm envious!

[u]Postal address[/u]:

The ARMY POST OFFICE ENGLAND address, which was inevitably shortened to APO ENGLAND was first introduced on 11 April 1944.  However, not all formations and units adopted the address at the same time.  It was gradually brought into use in a phased programme prior to units moving into their concentration areas:

After the invasion commenced on 6 June 1944 the closed address APO ENGLAND remained in use for units both in Normandy and those still in the United Kingdom awaiting their turn to cross the Channel.  However, soon after D-Day HQ Second Army pressed for a change in the address for troops in Normandy, as they disliked writing from an address that could indicate that they were still in the United Kingdom.

Some ten days after D-Day, however, the Troops Mail Policy and Planning Committee were still discussing a suitable form of address.  At its meeting on 16 June 1944 the Committee pondered over several alternatives:  "BEF", mentioned at its December 1943 meeting, was vetoed; "BNEF" was suggested but was turned down as it was similar to "BNAF" in use in North Africa; "BNWEF" and "NWEF" were also suggested but were turned down.  As a result Second Army, on its own initiative, devised its own address for use in Normandy.  They came up with BRITISH WESTERN EUROPEAN FORCE (BWEF), details of which were promulgated on 22 June 1944. 

The final change came about on 14 July 1944 when BRITISH LIBERATION ARMY (BLA) was brought into use as the official Force address.  Its introduction was notified in 21 Army Group General Routine Order Issue No 44 dated 21 July 1944 as Order No 432:

[u]Censorship[/u]:

With two censorship cachets it looks as though the cover could have been subject to base censorship - I have seen other covers with two censor cachets and evidence that this was the case.  I don't have a record of shield censor (Type A600) 11458.

Alistair Kennedy's records only record the cover you have illustrated - he dates it as 27 AP 44 - shield censor (Type A600) 11458 and circular censor (Type A500) 7529

[u]Unit[/u]:

This looks like 45 Ordnance Ammunition Company, attached to 15 Ordnance Beach Detachment.  I don't have a location for this unit in the UK.

The book "21 Army Group Ordnance - The History of the Campaign", printed and published in Germany, February 1946, shows that 45 OAC was under command of 15 OBD within 102 Beach Sub-Area and landed in Juno Sector (3rd Canadian Division front) as part of 1 Corps.

[u]Field Post Office datestamp[/u]:

FPO 429 dated 27 AP 44.  It was indeed issued to Scottish Command on 12 Nov 1943 but was returned to Home Postal Centre on 14 Jan 1944.  It was then re-issued to No 3 Postal Detachment on 10 Feb 1944; earliest recorded date 2 Apr 1944 (could this be your cover - did Alistair make an error in thinking it was 27 AP 44 - but the location of the figure '2' does appear to indicate another number following it).  Also the APO ENGLAND address did not come into use until 11 April 1944 at the earliest - see above.

It was later used by APO S.689 at Bernieres-sur-Mer which was an APO controlled by No 3 Postal Detachment.

No 3 Postal Detachment was responsible for SUN Beach Maintenance Area, part of 102 Beach Sub-Area.

See my article "Operation Overlord: 50th Anniversary of D-Day & The Normandy Landings" in FPHS Newsletter (now Journal) No 220 (Summer 1994).

[u]Your cover[/u]:

The sender of your cover was certainly still in the UK - it was before D-Day!

However, I do not believe it was in Scotland - it was with No 3 Postal Detachment and this was attached to 102 Beach Sub-Area on 14 February 1944, so it would have been located along with that Beach Sub-Area somewhere in south or south east England, but I don't have a UK location for that at the moment.

Mike  :)

[Nick Colley]

Mike, by  'invasion', you mean 'liberation', presumably?

Pete, yes, a very satisfying cover - all the more so now that Mike's filled in the unknowns. Good one :-)

chrs
N

[Michael Dobbs]

Hi Nick

No, I mean invasion - the Allied armies invaded German occupied Europe.  We had to invade before we could liberate.

"Normandy to the Baltic" by Field Marshal The Viscount Montgomery of Alamein KG, GCB, DSO; pub c.1946
Chapter 3 - The Inter-Service Organisation for Overlord and the Order of Battle of the Invasion Forces
Map 1 - The Invasion Coast

"The Canadian Army 1939-1945" by Colonel C P Stacey OBE, AM Ph.D, pub 1948
Chapter XI: The Campaign in North-West Europe: The Plan and the Invasion of Normandy, June 1944 which includes "The Canadian Role in the Invasion"

"Dawn of D-Day" by David Howarth, pub 1959
p.16-17 "It wa not till December, after some weeks of hesitation, that Roosevelt appointed General Eisenhower, who was then Supreme Commander in tte Mediterranean, to take command of the invasion of France;"
p.23 "A railway man who retired in 1957 announced then that in 1944, just before the invasion, he had found plans of it in a briefcase in a train, and had given them to the station master at Exeter, who had kept them in his safe, watched by the Home Guard, till an officer came to claim them the next morning."
p.254 "The German commanders had not seen the fleet, and no mere military report could have conveyed to them the impression of irresistable power which it gave; but still, it is likely that before the day was over, they also knew in their inmost thoughts that the invasion could not be defeated."

"D-Day 06-06-1944" by Richard Collier, originally pub 1992, special ed re-published 2002
Inside front cover "At fifteen minutes after midnight on June 6, 1944, 'Operation Overlord', the Allied invasionof Hitler's Fortress Europe, became reality."

Mike  ;)

[Nick Colley]

I prefer to think more positively: the liberation of enemy-occupied Europe.

N

[Nick Colley]

By the way, Mike, I recall the army we dispatched to continental Europe was, and still is, referred to as the British [b][u]Liberation[/u][/b] Army  8)

chrs
N

[Peter Harvey]

HI Mike,

Thank you for the response and the most comprehensive details, the facts are great and as Nick says, adds even more two a most interesting cover.

Invasion before liberation sounds correct to me.

Regards

Peter